New approach uses 'cloaked' proteins to deliver cancer-killing therapeutics into cells

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Schematic of the bioreversible anionic cloaking strategy. Chemical modification of surface-exposed lysines with sulfonated cloaking reagents enables complexation and subsequent delivery of protein cargos with cationic lipids. Following endocytic escape, the reagents are cleaved off via the presence of a self-immolative, redox-sensitive disulfide bond to tracelessly deliver the cargo protein in the cytoplasm of a cell. Credit: ACS Central Science (2024). DOI: 10.1021/acscentsci.4c00071 An interdisciplinary collaboration has designed a way to «cloak» proteins so that they can be captured by lipid nanoparticles, which are akin to tiny bubbles of fat. These bubbles are small enough to sneak their hidden cargo into living cells, where the proteins uncloak and exert their therapeutic effect. The generalizable technique could lead to repurposing thousands of commercial protein products, including antibodies, for biological research an...
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NASA says Voyager 1 is fully back online months after it stopped making sense

Voyager 1, the farthest human-made craft from the Earth, is finally sending back data from all four of its scientific instruments, NASA said this week. That means the agency is once more receiving its readings on plasma waves, magnetic fields, and space-bound particles.

Now, NASA says Voyager 1, which is over 15 billion miles from Earth, is “conducting normal science operations” and the agency just needs to resync its timekeeping software and do some maintenance on a sparingly-used digital tape recorder.

One of several Voyager posters from NASA’s website.
Image: NASA

Now seems like a great time to either remind you of or point you to the sick Voyager posters, like the one above, that NASA has published on its site.

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New approach uses 'cloaked' proteins to deliver cancer-killing therapeutics into cells

Image
Schematic of the bioreversible anionic cloaking strategy. Chemical modification of surface-exposed lysines with sulfonated cloaking reagents enables complexation and subsequent delivery of protein cargos with cationic lipids. Following endocytic escape, the reagents are cleaved off via the presence of a self-immolative, redox-sensitive disulfide bond to tracelessly deliver the cargo protein in the cytoplasm of a cell. Credit: ACS Central Science (2024). DOI: 10.1021/acscentsci.4c00071 An interdisciplinary collaboration has designed a way to «cloak» proteins so that they can be captured by lipid nanoparticles, which are akin to tiny bubbles of fat. These bubbles are small enough to sneak their hidden cargo into living cells, where the proteins uncloak and exert their therapeutic effect. The generalizable technique could lead to repurposing thousands of commercial protein products, including antibodies, for biological research an...
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The upper-left schematic illustrates the flow of a zinc-air battery (ZAB). The iron-cobalt-nickel (Fe-Co-Ni) electrocatalyst (upper right) speeds both the charging and discharging of the ZAB compared to binary metal electrocatalysts or noble metals platinum and ruthenium, which occurs through the oxygen evolution reaction and oxygen reduction reaction, respectively. The diagram in the lower left illustrates the assembly of the ZAB with a flexible solid-state carbon dot/polyvinyl alcohol (CD/PVA) electrolyte that is ideal for wearable technologies. The lower-right panel shows the ZAB with the ternary Fe-Co-Ni electrocatalyst charging a cell phone. Credit: Nano Research Energy, Tsinghua University Press The effective conversion from fossil fuel-based to renewable energy sources requires cost-efficient, high-capacity, rechargeable batteries. Zinc-air batteries (ZAB) can theoretically store large amounts of energy, but current technologies require th...
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Biologists find nanoplastics in developing chicken heart

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