A new artificial intelligence-based approach can detect fatty deposits inside coronary arteries using optical coherence tomography (OCT) images.

UCLA researchers have demonstrated that lipid nanoparticles can package and deliver an entire therapeutic gene along with gene-editing machinery — a combination of large, complex components that non-viral carriers haven’t been able to handle before.

Using this delivery platform in a cell culture model of cystic fibrosis, researchers found that although only 3–4% of cells received the corrected gene, the treated cell populations restored 88–100% of normal function.

Replacing the entire faulty gene rather than correcting individual mutations may allow the therapy to work across all patients with cystic fibrosis.

Change is afoot in the U.S. beef supply chain. More dairy cattle seem to be specifically bred to generate a calf to be sold as beef, but so far documentation for the trend is mostly anecdotal.

In an invited talk at the USDA’s 102^nd Annual Agricultural Outlook Forum, University of Tennessee agricultural economist Charles Martinez is poised to show the impact of beef on dairy crossed cattle on the U.S. beef supply chain and propose a new category for recording cattle market data: beef on dairy. Martinez says documenting this developing market will help industry analysts understand the true nature of the U.S. beef supply chain as well as the economic state of the beef and dairy industries.

A study co-led by University of Texas at Dallas bioengineers identified a distinctive feature of tissues from young patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer, a disease that typically affects older patients.

Researchers found that both cancerous and noncancerous colon tissue was mechanically stiffer in younger patients with respect to older patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer. The findings, published in the Jan. 30 print edition of Advanced Science, suggest that stiffness may create an environment that promotes the development of colorectal cancer in people under the age of 50. This work may offer new approaches for preventing and treating this disease — known as early-onset colorectal cancer — a condition that has been mysteriously rising over the past 30 years.