Simple ‘cocktail’ of amino acids dramatically boosts power of mRNA therapies and CRISPR gene editing
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 11-Mar-2026 16:16 ET (11-Mar-2026 20:16 GMT/UTC)
Lipid nanoparticles, or LNPs, are best known as the delivery vehicle for the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines received by billions of people. But they are now at the center of a much larger medical revolution, as researchers race to use them to ferry therapeutic mRNA into cells for cancer therapies and treatments for inflammatory diseases, as well as delivering CRISPR constructs that can correct disease-causing gene mutations. A stubborn problem has slowed progress on all of these fronts: for LNPs to work therapeutically, they must transfer their cargo into cells by fusing with cell membranes, and they execute this crucial step far more poorly in the human body than in laboratory dishes. Now, a new study by a team of Biohub scientists has discovered a surprisingly simple fix. The researchers found that injecting three common amino acids alongside LNPs can boost mRNA delivery up to 20-fold and lift CRISPR gene editing efficiency from roughly 25 percent to nearly 90 percent in a single dose.
What started out as a response to labor shortages in poultry processing plants during the COVID-19 pandemic has turned into a robotics system that can learn by imitating human movements to handle chickens. Using an advanced imitation learning algorithm and camera perceptions, researchers with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station have developed ChicGrasp, a dual-jaw robotic gripper with pinchers that can grasp a chicken carcass by the legs, lift and hang it on a shackle conveyor to be moved on for further processing. Results of the study behind the development of ChicGrasp were published in Advanced Robotics Research. All computer-aided design files, code and datasets from the project were released as open source, providing what the team describes as a reproducible benchmark for agricultural robotics and robot learning.
A new study finds that the more a state’s budget relied on sales tax revenue, the more likely it was to shorten stay-at-home orders during the early stages of the COVID pandemic. The findings suggest that state public-health decisions may have been influenced by unexpected budgetary constraints imposed by public-health restrictions.
A newly released compendium, Feminism and COVID-19: How Women Fare in the Face of a Global Crisis, is revealing how women across the world were simultaneously critical for the success of the global COVID-19 response, and disproportionately impacted by the pandemic’s secondary effects, such as lost income, and increased unpaid care work and violence.
Book co-editors, Dr. Julia Smith of Simon Fraser University and Dr. Clare Wenham from the London School of Economics, gathered together a unique multidisciplinary and transnational team of authors and experts who examined nine case studies of the COVID-19 response and its global and local impacts on women from Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Hong Kong, Kenya, Nigeria and the United Kingdom.
New research reveals that Covid lockdowns set children's development back by years. The study shows how the pandemic hampered children’s ability to regulate their behaviour, stay focused and adapt to new situations. The greatest impact was seen among pupils who were in reception year (ages four-five) when the first lockdowns began - a crucial stage when youngsters normally learn to socialise, follow routines and navigate the busy world of the classroom.
The team say that children may still be feeling the effects years later.
A UC San Diego study shows that taking a mushroom-derived supplement during COVID-19 vaccination was safe, eased short-term side effects, and supported longer-lasting immune responses, particularly for people receiving their first vaccine.
Scientists have identified molecular and structural changes in taste buds that may explain why a small subset of people experience long-term taste loss after COVID-19 infection.