Researchers from the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and the University of Rome Tor Vergata in Italy have developed synthetic genes that function like the genes in living cells. The artificial genes can build intracellular structures through a cascading sequence that builds self-assembling structures piece by piece. The discovery offers a path toward using a suite of simple building blocks that can be programmed to make complex biomolecular materials, such as nanoscale tubes from DNA tiles. The same components can also be programmed to break up the design for different materials. 

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a debilitating disease of the brain and spinal cord that impacts millions worldwide. In MS, the immune system mistakenly attacks the myelin sheath—a protective layer surrounding nerve cells in the nervous system. The loss of myelin, combined with ongoing inflammation, causes dysfunction and death of nerve cells, making the disability worse, such as difficulties with movement, coordination, and sensation. Treatments now focus on reducing attacks on myelin, but don’t address nerve-cell damage and death. But with $1 million from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS), a research team co-led by Paul Tesar, the Dr. Donald and Ruth Weber Goodman Professor of Innovative Therapeutics and director of the Institute for Glial Sciences, and Ben Clayton, assistant professor and founding member of the Institute for Glial Sciences, both in the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, will take a different approach.