Researchers at McGill University have developed a rapid way to engineer blood clots that stop severe bleeding and support tissue healing more effectively. Their technique, called “click clotting,” links red blood cell surface proteins through a chemical reaction, resulting in a biocompatible clot that is 13 times more resistant to fracturing and four times more adhesive than natural blood clots. The team said the method could be used to develop life-saving biomaterials to help control severe bleeding, as well as benefit people with clotting disorders.

Every cell in the human body squeezes over six feet of DNA into a miniscule speck invisible to the naked eye—like compressing a whole house into a single sugar cube. In order to fit in a cell and remain organized, DNA is carefully wrapped around spool-like protein clusters called nucleosomes. For decades, the prevailing view held that DNA is coiled so tightly around a nucleosome that it’s basically locked away and the cell can’t access it. Scientists believed only unwrapped DNA could be active. Now, a study from Gladstone Institutes and the Arc Institute challenges that black-and-white view. Using a new AI-powered computational method, scientists discovered that most nucleosomes contain sections of DNA that are partially accessible to the cell, rather than fully wound up and packed away. The findings, published in the journal Nature, point to a previously unrecognized way that cells control their genes.

A first-of-its-kind pilot program in Utah developed by a startup company uses AI to automatically renew certain prescriptions for patients with chronic conditions. But according to a new paper co-written by Sara Gerke, a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign law professor and an expert in medical technology legal issues, autonomous AI-based drug prescribing raises important clinical and legal issues. 

XPANCEO, a deep-tech company pioneering smart contact lenses, and ITEN, a manufacturer of solid-state energy storage solutions, have developed a proof of concept for integrating a microbattery into a smart contact lens. The collaboration solves a main challenge in ocular wearables: making energy storage ultra-thin, durable, and stable enough to be safely used in devices worn directly on the human eye. 

Over the past two years, in cooperation with the global food corporation Mars and several rice farmers in Arkansas, researchers with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station's Rice Processing Program have dug into the problem with declining head rice yields, or the total weight of unbroken rice kernels after milling. The research team will present related findings at this year’s Rice Processing Program Industry Alliance Meeting, May 19, at the Don Tyson Center for Agricultural Sciences in Fayetteville.