New therapy for ALS: Medical RNA comes of age

One of the things about reading Nature Briefing: they always seem put you au fait with the cutting-edge medical techniques, and the science that drives them, a little way ahead of the mainstream. Which is why we are showcasing their story First for Gene Targeting RNA therapy, not just because it’s interesting in itself, but because it is a beautiful illustration of the progress in RNA based medicine, even since we started this humble little blog six years ago. First, here’s their snippet

An RNA therapy for rare forms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has shown promising results in the first person to receive it. He experienced improved symptoms and continued to work as a physician a year after starting treatment. Antisense oligonucleotide therapy uses short strands of genetic material to target RNA produced by a faulty gene called CHCHD10. Roughly 5–10% of people with ALS have a known genetic mutation, and antisense oligonucleotide therapies could someday benefit them and others with neurodegenerative diseases caused by rare mutations.

Nature | 7 min read

Now, we admit CHCHD10 is a rare mutation, apparently occurring in less than one per cent of ALS cases. There are many other genes involved among the different types of ALS, and, who knows, maybe some epigenetic and environmental factors as well. But to raise that is to be like a man who has won the lottery complaining that the prize didn’t come gift wrapped in Harvey Nicholls wrapping paper. Because, gentle readers-this is a start and a magnificent one. Better still, it’s part of a much bigger story of RNA based medicine advancing on many fronts. Readers will recall how the sudden arrival of RNA vaccines suddenly lifted the world from its COVID-19 based Slough of Despond in 2021. But astute readers will recall that even before COVID, RNA‑based drugs were quietly succeeding: briefly, we will cite Patisiran , ansiRNA therapy for hereditary amyloidosis;Nusinersen — antisense therapy for spinal muscular atrophy; and Givosiran, and inclisiran — RNA drugs for metabolic and cardiovascular conditions; and then let you go off to do your own reading. Yet this in turn is but part of an even bigger picture, a new frontier if you like, of therapies which we hope might deliver RNA constructs to reduce toxic proteins in motor neurons, use antisense or siRNA to knock down mutant SOD1, C9orf72, or other ALS‑linked genes, and even exploit improved delivery systems (lipid nanoparticles, viral vectors) that can finally reach neural tissue. But time will answer many of these questions

And our takeaway? It’s our usual . Using science, and its simple but effective tools of evidence and reason will always make you feel better. So if you start tinkering with basic research and its funding, you do so at your peril.

#RNA #RNA therapy #ALS #medicine #health #COVID 19 # # CHCHD10 #gene therapy #neurodegenerative diseases

Fascinating Asgard Archaea: is this why you are made of cells and not something else?

One of the most fascinating questions in biology is how multicellular life — all plants, fungi and animals — first arose. Single‑celled organisms had been around for thousands of millions of years, at least from about 3.5 billion years ago, just ~1 billion years after the Earth formed at 4.5 billion years. Bacteria and archaea were already present over 4 billion years ago, quietly running the planet’s chemistry long before anything with limbs or leaves appeared. There are hints of multicellular organisms at around 1.4 billion years – red algae are a possible candidate- but that’s still quite late considering the time available. The brutal truth is that wasn’t until about 600 million years ago that truly multicellular organisms begin to show up in the rocks. How, why and when the Great Organising took place is a mystery still buried deep in time.

One possible clue lies in the kingdom of the archaea — those bacteria‑like beings that are not actually bacteria. A particular branch, the Asgard archaea, may hold the key to how complex cells — and eventually multicellular life — emerged. Today’s Nature Briefing has a short, elegant piece called Meet the Parents on the latest findings, and it offers some intriguing hints about how a bunch of free swimming cells learned to co-operate and thereby sparked the great leap to complexity. Is there a lesson for today in there somewhere perhaps?

Microorganisms from which all complex life might be descended — the Asgard archaea — were discovered in 2015 from DNA in sediments plucked from the bottom of the North Atlantic. Since then, researchers have been painstakingly culturing these exotic organisms and finding lots of surprises along the way.Nature | 11 min read

#Bacteria #archaea #multicellular #unicellular #evolution #biology #precambrian #asgard #biology #complaxity #signalling #red algae #procaryote #eucaryote

Why is the Ozone hole suddenly getting bigger again?

Our showcase today is an article by Shivali Best of the Mail, who reports that this September has seen a disquietingly fast opening of the ozone “hole” over the Antarctic. [1] It’s disturbing for two reasons. One, obviously: the ozone layer is what protects us all from ultra-violet radiation, which would otherwise cause skin cancers and many other inconvenient forms of disease. Secondly, closing the hole in the ozone layer since is one of the few successful examples of collective action we can point to . So what’s going on?

Shivali adduces two statements which art first sight seem to contradict each other. Firstly, the sudden depletion of ozone is probably due to a sudden cooling at high altitude over the extreme Antarctic. The increase in stratospheric clouds begins to thin the ozone which overlies them, by processes which you can read about in the article. The second, quite rightly, is that August 2026 was the hottest month ever recorded. To quote Shivali

The average temperature last month was 16.96°C….. even higher than the previous record holder, July 2023, which had an average temperature of 16.95°C …..

So: is it getting hotter, or colder? Depends where. Essentially, greenhouse gases heat up the Troposphere, that thick dense lower layer of the atmosphere where we all live. This actually acts like a blanket, wrapping in the heat on the surface, while stopping it rising up into the stratosphere. The result is a cooling at higher altitudes-which would exactly cause the Ozone effects which have been observed.[2] [3]

Somewhere this week some of you will meet a strongly opinionated person who has skimmed the headlines, absorbed them uncritically, bounded to conclusions, and declared to you: “ De Antartic is gettin’ cooler, mate! That PROVES there’s no such fing as global warmin!” Now you know why they’re wrong.

[1]The ozone hole has burst open: Analysis reveals how the opening over Antarctica has ‘increased sharply’ this month – and is set to get even bigger | Daily Mail Online

[2]Chabrillat et al. (2025), Modelling stratospheric composition for the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service Geoscientific Model Development (Copernicus Publications

[3]WMO Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion (2022

#global warming #ozone layer #stratosphere #troposphere #cliamte change #fossil fuels #antarctic #ocean

Gorillas and the next Pandemic-only this isn’t a health story, it’s really about AI

We’ve always been big fans of primates large and small. So we hope you’ll be as cheered as we were by this piece Can AI help stop the next pandemic disease? from that redoubtable site Nature Briefing. Because we couldn’t help thinking-if can work for gorillas it can work for humans too. It’s an interesting story in itself: but it made us think much deeper about the true transforming power of AI, upon which we shall riff a little below-after you have read it, gentle readers:

Researchers are harnessing the ability of AI tools to identify patterns in large data sets to try to predict spillovers — the transfer of pathogens between species — before they happen. In Uganda, the approach is showing early promise in protecting endangered mountain gorillas, as well as the livestock and people who interact with them. Other researchers are trawling through databases to identify new zoonotic viruses in samples that were not necessarily collected for that purpose.

Nature | 11 min read

So what do we really think? Ostensibly its another good news science story (especially of you’re a gorilla) And it obviously has hopeful implications for when the next pandemic strikes-another LSS old favourite. But-we hope you will indulge us with our own take, because we think there’s something deeper going on. Look at the gap in technique compared with COVID -wracked 2021, the last real pre-AI year. Back then, researchers would only have been able to compare one data set at a time: logs on gorilla movements, human settlements, genomes, weather, livestock………you name it. Now our invisible chums do the lot for us simultaneously, in real time. And to make predictive ecological models, construct counterfactuals and many other things, all based on real time integration of field data. Quite a step change, isn’t it?

Five years is a short time for a new world to be born. But it is such, for it carries the true characteristic of a new world-there’s no going back. And somehow its this story that has finally brought it home, at least to this Editorial Board: this AI thing is as big as the advent of metals, or the Industrial Revolution. What do you think? We’d love to know.

#gorillas #ecology #modelling #pandemic #conservation#Artificial Intelligence #technology

Intismeran:First successful Phase 3 trial for Personalised Vaccines

A 200X photomicrograph magnification of a direct by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is licensed under CC-CC0 1.0

Vaccines have been the most successful tool in public health for over 150 years. But up to now they have been generic: each one is raised and designed against a specific disease-such as rabies, smallpox and more recently malaria. A new class of vaccine changes that logic entirely. These are individualised neoantigen vaccines, built from the unique mutations in each patient’s tumour. Today we highlight the first positive Phase 3 results for one of these, as reported by the BBC’s Joe McFadden. [1]

Intismeran is constructed from the mutational “fingerprint” of each patient’s melanoma — a bespoke mRNA vaccine rather than a one‑size‑fits‑all jab. In the Phase 3 INTerpath‑001 trial, jointly run by Merck and Moderna, 1,137 patients with completely resected stage IIB–IV melanoma were randomised to receive either Keytruda (Merck’s anti‑PD‑1 therapy) alone or Keytruda plus Intismeran.[2] [3] This is how Joe summarises the early results:

Early results show this new jab extended the length of time these patients were cancer free, but it’s unclear for how long, according to an announcement by the two firms.

Encouraging, we say: hats off to the companies and scientists involved. As for the wider reaction from the scientific community, it is positive indeed, but we’ll leave it to Joe to tell you about that

At this point we invoke our two favourite LSS tropes: caution and caveat. This is an early-days report: the work must now jump all the usual hoops of peer review, regulatory approval scaling and much more before any kind of routine clinical applications are possible. But there are many reasons to be optimistic, not just about Intismeran, but also certain wider preoccupations of ours. Firstly: some of the best research is done by that happy, hard to define network of companies, research institutes and académe, which has done so much to transform the human condition since the nineteenth century. Secondly, genetic engineering, which we follow avidly here, is in its infancy-this is quite different to our regular antibiotics theme, isn’t it? But most of all, if you want life to really get better, stop believing in what you want to believe and start believing in the scientific method.

[1] Vaccine breakthrough stops cancer returning in trial – BBC News

[2] Merck and Moderna Announce Phase 3 INTerpath-001 Trial of Intismeran Autogene Plus KEYTRUDA® Met Endpoints of Recurrence-Free Survival (RFS) and Distant Metastasis-Free Survival (DMFS) in Patients With Completely Resected Stage IIB-IV Melanoma

[3] Merck-Moderna cancer vax slows recurrence in ph. 3 trial

# Intismeran # Keytruda #melanoma #vaccine #mRNA #health #medicine #cancer #reseach #peer review

Round up Birth order, resistant fungus, solar missions and much more

a few examples from this week’s news

Is Birth order Destiny? We’ve long been intrigued by the thought that your birth order-whether you’re a sibling or an older child, older brother, younger sister,etc-affects your personality and life chances. Latest twist in the saga is this piece about disease from the Independent: Study suggests first-born children are more likely to develop neurological conditions and second-born are more prone to substance abuse

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/first-and-second-born-disease-risk-b3028407.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawTicCtwZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAGJyaWQRMFU1SjR6Q2hsamtwamFOMUxzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzk

Recalcitrant Fungus “A drug-resistant fungus that kills thousands of hospital patients in the U.S. every year survives on human skin by hijacking the body’s immune response, scientists have just discovered.” declares Newsweek. So it’s not just bacteria then?

https://www.newsweek.com/deadly-fungus-kills-thousands-every-year-scientists-found-where-it-hides-12297119?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwY

Is all this heat doing in your brain? A few years ago we published a blog speculating that extra carbon dioxide from global warming may be affecting our health (LSS 2 11 20) Well that may or may not be the case: but all that extra heat may well be affecting our brains, as this article from The Conversation makes clear indeed

https://theconversation.com/too-hot-to-think-why-extreme-heat-can-affect-how-well-our-brain-works-289170?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20

Yet more quantum complexity As if quantum physics wasn’t already difficult enough to follow, what with all those bosons, muons hadrons and quarks, Nature Briefing has just made our life a little more difficult with this piece about the Gluon How are we meant to remember all this?

A team of physicists says it has observed strong evidence of a mysterious ‘glueball’, a particle made up of force-carrying gluons. The team says that a particle known as X (2370) is mostly made up of these glueballs — clusters of the gluons that bind quarks to form protons and neutrons and hold them inside the nucleus of an atom. There is no single smoking gun that proves that this particle is made of glueballs, says particle physicist Bruce Yabsley. But the findings are “quite persuasive”, he says. The group presented their results at the International Conference on High Energy Physics in Natal, Brazil, last week.

Nature | 5 min read

Why won’t ET phone us? Normally our Friday purpose is to bring you short snappy pieces before Cocktail Hour. But this Guardian Long Read on why those pesky aliens have never shown up is so very good that we felt it our duty to bring it to you nevertheless

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2026/aug/11/the-great-silence-why-havent-we-found-any-aliens-yet

India’s day in the Sun If there’s one nation that is making huge leaps-commercial, technological, scientific- it is India. Proof if you want more comes from this admirable solar mission Aditya L1, admirably reported by the BBC

Aditya-L1: Indian solar mission’s new findings throw light on enduring Sun mysteries – BBC News

Quote of the week

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” — Psalm 133:1

#india #space #solar #global warming #antibiotic resistance #birth order #physics #climate #psychology #family #health #medicine

More good news on designer phages-and why we think they’ll work

Last week, with the help of our doughty researchers, we published a small piece describing how Artificial Intelligence is being employed to design new generations of bacteriophages, some of which might be used to target antibiotic‑resistant bacteria (LSS 8.8.26). Hopeful, certainly — but intelligent readers will ask the old question: what’s the chance any of this will work anytime soon?

Well, you’ll be glad to know that human‑modified bacteriophages have already been in action, and successfully too, since the far‑off days of 2024. They weren’t using AI to design the phages then, merely modifying them using another LSS favourite: CRISPR‑Cas9 gene editing.

Our first trope concerns a report in The Lancet Microbe, a long but reasonably readable paper describing a safety and tolerability trial of SNIPR001 — a combination of four CRISPR–Cas‑equipped bacteriophages — in healthy human volunteers. Results were encouraging:

“SNIPR001 was safe and well tolerated in healthy participants, with signals suggesting targeted activity against E. coli, despite the absence of a statistically significant effect.”

Our second trope comes from the excellent Michael Le Page of New Scientist, who reports on the clinical use of the same SNIPR technology — not a trial in healthy volunteers, but in an actual patient. His piece, CRISPR‑armed phages help treat severe superbug infection, is unfortunately behind a paywall, but worth crossing. It tells the story of a 65‑year‑old man in California with a severe, antibiotic‑resistant E. coli infection whose condition markedly improved after receiving these engineered phages. The lesson is clear: artificially-modified phages can work.

Now, nobody is claiming miracle cures — not the authors of the paper, nor Michael, nor ourselves. But all of us, in our different ways, are pointing to extremely encouraging signs. And remember our original point: all of the above took place, before our famous AI‑designed bacteriophages have even gone into trial. What possibilities might open up when they are fully deployed?

[1] Safety, recovery, and pharmacodynamics of CRISPR–Cas therapeutic SNIPR001: a phase 1, randomised, double-blind, first-in-human, dose-escalation study – The Lancet Microbe

[2] CRISPR-armed phages help treat severe superbug infection | New Scientist

# Artificial Intelligence # bacteriophages # SNIPR001 # CRISPR‑Cas9 #antibiotic resistance #bacteria #microbiology #medicine #health

Will Quantum sensing be bigger than Quantum Computing?

At LSS we’re a pretty eclectic kind of blog. So when we think we’ve got into a rut -too much on Antibiotics, Anthropoid Ape Men, or the deeds of Mr Trump- we like to spin the wheel so that you, gentle readers, may be the first to become au fait in yet another exciting area of cutting-edge human endeavour. And today we have chosen Quantum Sensing, that quiet shy sister of the much louder Quantum Computing, which might just turn out to be the Cinderella who scooped the ball. [1]

So what is Quantum sensing? The scientific miracle that crept up on us while everyone was busy arguing about quantum computing. Instead of trying to build impossible machines, quantum sensing takes the strange behaviour of atoms, photons and spins and uses it to measure the world with a delicacy classical physics simply can’t reach.

What’s the step change? A quantum sensor doesn’t rely on bulk electronics or brute force; it relies on superposition, entanglement and other quantum states that are inherently more precise. The result is a new class of instruments that can detect the faintest magnetic fields, the tiniest vibrations, and the most subtle changes in gravity — a kind of scientific eyesight that feels almost unfair in its sharpness.

What makes quantum sensing genuinely new? Classical sensors, like rulers, are always fighting noise: thermal noise, electronic noise, environmental noise. Quantum sensors sidestep those constraints by using states of matter that are the limit — the smallest possible unit of information, the most stable possible oscillation, the purest possible signal.

Hang on-are people actually using this stuff, now, in like, August 2026? Yup: the kit is suddenly appearing in many fields: mapping quantum materials, stabilising next‑generation clocks, imaging nanoscale structures, and even probing biological systems without damaging them. It’s not an incremental upgrade; it’s a shift in what measurement science can do, when the mood takes it. [2] [3]

Why have you showcased it? because it represents science at its most elegant. Quantum sensing isn’t about building bigger machines or consuming more power; it’s about learning to see the world with new eyes. Many of the sensors themselves are tiny jewels of engineering — diamonds with engineered defects, single trapped ions, levitated nanoparticles — each one a reminder that progress sometimes comes from finesse rather than force. In a year dominated by loud technologies, quantum sensing is the quiet triumph: a discipline that turns the universe’s weirdness into clarity, and shows how much beauty there is in simply measuring the world more truthfully.

Can I buy one in my local hardware store? A: Not quite yet. Quantum sensors are still the domain of research labs, national metrology institutes and a few very specialised companies. For now, your local hardware shop will continue to offer the trusty tape measure, the spirit level and the laser rangefinder — all perfectly good tools until quantum sensing makes its way into everyday kit. Think of it as the future arriving in slow, elegant steps rather than on the shelves of B&Q.

However: Most advances in science-and the human condition- ultimately come from advances in measurement. We think this might be one such

[1] Quantum sensor – Wikipedia

[2]Quantum sensors for biomedical applications | Nature Reviews Physics

[3] Quantum Imaging and Sensing – Recent articles and discoveries | Springer Nature Link

#quantum sensor #quantum computer #nanoscale #physics #biology #technology #measurement

Sepsis v antibiotics: the Doctor’s dangerous dilemma

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels.com

Anyone visiting the South Coast towns of England will know we have a huge sepsis awareness campaign on at the moment, as every ambulance you see is plastered with messages on the subject. And rightly so: sepsis is the cause of enormous suffering and mortality, not to mention its toll on NHS resources. Which is why today we are showcasing the NHS sepsis framework (published only yesterday, gentle readers-we sure do scoop ‘em these days!) [1]. because down in the appendix is a little section which impinges directly on the fons et origo of this whole humble blog: microbial resistance to antibiotics, as if you haven’t guessed already. Because sepsis affords the physician the most awful, excruciating, dilemma.

It’s one of those medical emergencies where every hour counts, truly. When bacteria invade the bloodstream and the immune system spirals out of control, doctors just can’t wait days for laboratory cultures. Broad spectrum antibiotics must be thrown in immediately, because delay will be truly deadly. Maybe it’s sepsis, maybe it isn’t: but the only logical decision at that stage is to assume that it is.

Thereby creating an acute paradox. Because prescribing the antibiotics exerts evolutionary pressure on the bacteria, increasing the strain’s likelihood of developing resistance. And as we know here (LSS passim) every unnecessary course of antibiotics puts the bacteria one step ahead. Modern medicine is trying to perform two contradictory tasks: treat, but avoid overtreatment So although the report puts it in the calm precise language of an official report, sepsis management and antimicrobial resistance must be seen as two sides of the same coin.

And our thoughts? Firstly, we are full of admiration for the medical staff who are dropped into this agonising situation, recognising that they possess levels of emotional and intellectual intelligence far beyond our own limited capacities. Secondly that to shout for “more antibiotics“ is cheap rhetoric, as it just begs the question. And we’re always doing it anyway. A more fruitful answer might lie in things like better DNA sequencing, molecular diagnostics and AI assisted decisions, all of which might better identify the invading pathogen more quickly. Thus opening the possibility of a bespoke antibiotic to be delivered to the right patient at the right time. Now that would be a creative step indeed.

[1] NHS England » Sepsis modern service framework

#antibiotic resistance #medicine #health #microbiology #bacteria #sepsis #treatment

Only evidence will do: book review from Nature Briefing

What happens when Belief triumphs over evidence? Here’s one example. For most of human history, childbirth was dangerous in a way modern readers struggle to imagine. In Europe in the early 19th century, maternal mortality in hospitals could reach 10–20% in bad years. Women died not from the birth itself but from the mysterious, terrifying scourge of puerperal fever. And the explanations? The usual cocky self-serving assertions like miasmas, divine wrath, atmospheric changes. Most Doctors were confident; they knew. When thinkers like Semmelweiss suggested that the cause was filthy medical practices which spread a lethal agent he called “germs,” he was hounded from his profession. The carnage continued until Pasteur and others were finally able to show the true causes, which they did using controlled experiments, rigorous data ,and logical interpretation of their findings.

Those who think such battles to be long won would do well to read the following book review from Nature Briefings. It’s called How we know: the rise of evidence based medicine, But it’s really a gateway to how we know about anything, as opposed to just believing our own first guess

In Beyond Belief, science journalist and Nature editor Helen Pearson charts the rise of evidence-based medicine and explores how rigorous research has transformed health and social policy. Pearson shares examples of success stories, in which solid evidence overturned bad practices, and the people behind them, many of whom were treated as mavericks for championing randomized trials. “Anyone can read and enjoy the book, yet there are nuggets for experienced readers,” writes public-policy researcher Peter John in his review. “The author writes as a believer, and her passion is engaging.”

Nature | 8 min read

At this blog we have tried many times that only reason and evidence will ultimately ameliorate the human condition. But nowhere have we done as well as this book does. And the need is not just in medicine, but in all areas such as climate physics, economics and what still passes for political life. The central problem m is that humans are wired for belief, not evidence. Intuition, anecdote, tradition, and authority shape most human decision‑making. Cognitive biases — confirmation bias, availability bias, motivated reasoning establish certainty long before any data has arrived. Yet the cost of ignoring evidence is enormous: this summer wildfires are again raging across Europe in a way unknown before 2020. Pearson’s remedy is the same old list our side has been pushing since the age of Sir Francis Bacon : demand clear causal claims, ask what the comparison group was, look for replication,, distrust single studies, favour interventions tested in real‑world conditions, accept that “what works” is often context‑dependent But try explaining all that in the bar of the Dog and Duck.

Beyond Belief: How Evidence Shows What Really Works by Helen Pearson (Princeton, 2026)

BBC – History – Francis Bacon

#medicine #science #evidence #reason #experiments #rationality #disease #climate change #politics