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Seattle's Allen Institute launches ‘moonshot' to create new approach to cell biology research
Seattle's Allen Institute launches ‘moonshot' to create new approach to cell biology research

Geek Wire

time12-06-2025

  • Science
  • Geek Wire

Seattle's Allen Institute launches ‘moonshot' to create new approach to cell biology research

A cross-section image of cells forming a hollow sphere, called a lumenoid. The colors mark different proteins expressed by the cells inside and outside of the sphere. (Allen Institute Image) Human cells, like the people they create, are dynamic and complex. And while researchers can create images and videos of how they move, organize and change their properties, it's hard to efficiently and accurately describe all that's happening. So a 75-person team at Seattle nonprofit Allen Institute is embarking on a 10-year project called CellScapes to devise a new language using mathematics to capture these essential processes. 'This is a new way of approaching very fundamental cell biology,' Ru Gunawardane, executive director and vice president of the Allen Institute for Cell Science, told GeekWire. 'We want to combine math and biophysical modeling, which are things that people are doing right now, but in a siloed way in very different systems.' Ru Gunawardane, executive director and vice president of the Allen Institute for Cell Science. (Allen Institute Photo) The Allen Institute was founded more than 20 years ago by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and his sister Jody Allen to dive into challenging problems in the biosciences. Previous efforts at multiple institutions have created numerical systems for understanding biological processes. That includes BayesSpace, a computational tool that produces data on gene expression in mixed cell types that developed researchers at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center. The Allen Institute has engineered modeling for organelles, which are the various machines packed inside cells that make proteins, produce energy and perform other key operations. 'The exciting thing is that we are trying … to bring different disciplines together,' Gunawardane said, 'because data is everywhere — but how do you make sense out of that data?' The CellScapes researchers are working with human stem cells, which are cells that don't yet have a set identity as, say, a skin or liver cell. The hope is through analysis and experimentation they'll devise mathematics that describe the cell's behavior, ultimately allowing them to predict and manipulate what the cells do. A primary goal would be to use these tools to unravel mysteries such as the intermediate steps to developing cancer, and ultimately discover new cell therapies. 'It's a lot like astronomy and going from 'which planet is that dot in the sky' to 'what are the laws of motion that describe all moving objects?'' said Wallace Marshall, professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco, and a CellScapes advisor, in a statement. The Allen Institute seen from Dexter Yard. (GeekWire File Photo / Charlotte Schubert) The Allen Institute will make its data and innovations in the space publicly available, Gunawardane said, and expects to collaborate with researchers at outside institutions. The research team includes software engineers, computational biologists, program managers and others. There is no set budget for the decade-long effort, and the CellScapes team is simultaneously pursuing three projects that are part of the broader initiative. The effort already has a scientific paper accepted by the journal Nature that will be published in coming months. It's an exciting time, Gunawardane said. 'I also feel a huge responsibility,' she said, 'because Paul [Allen] is not alive anymore, but our work is his legacy, and he asked us to break the code of the cell. And in a way, the code is very complicated — it's more like a program, the cellular program. 'So I feel like we are now actually at the brink,' she said, 'of knowing maybe how to approach that.'

Britain's dysfunctional finances are stifling aspiration and opportunity
Britain's dysfunctional finances are stifling aspiration and opportunity

Telegraph

time09-06-2025

  • Business
  • Telegraph

Britain's dysfunctional finances are stifling aspiration and opportunity

SIR – As the Chancellor prepares for her Spending Review tomorrow, it is striking that no political party appears willing to confront the scale of Britain's fiscal problems. Now retired, I reflect on a life in which my generation enjoyed real opportunity. I left school at 16, completed an apprenticeship, studied further, bought a modest home, and raised a family. We lived carefully, but the path to security was there. Today's younger generation faces soaring taxes, student debt (we had grants), unaffordable housing, and strained public services – all while the state borrows heavily and spends over £100 billion a year on debt interest. Despite record tax receipts, driven by stealthy fiscal drag, the public gets little in return. When David Cameron's government attempted to rein in the deficit, this was attacked as 'austerity'. Yet no one now dares say what must be said: we must gradually pay down the national debt if we are to free up resources for housing, education and the NHS. The Government should focus not on how much it spends, but on what it delivers. A country that keeps dodging difficult choices will end up with no choices at all. Paul Allen Fleet, Hampshire SIR – As we await Rachel Reeves's Spending Review, we can only hope that the Government will cut up the national credit card, rather than grant itself a higher limit. But such an outcome would be controversial, not least because state-run institutions are bureaucratic and financially insatiable. We have reached the point where a major spending review should go far beyond manipulation of spreadsheets. It is time for serious questions as to what government does and why, and how it goes about it. However, these questions are too challenging for mere bean-counters. Are there any thinkers and innovators out there, or have they already left the country? David Porter Plymouth, Devon SIR – Britain is the sixth largest economy in the world, but it really doesn't feel like it. The country is seriously in debt and high interest rates mean that the cost of servicing that debt has also risen. This is being compounded by an ever-increasing welfare bill, an immediate demand to boost our spending on defence and a frankly unachievable net zero policy. The only plausible way out of this situation is to encourage economic growth, improve productivity and reduce uncompetitive energy costs. Yet this Government appears to have no solution except to tax and spend. The country is going broke fast, and at some point – perhaps even within this parliament – the IMF or the markets will call time on the situation.

Heritage honour for ships sunk in Battle of the Coral Sea
Heritage honour for ships sunk in Battle of the Coral Sea

ABC News

time07-06-2025

  • General
  • ABC News

Heritage honour for ships sunk in Battle of the Coral Sea

It has been more than 80 years since they came to rest 3,000 metres down on the ocean floor, but their pristine markings have been remarkably well preserved. In 1942, American ships the USS Sims, the USS Neosho and the USS Lexington were patrolling the Pacific as part of the Battle of the Coral Sea when on May 7 and 8 they were struck by Japanese torpedoes. The USS Sims, a Destroyer, was escorting the fleet oiler, USS Neosho, when Japanese aircraft landed multiple direct hits, including a suicide dive from one fighter plane. Two bomb strikes exploded in the Sims' engine room, buckling the ship and causing a massive explosion that sank the vessel. The next morning, the aircraft carrier USS Lexington attacked Japanese forces who, minutes later, fired back. The ship suffered two direct torpedo strikes, followed by an explosion from one of the internal fires that ignited petrol vapours. The strikes caused significant damage, but it was American torpedoes that finally sank the vessel to prevent it from being captured by the Japanese. It was a devastating loss, with 635 US servicemen losing their lives and just a few surviving. The wrecks laid undisturbed for 75 years, more than 3 kilometres down in the Coral Sea, about 1,000km east of Far North Queensland. Rediscovered in 2018 by a team led by US billionaire Paul Allen, the shipwrecks and war graves will now have extra protection. The federal government announced on June 1 that they had been added to the National Heritage List. Federal Minister for the Environment Murray Watt said the site was of national significance in Australia's history. "The Second World War was a time of such terrible and unimaginable loss suffered by so many and the Battle of the Coral Sea was central to keeping Australians at home safe," he said. "By including the site on the National Heritage List, we can ensure greater protection for a number of historic shipwrecks, while preserving a significant piece of world history for future generations." Richard Scully, from the University of New England, said heritage protection was crucial because some WWII warships had already disappeared from the Pacific. He said it was important to remember that, as well as having historical value, these were war graves. "Now that we know where these graves are located means we can protect them," Professor Scully said. "We can register them as heritage and we can continue to do justice to the men who fought and died." Professor Scully says the remarkable preservation also gives a vivid insight into the experience of the battle. "The Lexington, an unarmoured warship essentially being attacked from the sky, was burning in the sea before it was scuttled." Professor Scully said it was also important to raise the profile of the conflict in Australia's collective memory. He said the Pacific War was sometimes the poor cousin to the European war, with the war against Hitler holding the imagination more than the Pacific War. "This is Australia's war in so many ways, and I think it is important to remember that." He said the battles in the Coral Sea to defend Australia and New Guinea were remarkable. "This is the first naval battle in history where the opposing warships never saw each other. "It was fought entirely by aircraft flying off aircraft carriers over the horizon, locating the enemy and attacking them."

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