Aparna Nathan Journalist Profile

Articles

A spitting image of brain health

Oct 4, 2024 | drugdiscoverynews.com | Aparna Nathan

Two soccer players collide as they try to head a ball. A soldier ducks near a detonating explosive. An elderly woman falls at home. All of these people are at risk of traumatic brain injury (TBI), where a blow to the head damages the brain’s delicate circuitry. TBIs are infamous for their occurrences on sports fields, but their impact is much more widespread. In the United States, more than 2 million people suffer a TBI each year.
Reproductive Lifespan is Partially Encoded in the Genes

Sep 27, 2024 | the-scientist.com | Aparna Nathan

The first time a child gets their period, also known as menarche, is a monumental occasion. It can be surprising and scary, but at the same time it marks a critical milestone in maturing into an adult. While many people may expect the first signs of menstruation to appear in middle school, the timing can vary much more broadly. Some people get their first period at the age of eight, while for others it does not come until the age of 15.
Identifying genetic variants that influence the abundance of cell states in single-cell data - Nature Genetics

Sep 26, 2024 | nature.com | Saori Sakaue |Aparna Nathan |Joseph Powell |Po-Ru Loh

AbstractDisease risk alleles influence the composition of cells present in the body, but modeling genetic effects on the cell states revealed by single-cell profiling is difficult because variant-associated states may reflect diverse combinations of the profiled cell features that are challenging to predefine. We introduce Genotype–Neighborhood Associations (GeNA), a statistical tool to identify cell-state abundance quantitative trait loci (csaQTLs) in high-dimensional single-cell datasets.
A squishy solution for smoother drug delivery

Sep 19, 2024 | drugdiscoverynews.com | Aparna Nathan

With a near-constant parade of pills and jabs, taking medications can be physically and mentally taxing for people with complex illnesses. It can be easy to miss a dose or take it incorrectly, especially while battling side effects, stressors, and all-around exhaustion. On top of all the other pressures of being ill, adhering to doctor’s orders can feel like an impossible task. It is unsurprising, then, that many people do not stick to medication plans.
Combating Age-Related Motor Decline

Aug 23, 2024 | the-scientist.com | Aparna Nathan

Old age is accompanied by more than just wrinkles. With age, it typically becomes harder for people to walk, stand up, and move as they used to. This decline in mobility is in part mediated by the motor neurons that carry instructions from the brain to the muscles. When a person wants to raise their arm, for example, chemical signals pass from the brain to motor neurons to an arm muscle to tell it to contract. As people age, their motor neurons become less adept at relaying these signals.
A Better Mucus Model

Aug 20, 2024 | the-scientist.com | Aparna Nathan

Mucus is more than just the sticky snot that comes from your nose. This protein-rich goop is found in many other organs, including the lungs and intestines, where it forms a protective layer that traps pathogens and prevents them from penetrating the organ. The flow of mucus across the organ’s surface, propelled by cilia, can even help move microbes around, transporting them away from critical structures.
Maintaining NK Cells’ Killer Instincts

Aug 9, 2024 | the-scientist.com | Aparna Nathan

When a rogue cell starts proliferating out of control, the first responders on the scene should be the body’s own immune cells—for example, natural killer (NK) cells, which use toxic molecules to dissolve foreign cells. Ideally, proteins that are specific to cancer cells would trigger the immune cells to destroy the cancer cells, and a growing category of new NK cell therapies harness these cellular assassins to fight cancer.
A Recipe for Hydrogel Noodles to Improve Tissue Engineering

Jul 25, 2024 | the-scientist.com | Aparna Nathan

It is relatively easy to grow cells in the lab but turning them into realistic models of human tissue is harder. This requires creating an environment that closely mirrors the conditions in the body’s extracellular matrix (ECM), the molecular scaffold that supports cells. Bioengineers have sought to design materials that mimic the features of ECM, including its stiffness, density, and stickiness, and one promising material has been hydrogel, a squishy polymer network mostly filled with water.
CAR T cells in a SNAP

Jul 17, 2024 | drugdiscoverynews.com | Aparna Nathan

Ten years ago, chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) promised to change the landscape of cancer therapy forever (1). With the help of genetic engineering, a person’s own immune cells could get retrofitted with a surface receptor that recognized cancer antigens. This would muster an immune response against cancer cells, training the body to defend itself from malignancy.
An Epigenetic Brain Scan

Jul 16, 2024 | the-scientist.com | Aparna Nathan

If the genome is an instruction manual, then the chemical modifications that comprise the epigenome are like highlighters and sticky notes. Each epigenetic mark tells cells which parts of the manual to read to carry out their functions. In complex organs like the brain, where thousands of cell types are carefully organized into intricate neural structures with essential functions, the spatial patterns of these epigenetic marks matter. Alterations in these patterns can be a sign of disease.