woke_neoliberal's comments

Note that most dietary fiber comes from carbohydrates (fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, seeds). Fiber is largely carbohydrates (and some proteins) you can't digest. Focus on soluble fiber. You could try a Phyllium supplement. Also important to feed the bacteria in your gut - they need carbs.

There are some proteins that directly cause lysis (called "lysins"), e.g. there are lysins taken from bacteriophage (viruses that attack bacteria and are generally species or strain specific) that do kill bacteria effectively.

One major issue with chemical antibiotics (proteins or small molecule) is evolution. Antibiotic resistance is largely the product of the wide and incomplete treatment of bacterial infections, and the resulting emergence of resistant strains. Another issue, shy of evolution of genome modification, is simple gene / transcriptional regulation, and up-/down-regulating surface proteins and sugars that can render such proteins ineffective. It's not as simple as binding a protein target.

Consider that resistance to a novel antibiotic has been observed after a year or two on the market, and it doesn't make sense for a pharma company to invest in bringing one to market.

One interesting avenue is using bacteriophage to treat infections directly. The phage evolve with the bacteria and have a much higher chance of remaining effective. Treating with an antibiotic, or multiple phage, using different mechanisms, decreases the chance of evolving resistance. Phage have been used in eastern European countries for ~ a century, but were dropped in western countries in favor of small molecule antibiotics. There are several clinical trials to bring them back to market.

To bring it back to the article, interestingly phage don't seem to be mentioned, even though they are the most abundance organism on the planet. Surely something has figured out how to eat them...

One issue with corn is that it is planted in rows, and leads to soil erosion. Soil is difficult to replace!

You are correct - meaningful amounts of DNA are only shed when the tumor breaks the basement membrane.

You can see a breakout at the bottom of this poster [1] from Grail (developing a methylation based liquid biopsy) showing sensitivity per-cancer and per-stage.

Sensitivity increases as stage increases, as expected, and cancers like Leukemia are well detected. IIRC, the stage classifications vary across different tissue types as to when the cancer breaks through the basement membrane - would be compelling if sensitivity of the assay rises in accordance.

[1] https://grail.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/ASCO_2019_CCGA2...

There have been several companies formed in the past few years whose premise is researching in industry anti-aging or basic science more generally (Calico, Altos Labs, Arcadia, etc.)... Does anyone understand the underlying economics or motivations? They can't be gambles when they raise $B's, and I'm too cynical to believe these are altruistic endeavors. Certainly there is research that cannot be reasonably expected to get funding from academic sources, but what results could be worth the squeeze?

The pig was modified to remove presentation of immunogenic sugars on the cell surface. Unfortunately, the recipient needs to be on immunosuppressants the rest of their life.

This rekindles discussions back in school about chimeras... in order for the organs to be immunocompatible, the donor needs to be partially human. What % is too human to harvest for organs?

I suppose it's still too soon to answer such questions, but apparently, 0% acceptable.

In parallel to your own research, consider enrolling in a study like IDIOM at Scripps Health: https://www.scripps.edu/science-and-medicine/translational-i...