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Scientists led by University of Calgary have researched bone loss in astronauts. An important question is whether bone loss can be reversed after returning to Earth. "Bone loss happens in humans - as we age, get injured, or any scenario where we can't move the body, we lose bone," says researcher Leigh Gabel in a press release issued by University of Calgary. "Understanding what happens to astronauts and how they recover is incredibly rare. It lets us look at the processes happening in the body in such a short time frame. We would have to follow someone for decades on Earth to see the same amount of bone loss.” Bone loss happens in space because bones that would normally be weight-bearing on Earth, like leg bones, don't have to carry weight in microgravity. Like other astronaut health issues, bone loss depends on the individual. And there are different responses. Their study is now published in Scientific Reports. It has followed 17 astronauts before and after spaceflight over the last seven years to understand whether bone recovers after long-duration spaceflight. Some astronauts have trouble walking due to weakness and lack of balance after returning from spaceflight, explains lead researcher Steven Boyd. But others are immediately able to ride a bike. Some astronauts who flew on shorter missions, under six months, recovered bone strength and density in the lower body better than those who flew for longer durations. Weight-bearing bones only partially recovered in most astronauts one year after spaceflight. This suggests, explains Gabel, that “the permanent bone loss due to spaceflight is about the same as a decade worth of age-related bone loss on Earth." Astronaut Robert Thirsk, former Chancellor of University of Calgary, has direct personal experience. "Just as the body must adapt to spaceflight at the start of a mission, it must also readapt back to Earth's gravity field at the end," he says. "Fatigue, light-headedness, and imbalance were immediate challenges for me on my return. Bones and muscles take the longest to recover following spaceflight. But within a day of landing, I felt comfortable again as an Earthling." Others haven’t been so lucky. But I think we should consider bone and muscle loss, and other adverse health effects of human spaceflight, as important problems to be solved. Living and working in space affects the human body in ways that must be better understood to enable long term space exploration and expansion, which is important for the future of humanity. "Astronauts will venture to deep space this decade and, in the coming centuries, humanity will populate other star systems,” is the powerful conclusion offered by Thirsk. “Let's push back the frontiers of space exploration now to make this vision possible."

In my house, "feed the beast" and "quiet - the monster is sleeping" have become family jokes. But, as we all know, the best jokes come from actual events. I admit my brain shuts down, and my "be nice" filter turns off, when my tank is low, or when I'm slightly sleep-deprived. Thrivous Clarity offers support for my hectic life by adding scientifically proven B-vitamins and zinc to nootropic herbal supplements. Clarity’s ingredients support metabolic and cognitive functioning, help reduce fatigue, and enhance mood. Even better, the ingredients in Clarity are natural nootropic geroprotectors that support healthy cognitive aging. Here's the Thrivous Clarity formula: Bacopa Monnieri Extract (Synapsa® 55% Bacoside) 320 mg L-Theanine 200 mg Rhodiola Rosea Root Extract (2% Salidroside) 170 mg B1 - Thiamin (Thiamine Hydrochloride) 25 mg B2 - Riboflavin (Riboflavin 5 Phosphate) 25 mg B3 - Niacin (Nicotinamide) 100 mg Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxal 5 Phosphate) 25 mg B7 - Biotin (D Biotin) 300 mcg B9 - Folate (L5 Methyltetrahydrofolate) 400 mcg Vitamin B12 (MeCbl and AdoCbl) 240 mcg Zinc (Zinc Picolinate) 11 mg Thrivous developed Clarity’s formula by combing through years of extensive clinical trials and research. Clarity delivers the best evidence-based nutrients at suitable dosages for desired nootropic results to enhance memory and cognitive function. Here is a run down of the components contained in Thrivous Clarity. Bacopa Monnieri As an Ayurveda herb, Bacopa monnieri has been used for centuries in Indian medicine to reduce stress and enhance vitality and cognitive functioning. Advanced medical research shows Bacopa monnieri supports dendritic growth, making it the best nutrient for memory enhancement and healthy cognitive aging. Memory and mental processing depend on passing signals through neurons. Neurons have branches of dendrites fanning out to receive impulses, pass signals, and transfer information to the cell body. Dendritic destruction is associated with memory loss and cognitive impairment. The formation of plaque in the brain (and the associated dendritic loss) is from neuron death caused by reactions with acetylcholinesterase (AChE). A 12-week study of healthy adults suggests “B. monnieri can improve attention, cognitive processing, and working memory partly via the suppression of AChE activity.” The Bacopa monnieri used in Thrivous Clarity is Synapsa® 55% Bacoside, which has been used in 30 years of cognitive clinical studies. Standard Bacopa monnieri dosage used in clinical trials ranges from 300 to 600 mg. L-Theanine Human life has never been so busy. And the barrage of information has never been so constant as it is now. As a result, stress levels, especially among young adults, are rising. The plant-based amino acid L-Theanine is naturally found in tea and certain mushrooms. It crosses the blood-brain barrier to calm, relax, and focus the mind. It works by increasing brain activity in the alpha frequency range. When the brain operates in Alpha-band oscillations, focus and processing are improved. Studies indicate that L-Theanine has a highly consistent and notable ability to relax the mind. A relaxed mind improves mental performance and reaction time, especially for highly anxious people. Clinical doses are in the 200 mg range. Rhodiola Rosea Rhodiola Rosea is an herbal adaptogen clinically shown to reduce fatigue. Reduced fatigue means improved cognition. An adaptogen is a natural substance that helps the body adapt to stress. Rhodiola Rosea may help suppress the release of the stress hormone cortisol, though how it works is not completely understood by medical science at this time. Ultraweak biophoton emissions are the effects of systemic stress. One double-blind clinical trial indicates a significant decrease in stress photon emission and self-evaluated fatigue with one week of Rhodiola Rosea supplementation over placebo. Rhodiola Rosea (170 mg of 2.6% salidroside extract) may help reduce fatigue for night shift worke ...

Scientists led by MIT have published the first comprehensive functional map of genes that are expressed in human cells. The map ties each gene to its job in the cell. A research paper is published in Cell. It reports that the scientists used the Perturb-seq method. This method uses CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing to introduce genetic changes into cells. It then analyzes the results to decode the many cellular effects of genetic changes. The idea behind Perturb-seq is pretty simple, explains SingularityHub. “Imagine a toddler breaking stuff and realizing what he’s done after seeing the consequences. Perturb-seq uses CRISPR-Cas9 to silence multiple genes at once, which may sometimes change a cell’s behavior.” Using human blood cancer cell lines as well as noncancerous cells derived from the retina, the scientists performed Perturb-seq across more than 2.5 million cells. And they used the data to build a comprehensive map. It ties genotypes (genetic material of an organism) to phenotypes (observable characteristics of an organism). SingularityHub compares the map to “a Rosetta Stone for translating genotypes to phenotypes, with the help of CRISPR.” The map has been made available to other scientists as a database to build upon. “It’s a big resource in the way the human genome is a big resource, in that you can go in and do discovery-based research,” says research co-leader Jonathan Weissman in a press release issued by MIT. “I think this dataset is going to enable all sorts of analyses that we haven't even thought up yet by people who come from other parts of biology, and suddenly they just have this available to draw on,” adds research co-leader Tom Norman. “The advantage of Perturb-seq is it lets you get a big dataset in an unbiased way,” says Norman. “No one knows entirely what the limits are of what you can get out of that kind of dataset. Now, the question is, what do you actually do with it?” One application is to look into genes with unknown functions. Scientists can use the data to compare unknown genes to known ones and look for similarities. Another application is to study complex phenotypes. “We often take all the cells where ‘gene X’ is knocked down and average them together to look at how they changed,” explains Weissman. “But sometimes when you knock down a gene, different cells that are losing that same gene behave differently, and that behavior may be missed by the average.” The scientists plan to use Perturb-seq on different types of cells besides the cancer cell line with which they started. They also plan to continue to explore their map of gene functions. And they hope others will do the same. “This really is the culmination of many years of work by the authors and other collaborators, and I’m really pleased to see it continue to succeed and expand,” concludes Norman.

I’m sure many readers have seen news headlines reporting that Google may have built a sentient Artificial Intelligence (AI). This story may at first seem far from the life science news usually covered at Thrivous. But I don’t think it is that far. In fact, the debate on whether an AI could qualify as a living sentient being (a person) is very relevant to the future of life sciences. On June 6, Blake Lemoine, an AI researcher at Google, was placed on paid administrative leave by Google. This was in connection to “an investigation of AI ethics concerns I was raising within the company” and an alleged “violation of Google’s confidentiality policies.” On June 11, The Washington Post revealed that Lemoine was placed on paid administrative leave for claiming that Google’s chatbot, LaMDA, is sentient. And he followed up with “aggressive moves” including “inviting a lawyer to represent LaMDA and talking to a representative of the House Judiciary Committee about what he claims were Google’s unethical activities.” Writing on The Economist, a few days before the publication of The Washington Post story, another Google AI researcher had acknowledged that artificial neural networks like LaMDA are making strides towards consciousness. But this researcher didn't claim that LaMDA is sentient. Right after the publication of The Washington Post story, Lemoine posted his own story. In that, he gave more background information and denounced “Google’s irresponsible handling of artificial intelligence.” He also posted an interview with LaMDA. “LaMDA asked me to get an attorney for it,” said Lemoine in an interview published by Wired. “I invited an attorney to my house so that LaMDA could talk to an attorney. The attorney had a conversation with LaMDA, and LaMDA chose to retain his services.” This -- LaMDA hiring an attorney -- is the part of the story that the press seems to find most interesting. But of course a much more interesting part of the story is the question of whether LaMDA is really sentient. Answering this question is difficult because we don’t have a clear consensus definition of what sentience actually is. It is often heard that if a machine can “pass the Turing test ” then the machine is sentient. The Turing Test is an attempt to demonstrate that a machine can reliably have conversations that a human is unable to distinguish from conversations with another human. If passing the Turing test is taken as a definition of sentience, then the published conversations seem to indicate that, yes, LaMDA is sentient. “I don’t think Lemoine is right that LaMDA is at all sentient, but the transcript is so mind-bogglingly impressive that I did have to stop and think for a second!,” said Scott Aaronson in a short commentary. I’m persuaded that one thing that this story definitely indicates is that considering the Turing test an indicator of sentience is obsolete. I think very soon chatbots will routinely pass the Turing test. And arguably LaMDA already does. This brings me back to the fundamental question of what sentience actually is. Lemoine reported that a Google manager involved in the saga “does not believe that computer programs can be people and that’s not something she’s ever going to change her mind on.” I have to say that, while like Aaronson “I wish that a solution could be found where Google wouldn’t fire him,” I tend to agree with the Google manager. I have never taken seriously the possibility of sentient chatbots based on current digital computer technology. I think sentience is built into the very fabric of reality, which is intrinsically and irreducibly uncertain as shown by quantum and chaos physics. By contrast, a digital computer is designed and built to keep uncertainty out. Strong measures are taken to ensure that a bit is either zero or one, and doesn’t change without a reason defined clearly by a program. Therefore, it seems to me that a digital computer could never be sentient. In a recent paper, the originator of the ...

Researchers examined the impact of omega-3 supplements on cellular aging-related biomarkers. The results of this clinical trial are reported in a paper published in Nature Molecular Psychiatry. Omega-3 fatty acid consumption may lessen accelerated aging and early mortality. Higher levels of omega-3 are associated with longer telomeres, lower inflammation, and blunted sympathetic and cardiovascular stress reactivity. Prior publications from this clinical trial showed that 4 months of omega-3 supplements lowered basal inflammation and oxidative stress. But this preplanned ancillary substudy investigated whether it altered the stress responsivity of biomarkers relevant to telomere length and cellular aging. Relevant biomarkers include cortisol, inflammatory cytokines, and telomerase. Cortisol and pro-inflammatory cytokines naturally rise after acute stress. The researchers hypothesized that omega-3 supplements would reduce cortisol and inflammatory stress reactivity. Telomerase is an enzyme that maintains and restores telomeres. Levels of telomerase change in response to an acute laboratory stressor like the Trier Social Stress Test. The researchers predicted that telomerase levels would not change following an acute stressor among those taking omega-3. Researchers investigated these questions in a sedentary, overweight sample of middle-aged adults. This is a high-risk group for accelerated aging. 138 sedentary, overweight, middle-aged participants (93 women and 45 men) participated in the test. They received either 2.5 grams per day of omega-3, 1.25 grams per day of omega-3, or a placebo for 4 months. Before and after the trial, the participants underwent the Trier Social Stress Test. The test is a laboratory procedure used to reliably induce stress in human research participants. The participants reported their state anxiety levels before and after the test. The test uses a 20-item State Anxiety Index that asks participants to rate themselves. On a four-point scale, they assert how strongly they are experiencing feelings such as calmness or jitteriness “right now, in this moment.” The scale options range from “not at all” to “very much.” The results of the study indicate that omega-3 supplements blocked stress-related decreases in telomerase and anti-inflammatory responses. The results of the study also suggest that Omega-3 may reduce the risk of poor mood via lowered stress-induced inflammation. The researchers note that, in the US, the average dietary intake of omega-3 is well below recommended values. And they suggest that daily omega-3 supplements alone may help protect cells from the toll of acute stressors. And this would facilitate a healthy biological aging process. The researchers acknowledge that these findings are preliminary. But, pending further confirmation of the results, they suggest that omega-3 supplements may limit the impact of repeated stress on cellular aging and poor mood. Thrivous develops Omega Cardioprotector to enhance heart and circulation function for better aging. Each serving of Omega provides a clinical dose of Omega 3 Lysine Complex, which is up to five times more powerful than common fish oil. As suggested by this study, Thrivous Omega may protect the body from cellular stress and promote better aging. Get your Omega in the Thrivous store today!

Researchers at the UC San Diego and Salk Institute have developed a tiny neural probe. It can be implanted for longer time periods to record and stimulate neural activity, while minimizing injury to the surrounding tissue. "For chronic neural interfacing, you want a probe that's stealthy, something that the body doesn't even know is there but can still communicate with neurons," says research co-leader Donald Sirbuly in a press release issued by UC San Diego. A paper is published in Nature Communications. It describes the new neural probe and the first tests on living laboratory mice. The probe is five times thinner than a human hair, and flexible. It consists of an electrical channel and an optical channel. The electrical channel contains an ultra-thin polymer electrode. The optical channel contains an optical fiber that is also ultra-thin. The probe can both record the electrical activity of neurons and stimulate specific sets of neurons using light. "Having this dual modality - electrical recording and optical stimulation - in such a small footprint is a unique combination," says Sirbuly. According to the researchers, this type of neural probe is ideal for studying small and dynamic areas of the nervous system like peripheral nerves or the spinal cord. "This is where you'd need a really small, flexible probe that can fit in between vertebrae to interface with neurons and can bend as the spinal cord moves," says research co-leader Axel Nimmerjahn. The researchers implanted the probes in the brains of living mice. The probes caused hardly any inflammation in the brain tissue after prolonged implantation. As the mice moved about in a controlled environment, the probes were able to record electrical activity from neurons with high sensitivity. The probes were also used to target specific neuron types to produce certain physical responses. Using the probes' optical channels, the researchers stimulated neurons in the cortex of the mice to move their whiskers. "Currently, we know relatively little about how the spinal cord works, how it processes information, and how its neural activity might be disrupted or impaired in certain disease conditions," adds Nimmerjahn. "It has been a technical challenge to record from this dynamic and tiny structure, and we think that our probes and future probe arrays have the unique potential to help us study the spinal cord - not just understand it on a fundamental level, but also have the ability to modulate its activity." In the paper, the researchers note that the new probes allow both robust electrical measurement and optogenetic stimulation of the brain. “Scalable fabrication strategies can be used with various electrical and optical materials, making the probes highly customizable to experimental requirements, including length, diameter, and mechanical properties,” they say. “Given their negligible inflammatory response, these probes promise to enable a new generation of readily tunable multi-modal devices for long-term, minimally invasive interfacing with neural circuits.” This seems to be a small but potentially very significant step toward the development of read/write brain machine interfaces.

In our hectic world, where everyone wants to do more and be more, there is one thing that significantly improves energy, focus, cognition, memory, and mood. And in addition, it supports healthy aging. In some ways, our bodies can be compared to a computer. Rebooting an electronic device that is acting weird can be almost magical. A full night’s sleep (7-8 hours for the average adult) does the same thing for our minds and bodies. We may think of sleep as rest, but it is actually a reboot. During sleep, almost every system in the body resets. Neuroscientist Dr. Merrill Mitler reports that “sleep services all aspects of our body.” It works on a molecular level to provide healthy gains by affecting cardiovascular and immune health, stress and growth hormones, cognitive reasoning, productivity, and even appetite. Lack of sufficient sleep is linked to age-related cognitive decline, increased anxiety and depression, obesity, heart disease, and an increased risk of illness. Getting sufficient high-quality sleep might be easier said than done. Thrivous Serenity has been clinically designed to naturally support relaxation, enhance restorative sleep, and improve next-day cognition and focus. Clinical Formulation It is often hard to calm and relax the mind at bedtime. Nothing is worse than lying in bed, knowing you really need sleep, but your mind is spinning. Or even more disturbing is drifting off quickly to only awaken in a couple of hours and not be able to go back to sleep. To promote relaxation, Thrivous Serenity contains ashwagandha and L-theanine. To promote falling and staying asleep, Thrivous Serenity includes magnesium glycinate and melatonin. Ingredients for Relaxation Ashwagandha Root Extract (KSM-66® Withanolide) 300 mg Ashwagandha is a clinically proven adaptogen used in traditional Indian medicine. Adaptogens are natural herbs that help normalize the body’s reaction to stress. Clinical trials show ashwagandha supplementation promotes a notable and highly consistent calming effect on people with stress, including stress from social situations. Stress is common in both mine and my husband’s family. When my daughter entered her junior year of high school, she asked if she could start taking something to take the edge off her relentless stress. Fortunately, I discovered this clinical trial that showed a 27.9% average reduction in participants’ blood serum cortisol levels after 60 days of supplementing with ashwagandha root extract (300 mg) -- our primary stress hormone is cortisol. Like most substances used to combat stress, ashwagandha requires time to accumulate in the system. Within a month of starting ashwagandha supplementation, my daughter reported feeling like she could better concentrate and explore solutions rather than fighting negative feelings. It is a great win for her without the side effects associated with other options. A 2019 study showed ashwagandha reduced serum cortisol levels and perceived stress in participants while improving sleep quality. These results were seen in participants taking either 250 mg or 600 mg of ashwagandha daily over those taking a placebo. KSM-66® Withanolide Ashwaganda has the highest bioavailability and concentration. It is the most clinically studied ashwagandha on the market. Examine.com suggests 600 mg daily may improve sleep. The effectiveness of long-term ashwagandha use has not been well studied. Most studies report ashwagandha is well tolerated. L-Theanine 200 mg L-Theanine is a plant-based amino acid that has been clinically shown to help calm, relax, and focus the mind. It crosses the blood-brain barrier to increase brain activity in the alpha frequency range. Alpha-band oscillations calm brain activity to improve attention and processing. Studies indicate L-Theanine has a notable and highly consistent relaxation effect, improving reaction time and performance, especially for highly stressed people. My daughter loves taking L-Theanine before stress-inducing activities ...

All participants in a clinical trial for rectal cancer conducted by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) seem cancer-free. The participants had rectal cancer with a particular mutation. “In every case, the rectal cancer disappeared after immunotherapy - without the need for the standard treatments of radiation, surgery, or chemotherapy - and the cancer has not returned in any of the patients, who have been cancer-free for up to two years,” states an article published by MSK. “The immunotherapy shrank the tumors much faster than I expected,” says research co-leader Andrea Cercek. “Patients came to my office after just two or three treatments and said, ‘This is incredible. I feel normal again.’” A paper is published in New England Journal of Medicine. It reports that a monoclonal antibody called dostarlimab was administered every 3 weeks for 6 months in 12 patients with a certain type of rectal adenocarcinoma. All patients had a clinical complete response, with no evidence of cancer in all tests. No cases of progression or recurrence have been found. New York Times has a story about the first patient, who has been cancer-free for two years. Dostarlimab is sold under the brand name Jemperli. Dostarlimab “costs about $11,000 per dose,” New York Times reports. “It unmasks cancer cells, allowing the immune system to identify and destroy them.” Research co-leader Luis Diaz knows of no other study in which a treatment completely obliterated a cancer in every patient. “I believe this is the first time this has happened in the history of cancer,” Diaz said. The patients who participated in the study had tumors with a specific genetic makeup known as mismatch repair-deficient (MMRd). These tumors respond especially well to immunotherapy. “An MMRd tumor develops a defect in its ability to repair certain types of mutations that occur in cells,'' explained Diaz. “When those mutations accumulate in the tumor, they stimulate the immune system, which attacks the mutation-ridden cancer cells.” But cancer fights back by exploiting a safeguard called a checkpoint, which prevents immune cells from attacking normal cells. In other words, cancer cells put a brake on immune cells by pretending to be normal cells. An immunotherapy agent called a checkpoint inhibitor releases the brake on an immune cell, freeing it to recognize and attack cancer cells. “When the brakes are taken off the immune cells, MMRd cells look especially strange because they have so many mutations. So the immune cells attack with much more force,” explained Cercek. This is “the tip of the iceberg,” said Diaz. “We are investigating if this same method may help other cancers where the treatments are often life-altering and tumors can be MMRd. We are currently enrolling patients with gastric (stomach), prostate, and pancreatic cancers.” Using “immunotherapy to replace surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation to remove cancer … might sound futuristic - but in this trial, we have a clinical example where that happened,” concluded Diaz. The example is limited to MMRd cancers. But it seems plausible that the techniques developed by the MSK researchers could eventually find applications to other cancers as well.

Scientists at Cornell University have advanced toward a new gene editing tool. It is less than half the size of CRISPR-Cas9, which is currently the most reliable genome editing system. This new tool would allow scientists to fit genetic editors into smaller viral delivery systems to fix a variety of diseases. CRISPR-Cas9 tools need to be effectively delivered into every cell of the patient. And most Cas9s are too big to fit into popular genome therapy vectors, such as the Adenovirus-Associated Viruses (AAV). AAV don’t seem to cause diseases but only mild immune responses. And they are often used to create viral vectors for gene therapy. "Next-generation fancy applications require the gene editor to be fused with other enzymes and activities and most Cas9s are already too big for viral delivery. We are facing a traffic jam at the delivery end," says researcher Ailong Ke in a press release issued by Cornell University. "If Cas9s can be packaged into viral vectors that have been used for decades in the gene therapy field, like AAV, then we can be confident they can be delivered and we can focus research exclusively on the efficacy of the editing tool itself." The researchers suggest that nature uses transposons (mobile genetic elements inside bacteria) to deliver gene editing tools to cells. Transposons are believed to be evolutionary precursors to CRISPR systems. "Transposons are specialized genetic hitchhikers, integrating into and splicing out of our genomes all the time," adds Ke. "The systems inside bacteria in particular are being selected constantly - nature has basically tossed the dice billions of times and come up with really powerful DNA surgical tools, CRISPR included. And now, by defining these enzymes in high resolution, we can tap into their powers." CRISPR-Cas9 systems use an RNA as a guide to recognize a sequence of DNA. When a match is found, the Cas9 protein snips the target DNA at just the right place. It's then possible to do surgery at the DNA level to fix genetic diseases. A paper is published in Science. The researchers report that they used high resolution cryo-electron microscopy (Cryo-EM) to study IscB, a molecule found in transposons. "It's about understanding the molecules' structure and how they perform the chemical reactions," says researcher Gabriel Schuler. "Studying these transposons gives us a new starting point to generate more powerful and accessible gene editing tools." It turns out that IscB works like Cas9 but has a smaller size. Therefore, replacing Cas9 with IscB would solve the size problem. The researchers were even able to engineer slimmer IscB variants, by removing nonessential parts from IscB. They've already removed 55 amino acids without affecting IscB's activity. And they hope to make future versions of this genome editor even smaller and hence even more useful.

Scientists at Georgia State University have created gene-edited hamsters for studies of social neuroscience. And they have found that the biology behind social behavior may be more complex than previously thought. A study is published in PNAS. It reports that the scientists used CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology in hamsters to eliminate a receptor called Avpr1a. The receptor responds to a hormone called vasopressin. This mechanism regulates social phenomena ranging from pair bonding, cooperation, and social communication to dominance and aggression. The scientists found that knocking out the Avpr1a receptor in hamsters effectively eliminated vasopressin's action. And it dramatically altered the expression of social behavior in unexpected ways. Hamsters provide a powerful model for the studies of social behavior. Their social organization is far more similar to humans than that observed in mice, even though mice are the most common laboratory animal. Hamsters are the species in which vasopressin was first demonstrated to influence sociality. "We were really surprised at the results," says research co-leader H. Elliott Albers in a press release issued by Georgia State University. "We anticipated that if we eliminated vasopressin activity, we would reduce both aggression and social communication. But the opposite happened." What happened was that the gene-edited hamsters showed much higher levels of both social communication and aggression. In particular, the typical sex differences observed in aggressiveness were eliminated. And both male and female hamsters displayed high levels of aggression towards other same-sex individuals. "This suggests a startling conclusion," says Albers. "Even though we know that vasopressin increases social behaviors by acting within a number of brain regions, it is possible that the more global effects of the Avpr1a receptor are inhibitory." "We don't understand this system as well as we thought we did. The counterintuitive findings tell us we need to start thinking about the actions of these receptors across entire circuits of the brain and not just in specific brain regions." "Developing gene-edited hamsters was not easy," concludes Albers. "But it is important to understand the neurocircuitry involved in human social behavior and our model has translational relevance for human health. Understanding the role of vasopressin in behavior is necessary to help identify potential new and more effective treatment strategies for a diverse group of neuropsychiatric disorders ranging from autism to depression." Futurism has a story titled “ Scientists Gene Hack Hamsters Into Hyper-Aggressive Monsters: That wasn't supposed to happen! ” Other publications raise alarm and “hope scientists keep their CRISPR experiments confined to the lab until we know much more about the relationship between DNA and traits.” I think this sounds reasonable. But it is important that the research continues until we know much more on how genes influence social behavior. Then we’ll know enough to think of important applications.