Tesla’s ‘Tiny House’ roadshow demystifies its energy tech

Renewable energy is good for the planet, but it can be great for consumers — depending on your location, you can actually make a profit using solar panels and backup battery storage. Those benefits can be hard for consumers to grok, however, so Tesla has launched the “Tiny House” tour in Australia with all of its latest technology in tow (literally).

“Powered by 100 percent renewable energy via a 2 kW solar system and Powerwall, Tiny House … can calculate how your home can generate clean energy from the sun using solar panels, storing it in the Powerall to use through the day and night,” Tesla said in a press release, “which can all be monitored and controlled by the Tesla app.”

The two tonne (2.2 ton) structure is being towed around by a Tesla Model X and is built from “locally sourced, chemical-free, sustainable timber.” It’s powered by a 2kW, 6-panel system that’s backed up by a $5,500 Powerwall.

Tesla’s Tiny House is currently in Melbourne, Australia, and will next go to Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide. Interestingly, the company doesn’t yet offer solar panels in Australia (they’re only available in the US and Mexico), even though it has sold Powerwalls there for awhile now. That’s expected to change once Tesla completes its acquisition of Solar City, however.

It’s also doing the world’s largest battery backup installation, a 100 megawatt backup of the Hornsdale Wind Farm in South Australia. Musk famously has 100 days to complete the installation or it will be free, he said.

The Powerwall systems have won over some consumers in the nation. One told Electrek that a $16,000 solar installation, including the original Tesla PowerWall, has reduced his electric bill by 90 percent to just 59 cents a day. “When the sun goes down, I’ve still go peak power from the battery.” So far, the tour is limited to Australia, but it would make a lot of sense for Tesla to offer it elsewhere.

Via: Electrek

Source: Tesla

Alleged Foxconn Insider Claims Copper-Like iPhone 8 Color is Officially Called ‘Blush Gold’

Earlier this month, dummy model images began circulating on Chinese microblogging site Weibo that suggested Apple’s “iPhone 8” would be available in three colors, including black, white, and an option referred to as “champagne gold” which was said to be closer to a copper color than the rose gold iPhones currently available.

Over the weekend, mobile leaker Benjamin Geskin shared information in a Twitter post from an alleged Foxconn insider, claiming that the internal name of the new iPhone 8 color is “Blush Gold”.

Foxconn’s internal name of the new #iPhone8 color is “Blush Gold” (腮红金)
Barcode says “Blush Gold 64GB / 128GB” pic.twitter.com/MZPTfVAr2P

— Benjamin Geskin (@VenyaGeskin1) August 12, 2017

In addition to the new color name, the post appears to suggest that the “Blush Gold” color will only come in 64GB and 128GB storage capacities. Currently, Apple offers the iPhone 7 in black, silver, gold, and rose gold, all in 32GB, 128GB, and 256GB capacities, and limits its jet black option to 128GB and 256GB capacities, so the idea that the company wouldn’t offer the new color in a 256GB capacity seems unlikely.

Last Tuesday, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said all of Apple’s upcoming 2017 iPhones would be available in black, silver, and gold, but he made no specific mention of the copper-like color, which began appearing in several videos of dummy iPhone 8 models following the original Weibo post. The potential colors that the OLED iPhone will come in has become more of a talking point since references in the HomePod firmware seemingly confirmed that Apple’s radical redesign would be almost bezel-free with a notch at the top for camera components.

The current consensus is that such a design would look best in black, because it would offer a more seamless visual blending of the notch and bezel with the OLED display, especially when the screen is turned off. While the “Blush Gold” render above has a black front, the copper-like back has apparently divided observers, with detractors referring to it as the “Zune option”, harking back to Microsoft’s brown music player of old. Previously Geskin has claimed that Apple will make the OLED iPhone 8 available in four colors, with a “mirror” shade as a new option, so nothing on the subject is quite yet confirmed.

While the recently released HomePod firmware appears to make no reference to iPhone 8 colors, it has provided information on a range of other details, including the general design of the new phone and advanced facial recognition features. Apple is expected to announce its new iPhone line-up next month.

Related Roundup: iPhone 8
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LightwaveRF Unveils New HomeKit-Enabled Accessories With UK Compatibility

U.K. smart home solutions provider LightwaveRF announced on Monday that its forthcoming product range, which includes a light dimmer and smart socket, will be fully compatible with Apple’s HomeKit platform.

On October 3, LightwaveRF will launch its new Generation 2 Link Plus smart hub, Smart Dimmers, Smart Sockets, and a Smart Radiator Valve. The Link Plus connects to a Wi-Fi router and controls the LightwaveRF smart home system for lighting, heating, power and security.

“This is a further exciting development for LightwaveRF,” said chief executive officer Andrew Pearson. “We look forward to working with Apple as a HomeKit technical partner and a supplier to its retail outlets. The exposure and awareness from this partnership should enhance our market visibility and greatly benefit our customers via easier management of their smart home solutions. We look forward to expanding our relationship with Apple as we launch further HomeKit compatible devices for both the UK and international markets.”

The new LightwaveRF range is said to be the result of a two-year research and development program, with new features of the system including built-in energy monitoring, color-changing LEDs to indicate status, and wire-free two-way switching.

The new range will be sold in the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates through Apple retail stores, online via Apple.com, and other chosen retail outlets.

Tags: HomeKit, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates
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London police issue head-mounted cameras to armed officers

London’s Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) will soon issue body-worn video cameras to armed officers. Members of the city’s Firearms Command will be required to wear them on their caps or ballistic helmets in the field. The placement differs to regular police officers, who wear them on their shirt or jacket, to prevent obscured recordings while raising or firing a weapon. It’s hoped the new deployment will make officers more transparent and accountable, improving public trust in the process. Cameras could also serve as a deterrent both for officers considering misconduct and members of the public on the cusp of breaking the law.

In October 2016, the MPS announced it would be giving cameras to more than 22,000 London police officers. To date, more 17,500 cameras have been issued, covering frontline bobbies in 30 of the city’s 32 boroughs. Together, they’ve recorded 785,000 videos, of which 460,000 were automatically deleted as part of the Met’s policy on data retention. The remaining two boroughs will receive their cameras before the next bank holiday on August 28th. The full deployment won’t be completed, however, until the end of October, once specialised units such as Trident and the Homicide and Major Crime Command have been equipped.

The roll-out to armed officers follows a bunch of other bespoke teams, including the Roads and Transport Policing Command, the Territorial Support Group and the Dog Support Unit. “Officers who carry an overt firearm as part of their role very much welcome the use of Body Worn Video,” Commander Matt Twist, in charge of the Firearms Command, said. “It provides a documented and accurate account of the threats officers face and the split second decisions they make. The cameras also offer greater transparency for those in front of the camera as well as those behind it.”

Armed officers will be wearing the Axon Flex 2, a ruggedized camera that can shoot high-def video with a 120-degree field of view. Police must manually trigger a recording, which is signalled with a quick beeping noise and a flashing red light on the front of the camera. Officers are also instructed to tell the public when they’re being recorded. The resulting footage is stored on a secure server once the camera has been “docked” at a police station. Videos can then be retrieved for court trials and other legal proceedings, otherwise they are automatically deleted “within 31 days.”

As the Telegraph notes, fatal police shootings are on the rise. The Independent Police Complaints Commission found six instances last year, the highest number recorded since it started collecting statistics in 2004. While concerning, the IPP has stressed there are “many thousands of authorised firearms operations” each year, and that each trigger-pull need to be independently investigated. Of the six, three have been examined and so far no misconduct has been found. Still, body-worn cameras could prove vital in future investigations, ensuring the truth is always uncovered and that, ultimately, weapons are only used when absolutely necessary.

Source: Met Police

Honor 6A review: A good, cheap phone with a couple of flaws

This cheap, metal clad phone is very good. But it’s not the best at its price point.

The quick take

There’s nothing really wrong with the Honor 6A, at least not with what you get. It’s a good looking, well-made and decently-performing phone that only costs £150. The issue is what you don’t get, namely NFC and that fingerprint sensor the phone was announced with in China. That means no Android Pay and no taking advantage of the biometric security many of the top apps and services have built in support for.

The Good

• Excellent price
• Nice looking display
• Huge battery
• Decent camera for this price point

The Bad

• No fingerprint scanner
• No NFC, so no Android Pay
• Pre-installed screen protector is nasty

See at vMall

Honor 6A full review

The budget phone market is perhaps more interesting in the current day than the super high-end, uber expensive mega phones. Not that many years ago it was a sad truth that cheap phones were mostly just terrible things no one would really want to use.

The game changer was the original Moto G, with Motorola proving, finally, that you could have a great phone that didn’t cost a lot of money. Ever since we’ve been inundated with budget phones that deliver above their punching weight.

The latest one across our desk is the Honor 6A, having just arrived in Europe for £150. Huawei’s sub-brand has been making some seriously good phones, and this latest entry level model takes the place of 2016’s Honor 5C.

It’s very affordable, and it’s very good. But it’s also not quite the best you’ll find at this price.

About this review

I (Richard Devine) am writing this review after a week of using a UK Honor 6A provided by Honor for testing purposes. Throughout the course of the review, the phone remained on Android 7.0 Nougat beneath EMUI 5.1.

Honor 6A hardware

The first thing you notice about the Honor 6A is just how nice it feels in the hand. It’s one of those phone reviewer cliches, but in the case of the Honor 6A, they really nailed it. The balance of size and weight coupled with that sleek metal body produces a phone that just sinks into your palm.

Even at 720p the display is really nice.

It’s fairly bezel-y on the front, but don’t let that put you off. Honor hardware is usually top drawer and that doesn’t change down at the bottom end, either.

Perhaps surprising is how nice that 5-inch 720p display is. It’s bright and vivid with good sharpness, especially for a cheap phone. I mean, it’s not that many pixels behind the iPhone 7 in the grand scheme of things. It’s what you do with them that counts. It’s also benefitted by the somewhat brighter color scheme you find alongside EMUI.

What’s less pleasing is the pre-installed screen protector. It’s nasty.

The hardware is very good though from whichever angle you look at it. It’s a very handsome phone, its physical buttons together on the right side, and its ‘speaker’ holes perfectly symmetrical at the bottom. The Honor 6A doesn’t have stereo speakers, but it looks good. And it’s way better than having a speaker on the back of the phone.

This is a very handsome phone.

Speaking of the speaker, it’s OK. You’ll hear it easily enough when it rings, but it’s a speaker on a cheap phone. Don’t expect too much.

Moving to the inside, and hardware snobs would no doubts turn their nose up a little at the thought of a Snapdragon 430 processor and 2GB of RAM. But this phone isn’t for those people. Equally, whichever phone you spend your money on you deserve good performance, and the Honor 6A delivers.

On paper, the internals may feel a little thin but in practice, you’d be pushed to notice. This is no doubts also down to Huawei having done some serious work on EMUI in recent years, and the experience is basically faultless on the Honor 6A. It’s smooth, it’s snappy, it can happily play fairly demanding games from the Play Store and during the course of my time with it at least, there have been no dramas.

What’s not so good about the Honor 6A is that there’s no fingerprint sensor as on the Chinese version, nor NFC. So no Android Pay. In the case of the former, the decision was made, Honor says, to remove it in order to balance price with what their customers actually want. Even so, there are cheap phones out there with a fingerprint scanner.

And can we stop omitting NFC in phones, please? Being able to use Android Pay shouldn’t be a premium feature.

Honor 6A software

Remember when we’d review a phone made in the Huawei factories and say really great things about it. And then we’d get to the software and be banging our heads on a desk. Those days aren’t missed.

The truth remains that EMUI will split opinions, especially among Android purists. It’s still bright and bold, the menu system is blindingly white and by default, there’s no app drawer out front. But at least the last of those is now an option to have. Options are good.

The truth is also that EMUI just performs a lot better than it once did. The “WTF” moments are few and far between and it’s just plain fast. That’s as true here as it is on the top of the line Honor 9.

EMUI 5.1 on the Honor 6A is also built on top of Android 7.0. Mildly disappointing it’s not 7.1, but it’s Nougat at least. Much of the rest is the same as it is on the much more expensive Honor 9. For a more detailed run through on the software be sure to check out that review.

More: Honor 9 review

The bottom line is that it’s pretty good to use and it’s fast. If you don’t like the launcher, go ahead and swap it out, but just adding an app drawer makes a big difference.

Honor 6A camera

Buying a cheap phone means there will be compromises, and the camera is usually one of them. The Honor 6A has some decent specs going for it on paper, with a 13MP rear camera with phase detect auto focus. There are no fancy dual-cameras here, just a single shooter that takes pictures.

What I particularly like is the ultra snapshot feature. A quick double press on the volume down button, while the phone is locked, will wake it and take a photo within a couple of seconds. You’re not going to get the absolute best quality photos, but if you need to very quickly shoot something your kid is doing, for example, it’s a tremendous feature to have.

Image quality is pretty good, though. While on the whole, the Honor 6A shoots a little on the dark side, you can, of course, tweak the settings before hand to compensate. All of the samples above were just shot with stock settings.

If you swipe in from the right in the camera app you gain access to all kinds of more creative modes, including HDR and a pro mode for photo and video. Other items of note include a document scanner, time-lapse and panorama shooting modes.

Despite the low price point of the Honor 6A, the camera app features from the more expensive phones are brought over. And while raw image quality isn’t as good, for £150 you’re not likely to complain.

Honor 6A battery life

There are two things to know about the battery on the Honor 6A. The first is that at 3020mAh in a phone like this is huge and if you’re burning this thing down before the end of the day you are really hammering it. There is no quick charge, so you can’t get a speedy top up, but you should be good to get home at the end of the day.

The more interesting thing is the claim that Honor has on the longevity of the actual battery cell. After 800 charges or two years of use, it should retain 80% or more of its original capacity. Batteries degrade over time that’s just what they do, but even at 80%, you’ll still have a fair capacity to use.

Of course, this is all based on lab testing and we’ve no way to confirm or deny. But it’s little details like this which might make the difference to an average consumer picking up a phone like this.

Honor 6A bottom line

The Honor 6A is yet another good smartphone from Huawei’s sub-brand that’s also available for an excellent price. It looks great, it performs very well, the camera isn’t bad and the battery life is superb.

There’s nothing wrong with it in so far as what you actually get. It’s all very good. The Honor 6A is let down by what isn’t there, notably the fingerprint scanner. If that or NFC for Android Pay is on your must have list, then the Honor 6A is not for you.

However, if you’re not bothered by those things and just want a good phone for £150, you’ll enjoy the Honor 6A. It’s just impossible to say this is the outright best in this price bracket.

Should you buy the Honor 6A? Your call

It really depends on what you’re looking for and what you’re happy with on your phone. For one, the Honor 6A is available directly from Three in the UK, which might be of use to you.

The elephant in the room is the Wileyfox Swift 2. For similar money you can get this or the Swift 2 Plus which has Android 7.1.1 and both a fingerprint scanner and NFC for Android Pay. You can’t ignore how tempting that is.

See at vMall

Netflix signs Shonda Rhimes away from ABC in huge coup

Disney recently turned the screws on Netflix by pulling its content and unveiling a streaming service of its own, but now the tables have turned. Netflix revealed that it has signed Shonda Rhimes away from Disney-owned ABC to a multiyear production deal. Rhimes and her production company, Shondaland, will move from their ABC Studios base to Netflix, though she’ll continue to work on ABC shows currently airing or in development like Grey’s Anatomy.

Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but money is reportedly not the main reason Rhimes jumped ship. “I’m thrilled by the idea of a world where I’m not caught in the necessary grind of network television,” she told the WSJ. “Ted [Sarandos, Netflix’s CEO] provides a clear, fearless space for creators at Netflix.”

Rhimes says she’ll be able to focus more on storytelling and avoid the stress of 18-24 episode network TV seasons. That’s something showrunners like Larry David (now at HBO) and David E. Kelley, producing Netflix’s Big Little Lies with Reese Witherspoon, have also complained about in the past. “At this point in my career, I love the limited series format. I have no interest in doing 100 episodes of anything,” Kelley said.

Shondaland’s move to Netflix is the result of a shared plan Ted Sarandos and I built based on my vision for myself as a storyteller and for the evolution of my company. — Shonda Rhimes

Rhimes has developed Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder, and other popular shows for ABC. “I’m proud to have given a home to what have become some of the most celebrated and talked about shows on television,” said ABC Studios President Patrick Moran. Those production have generated billions of dollars in advertising revenue for ABC, however, so her loss will be felt acutely.

Studios have gradually been limiting their movies on Netflix, with Disney being the latest to announce that it’s pulling films from the streaming service. (Netflix is reportedly negotiating to keep Marvel and Star Wars movies, though.) To combat that, Netflix has aggressively spent to develop its own feature films and TV series, an effort that has met with more successes (Jessica Jones, Orange is the New Black, BoJack Horseman) than failures (Sense8, The Get Down).

After bringing the Coen brothers aboard for the The Ballad of Buster Scruggs western, scoring Rhimes might be its biggest win yet. “Shonda Rhimes is one of the greatest storytellers in the history of television” said Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s Chief Content Officer.

in other news, Netflix subscriptions will now come with a free month’s supply of red wine.

— Netflix US (@netflix) August 14, 2017

Via: Variety

Source: Netflix

Study finds massive volcano range hidden in Antarctica’s ice

A new study claims to have found a huge expanse of volcanoes lurking beneath the ice in Antarctica. Scientists unearthed a total of 91 previously undiscovered volcanoes — some stretching up to 3,850 metres (12,600 feet) in height — in the region known as the West Antarctic Rift System (WARS). The area is comparable to the densely concentrated volcanic regions in east Africa and North America, according to researchers from the University of Edinburgh.

Due to the ice sheets that cover its terrain, geologists have found it extremely difficult to study Antarctica for signs of volcanic systems. To overcome the obstacles posed by nature, the team of scientists remotely surveyed the underside of the ice using a digital elevation model known as Bedmap 2 DEM. They cross-referenced that info by examining aerial and satellite imagery. The results showed peaks of basalt rock poking up through the ice to form cone-shaped structures. Of those 178 edifices, 91 were outlined as previously undiscovered volcanoes.

The study suggests that the density of the volcanoes in the WARS is one volcano per 4,800 square miles, making it one of the world’s largest volcanic regions. Although, the results do not indicate whether the volcanoes are active, the data could allow future studies to determine just that.

Whereas previous research has pointed to seismic activity in Antarctica, it is not thought to have impacted the present ice retreat. That wasn’t the case in Iceland, where studies found an increase in ice flow due to subglacial eruptions. Comparably, west Antarctica contains a thicker sheet of ice, but that may not be enough to prevent the affects of volcanic disturbance on future ice flow, suggest the scientists — especially during warmer periods. On the other hand, seeing as ice tends to slope downwards on a smooth surface, the cone-shaped structures could even act as deterrents against the current pace of glacial motion, claim the researchers.

Source: University of Edinburgh, School of Geosciences (pdf)

LG V30 software revealed ahead of launch

LG announces UI for unannounced smartphone

As it often does ahead of a big new smartphone announcement, LG has started the process of pre-announcing its next big thing. Today, a news release from the company takes the wraps off the LG V30’s’s software suite, giving us our first look at the UI we’ll be using on the upcoming flagship. The new LG UX 6.0+ tunes up the visuals, with a rounded, Galaxy S8-style search bar, a simplified weather widget and a new Floating Bar feature, alongside new camera, security and Always-On Display tricks.

The Floating Bar is pitched as the successor to the LG V20’s second display, effectively confirming the ticker panel’s demise. LG doesn’t go into great detail about what you’ll be able to do with this panel, only saying it’ll be used “for quick access to frequently used functions.” The feature sounds similar to Samsung’s Edge Display, though it doesn’t appear to dominate the entire display like that feature does.

The new LG UI also brings new photographic capabilities. In today’s presser, LG reveals its new “Graphy” feature in the camera’s manual mode. Graphy will allow V30 owners to download and share presets (ISO, white balance, shutter speed, etc.) used by professionals to capture specific kinds of shots. LG also promises quick and easy GIF creation, and new movie creation tricks. (Think video highlights.)

LG’s upcoming phone borrows a lot of new features from the Galaxy S8.

LG’s Always-On Display has been re-tooled too, thanks in part to the V30’s OLED panel. New features include the ability to display “Quick Tools” (likely some kind of shortcut menu), music controls, or your photos.

On the security front, the V30 will apparently include always-on face recognition, active even when the display is off, without pressing the power button. (Likely using some secondary sensors to detect motion, as keeping the front camera active constantly would be a massive battery drain.) And voice recognition through Qualcomm’s Aqstic voice UI will allow V30 owners to securely unlock their phones through a predetermined wake phrase. (We’ll have to see how convenient that ends up being.)

Not mentioned in today’s press release: whether the V30 will follow in its predecessor’s footsteps and be the first device to ship with a new version of Android. The V20 was (just about) first with Nougat in 2016, but LG hasn’t said whether its latest handset will debut with Android O.

There’s been plenty of LG V30 leakage in recent weeks, with major hardware specs set to include a Snapdragon 835 processor, 6GB of RAM, 64 or 128GB of storage and a new dual camera system led by an f/1.6 main shooter. We’ll learn more at the official launch event in Berlin, German on August 31.

LG V30

• LG V30: Everything you need to know!
• Latest render shows LG V30 alongside Galaxy Note 8
• LG V30 will have curved OLED display
• LG V30 will be announced on August 31
• Join our LG V30 forums

SEOUL, Aug. 14, 2017 — The new UX 6.0+ to make its debut in the upcoming V30 from LG Electronics (LG) is an advanced version of LG’s UX that has been optimized to work even better with the immersive 18:9 OLED FullVision display while offering more personalization options for a more intuitive user experience. Featuring the company’s first OLED FullVision display and an advanced dual lens camera, the LG V30 is a powerful multimedia tool and the new UX is designed so that users can leverage its advanced capabilities to the fullest.

Graphy, which can be accessed in the camera’s Manual Mode, gives any shutterbug professional quality photography capabilities. With Graphy, users can choose from among a portfolio of professional shots, each with a different style and mood or they can download photos taken by professionals from the Graphy website or mobile app and apply those metadata presets – such as white balance, shutter speed, aperture and ISO – to photos taken with the V30. Different shooting modes such as auto, grid shot, snap shot and match shot are conveniently grouped under one menu for ease of selection. GIFs can be quickly created in the Gallery menu while the Create Movie option allows for the creation of movie using photos and/or video files which can then be edited in the included Quick Video Editor.

The Second Screen in the LG V20 has evolved to become Floating Bar on the V30. The semi-transparent Floating Bar allows for quick access to frequently used functions and can be dragged completely off the FullVision display when not needed. When powered off, the Always-on Display is even more customizable than before. The AOD now not only shows the clock, it can also be set to display Quick Tools, Music Player or a personal photograph as well.

Security features in the LG V30 are also more advanced than in LG’s previous smartphone UX. Using Face Recognition, the V30 can be unlocked instantaneously using the front facing camera even when the phone’s display is off. And there is no need to press the power button first, unlike on other phones. Voice Recognition uses a combination of the user’s voice and self-generated keywords (ideally three to five syllables combined) to unlock the V30 without the need to press a button or swipe the screen. It is supported by Qualcomm Aqstic voice UI technology for always-on, always-listening capabilities that requires very little battery power.

Even the feel of the UX can be tailored to users’ preference. Haptic feedback on the LG V30 can be customized with various included vibration combinations that can be matched to the phone’s ringtone.

The TRAPPIST-1 star system may be too old for life

We hate to further quash hopes that the TRAPPIST-1 star system can harbor life, but… it’s not looking great. Researchers have determined that the dwarf star is between 5.4 billion years old and 9.8 billion years old, or considerably older than the 4.5 billion years of the Solar System. That age isn’t necessarily bad, but it increases the likelihood that any life-supporting planets around TRAPPIST-1 lost their atmospheres and water to billions of years of high-energy radiation. And even if their atmospheres were thick enough to block the radiation, there’s a possibility that a Venus-like runaway greenhouse gas effect cooked the planets’ surfaces.

As the team’s Adam Burgasser explains: if there is life, it’s the “hardy” sort. It would have to survive extreme conditions for billions of years, he says. The upshot? If there is life, humans will have plenty of time to find it. A dwarf like TRAPPIST-1 is so stable that it should last for 900 times longer than the current age of the universe (around 13.7 billion years), and its temperature will be very consistent throughout that time.

The big challenge is using the Hubble and James Webb telescopes to learn whether or not any of the planets have atmospheres like Earth’s. If they do, knowing the rough age of the star will come in handy. It’ll shed more light on how atmospheres evolve, and how long they can last in systems that are far older than humanity’s home turf.

Source: NASA

Gene editing technique could treat ALS and Huntington’s disease

The most common gene editing technique, CRISPR-Cas9, only modifies DNA. That’s helpful in most cases, but it means that you can’t use it to tackle RNA-based diseases. Thankfully, that might not be a problem for much longer. After plenty of talk about editing RNA, researchers have developed a new RNA-oriented technique (RCas9) that can correct the molecular errors which lead to diseases like hereditary ALS and Huntington’s. The team achieved its feat using guide RNA that steers the editing enzyme toward a matching sequence of target RNA molecules. In the lab, it’s highly effective. It fixed nearly all of the broken RNA targets in a patient’s muscle cell sample, leaving cells that were far healthier.

The team achieved its feat using guide RNA that steers the editing enzyme toward a matching sequence of target RNA molecules. In the lab, it’s highly effective — it fixed nearly all of the broken RNA targets in muscle cells, leaving cells that were far healthier.

Of course, this is in lab conditions. The scientists readily admit that there’s much more work to be done before gene editing could help in the field. More than anything, it would be difficult to send RCas9 to patient cells. The benign viruses you’d normally use for gene therapy just can’t hold a full-fledged Cas9 payload; the researchers had to prune theirs to make it fit. And of course, there’s the question of conducting trials and proving that the technique is safe.

Nonetheless, this could prove to be hugely important for treating these RNA diseases. Right now, there aren’t any therapies that would stall the onset of diseases like ALS. This wouldn’t likely represent a cure, but it could give patients full functionality for longer before the effects of their diseases set in.

Via: Singularity Archive

Source: UC San Diego, Cell