#Biological engineering

[jcmarchi]

Unlocking mRNA’s cancer-fighting potential

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/unlocking-mrnas-cancer-fighting-potential/

Unlocking mRNA’s cancer-fighting potential

What if training your immune system to attack cancer cells was as easy as training it to fight Covid-19? Many people believe the technology behind some Covid-19 vaccines, messenger RNA, holds great promise for stimulating immune responses to cancer.

But using messenger RNA, or mRNA, to get the immune system to mount a prolonged and aggressive attack on cancer cells — while leaving healthy cells alone — has been a major challenge.

The MIT spinout Strand Therapeutics is attempting to solve that problem with an advanced class of mRNA molecules that are designed to sense what type of cells they encounter in the body and to express therapeutic proteins only once they have entered diseased cells.

“It’s about finding ways to deal with the signal-to-noise ratio, the signal being expression in the target tissue and the noise being expression in the nontarget tissue,” Strand CEO Jacob Becraft PhD ’19 explains. “Our technology amplifies the signal to express more proteins for longer while at the same time effectively eliminating the mRNA’s off-target expression.”

Strand is set to begin its first clinical trial in April, which is testing a proprietary, self-replicating mRNA molecule’s ability to express immune signals directly from a tumor, eliciting the immune system to attack and kill the tumor cells directly. It’s also being tested as a possible improvement for existing treatments to a number of solid tumors.

As they work to commercialize its early innovations, Strand’s team is continuing to add capabilities to what it calls its “programmable medicines,” improving mRNA molecules’ ability to sense their environment and generate potent, targeted responses where they’re needed most.

“Self-replicating mRNA was the first thing that we pioneered when we were at MIT and in the first couple years at Strand,” Becraft says. “Now we’ve also moved into approaches like circular mRNAs, which allow each molecule of mRNA to express more of a protein for longer, potentially for weeks at a time. And the bigger our cell-type specific datasets become, the better we are at differentiating cell types, which makes these molecules so targeted we can have a higher level of safety at higher doses and create stronger treatments.”

Making mRNA smarter

Becraft got his first taste of MIT as an undergraduate at the University of Illinois when he secured a summer internship in the lab of MIT Institute Professor Bob Langer.

“That’s where I learned how lab research could be translated into spinout companies,” Becraft recalls.

The experience left enough of an impression on Becraft that he returned to MIT the next fall to earn his PhD, where he worked in the Synthetic Biology Center under professor of bioengineering and electrical engineering and computer science Ron Weiss. During that time, he collaborated with postdoc Tasuku Kitada to create genetic “switches” that could control protein expression in cells.

Becraft and Kitada realized their research could be the foundation of a company around 2017 and started spending time in the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. They also received support from MIT Sandbox and eventually worked with the Technology Licensing Office to establish Strand’s early intellectual property.

“We started by asking, where is the highest unmet need that also allows us to prove out the thesis of this technology? And where will this approach have therapeutic relevance that is a quantum leap forward from what anyone else is doing?” Becraft says. “The first place we looked was oncology.”

People have been working on cancer immunotherapy, which turns a patient’s immune system against cancer cells, for decades. Scientists in the field have developed drugs that produce some remarkable results in patients with aggressive, late-stage cancers. But most next-generation cancer immunotherapies are based on recombinant (lab-made) proteins that are difficult to deliver to specific targets in the body and don’t remain active for long enough to consistently create a durable response.

More recently, companies like Moderna, whose founders also include MIT alumni, have pioneered the use of mRNAs to create proteins in cells. But to date, those mRNA molecules have not been able to change behavior based on the type of cells they enter, and don’t last for very long in the body.

“If you’re trying to engage the immune system with a tumor cell, the mRNA needs to be expressing from the tumor cell itself, and it needs to be expressing over a long period of time,” Becraft says. “Those challenges are hard to overcome with the first generation of mRNA technologies.”

Strand has developed what it calls the world’s first mRNA programming language that allows the company to specify the tissues its mRNAs express proteins in.

“We built a database that says, ‘Here are all of the different cells that the mRNA could be delivered to, and here are all of their microRNA signatures,’ and then we use computational tools and machine learning to differentiate the cells,” Becraft explains. “For instance, I need to make sure that the messenger RNA turns off when it’s in the liver cell, and I need to make sure that it turns on when it’s in a tumor cell or a T-cell.”

Strand also uses techniques like mRNA self-replication to create more durable protein expression and immune responses.

“The first versions of mRNA therapeutics, like the Covid-19 vaccines, just recapitulate how our body’s natural mRNAs work,” Becraft explains. “Natural mRNAs last for a few days, maybe less, and they express a single protein. They have no context-dependent actions. That means wherever the mRNA is delivered, it’s only going to express a molecule for a short period of time. That’s perfect for a vaccine, but it’s much more limiting when you want to create a protein that’s actually engaging in a biological process, like activating an immune response against a tumor that could take many days or weeks.”

Technology with broad potential

Strand’s first clinical trial is targeting solid tumors like melanoma and triple-negative breast cancer. The company is also actively developing mRNA therapies that could be used to treat blood cancers.

“We’ll be expanding into new areas as we continue to de-risk the translation of the science and create new technologies,” Becraft says.

Strand plans to partner with large pharmaceutical companies as well as investors to continue developing drugs. Further down the line, the founders believe future versions of its mRNA therapies could be used to treat a broad range of diseases.

“Our thesis is: amplified expression in specific, programmed target cells for long periods of time,” Becraft says. “That approach can be utilized for [immunotherapies like] CAR T-cell therapy, both in oncology and autoimmune conditions. There are also many diseases that require cell-type specific delivery and expression of proteins in treatment, everything from kidney disease to types of liver disease. We can envision our technology being used for all of that.”

#Alumni/ae #approach #Behavior #bioengineering #Bioengineering and biotechnology #Biological engineering #Biology #blood #breast cancer #Cancer #cancer cells #cell #cell therapy #cell types #Cells #CEO #challenge #change #Companies #computer #Computer Science #covid #Database #datasets #deal #Disease #Diseases #drug development #drugs #easy

[gladlacks]

I've been thinking a bit

Fuck gender, like why can't everyone be the same gender, it would fix so much; sexism, homophobia, confused on sexuality, transphobia and bathrooms, even clothing, makeup and "gender colors" (fun fact, when gender colors was invented pink was for boys and blue for girls and when you think abit it makes sense), like i wouldn't have to want to be a pretty girl with ass if everyone was pretty girl with huge ass, why aren't we biologically engineering people who have both reproductive organs?!?

#lgbtqia #pansexual #bisexual #transgender #genuine question #biology #biological engineering #genderfluid #gender equality #anti homophobia #why haven't we done this #like actually

[only-lonely-works-of-art]

Queen Anne's Lace

Upon the deck of a great bioship, a portly shipherder stood firm. Facing him was a tall and skinny young man, with perfectly styled hair and a loose, tailored suit.

“Now, Mr. Sawyer, I must insist. We cannot sail faster than light in this ship. Anne isn’t capable of safe FTL.”

“Oh, get it through your thick skull already!” Patrick Sawyer, woefully under-prepared captain of the newly commissioned Queen Anne’s Lace, rolled his eyes. “It’s not your choice. I can get another first mate, you know.”

The shipherder gaped at him. “You wouldn’t. I’ve raised Anne up from her infancy!”

“I don’t care for sentimentality. Give the order, or I’ll find someone who will.” Patrick gave him a sick smile. “I want to see how fast this ship will go. Show me.”

“But- really, you can’t! She’s not made for FTL, she’ll burn up!”

“So? I can always buy another ship.”

“And if you burn up all the new ships this side of Gacrux IV?”

“Then I’ll buy one from farther away. Obviously.” Patrick laughed. “Didn’t I pay you already, Gibbs?”

Gibbs watched him quietly, saying nothing as he contemplated the most recent phrase from Sawyer’s lips. While not originally a star sailer, Christopher Gibbs had been recruited as Sawyer’s mate at the commissioning of their new ship. Queen Anne’s Lace was the finest bioship from the new generation, raised up on the finest mutton and octane until her maturity. If care was proper, she would be able to serve for decades as a premiere ship, with space for a crew of a hundred and a herd of a thousand cattle for her sustenance. If wasted on faster-than-light travel, her lifespan would not last longer than a few short jumps. The voyage Patrick intended to take was very long; she would barely survive.

“Fine. If you waste this beauty, it’s not my problem.” Gibbs shook his head as he signaled to the crew. “More money for me and my folks, raising up the next generation.”

Patrick gave him a wide grin, exposing bright white teeth– another privilege of wealth. “Wonderful. Let’s be off. To the forests of Trevail III!”

Despite all of Gibbs’ best judgement, the crew cheered.

—

Time passed quickly in the lightstream. Gibbs wasn’t used to it– Patrick even less so. Faster-than-light travel wasn’t for the faint of heart or coddled children, and as Patrick retched, Gibbs felt a sick twist of satisfaction in his gut.

As the ship sailed, a faint shriek could be heard. Above the crew, the steel roof of the bridge groaned. A deep shudder rocked the ship, and all those without space legs found their bodies unbalanced. The ship was shaking, and she could only take so much strain. 

“Shut it down!” A pilot called across the bridge. “Stop the travel! The ship is failing!”

“No!” Patrick shouted, his face pink and veins standing out against his skin. “Keep going until we reach the Trevail system.”

“Anne is burning!” The pilot shook his head. “Sir, she’ll die if we keep this up much longer! We’re still light-years away.”

“Can she make it?”

“Yes, but–”

“Keep going!” There was a wild light in Patrick’s eyes. “Don’t stop.”

“I… as you wish,” the pilot responded, disturbed. The ship was making sounds now. Instead of her usual creaking, there was a deep groaning, increasing in volume. A sound of pain, of fear.

Queen Anne’s Lace was screaming, the sound lost to all but those within her.

—

Trevail III came into view right as Queen Anne fell out of the lightstream. Sitting just above orbit, she cried out in agony. Rivulets of fluid ran down the sides of her inner cavities, staining her pure-white flesh a pale pink. The floor creaked and groaned, setting a few souls off-kilter as they lost their balance. 

Again she screamed, and all the sailors clapped their palms over their ears.

Patrick knelt on the deck of the bridge, staring out the bay windows at the planet below. He raised his voice, but no one heard his voice above the ship until her scream subsided.

“Is that it? Trevail III?!”

No answer came; in the silence, some were wary to uncover their ears. Patrick scrambled to his feet, rushing to the front of the ship, staring out the window with wide eyes. Only inches in front of him, the hardened corneal windows pulsed with red vessels, glowing hot from the friction of FTL in only near-vacuum. He didn’t touch the window.

Below them, a yellow planet swirled, its clouds ever-shifting. A ring surrounded it, composed of dust and hematite. The iron red of the mountains peeked through brown clouds, and within them, black specks of magnetite aloft from updraft currents. Silver rivers ran down the slopes, painting the valleys in reflective glory.

Patrick smiled, the expression stretching wide from cheek to cheek. “We’re here.”

Gibbs looked up, hazarding a glance at Queen Anne. Through the steel mesh, he spied the red flesh above him pulsing. Soft and wet, its vessels strained against the heavy pressure of its circulation. The muscles of his prized ship were atrophied, her skin no doubt forever scarred. Her screams still echoed in his ears. Her death had already been chosen for her, only weeks after she finished maturing.

“You’re done sailing,” he whispered. “I’m sorry, Anne.”

—

Deep in the ports of Trevail III, the scrapyards were abuzz with activity. Fresh ship meat was rare in the Trevail system: even rarer was her complete herd of prize cattle. 

The yard owners gossiped, whispering among themselves. Longhorn cattle, they murmured, was the kind Mr. Sawyer kept. Hard to maintain, best for ships aside from mutton, and vicious if they wanted to be. He’d bring them on his next ship, when he received it, but for a price, a bull and a few cows wouldn’t go amiss… not that anyone had the guts to proposition buying them off such a well-respected banker’s heir.

As for Queen Anne’s Lace, she rested in the finest meatyard, abandoned as she heaved her last oxygen-rich breaths and let her blood flow freely. She would die in time, as street rats and gargantuan insects slowly took their share of her flesh. Eventually her organs would be harvested, her muscle sliced apart for hauling and use; sinew would be chopped into the lowest-grade feed. Anesthetic was hard to come by in the meatyards, and none would be given, even to such a fine ship– Mr. Sawyer wasn’t keen on wasting his money that way. Even a killing blow to the brain was unnecessary.

With every slice, another deep breath hitched, and a faint shriek was heard. No one paid it any attention. Such was the way of the vast, unkind universe.

#my writing #original work #sci-fi #body horror #cw: blood #cw: death #cw: injury #spaceflight #faster than light travel #spaceships #bioship universe #oc: patrick sawyer #oc: gibbs #biological engineering

[covenawhite66]

The recent creation of Robots from Human Cells may change medicine and possibly lead to the ability to create biological artificial life. Yet all of its applications have not been discovered yet.

Scientists have created tiny living robots from human cells that can move around in a lab dish and may one day be able to help heal wounds or damaged tissue, according to a new study.

The scientists used adult human cells from the trachea from a diversity of anonymous donors. The anthrobots were not full-fledged organisms because they didn’t have a full life cycle

#science article #biology #biotechnology #cells #robot design #medical research #human biology #biological engineering

[k12academics]

The Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering is committed to providing a welcoming and inclusive learning, teaching and working environment for all students, faculty, staff and guests. The diversity of our community is central to our success as a world-class center of teaching, learning and research.

We are firm in our commitment that all people have the right to be free from harassment and discrimination. To that end, any discrimination against students, faculty, or staff based on protected class identity is in opposition to our values, which are in accordance with the CU Boulder Discrimination & Harassment Policy.

The department recognizes that science and engineering have not traditionally been open, welcoming and accessible spaces for many people, and we are committed to increasing inclusion, diversity and equity in chemical and biological engineering education and research.

In service to these commitments, the department will:

Invite and host speakers with diverse backgrounds as part of the undergraduate curriculum and seminar series

Integrate implicit bias and bystander intervention training for students, faculty and staff

Address diversity and ethics in undergraduate and graduate coursework

Increase efforts to inclusively recruit and retain students, faculty and staff

Leverage the recommendations of the department's Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion committee to continuously improve the overall climate for diversity, equity and inclusion at all levels

Creating a safe, welcoming and rich academic environment is an ongoing process that requires the engagement, commitment and input of all students, faculty and staff within our community.

#Engineering #chemical engineering #chemical and biological engineering #biological engineering

[tenth-sentence]

The rapid forward march of genetics opened stunning new vistas of human biological engineering.

"In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity" - Daniel J. Kevles

#book quote #in the name of eugenics #daniel j kevles #nonfiction #genetics #scientific advancements #vistas #genetic engineering #biological engineering #human genetics

[featcollege]

Forge the Future: Electronics Ph.D. at FEAT

Forge the future of electronics and medicine at FEAT's Biomedical Engineering Department. Contribute to medical image processing, AI, robotics, and beyond with a Ph.D. program.

#electronics engineering #ph d #biomedical engineering #medical engineering #biological engineering #medical electronics engineering #ph d program #engineering electronics

[thelegendarywriter]

Scientist Discovers Aging Clock to Speed and Reverse Aging | Time

Science is getting one step closer to biological immortality

#biology #science #biological engineering

[quotidianish]

In this regard, he couldn’t relate to the soldier. He hadn’t forgotten much, nevertheless a good portion of his life. But at the back of his mind, he’d something locked away, which made Tavish Degroot feel a lingering sense of emptiness.

#always wanted to write a tf2 fic but here’s a concept #sorry for literally only posting about demo #like the third time I’ve apologised for drawing this guy over and over again. #other than that I have some doodles from this tf2 animatic I never bothered to finish #tf2 #art #tf2 demoman #tf2 engineer #tf2 spy #tf2 heavy #tf2 fanart #oh also #the parents in the framed photos aren’t his biological parents #it’s supposed to be his first set #apologies for going on tangents in the tags #Quotidianish

[jcmarchi]

A protein found in human sweat may protect against Lyme disease

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/a-protein-found-in-human-sweat-may-protect-against-lyme-disease/

A protein found in human sweat may protect against Lyme disease

Lyme disease, a bacterial infection transmitted by ticks, affects nearly half a million people in the United States every year. In most cases, antibiotics effectively clear the infection, but for some patients, symptoms linger for months or years.

Researchers at MIT and the University of Helsinki have now discovered that human sweat contains a protein that can protect against Lyme disease. They also found that about one-third of the population carries a genetic variant of this protein that is associated with Lyme disease in genome-wide association studies.

It’s unknown exactly how the protein inhibits the growth of the bacteria that cause Lyme disease, but the researchers hope to harness the protein’s protective abilities to create skin creams that could help prevent the disease, or to treat infections that don’t respond to antibiotics.

“This protein may provide some protection from Lyme disease, and we think there are real implications here for a preventative and possibly a therapeutic based on this protein,” says Michal Caspi Tal, a principal research scientist in MIT’s Department of Biological Engineering and one of the senior authors of the new study.

Hanna Ollila, a senior researcher at the Institute for Molecular Medicine at the University of Helsinki and a researcher at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, is also a senior author of the paper, which appears today in Nature Communications. The paper’s lead author is Satu Strausz, a postdoc at the Institute for Molecular Medicine at the University of Helsinki.

A surprising link

Lyme disease is most often caused by a bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi. In the United States, this bacterium is spread by ticks that are carried by mice, deer, and other animals. Symptoms include fever, headache, fatigue, and a distinctive bulls-eye rash.

Most patients receive doxycycline, an antibiotic that usually clears up the infection. In some patients, however, symptoms such as fatigue, memory problems, sleep disruption, and body aches can persist for months or years.

Tal and Ollila, who were postdocs together at Stanford University, began this study a few years ago in hopes of finding genetic markers of susceptibility to Lyme disease. To that end, they decided to run a genome-wide association study (GWAS) on a Finnish dataset that contains genome sequences for 410,000 people, along with detailed information on their medical histories.

This dataset includes about 7,000 people who had been diagnosed with Lyme disease, allowing the researchers to look for genetic variants that were more frequently found in people who had had Lyme disease, compared with those who hadn’t.

This analysis revealed three hits, including two found in immune molecules that had been previously linked with Lyme disease. However, their third hit was a complete surprise — a secretoglobin called SCGB1D2.

Secretoglobins are a family of proteins found in tissues that line the lungs and other organs, where they play a role in immune responses to infection. The researchers discovered that this particular secretoglobin is produced primarily by cells in the sweat glands.

To find out how this protein might influence Lyme disease, the researchers created normal and mutated versions of SCGB1D2 and exposed them to Borrelia burgdorferi grown in the lab. They found that the normal version of the protein significantly inhibited the growth of Borrelia burgdorferi. However, when they exposed bacteria to the mutated version, twice as much protein was required to suppress bacterial growth.

The researchers then exposed bacteria to either the normal or mutated variant of SCGB1D2 and injected them into mice. Mice injected with the bacteria exposed to the mutant protein became infected with Lyme disease, but mice injected with bacteria exposed to the normal version of SCGB1D2 did not.

“In the paper we show they stayed healthy until day 10, but we followed the mice for over a month, and they never got infected. This wasn’t a delay, this was a full stop. That was really exciting,” Tal says.

Preventing infection

After the MIT and University of Helsinki researchers posted their initial findings on a preprint server, researchers in Estonia replicated the results of the genome-wide association study, using data from the Estonian Biobank. These data, from about 210,000 people, including 18,000 with Lyme disease, were later added to the final Nature Communications study.

The researchers aren’t sure yet how SCGB1D2 inhibits bacterial growth, or why the variant is less effective. However, they did find that the variant causes a shift from the amino acid proline to leucine, which may interfere with the formation of a helix found in the normal version.

They now plan to investigate whether applying the protein to the skin of mice, which do not naturally produce SCGB1D2, could prevent them from being infected by Borrelia burgdorferi. They also plan to explore the protein’s potential as a treatment for infections that don’t respond to antibiotics.

“We have fantastic antibiotics that work for 90 percent of people, but in the 40 years we’ve known about Lyme disease, we have not budged that,” Tal says. “Ten percent of people don’t recover after having antibiotics, and there’s no treatment for them.”

“This finding opens the door to a completely new approach to preventing Lyme disease in the first place, and it will be interesting to see if it could be useful for preventing other types of skin infections too,” says Kara Spiller, a professor of biomedical innovation in the School of Biomedical Engineering at Drexel University, who was not involved in the study.

The researchers note that people who have the protective version of SCGB1D2 can still develop Lyme disease, and they should not assume that they won’t. One factor that may play a role is whether the person happens to be sweating when they’re bitten by a tick carrying Borrelia burgdorferi.

SCGB1D2 is just one of 11 secretoglobin proteins produced by the human body, and Tal also plans to study what some of those other secretoglobins may be doing in the body, especially in the lungs, where many of them are found.

“The thing I’m most excited about is this idea that secretoglobins might be a class of antimicrobial proteins that we haven’t thought about. As immunologists, we talk nonstop about immunoglobulins, but I had never heard of a secretoglobin before this popped up in our GWAS study. This is why it’s so fun for me now. I want to know what they all do,” she says.

The research was funded, in part, by Emily and Malcolm Fairbairn, the Instrumentarium Science Foundation, the Academy of Finland, the Finnish Medical Foundation, the Younger Family, and the Bay Area Lyme Foundation.

#000 #Analysis #Animals #antibiotic #Antibiotics #antimicrobial #approach #Bacteria #Biological engineering #Biology #Broad Institute #Cells #communications #data #Delay #Disease #disruption #engineering #eye #factor #fatigue #Finland #Foundation #Full #genetic #Genetics #genome #growth #how #human

[alternis]

So my idea was to reintroduce that story element by having the Kobra cult—sans leadership, literally a serpent with its head cut off—bio-engineer *new* twins based on cells stolen from Jason Burr and the evil Naja-Naja. - Scott Beatty, Danny Temple's co-creator

I need danny temple and kon to meet and realise they have the same origin story

#danny: yeah I was bio engineered from this evil mastermind but I don't really think about. its not like it changes who I am right? #kon: you mean you don't constantly worry about whether you're biologically predispositioned to be evi?? #danny: no my brother Ryan is the one biologically predestined to become evil. but he's in therapy now and seems a lot happier #danny temple

[discotechnician]

You can find love on a spaceship

#star trek #tng #data #geordi la forge #daforge #there is something about them that I jusr love so much #maybe it's just the android/engineer pairing that is always fun but it's more than that because #like they said it themselves Data is not any other electronic system and Geordi isn't just a. what does Data call him #biological organism? #anyway they're both extremely special and unique to each other #IDK I need to rewatch tng #also those not so subtle pride flag colors at the bottom are from my headcanons I think Data is bi and Geordi is gay and trans #and they're both ace #my art

[mobblespsycho100]

not my previous opinion on firefly coming to bite me in the ass JAHDJSHJD

#honestly her design is iconic #i think its the least fanservicey design hsr made so far #barring the child/younger teen characters' design obviously #firefly's design is still very gender and cute while being practical #also ofc Sam. is Sam. we love u sam. sam firefly. IHwdsjssjeheueb explodes #(for context i was previously unhappy with the fact that firefly and sam is one and the same) #(because i wanted a playable robot/mecha) #but kamen rider magical girl firefly who pilots / transform into huge metal warrior sam is so fun which i love #and the fact that firefly is canonically like . an biologically manipulated or engineered human #and is very much . older than a lot of our cast #first stellaron hunter (super cool) #the way her name signifies how her life is like #chefs kiss design #winx club looking ass splash art name title . thats a compliment btw #im very much looking forward to looking at her beautiful eyes up close . and also running around as a tall metal guy with fairy wings ahaha #kamen rider moment truly.... #also ppl saying its a clara svarog situation isnt getting it #clara and svarog are seperate characters just one in the gameplay #as svarog is claras robo dad/protector and just fights for her #honestly shouldve been clara & svarog like how topaz & numby are called that #but firefly is firefly. SAM is SAM. theyre one and the same #SAM is her alternate identity as a weapon and firefly is her true self #MAN.... #i think writing wise fireflys ''death'' was still not as hard hitting as possible #it was mostly shocking #which isnt bad writing #i still got attached to her #but when it was sad for trailblazer it just felt like a WTF WHAT. HUH moment for me #which kinda has like a disconnect #anyway im rambling too much

[wildflowercryptid]

...How can Wally and May have a child if Wally is trans in your AU?

*shrugs* i rarely care about the logistics of how exactly characters have their children when i make fankids so i don't really have an explanation beyond me just wanting to design a bio kid for them. anyways, since they're both introduced as kids and we haven't gotten any canon appearances of them as adults, i'm not really comfortable dwelling on the finer details of how they had kids.

#maybe they could utilize the transforming properties of ditto goo so that bio-engineering biological children for same agab couples >>> #is possible #but again it's not really something i'm pressed about figuring out or explaining in depth most of the time #they have kids bc i thought it'd be cute if they had kids no greater explanation than that really #asks #mj.txt

[madcom-hobe-au]

What HOBE is

HOBE is a fan-made Madness Combat Alternate Universe (Made by yours truly)

The H.O.B.E. stands for Hospital Of Biological Engineering. There are a series of plotlines, characters, details, and more that I will share in this blog.

I've been working on this AU for a while but I haven't ever shown much of it to the public, So I thought I'd start here. If I gain some fans it'll give me a lot more motivation to expand on this AU. Hope you like my weird story.

Picture of reggie and octavius

#Madness Combat #AU #HOBE #fanmade #plotline #Hospital #madcom #Biological #engineering #whiteboard #THE #Reggie #Octavius #Octinald

[k12academics]

The Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering is committed to providing a welcoming and inclusive learning, teaching and working environment for all students, faculty, staff and guests. The diversity of our community is central to our success as a world-class center of teaching, learning and research.

We are firm in our commitment that all people have the right to be free from harassment and discrimination. To that end, any discrimination against students, faculty, or staff based on protected class identity is in opposition to our values, which are in accordance with the CU Boulder Discrimination & Harassment Policy.

The department recognizes that science and engineering have not traditionally been open, welcoming and accessible spaces for many people, and we are committed to increasing inclusion, diversity and equity in chemical and biological engineering education and research.

In service to these commitments, the department will:

Invite and host speakers with diverse backgrounds as part of the undergraduate curriculum and seminar series

Integrate implicit bias and bystander intervention training for students, faculty and staff

Address diversity and ethics in undergraduate and graduate coursework

Increase efforts to inclusively recruit and retain students, faculty and staff

Leverage the recommendations of the department's Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion committee to continuously improve the overall climate for diversity, equity and inclusion at all levels

Creating a safe, welcoming and rich academic environment is an ongoing process that requires the engagement, commitment and input of all students, faculty and staff within our community.

#engineering #chemical engineering #chemical and biological engineering #biological engineering #k12 academics