Study suggests unprecedented 3-week hepatitis C cure
Hepatitis C virus, Science image.
A team led by hepatologist George Lau of the Humanity & Healthy GI and Liver Centre in Hong Kong, China with collaboration from Alan Perelson of Los Alamos National Laboratory, has mixed and matched various compounds to see whether they could further shorten the route to a cure. They appear to have succeeded. The researchers plan to present this data publicly for the first time at a scientific conference known as The Liver Meeting in 2 weeks.
Molecular clocks control mutation rate in human cells
Molecular clocks, LANL illustration.
"This is a hugely exciting finding as it solves a longstanding question. Not only has this study proved that mutational molecular clocks exist, it has also shown that there are two separate clock processes that are constantly degrading DNA," said Dr Ludmil Alexandrov, corresponding author and Oppenheimer Fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the USA. "How fast these clocks tick in a cell may well determine both the ageing of this cell and the likelihood for it to become cancerous."
US government lab dabbles in new computer designs
Inside the D-Wave quantum computer,from D-Wave.
Rethinking conventional computer designs, which are decades old, the U.S. Department of Energy has set its sights on creating systems that could supplant today's PCs and servers.
The Los Alamos National Laboratory -- best known for its work with nuclear weapons -- is developing and acquiring new types of computers as it looks to replace conventional computers. Its newest toy is a D-Wave 2X quantum computer, which the lab purchased from D-Wave Systems for an undisclosed price.
Also in The Verge
National labs collaborate to shape development of next-generation supercomputers
Three of the Department of Energy’s leading national laboratories are working together to solve some of the world’s most challenging problems by ensuring that the nation’s scientific community has access to leading edge computing systems to carry out their research.
Los Alamos, Lawrence Berkeley, and Sandia national laboratories, have formed the Alliance for Application Performance at Extreme Scale (APEX) to focus on the design, acquisition and deployment of future advanced technology high performance computing systems.
Also from HPCwire this week:
HPC Leaders Unite to Develop Open Source Framework
The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux and collaborative development, today announced an intent to form the OpenHPC Collaborative Project.
The new initiative includes support from Los Alamos National Laboratory, MSC Software, NEC, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, ParTec, Penguin Computing, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, Sandia National Laboratories, and many others.
Ten Los Alamos scientists honored as APS fellows
are new Fellows of the American Physical Society.
Named this week by the national organization: Tariq Aslam; Steven Batha; Eric Bauer; Hou-Tong Chen; Diego Alejandro Dalvit; Dinh Nguyen; Alan Perelson; Filip Ronning; Alexander Saunders; and Glen Wurden.
“We’re extremely pleased that the technical accomplishments of our talented staff have been recognized in their designation as APS Fellows,” said Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Charlie McMillan. “It is particularly noteworthy that these selections represent a breadth of innovation in applied physics that Los Alamos uses to help accomplish our mission of protecting the nation.”
Also from the Daily Post this week:
Breakthrough Prize Trophy.
$3 million award goes to more than 1,300 scientists across five experiments
More than 1,300 scientists—including 35 from Los Alamos National Laboratory—were awarded the 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics Nov. 8 for their work in defining neutrino oscillations across five international experiments that led to the determination that neutrinos have mass.
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