Forum for Science, Industry and Business

The cells of our immune system constantly communicate with one another by exchanging complex protein molecules. A team led by researchers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now revealed how dedicated cellular control proteins, referred to as chaperones, detect immature immune signaling proteins and prevent them from leaving the cell.

Species that used to be abundant show the highest relative losses and have decreased on average to half their previous abundance levels. Researchers from the University of Rostock and the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) have shown this decline using data from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The team led by Professor Florian Jansen has now published its findings in the journal Conservation Letters.

HU researcher investigates ‘El Niño’

• Defective cellular adhesion plays a central role in cancer and immune reactions
• Talin is one of the key proteins involved in the machinery of cellular adhesion
• The entire structure of talin has been determined with the help of cryo-electron microscopy
• Now the protein’s regulation mechanism can be explained

Physicists at ETH Zurich have developed a versatile framework for studying periodically driven systems, providing a unifying platform to explore so-called 'time crystals' in both the classical and the quantum regime

Kiel research team develops energy-efficient sensors for extremely low frequencies

In order to observe cells at work, researchers have to bypass a physical law. One of the fastest techniques to overcome the resolution limit of classical light microscopy is high-resolution structured illumination microscopy. It makes visible details that are about a hundred nanometres in size. However, translating the data back into images has taken a long time so far. A research team from the University of Bielefeld, the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology and the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena has now developed a technique to observe processes in the cell. The results were published in "Nature Communications" on September 20, 2019.

DGIST announced on Tuesday, September 10 that Dr. Jin-Kyu Kang's research team in Division of Energy Technology achieved 11.4% for the photoelectric conversion1 efficiency of flexible CZTSSe thin-film solar cell, the highest in the world. This research is expected to contribute to the development of future solar power technology and the thin-film solar cell industry of next generation.

Scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have developed a technique to observe how radiation damages molecules over time-frames of just one quadrillionth of a second - or a femtosecond.

The complexity of molecular structures in the cell is amazing. Having achieved great success in elucidating these structures in recent years, biologists are now taking on the next challenge: to find out more about how they are constructed. A joint research project between two groups from the University of Bern and ETH Zurich now provides insight into a very unusual construction process in the unicellular parasite Trypanosoma brucei.

Heidelberg researchers investigate key component in bacteria

Zwicky Transient Facility observations reveal surprising transformations from sleepy LINER galaxies to blazing quasars within months

Research shows how a cancer-linked protein blocks key mitochondrial gateway

A new tool from the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) can predict the odds that honey bee colonies overwintered in cold storage will be large enough to rent for almond pollination in February. Identifying which colonies will not be worth spending dollars to overwinter can improve beekeepers' bottom line.

Photons interact on chip-based system with unprecedented efficiency

A fast and reliable machine learning tool, developed by the ARTORG Center, University of Bern and the Department of Ophthalmology, Inselspital brings Artificial Intelligence (AI) closer to clinical use in Ophthalmology. The novel method published in Nature Scientific Reports on September 19, 2019 presents a tool that reliably extracts meaning from extensive image data. Based on a convolutional neural network (CNN) the tool is able to provide results within seconds, thus supporting the doctor with comprehensive image analysis during a consultation with the patient.

Researchers at Leipzig University and Leipzig University Hospital (UKL) have discovered that tumour growth and tissue invasion by cancer cells can be predicted based on the ontogenetic distance between tissues. Simulations of tumour spread patterns and analysis of pathological data yielded results that contradicted the prevailing assumption that tumours spread randomly and equally in all directions. They have now published their findings in the renowned journal "Scientific Reports".

A therapeutic shoe engineered to improve stroke recovery is proving successful and expected to hit the market by the end of the year. Clinical trials have been completed on the U.S. patented and licensed iStride Device, formerly the Gait Enhancing Mobile Shoe (GEMS), with results just published in the Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation.

Prior evaluation of crystal structure analysis using a small data set

Researchers at the University of Liverpool, University College London (UCL), NSG Group (Pilkington) and Diamond Light Source have made an important design discovery that could dramatically improve the performance of a key material used to coat touch screens and other devices.

The proven technology will be designed into a handheld device that could reduce need for painful biopsies by 50 percent -- and disrupt the $5.3 billion diagnostics market

• Nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas and ozone depleting substance.
• The ability to exploit this gas as a chemical reagent is an attractive prospect, both as an abundant feedstock and means to remediate the detrimental impact it has on the environment.
• Researchers at the University of Warwick have prepared transition metal compounds of nitrous oxide that provide a conceptional foundation for its application in new value-added chemical processes.

Physicists from the University of Groningen constructed a two-dimensional spin transistor, in which spin currents were generated by an electric current through graphene. A monolayer of a transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) was placed on top of graphene to induce charge-to-spin conversion in the graphene. This experimental observation was described in the issue of the journal Nano Letters published on 11 September 2019.