Findings could lead to new therapies, prevention strategies. A type of chronic leukemia can simmer for many years. Some patients may need treatment to manage this type of blood cancer — called myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) — while others may go through long periods of watchful waiting. But for a small percentage of patients, the slower paced disease can transform into an aggressive cancer, called secondary acute myeloid leukemia, that has few effective treatment options. Little has been known about how…
Electrochemical CO2 reduction is an effective way to realize the artificial carbon cycle and has attracted more and more attention in recent years. Cu is the only metallic catalyst that can realize CO2 deep reduction to various carbonaceous products, but it suffers from low selectivity. Surface modification is an effective strategy to alter electrochemical CO2 reduction behaviors. Electrochemical CO2 reduction involves multi-step proton-coupled electron transfer processes, so regulating proton transfer has a substantial effect on CO2 reduction pathways. Inspired by…
Evidence shows strong outflowing winds responsible for the “Fermi bubbles”. A scientist from Tokyo Metropolitan University has shown that large gamma-ray emitting bubbles around the center of our Galaxy were produced by fast blowing outward winds and the associated “reverse shock.” Numerical simulations successfully reproduced the temperature profile observed by an X-ray telescope. Such outflows have been observed in other galaxies; this finding suggests similar winds may have been blowing in our own Galaxy until quite recently. The universe is…
Two CubeSats, or small satellites, are on a quest to provide insight on space weather disturbances and the subsequent impact on communication signals. The dynamic duo, the Plasma Enhancements in the Ionosphere-Thermosphere Satellite (petitSat) and Scintillation Prediction Observations Research Task (SPORT), arrived at the International Space Station on Nov. 27, 2022, as part of SpaceX’s 26th commercial resupply mission for NASA. Both CubeSats deployed from the space station on Dec. 29, 2022, at 8:55 a.m. EST. Scientists on both missions are most…
Smart gadgets in the home might soon be able to tell you what’s wrong with you. But the technology is good news for a lot of other things too. Some people do such smart and difficult things that it’s hard to see what in the world they might have to do with you and me, so we just shrug them off. But that’s often the wrong response. What if you had a simple gadget at home that could tell you…
An enzyme that defends human cells against viruses can help drive cancer evolution towards greater malignancy by causing myriad mutations in cancer cells, according to a study led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine. The finding suggests that the enzyme may be a potential target for future cancer treatments. In the new study, published Dec. 8 in Cancer Research, scientists used a preclinical model of bladder cancer to investigate the role of the enzyme called APOBEC3G in promoting the disease…
… if we can first learn its rules. UC San Diego study reveals critical insights into the complex biology of tissue-specific T cells, paving the way for a new branch of precision therapeutics. Recent pressure to maximize vaccine efficacy has stirred up many new discoveries within immunology, revealing numerous paradigms with untapped therapeutic potential. One growing branch of research is focused on tissue-resident memory T cells (TRM cells), a type of immune cell that provides long-lasting protection against pathogens attacking…
Researchers demonstrated high-visibility quantum interference between two independent semiconductor quantum dots — an important step toward scalable quantum networks. This year’s Nobel Prize in Physics celebrated the fundamental interest of quantum entanglement, and also envisioned the potential applications in “the second quantum revolution” — a new age when we are able to manipulate the weirdness of quantum mechanics, including quantum superposition and entanglement. A large-scale and fully functional quantum network is the holy grail of quantum information sciences. It will…
First study of AI-assisted colonoscopy for colorectal cancer surveillance in patients with genetic predisposition – People with Lynch syndrome have a higher hereditary risk of colon cancer. Despite regular endoscopic surveillance, it remains elevated in those affected. Researchers at the National Center for Hereditary Tumor Diseases (NZET) at Bonn University Hospital (UKB) have now found that artificial intelligence (AI) can improve the effectiveness of colonoscopy in the presence of Lynch syndrome. The study results have been published online in the…
Expedition investigates shelf and fjord areas of Central and South America. On December 27, 2022, Germany’s second largest research vessel, the “SONNE”, will set off for several months on a research cruise to the East Pacific shelf regions of Central and South America. Scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (IOW) will be in charge of two of the three expedition legs. The first examines human-induced trace substances and pollutants in the sea; the second focuses on…
Emerging forms of thin-film device technologies that rely on alternative semiconductor materials, such as printable organics, nanocarbon allotropes and metal oxides, could contribute to a more economically and environmentally sustainable internet of things (IoT), a KAUST-led international team suggests. The IoT is set to have a major impact on daily life and many industries. It connects and facilitates data exchange between a multitude of smart objects of various shape and size — such as remote-controlled home security systems, self-driving cars…
Brown algae take up large amounts of carbon dioxide from the air and release parts of the carbon contained therein back into the environment in mucous form. This mucus is hard to break down for other ocean inhabitants, thus the carbon is removed from the atmosphere for a long time, as researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen now show. They reveal that the algal mucus called fucoidan is particularly responsible for this carbon removal and…
Researchers from the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have proposed a new technology, called optical tweezer-assisted pool-screening and single-cell isolation (OPSI) system, which achieves 99.7% purity of sorting target cells, with all done in real-time. The study was published in Lab on a Chip on Nov. 29. Current cell-sorting methods cannot effectively sort cells of various sizes while maintaining their viability for future testing. Compared with the currently used methods,…
A Japanese research group has become the first to reveal that the checkerboard-like arrangement of cells in the inner ear’s organ of Corti is vital for hearing. The discovery gives a new insight into how hearing works from the perspective of cell self-organization and will also enable various hearing loss disorders to be better understood. The research group included Assistant Professor TOGASHI Hideru of Kobe University’s Graduate School of Medicine and Dr. KATSUNUMA Sayaka of Hyogo Prefectural Kobe Children’s Hospital….
Implantable platform provides prolonged treatment of Type 1 diabetes. A quarter-sized device created at Houston Methodist could drastically alter the course of treatment for Type 1 diabetes, a chronic condition that impacts millions of Americans and does not have a cure. In a study published in the Dec. 26 issue of Nature Communications, a research team led by Houston Methodist delivered islet cells and immunotherapy directly into a 3D printed device akin to a bioengineered pancreas, called the NICHE. The…
Controlling the rotation of this molecule could lead to new technologies for microelectronics, quantum computing and more. You can easily rotate a baseball in your hand by twisting your fingers. But you need inventive scientists with access to world-class scientific facilities to rotate an object that is only two billionths of a meter wide. That is a million times smaller than a raindrop. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory report they can precisely rotate a…
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