Scientists led by Dr. Elisabeth Fischer-Friedrich, group leader at the Excellence Cluster Physics of Life (PoL) and the Biotechnology Center TU Dresden (BIOTEC) studied how cancer cells are able to divide in a crowded tumor tissue and connected it to the hallmark of cancer progression and metastasis, the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Most animal cells need to become spherical in order to divide. To achieve this round shape, the cells must round up and deform their neighboring cells. In a growing…
Many people use cortisone of a regular basis. It is used for treating rheumatism, asthma, multiple sclerosis, or even COVID-19. Steroidal medication such as cortisone is highly effective but also possesses severe side effects. Henriette Uhlenhaut, professor at Technical University of Munich (TUM), and her team are examining the beneficial effects of cortisone in order to lay the groundwork for the development of similar drugs with fewer side effects. A group of scientists around Henriette Uhlenhaut, Professor for Metabolic Programming…
Researchers at the Smart-Aging Research Center (IDAC) at Tohoku University have developed an innovative training protocol that, utilizing immersive virtual reality (IVR), leads to real physical and cognitive benefits. We all know that physical exercise is crucial for overall well-being and helps postpone aging-related disorders; what is more surprising is that physical exercise can have beneficial effects not only on the body but on cognitive functions too. Unfortunately, physical activities are not always possible for people suffering or recovering from…
Immune cells called ‘natural killer’ (NK) cells could be a powerful weapon for fighting lung cancer, according to Australian researchers. Studying preclinical and patient samples of small cell lung cancer (SCLC), the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute team revealed that NK cells – but not T cells – are essential for slowing the aggressive spread of the cancer. ‘Supercharging’ the NK cells further boosted their cancer-fighting abilities. The discovery offers hope for better treatments for people with SCLC, many of…
Preclinical study in Cell Reports points to possible treatment for epileptic seizures. Scientists studying neuronal energy metabolism found evidence that the loss of an important energy regulator called AMPK in neural stem cells or glial cells called astrocytes causes neuronal death in laboratory rodents. They also discovered that AMPK loss in neural stem cells or neurons causes spontaneous brain seizures in the animals. Publishing their findings in Cell Reports, the multi-institutional research team–led by Cincinnati Children’s cancer biologist Biplab Dasgupta,…
In laboratory studies, Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and Johns Hopkins University researchers observed a key step in how cancer cells may spread from a primary tumor to a distant site within the body, a process known as metastasis. Trying to determine how groups of cells migrate to other parts of the body, the scientists used tissue engineering to construct a functional 3D blood vessel and grew breast cancer cells nearby. They observed the cancer cells reaching out to the…
Your genetic code determines that you will grow two arms and two legs. The same fate is true for all mammals. Similarly, the number of fins a fish has and the number of legs and wings an insect has are embedded in their genetic code. Sea anemones, however, defy this rule and have a variable number of tentacle arms. Until now it’s been unclear what regulates the number of tentacles a sea anemone can grow. Scientists from the Ikmi group…
The populations of common animals are just as likely to rise or fall in number in a time of accelerating global change as those of rare species, a study suggests. A study of more than 2,000 species reveals animal populations around the world – from the very common to endangered species – are going up and down as global change alters land, sea and freshwater ecosystems. The findings highlight a need to look beyond only rare species in order to…
An international team of scientists led by Christopher Bellas from the University of Innsbruck, Austria, studying life on the surface of glaciers in the Arctic and Alps challenge assumptions on virus evolution. Their study, now published in the journal Nature Communications shows that, contrary to expectations, the viruses on glaciers in the Alps, Greenland and Spitsbergen are remarkably stable in the environment. Viruses are often thought of as a human problem, however they are the most abundant biological entities on…
A new study from The University of Texas at Austin is helping scientists piece together the ancient climate of Mars by revealing how much rainfall and snowmelt filled its lake beds and river valleys 3.5 billion to 4 billion years ago. The study, published in Geology, represents the first time that researchers have quantified the precipitation that must have been present across the planet, and it comes out as the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover is making its way to the…
GREGOR, the largest solar telescope in Europe, which is operated by a German consortium and located on Teide Observatory, Spain, has obtained unprecedented images of the fine-structure of the Sun. Following a major redesign of GREGOR’s optics, carried out by a team of scientists and engineers from the Leibniz Institute for Solar Physics (KIS), the Sun can be observed at a higher resolution than before from Europe. The Sun is our star and has a profound influence on our planet,…
Theory suggests that quantum critical points may be analogous to black holes as places where all sorts of strange phenomena can exist in a quantum material. Now scientists are trying to pin down where this particular quantum critical point might be. Among all the curious states of matter that can coexist in a quantum material, jostling for preeminence as temperature, electron density and other factors change, some scientists think a particularly weird juxtaposition exists at a single intersection of factors,…
A team led by researchers at the University of California, Davis, has discovered a missing link in the evolution of photosynthesis and carbon fixation. Dating back more than 2.4 billion years, a newly discovered form of the plant enzyme rubisco could give new insight into plant evolution and breeding. Rubisco is the most abundant enzyme on the planet. Present in plants, cyanobacteria (also known as blue-green algae) and other photosynthetic organisms, it’s central to the process of carbon fixation and…
Florida State University researchers have developed a new material that could be used to make flexible X-ray detectors that are less harmful to the environment and cost less than existing technologies. The team led by Biwu Ma, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, created X-ray scintillators that use an environmentally friendly material. Their research was published in the journal Nature Communications . “Developing low-cost scintillation materials that can be easily manufactured and that perform well remains a…
A new tool to analyze molecules is 100 times faster than previous methods Spectroscopy is an important tool of observation in many areas of science and industry. Infrared spectroscopy is especially important in the world of chemistry where it is used to analyze and identify different molecules. The current state-of-the-art method can make approximately 1 million observations per second. UTokyo researchers have greatly surpassed this figure with a new method about 100 times faster. From climate science to safety systems,…
Innovators from Purdue University hope their new technology can help transform paper sheets from a notebook into a music player interface and make food packaging interactive. Purdue engineers developed a simple printing process that renders any paper or cardboard packaging into a keyboard, keypad or other easy-to-use human-machine interfaces. This technology is published in the Aug. 23 edition of Nano Energy. Videos showing this technology are available at https://youtu.be/TfA0d8IpjWU, https://youtu.be/J0iCxjicJIQ and https://youtu.be/c9E6vXYtIw0. “This is the first time a self-powered paper-based…
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