The structures are reminiscent of one wrinkle of a human brain at 15 to 19 weeks post-conception. Whatever you do, don’t call them “mini-brains,” say University of Utah Health scientists. Regardless, the seed-sized organoids—which are grown in the lab from human cells—provide insights into the brain and uncover differences that may contribute to autism in some people. “We used to think it would be too difficult to model the organization of cells in the brain,” says Alex Shcheglovitov, PhD, assistant…
The cerebellum is known primarily for regulation of movement. Researchers at the University of Basel have now discovered that the cerebellum also plays an important role in remembering emotional experiences. The study appears in the journal PNAS. Both positive and negative emotional experiences are stored particularly well in memory. This phenomenon is important to our survival, since we need to remember dangerous situations in order to avoid them in the future. Previous studies have shown that a brain structure called…
… will silicon nitride and common chemistry help? A research group led by Osaka University found a simple way to facilitate detections of single DNA molecules in silicon nitride nanopores, integration of which with compact electronics will be straightforward and could revolutionize genomic sequencing. Genomic sequencing has revolutionized our understanding of medicine and evolution, such as identifying hereditary anomalies. Arrays of nanometer-sized holes—nanopores—in silicon nitride can in principle dramatically speed up and lower the cost of such analyses. However, DNA…
Progress has been made on the path to sunlight-driven production of hydrogen. Chemists from Würzburg present a new enzyme-like molecular catalyst for water oxidation. Mankind is facing a central challenge: it must manage the transition to a sustainable and carbon dioxide-neutral energy economy. Hydrogen is considered a promising alternative to fossil fuels. It can be produced from water using electricity. If the electricity comes from renewable sources, it is called green hydrogen. But it would be even more sustainable if…
Water quality and the circular economy. If we look at all of the business sectors in Germany, industry requires the largest amount of water. This makes access to efficient technology for cleaning and recycling water all the more important for this sector in particular. Ideally, this technology should also allow energy and valuable raw materials to be retrieved so that they can be reused in production. In order to address all of these issues in a practical way, researchers at…
Swirling waters replenish nutrients in open ocean, a new study finds, and could mitigate some climate change effects. Subtropical gyres are enormous rotating ocean currents that generate sustained circulations in the Earth’s subtropical regions just to the north and south of the equator. These gyres are slow-moving whirlpools that circulate within massive basins around the world, gathering up nutrients, organisms, and sometimes trash, as the currents rotate from coast to coast. For years, oceanographers have puzzled over conflicting observations within…
“I’m a professional pin-in-a-haystack seeker,” geneticist Thijn Brummelkamp responds when asked why he excels at tracking down proteins and genes that other people did not find, despite the fact that some have managed to remain elusive for as long as forty years. His research group at the Netherlands Cancer Institute has once again managed to track down one of these “mystery genes” – the gene that ensures that the final form of the protein actin is created, a main component…
Poorly understood compared to bacteria and viruses, the new work opens the door to using tell-tale fungi as a diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic tool. An international team of scientists, co-led by researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, has created the first pan-cancer mycobiome atlas — a survey of 35 types of cancer and their associated fungi. The findings are published September 29, 2022 in the journal Cell. Cancer cells and microbes have a long and…
Researchers have come up with a way to test the efficacy of hundreds of anticancer drug combinations – simultaneously, rapidly, and accurately. Each year, around 10 million lives around the world are cut short by cancer. While the last century of research has seen the number of approved anticancer drugs grow by leaps and bounds, the sheer diversity of disease forms and patient responses often defeats treatment strategies. The next revolution in anti-cancer therapeutics is likely to arrive in the…
Researchers at TU Wien (Vienna) and FHI Berlin succeeded in monitoring a catalytic reaction with three different microscopies under exactly the same conditions in real time. In this way, information is obtained that none of the methods alone could reveal. One has to look very closely to exactly understand what processes take place on the surfaces of catalysts. Solid catalysts are often finely structured materials made of tiny crystals. There are various microscopies to monitor chemical processes on such surfaces…
New research by EMBL scientists shows at atomic detail how antibiotics affect the process of protein production inside bacteria. Every living cell relies on proteins in order to function and the process of protein synthesis – translation – is critical for survival. Bacteria are no exception, with molecular machines involved in translation being one of the most common targets for antibiotics. Now, for the first time, scientists led by Julia Mahamid’s group at EMBL Heidelberg have visualised at atomic detail…
A new class of small molecule drugs, now in phase 1 clinical trials, is the first to target circadian clock proteins, which play a key role in the recurrence and spread of the deadly cancer. Glioblastoma, the most common cancerous brain tumor in adults, is an aggressive disease—patients survive an average of just 15 months once they are diagnosed. Despite more than two decades of research on the causes and treatments of glioblastoma, that prognosis has hardly improved. But recent…
Researchers say a newly developed lab technique could spark a “paradigm shift” in biopharmaceuticals testing, promising to speed up drug discovery and development of therapeutic proteins and vaccines. New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) researchers have unveiled a new lab technique they say represents a “paradigm shift” in how pharmaceutical laboratories test and produce new protein-based drugs, such as therapeutic monoclonal antibodies being developed to treat a variety of diseases, from cancers to infectious diseases. Researchers say their electrochemistry-based approach, described…
Flour, coffee or spices: Many people know the principle of a mill from the kitchen. But special mills are also used for research purposes in the laboratories of the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung. The scientists are convinced that mechanochemistry can make the chemical industry more sustainable. How is it possible to make the production of chemicals less expensive and, above all, more sustainable? This question is playing an important role in the chemical industry and in pharmaceutical companies. Scientists at the…
Nanoengineers at the University of California San Diego have developed microscopic robots, called microrobots, that can swim around in the lungs, deliver medication and be used to clear up life-threatening cases of bacterial pneumonia. In mice, the microrobots safely eliminated pneumonia-causing bacteria in the lungs and resulted in 100% survival. By contrast, untreated mice all died within three days after infection. The results are published Sept. 22 in Nature Materials. The microrobots are made of algae cells whose surfaces are…
The fungus Zymoseptoria tritici causes Septoria tritici blotch, the most destructive fungal disease of wheat grown in temperate climates worldwide. This disease reduces wheat yields by 5-10% per year, causing harvest losses worth between three quarters and one and a half billion Euros in France, Germany and the UK alone, and with another billion euros being spent on chemical control of the fungus. Researchers from the University of Exeter achieved a major breakthrough in the understanding of molecular mechanisms underpinning…
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