Researchers identify a key protein that helps sperm do their job in timely fashion, a discovery with implications for treating male infertility—and perhaps male birth control. Mammalian sperm cannot fertilize an egg from the get-go. It’s an ability acquired only after insemination, during passage through the female reproductive tract, and requires two consecutive, time-sensitive processes to provide sperm with the physical and biochemical traits necessary to complete their fundamental job. The first process is called capacitation, which alters the physiology…
Heidelberg research group seeks and develops inhibitors against flavi- and coronaviruses. New drugs are intended to help stop viral zoonoses – infections that jump from animals to humans. To study suitable inhibitors, Prof. Dr Christian Klein from the Institute of Pharmacy and Molecular Biotechnology (IPMB) of Heidelberg University is receiving funding in the amount of 450,000 euros from the Volkswagen Foundation. The project is focussed on flavi- and coronaviruses, which cause infectious diseases such as Zika, dengue, West Nile Fever,…
Researchers at the University of Bristol have shown how laboratory evolution can give rise to highly efficient enzymes for new-to-nature reactions, opening the door for novel and more environmentally friendly ways to make drugs and other chemicals. Scientists have previously designed protein catalysts from scratch using computers, but these are much less capable than natural enzymes. To improve their performance, a technique called laboratory evolution can be used, which American chemical engineer Frances Arnold pioneered and for which she received…
Proteins are only able to perform their essential tasks in the body if they fold correctly into their respective, very specific 3D structure. To ensure that nothing goes wrong with the folding process, it is strictly monitored in the cell. A flawed quality control can lead, for example, to the deposition of misfolded proteins in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Researchers at the Max Planck Institutes of Neurobiology and of Biochemistry have now developed a mouse line that makes the…
Scientific breakthrough in the battle against cancer. A scientific achievement for researchers at Tel Aviv University: printing an entire active and viable glioblastoma tumor using a 3D printer. The 3D-bioprinted tumor includes a complex system of blood vessel-like tubes through which blood cells and drugs can flow, simulating a real tumor. Link to the research video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUjuFyLF5nM The study was led by Prof. Ronit Satchi-Fainaro, Sackler Faculty of Medicine and Sagol School of Neuroscience, Director of the Cancer Biology Research…
“It is a big step forward in the search for therapies for this type of cancer with poor prognosis” says Massimo Squatrito, main co-author of the study. Researchers at the CNIO and scientists from the School of Medicine of the University of Fribourg, Germany, lead the team that found the master regulator gene – a sort of general genetic switch – for the mesenchymal subtype of glioblastoma, considered to be the brain cancer with the poorest prognosis. The master regulator…
The antiviral agent incorporates RNA-like building blocks into the genome of the virus. The United States recently secured 1.7 million doses of a compound that could help to treat Covid-19 patients. In preliminary studies, Molnupiravir reduced the transmission of the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen and the Julius Maximilians University Würzburg have now elucidated the underlying molecular mechanism. The antiviral agent incorporates RNA-like building blocks into the RNA genome of the virus….
SOF4 is a gas that was discovered over a hundred years ago but is rarely used because it is difficult to prepare and highly reactive. Now a collaboration of chemists including Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Professor John E. Moses, Nobel laureate K. Barry Sharpless and Associate Professor Peng Wu, both of Scripps Research, and Han Zuilhof of Wageningen University found a way to use the molecule safely as building blocks for new products. In a paper in Nature Chemistry, they describe a new set of modifiable…
Ice is omnipresent and profoundly impacts our daily life, influencing areas such as climate change, transportation, and energy consumption. Understanding the process of ice formation can decelerate the rate at which glaciers melt and sea levels rise and alleviate other major environmental concerns. Since ice formation is mainly governed by ice nucleation followed by the growth of the nuclei, scientists have put in a great effort to understand the thermodynamics and kinetics behind the nucleation processes. Ice nucleation can occur…
A study of microbial populations under a prolonged period of starvation by Indiana University professor Jay T. Lennon and his laboratory could help researchers answer questions pertaining to chronic infections, the functioning of bacteria in the environment and the persistence of life itself. In a paper published online Aug. 12 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Lennon and his colleagues explain their study of about 100 populations of different bacteria in closed systems, which had…
Despite tremendous advances in medicine, tumors are challenging to cure because they are made up of heterogeneous cells. Like human families, the individual cells of a tumor share some common traits and characteristics, but as the tumor expands, the cells also develop their own identities. And, as a result, some cells are more resistant to therapy than others and quicker to adapt and change. A team of researchers at The University of Texas at Austin developed a new way to…
There is an urgent need for reporting of biomedical research on mammalian cells to be more standardized and detailed and for greater control and measurement of the environmental conditions of cell cultures. This will make the modeling of human physiology more precise and contribute to the reproducibility of the research. A team of KAUST scientists and colleagues in Saudi Arabia and the U.S. analyzed 810 randomly selected papers on mammalian cell lines. Fewer than 700 of those, involving 1,749 individual…
As COVID-19 vaccinations are well underway, people await a return to normal life. However, fears also grow due to unforeseen side effects like the rare thrombosis. In the body, life is maintained by the movement of substances or energy. Chemical reactions are regulated by the presence of organelles or core structures of cells that accommodate specific enzymes or cofactors. A nanoreactor with both the activity of a synthetic catalyst, such as an artificial organelle that mimics a cell, and the…
Alzheimer’s research… Small aggregates of proteins known as Aβ oligomers are suspected as the main cause for the development of Alzheimer’s disease. However, it is not yet clear where and under what conditions these toxic aggregates form. Researchers from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and Forschungszentrum Jülich, together with partners from the University and University Hospital Cologne, have now found that a slightly acidic milieu is conducive to this development. In this environment, the oligomers form around 8,000 times quicker than…
The dining time of different insects impacts a plant’s defenses and nutritional quality—a complexity uncovered in new research with implications for pest management strategies. A piercing-sucking, virus-carrying aphid has long worried pea plant farmers, but a more innocuous-seeming weevil that only takes tiny bites from leaves was found to also play a significant role in plant health. Depending if the weevils eat before, or after, the aphids, they can increase or decrease the plant’s ability to fend off the virus….
Researchers identify two sugar-binding proteins that impede the viral entry of circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants. The team, spearheaded by researchers at IMBA – Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences – may have found the “Achilles’ heel” of the virus, with potential for pan-variant therapeutic interventions. The findings are now published in the EMBO Journal. Amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it is paramount to find new ways to contain the spread of SARS-CoV-2. To this end, the Spike…
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