Manganese could make luminescent materials and the conversion of sunlight more sustainable. University of Basel researchers have reached an important milestone in their quest to produce more sustainable luminescent materials and catalysts for converting sunlight into other forms of energy. Based on the cheap metal manganese, they have developed a new class of compounds with promising properties that until now have primarily been found in noble metal compounds. Smartphone screens and catalysts for artificial photosynthesis – to produce fuels from…
The mammalian cerebellum has long been associated almost exclusively with motor control, yet recent studies indicate that it also contributes to many higher brain functions. An international research team led by Prof. Dr Henrik Kaessmann from the Center for Molecular Biology of Heidelberg University (ZMBH) has now decoded the genetic programmes that control the development of cerebellar cell types before and after birth. The molecular biologists compared data from the mouse cerebellum with corresponding data from the opossum, revealing fundamental…
Controlling ferrimagnets by voltage… For the first time, an international research team with participants from Chemnitz University of Technology and IFW Dresden demonstrate 180° magnetization reversal purely by electric fields via magneto-ionic control of ferrimagnets– publication in Nature Nanotechnology The rapid increase in energy consumption related to digital technologies is a major global challenge. One key problem is the reduction of the energy consumption of magnetic data storage devices, which are used, for example, in large data centers. An international…
Walking blindfolded in a straight line is a difficult task. Most of the time, we end up running in circles. Fruit flies that are blind to motion have similar problems during free flight: They only manage to fly straight for short distances, as researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology have now shown. Motion vision is thus the component of visual perception that contributes decisively to course control in fruit flies. Walking in straight line towards a tree is…
We remember things longer if we take breaks during learning, referred to as the spacing effect. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology gained deeper insight into the neuronal basis for this phenomenon in mice. With longer intervals between learning repetitions, mice reuse more of the same neurons as before – instead of activating different ones. Possibly, this allows the neuronal connections to strengthen with each learning event, such that knowledge is stored for a longer time. Many of…
Based on the principle of interaction between matter and light, a new method has been developed to track and observe the Brownian motion of fast-moving nanometer-sized molecules, and measure the different fluorescence signals of each biological nanoparticle. The nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA) system is the most commonly used nanoparticle quantification method in the world. It is a method that observes and tracks a group of nanoparticles in a captured image as a single particle unit. Recently, a POSTECH research team…
Researchers from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) have decoded the chromosomal-level genome of a deep-sea gutless tubeworm and the genome of its co-living “partner” – a kind of bacteria that provide nutrients they generate from inorganic compounds to the worm for the first time, explaining how the pair adapts to the extreme habitat. Their discovery lays foundation for potential applications such as nutrient generation, biomaterial production and microbial growth control. Living in deep-sea hydrothermal vents and…
Göttingen researchers have developed mini-antibodies that efficiently block the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and its dangerous new variants. These so-called nanobodies bind and neutralize the virus up to 1000 times better than previously developed mini-antibodies. In addition, the scientists optimized their mini-antibodies for stability and resistance to extreme heat. This unique combination makes them promising agents to treat COVID-19. Since nanobodies can be produced at low costs in large quantities, they could meet the global demand for COVID-19 therapeutics. The new nanobodies…
Heat stress procures the capacity for remembering in plant cells. How a plant grows depends on its genetic blueprint on the one hand, and on how the environment influences molecular and physiological processes on the other. Of particular importance are the so-called meristems, those divisible tissues that contain the plant stem cells. The shoot apical meristem is crucial for the growth of the organs above ground. Researchers led by Bernd Mueller-Roeber at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology…
For decades, a key brain area has been thought to merely regulate locomotion. Now, a research group at the Biozentrum, University of Basel, and the Friedrich Miescher Institut for Biomedical Research (FMI) has shown that the region is involved in much more than walking, as it contains distinct populations of neurons that control different body movements. The findings could help to improve certain therapies for Parkinson’s disease. Even the mundane act of walking requires complex movements such as postural changes…
A research team headed by biomedical engineer Dr Britta Trappmann from the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine in Münster, Germany, has developed a cell culture system in which, for the first time, a functional blood vessel system is able to grow within a framework made of synthetic material. The team investigated which material properties promote individual parameters of vessel formation – a step towards the futuristic vision of implantable artificial tissues. The study has been published in the journal…
Heidelberg chemists succeed in producing synthesis and complete characterisation for the first time. Silicon, a semi-metal, bonds in its natural form with four other elements and its three-dimensional structure takes the form of a tetrahedron. For a long time, it seemed impossible to achieve the synthesis and characterisation of a two-dimensional equivalent – geometrically speaking, a square. Now scientists from the field of Inorganic Chemistry at Heidelberg University have succeeded in producing a crystalline complex with such a configuration. PD…
For much of human history, animals and plants were perceived to follow a different set of rules than the rest of the universe. In the 18th and 19th centuries, this culminated in a belief that living organisms were infused by a non-physical energy or “life force” that allowed them to perform remarkable transformations that couldn’t be explained by conventional chemistry or physics alone. Scientists now understand that these transformations are powered by enzymes – protein molecules comprised of chains of…
Every innovative drug starts with the search for an active substance targeting key players in disease-related processes. However, there is no perfect drug that affects the one target in the body: no effect without side effects, as also described in most medicine information leaflets. A group of chemists and biologists led by Prof. Herbert Waldmann and Dr. Slava Ziegler at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology in Dortmund have now combined different strategies to find bioactive molecules and identified…
Harnessing the combined power of Vitamin C and TET proteins may give scientists a leg up in treating autoimmune diseases. You can’t make a banana split without bananas. And you can’t generate stable regulatory T cells without Vitamin C or enzymes called TET proteins, it appears. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) help control inflammation and autoimmunity in the body. Tregs are so important, in fact, that scientists are working to generate stable induced Tregs (iTregs) in vitro for use as treatments…
Drugs must be safe not just for the patients; in the case of pregnant patients, drugs must also be safe for the unborn children still in the womb. Therefore, at an early stage in the development of new medicines, candidate substances are tested in the Petri dish on embryonic stem cells from mouse cell lines. This is to avoid that an embryo-damaging effect would only be noticed at a later stage during tests with pregnant mice. However, these cell culture…
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