Lab study solves textbook problem … The answer to a basic science question could unlock the key to complex medical challenges. -Scientists have searched for years to understand how cells measure their size. Cell size is critical. It’s what regulates cell division in a growing organism. When the microscopic structures double in size, they divide. One cell turns into two. Two cells turn into four. The process repeats until an organism has enough cells. And then it stops. Or at…
Almost all bacteria rely on the same emergency valves–protein channels that pop open under pressure, releasing a deluge of cell contents. It is a last-ditch effort, a failsafe that prevents bacteria from exploding and dying when stretched to the limit. If we understood how those protein channels worked, antibiotic drugs could be designed to open them on demand, draining a bacterium of its nutrients by exploiting a floodgate common to many species. But these channels are tricky to operate in…
What makes them different is that they can be easily recycled. Researchers at the Laboratory of Cluster Catalysis at St Petersburg University have synthesised polymers from biomass. What makes them different is that they can be easily recycled. Today, our life is simply unthinkable without polymers. Plastics, fibres, films, paint and lacquer coating – they are all polymers. We use them both in our everyday life and in industry. Yet the goods made from polymers, e.g. bottles, bags, or disposable…
New research has for the first time compared images of the protein spikes that develop on the surface of cells exposed to the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to the protein spike of the SARS-CoV-19 coronavirus. The images show that the spikes are highly similar to those of the virus and support the modified adenovirus used in the vaccine as a leading platform to combat COVID-19. The SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, has a large number of spikes sticking out of its surface…
A sulfosugar from green vegetables promotes the growth of important gut bacteria. Diet and the gut microbiome With the consumption of a single type of vegetable such as spinach, hundreds of chemical components enter our digestive tract. There, they are further metabolized by the gut microbiome, a unique collection of hundreds of microbial species. The gut microbiome thus plays a major role in determining how nutrition affects our health. “So far, however, the metabolic capabilities of many of these microorganisms…
Researchers at IMBA – Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences – demonstrate that different viruses can lead to brain malformations through diverse mechanisms by using human brain organoid models. The results are published in the journal Cell Stem Cell. Microcephaly, a term referring to developmental malformations of the fetal brain, can be caused by diverse infections during pregnancy. The infectious agents in question are grouped under the general term of TORCH pathogens, in reference to Toxoplasma…
Short pieces of DNA–jumping genes–can bounce from one place to another in our genomes. When too many DNA fragments move around, cancer, infertility, and other problems can arise. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Professor & HHMI Investigator Leemor Joshua-Tor and a research investigator in her lab, Jonathan Ipsaro, study how cells safeguard the genome’s integrity and immobilize these restless bits of DNA. They found that one of the jumping genes’ most needed resources may also be their greatest vulnerability. The…
By mashing up brains from various insect species, neuroscientists at the University of Arizona were able to count the neurons in individual brains, providing a more meaningful metric than traditional studies measuring brain size or weight. Using a surprisingly simple technique, researchers in the University of Arizona Department of Neuroscience have succeeded in approximating how many brain cells make up the brains of several species of bees, ants and wasps. The work revealed that certain species of bees have a…
Oldenburg team reports first successful mass spawning of stony corals in Germany. Scientists at the University of Oldenburg’s Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM) have scored a success: in the aquariums at the ICBM’s Wilhelmshaven site they were able to induce sexual reproduction in stony corals for the first time ever in Germany. The research team, led by Professor Peter Schupp from the Environmental Biochemistry group, succeeded in accurately recreating the environmental conditions of the corals’…
PANDORA sequencing method developed by UC Riverside-led team can detect once-undetectable small RNAs. A team led by a biomedical scientist at the University of California, Riverside, has developed a new RNA-sequencing method– “Panoramic RNA Display by Overcoming RNA Modification Aborted Sequencing,” or PANDORA-seq — that can help discover numerous modified small RNAs that were previously undetectable. RNA plays a central role in decoding the genetic information in DNA to sustain an organism’s life. It is generally known as the intermediate…
Researchers at the University of Münster discover how cell contacts are dynamically remodelled during egg development in fruit flies / Study published in “Developmental Cell”. Within multicellular organisms, cells build connections with each other forming cell layers that cover the surfaces of tissues and organs and separate structures in the body. For example, the skin forms a mantle around the entire organism, and the layer of cells lining the blood vessels creates a boundary between the bloodstream and tissues. Special…
Scientists at the University of Bayreuth and the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen have developed a novel sensor that provides real-time insights into the inner life of plants. The hormone auxin is of central importance for the development of plants. Scientists at the University of Bayreuth and the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen have now developed a novel sensor that makes the spatial distribution of auxin in the cells of living plants visible in…
Around the world, a huge amount of research and development work is currently being done on carbon-containing, or organic, molecules that emit coloured light after appropriate excitation. This research field is driven by the display industry and the development of biomedical imaging techniques. While precise colour tuning in organic fluorescent dyes has so far usually been achieved by mixing different molecules, ETH researchers have now developed an approach that can generate a broad palette of colours by way of chemical…
The current method of manufacturing carbon nanotubes–in essence rolled up sheets of graphene–is unable to allow complete control over their diameter, length and type. This problem has recently been solved for two of the three different types of nanotubes, but the third type, known as ‘zigzag’ nanotubes, had remained out of reach. Researchers with Japan’s National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) have now figured out how to synthesize the zigzag variety. Their method is described in the journal Nature Chemistry,…
Small device contains wells to let small bits of tissue grow, develop, and be studied in real time. Scientists from MIT and the Indian Institute of Technology Madras have grown small amounts of self-organizing brain tissue, known as organoids, in a tiny 3D-printed system that allows observation while they grow and develop. The work is reported in Biomicrofluidics, by AIP Publishing. Current technology for real-time observation of growing organoids involves the use of commercial culture dishes with many wells in…
Researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) have experimentally demonstrated a novel cancer diagnosis technique based on the scattering of circularly polarized light. Computational studies revealed that this technique can detect the progression of precancerous lesions and early cancer. This method can be implemented using an endoscope equipped with spin-LEDs–devices that emit circularly polarized light. Most cancers of the digestive system emerge in the surface layer first and then progress into deeper layers. While surface layer carcinomas can be…
Feedback
