Advanced application efficiently assesses new treatment possibilities, particularly for cancer. Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has developed a unique technology to screen new DNA-targeting therapeutics designed to treat cancer and other diseases. Combining SwRI’s 3D drug screening software tool and machine learning techniques, SwRI scientists successfully predicted the DNA binding affinity and cancer cell toxicity for a variety of relevant drug compounds under development. SwRI Scientist Dillon Cao (left) and Research Scientist Dr. Tristan Adamson used machine learning with guided computational…
Hope for diabetic retinopathy. Macrophages, also known as scavenger cells, are part of our immune system. They destroy invading pathogens and are found in the organs and the bloodstream. Led by Prof. Dr. Peter Wieghofer, professor of cellular neuroanatomy, researchers at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Augsburg in Germany have now gained new insights into these immune cells in the eye. For the first time, they have shown that in the eye of the mouse macrophages are…
Currently, industrial processes in the U.S. account for approximately a third of the country’s carbon dioxide emissions – even more than the annual emissions from passenger vehicles, trucks, and airplanes combined. Decarbonizing this sector is a challenging but vital step in mitigating impacts on our future climate. Researchers at Stanford Engineering have designed and demonstrated a new type of thermochemical reactor that is capable of generating the immense amounts of heat required for many industrial processes using electricity instead of burning fossil…
Scientists highlight diversity and editability in photosensitive molecules. Scientists from Tokyo Metropolitan University have identified a new photoreceptor in cyanobacteria with a modification in part of its structure which makes it sensitive to green/teal light. The photoreceptor belongs in a family usually sensitive to red/green light in the environment. They identified the parts of its amino acid structure responsible for this behavior; editing them helped restore sensitivity to red and green light, a remarkable example of molecular “plasticity” in action….
Revolutionary Discovery at the University of Bremen. Scientists at the University of Bremen have successfully isolated a nitrene for the first time, which was previously considered impossible to isolate. The discovery was published in the renowned “Science” journal. “Our finding is a great success for foundation research. Chemistry textbooks will have to be rewritten,” states Professor Jens Beckmann, head of the research team. “We have shown that it is possible to control these highly reactive compounds in the laboratory. This…
The research was carried out in Dr. Johannes Karges’ Medicinal Inorganic Chemistry group in collaboration with doctoral student Nicolás Montesdeoca and two Bachelor students, Lukas Johannknecht and Elizaveta Efanova, and with the support of Dr. Jaqueline Heinen-Weiler from the Medical Imaging Center at Ruhr University Bochum. Two types of programmed cell death In programmed cell death, certain signaling molecules initiate a kind of suicide program to cause cells to die in a controlled manner. This is an essential step to…
Researchers at the University of Bayreuth have established a new optogenetic approach in which the bacterial production of proteins can be controlled at the mRNA level with blue light. The new system gates the activation of the genetic substance particularly effectively and thus surpasses previous approaches. It provides new tools for basic research and biotechnology. What for? Optogenetics refers to the regulation of biological processes by light, for example gene expression, i.e. the activation of specific genes. Optogenetics therefore offers…
The ability to turn experiences into memories allows us to learn from the past and use what we learned as a model to respond appropriately to new situations. For this reason, as the world around us changes, this memory model cannot simply be a fixed archive of the good old days. Rather, it must be dynamic, changing over time and adapting to new circumstances to better help us predict the future and select the best course of action. How the…
The remarkable affinity of the microbial enzyme iron nitrogenase for the greenhouse gas CO2 makes it useful for future biotechnologie. Nitrogenases are among the most geochemically important enzymes on Earth, providing all forms of life with bioavailable nitrogen in the form of ammonia (NH3). Some nitrogenases can also directly convert CO2 into hydrocarbon chains, making them an exciting target for the development of biotechnological processes. A team of researchers in Marburg, Germany, led by Max Planck scientist Johannes Rebelein, has…
Researchers publish a new study on the adaptability of plants in arid regions in the scientific journal “Nature”. In a major international study, scientists, including Dr Pierre Liancourt, plant ecologist at the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart, have investigated how plants in arid regions have adapted to these extreme habitats. For eight years, over 120 researchers from 27 countries collected samples from numerous selected drylands on six continents. This made it possible to analyse over 1300 observation series and…
MRC1 An international research collaboration reveals that the fork protection complex component Mrc1 is a central coordinator of symmetrical parental histone inheritance to both leading and lagging DNA strands during replication, which is essential to the long-term maintenance of cell identity. A groundbreaking discovery regarding Mrc1 (Mediator of Replication Checkpoint 1) – a fission yeast protein involved in DNA replication – has been published in Cell. The discovery is the result of an international research collaboration, led by Professors Genevieve Thon…
Chemists and pharmaceutical scientists at Heidelberg University develop an innovative process for producing these biologically active compounds. A cutting-edge chemical process is the first to make it possible to quickly and easily produce modified peptides with boronic acids. It was developed by scientists from the Institute of Organic Chemistry and the Institute of Pharmacy and Molecular Biotechnology at Heidelberg University. As part of this work, scientists managed to synthesize a large number of different biologically active peptide boronic acids and…
Methane-oxidizing bacteria could play a greater role than previously thought in preventing the release of climate-damaging methane from lakes, researchers from Bremen report. They also show who is behind the process and how it works. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas frequently produced in the sea and in fresh water. Lakes in particular release large quantities of this climate-killer. Fortunately, however, there are microorganisms that counteract this: They are able to utilize methane to grow and generate energy, thus preventing…
Inside each cell, individual structures known as organelles perform key functions, but how these organelles contribute to the formation of tissues and organs is unknown. Groundbreaking research from the Campàs group at the Cluster of Excellence Physics of Life of TU Dresden now reveals that the cell’s nucleus controls the stiffness of eye and brain tissues, and even the ordered arrangements of cells in them. These results add a new role for the cell’s nucleus in tissue organization, well beyond…
New reactor system could decarbonize ammonia production, treat nitrate-contaminated water. Ammonia plays a critical role in sustaining food production for the world’s growing population, but making it accounts for about 2% of global energy consumption and 1.4% of carbon dioxide emissions. Rice University engineers have developed a revolutionary reactor design that could decarbonize ammonia production while also mitigating water pollution. In a study published in Nature Catalysis, a team of Rice engineers led by Haotian Wang described the development of a new…
ISTA researchers uncover how ‘mortal filaments’ self-assemble and maintain order. A previously unknown mechanism of active matter self-organization essential for bacterial cell division follows the motto ‘dying to align’: Misaligned filaments ‘die’ spontaneously to form a ring structure at the center of the dividing cell. The study, led by the Šarić group at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), was published in Nature Physics. The work could find applications in developing synthetic self-healing materials. How does matter, lifeless…
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