Scientists investigating Alzheimer’s disease have determined the structure of molecules within a human brain for the very first time. Published today in Nature, the study describes how scientists used cryo-electron tomography, guided by fluorescence microscopy, to explore deep inside an Alzheimer’s disease donor brain. This gave 3-dimensional maps in which they could observe proteins, the molecular building blocks of life a million-times smaller than a grain of rice, within the brain. The study zoomed in on two proteins that cause…
Researchers at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) have found that inflammation in an immune cell may be responsible in part for some severe symptoms in a group of rare genetic conditions called lysosomal storage diseases (LSDs). LSDs affect about one in 7,700 live births worldwide. Children with the condition typically present at a young age with progressive neurodegeneration. Many children with LSDs die prematurely, and current treatments focus on symptom management. Until now, the role of macrophages in the…
UTA-led program gives high school teachers and students access to college concepts. More than 70 high school students and science teachers gathered at Young Middle School in Arlington this summer to learn about quantum information science (QIS). The annual workshop and camp are part of a national pilot program called Quantum for All led by Karen Jo Matsler, assistant professor in practice and master teacher in the UTeach program at The University of Texas at Arlington. “Just the word ‘quantum’ scares people,…
… extracting metals with microorganisms. TUBAF develops innovative process for the bioleaching of copper, indium and zinc. Microorganisms work in an underground bioreactor and convert ores or residual materials from mining into the valuable metals copper, indium and zinc. Innovative membrane filters then filter the valuable metals from the resulting process water. In a pilot plant of a current mining project near Pöhla in Saxony, a team from the TU Bergakademie Freiberg wants to combine both procedures into an innovative…
… offers therapeutic potential. A team led by Prof. Dr. Han Sun from the Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP) has elucidated an important mechanism in the function of TREK channels at an atomic level. The results, published in the journal “Nature Communications,” could facilitate the development of therapeutics for diseases such as ischemia, epilepsy, and depression. The human body is composed of cells where various processes occur constantly. Some of these processes take place across the cell membrane through potassium…
Female mammals – including humans – are born with all of their egg cells. Of a woman’s one to two million egg cells, about 400 mature before menopause and can be fertilized. Some egg cells therefore survive for several decades – and need to remain functional over this long time. Extremely long-lived proteins in the ovary seem to play an important role in this, as teams of researchers from Göttingen (Germany) have now discovered in experiments with mice. These long-lived…
Ice in nature is surrounded by liquid most of the time, and therefore it is key to understand how ice and liquid interact. A Kobe University and Institute for Molecular Science study could now for the first time directly observe the precise shape of ice at the interface between ice and liquid – by using antifreeze and a refrigerated microscope. When we slide on ice, when snowflakes form, when we lick ice cream, the surface of the ice is always covered…
Awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, quantum dots have a wide variety of applications ranging from displays and LED lights to chemical reaction catalysis and bioimaging. These semiconductor nanocrystals are so small—on the order of nanometers—that their properties, such as color, are size dependent, and they start to exhibit quantum properties. This technology has been really well developed, but only in the visible spectrum, leaving untapped opportunities for technologies in both the ultraviolet and infrared regions of the electromagnetic…
Every living cell transcribes DNA into RNA. This process begins when an enzyme called RNA polymerase (RNAP) clamps onto DNA. Within a few hundred milliseconds, the DNA double helix unwinds to form a node known as the transcription bubble, so that one exposed DNA strand can be copied into a complementary RNA strand. How RNAP accomplishes this feat is largely unknown. A snapshot of RNAP in the act of opening that bubble would provide a wealth of information, but the…
New findings open up possibilities for sustainable color technologies. An international team of researchers of the Cluster of Excellence ‘Balance of the Microverse’ at the University of Jena has investigated the mechanism that makes some types of bacteria reflect light without using pigments. The researchers were interested in the genes responsible and discovered important ecological connections. These findings were published in the current issue of the renowned journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The iridescent colors known…
Is it possible to create a new class of materials from very different substances using the “one-pot synthesis” approach? Chemists at the University of Konstanz explain how they enable the synthesis of such novel materials. People have long dreamt of developing materials to circumvent the challenges of daily life. Ideally, one could capitalize on a combination of the features of different materials, profiting from their advantages while avoiding the disadvantages. In chemistry, this concept has been applied to hybrid materials,…
…could help capture carbon directly from smokestacks. Electrochemical catalyst for converting CO2 to valuable products can stand up to an impurity that poisons current versions. A newly designed catalyst created by University of Toronto Engineering researchers efficiently converts captured carbon into valuable products — even in the presence of a contaminant that degrades the performance of current versions. The discovery is an important step toward more economically favourable techniques for carbon capture and storage that could be added on to existing…
Cancer is insidious. Throughout tumor progression, the disease hijacks otherwise healthy biological processes—like the body’s immune response—to grow and spread. When tumors elevate levels of an immune system molecule called Interleukin-6 (IL-6), it can cause severe brain dysfunction. In about 50%-80% of cancer patients, this leads to a lethal wasting disease called cachexia. “It’s a very severe syndrome,” says Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Professor Bo Li. Left: Hyperactive neurons (pink) in the AP before treatment with antibodies (top) and CRISPR…
… a key gene in the progression and treatment of lung adenocarcinoma, has been discovered. The alteration of RNF144B especially affects the progression of lung adenocarcinoma tumours. According to the study, this gene’s low expression is related to a worse prognosis and greater resistance to conventional chemotherapy treatment. Research led by the Cancer Biology Laboratory of the Department of Medicine and Life Sciences (MELIS) at Pompeu Fabra University, in collaboration with the Center for Genomic Regulation and the Murcian Institute…
Researchers at Tel Aviv University relied on principles of origami, the Japanese art of paperfolding, to develop an original and innovative solution for a problem that has been troubling researchers worldwide: positioning sensors inside 3D-bioprinted tissue models. Instead of bioprinting tissue over the sensors (found to be impracticable) they design and produce an origami-inspired structure that folds around the fabricated tissue, allowing the insertion of sensors into precisely pre-defined locations. The study was a joint effort of researchers from several…
… may facilitate infection, transmission in mammals. H5N1 virus did not efficiently transmit via respiratory route to ferrets. A series of experiments with highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza (HPAI H5N1) viruses circulating in infected U.S. dairy cattle found that viruses derived from lactating dairy cattle induced severe disease in mice and ferrets when administered via intranasal inoculation. The virus from the H5N1-infected cows bound to both avian (bird) and human-type cellular receptors, but, importantly, did not transmit efficiently among ferrets…
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