Using an innovative new method, a University of Saskatchewan (USask) researcher is building tiny pseudo-organs from stem cells to help diagnose and treat Alzheimer’s. Using an innovative new method, a University of Saskatchewan (USask) researcher is building tiny pseudo-organs from stem cells to help diagnose and treat Alzheimer’s. When Dr. Tyler Wenzel (PhD) first came up with the idea of building a miniature brain from stem cells, he never could have predicted how well his creations would work. Now, Wenzel’s…
Research on centromere structure… Researchers from the Kops group in collaboration with researchers from the University of Edinburgh, made a surprising new discovery in the structure of the centromere, a structure that is involved in ensuring that chromosomes are segregated properly when a cell divides. Mistakes in chromosome segregation can lead to cell death and cancer development. The researchers discovered that the centromere consists of two subdomains. This fundamental finding has important implications for the process of chromosome segregation and provides…
Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology have discovered a new partnership between a marine diatom and a bacterium that can account for a large share of nitrogen fixation in vast regions of the ocean. The newly-discovered bacterial symbiont is closely related to the nitrogen-fixing Rhizobia which live in partnership with many crop plants and may open up new avenues to engineer nitrogen-fixing plants. Nitrogen is an essential component of all living organisms. It is also the key…
A study from the Hackett group at EMBL Rome led to the development of a powerful epigenetic editing technology, which unlocks the ability to precisely program chromatin modifications. Understanding how genes are regulated at the molecular level is a central challenge in modern biology. This complex mechanism is mainly driven by the interaction between proteins called transcription factors, DNA regulatory regions, and epigenetic modifications – chemical alterations that change chromatin structure. The set of epigenetic modifications of a cell’s genome…
Our human brain is not only bigger and contains more neurons than the brains of other species, but it is also connected in a special pattern: Thick bundles of neurons connect brain regions across long distances, such as the right and left brain hemispheres. A team of researchers at IMBA, including Catarina Martins-Costa, Nina Corsini and Jürgen Knoblich, now presents the first organoid model in which these information highways can be studied. Their results are published on May 7th in…
Macquarie University researchers have debunked a 75-year-old theory about how humans determine where sounds are coming from, and it could unlock the secret to creating a next generation of more adaptable and efficient hearing devices ranging from hearing aids to smartphones. In the 1940s, an engineering model was developed to explain how humans can locate a sound source based on differences of just a few tens of millionths of a second in when the sound reaches each ear. This model…
Scientists uncover how plants “see” shades of light, temperature. Plants’ ability to sense light and temperature, and their ability to adapt to climate change, hinges on free-forming structures in their cells whose function was, until now, a mystery. For the first time, UC Riverside researchers have determined how these structures work on a molecular level, as well as where and how they form. This information is described in two Nature Communications papers published this week. Scientists have long studied membrane-bound…
A new study at Hebrew University reveals insights into mRNA regulation during embryonic development. The study combines single-cell RNA-Seq and metabolic labeling in zebrafish embryos, distinguishing between newly-transcribed and pre-existing mRNA. This approach quantifies mRNA transcription and degradation rates within individual cell types, uncovering varied regulatory rates across genes and cell-type-specific differences in degradation. Understanding mRNA regulation during embryonic development helps decipher how genes are turned on and off in specific cells at precise times, informing our understanding of development,…
How cancer cells tug against each other determines whether they can migrate elsewhere in the body. Understanding how cancerous cells spread from a primary tumor is important for any number of reasons, including determining the aggressiveness of the disease itself. The movement of cells into the extracellular matrix (ECM) of neighboring tissue is an essential step in cancer progression that directly correlates to the onset of metastasis. In APL Bioengineering, by AIP Publishing, a team of researchers from Germany and…
A biomaterial vaccine enhances and sustains lymph node expansion following vaccination, boosting anti-tumor immunity in an animal model. Each one of us has around 600 lymph nodes (LNs) – small, bean-shaped organs that house various types of blood cells and filter lymph fluid – scattered throughout our bodies. Many of us have also experienced some of our LNs to temporarily swelling during infections with viruses or other pathogens. This LN expansion and subsequent contraction can also result from vaccines injected…
Pitt, Drexel, and Brookhaven engineers solve the “catalysis vs corrosion” mystery in electrochemical ozone production. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Drexel University in Philadelphia, along with Brookhaven National Laboratory, are working to solve a multipart mystery to make water disinfection treatments more sustainable. Scalable electrochemical ozone production (EOP) technologies to disinfect dirty water may someday replace centralized chlorine treatments used today, whether in modern cities or remote villages. However, little is understood about EOP at the molecular level and…
Pan-cancer analysis uncovers a new class of promising CAR T–cell immunotherapy targets. Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital found 156 potential CAR targets across the brain and solid tumors, validating a top result in the laboratory. Targeting anti-cancer therapy to affect cancer cells but not healthy cells is challenging. For chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T–cell immunotherapy, where a patient’s own immune cells are re-engineered to attack cancer cells, many solid and brain cancers lack an effective target. St. Jude…
An international research team is examining the molecular mechanisms that enabled plants to colonize the surface of the Earth. Around 550 million years ago, the Earth’s surface was a barren land mass surrounded by oceans. Almost all lifeforms that had evolved up to that point existed exclusively in the oceans. Then, however, the first plants made their way onto land—not only making the Earth greener but also fundamentally transforming the atmosphere, the climate and overall conditions of life on our…
New sensor is six orders of magnitude more sensitive than the next best thing. A research team at Pitt led by Alexander Star, a chemistry professor in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, has developed a fentanyl sensor that is six orders of magnitude more sensitive than any electrochemical sensor for the drug reported in the past five years. The portable sensor can also tell the difference between fentanyl and other opioids. Their work was published in the…
New research shows how tiny plant-like organisms hitch a ride on ocean currents to reach darker and deeper depths, where they impact carbon cycling and microbial dynamics in the subtropical oceans. Some of the ocean’s tiniest organisms get swept into underwater currents that act as a conduit that shuttles them from the sunny surface to deeper, darker depths where they play a huge role in affecting the ocean’s chemistry and ecosystem, according to new research. Published in the Proceedings of…
…without the application of phytohormones. Researchers develop a novel plant regeneration approach by modulating the expression of genes that control plant cell differentiation. For ages now, plants have been the primary source of nutrition for animals and mankind. Additionally, plants are used for the extraction of various medicinal and therapeutic compounds. However, their indiscriminate use, along with the rising demand for food, underscores the need for novel plant breeding practices. Advances in plant biotechnology can address the problems associated with…
Feedback
