How are environmental changes, loss of biodiversity, and the spread of pathogens connected? The answer is a puzzle. Scientists from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin in cooperation with the Leibniz-IZW have now described one piece of that puzzle in a study on the effects of rainforest clearing on mosquitoes and the viruses they carry the journal “eLife”. They show that the destruction of tropical rainforests harms the diversity of mosquito species. At the same time, more resilient species of mosquitoes become…
Researchers at Münster University take a deep look at peroxisomal processes. Every system has its waste disposal system. The cell organelles known as “peroxisomes” dispose toxic substances and fats in the human body, among other things, and, in doing so, they prevent serious illnesses. The “Pex” group of proteins (peroxisomes biogenesis factors) keep these “detox units” functioning properly – and a team of researchers at Münster University headed by Prof. Christos Gatsogiannis have now been the first to show, at…
Scientists from the Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, both Germany, have successfully developed nanomaterials using a so-called bottom-up approach. As reported in the scientific journal ACS Nano, they exploit the fact that crystals often grow in a specific direction during crystallisation. These resulting nanostructures, which appear as “worm-like and decorated rods,“ could be used in various technological applications. “Our structures could be described as worm-like rods with decorations,” explains Prof. Felix Schacher. “Embedded in these…
Discovered for the first time: New deep-sea enzyme breaks down PET plastic. Plastic pollution is increasingly affecting the health of coasts and oceans. One well-known problem is plastic bottles made from polyethylene terephthalate, or PET. A new study involving scientists from Professor Ruth Schmitz-Streit’s research group at Kiel University has shown for the first time, using microorganisms from the deep sea, that polymers such as PET are continuously degraded by an enzyme. Researchers from the University of Hamburg and the…
Discovery of oil-forming yeast species boosts hope for reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Not all yeasts are created equally. Unlike the yeast used by bakers and beer brewers for converting sugars to carbon dioxide and fermentation, oleaginous yeasts convert sugars from inedible biomass into fats and oils. A research group jointly led by Kyoto University and Ryukoku University has discovered two new species of oil-forming yeast in the soil of Shiga Prefecture. Their study also examines the relationship between the prefecture’s diverse climate…
… gives hope of personalized medicine. With the ability to map dozens of biomarkers at once, a new method could transform testing for conditions including heart disease and cancer. Currently, many diseases are diagnosed from blood tests that look for one biomarker (such as a protein or other small molecule) or, at most, a couple of biomarkers of the same type. The new method, developed by scientists at Imperial College London in a research collaboration with Oxford Nanopore Technologies (Oxford…
Artificial intelligence (AI) can help plant scientists collect and analyze unprecedented volumes of data, which would not be possible using conventional methods. Researchers at the University of Zurich (UZH) have now used big data, machine learning and field observations in the university’s experimental garden to show how plants respond to changes in the environment. Climate change is making it increasingly important to know how plants can survive and thrive in a changing environment. Conventional experiments in the lab have shown…
Macrophages are little cells vital to the immune system and could possibly inform cell-based therapies for a variety of medical conditions. However, realizing the full potential of macrophage therapies relies on being able to see what these cellular allies are doing inside our bodies, and a team of Penn State researchers may have developed a way to watch them do their thing. In a study published in the journal Small, the Penn State researchers report a novel ultrasound imaging technique to…
A single brain is unfathomably complex. So brain researchers, whether they’re looking at datasets built from 300,000 neurons in 81 mice or from MRIs of 1,200 young adults, are now dealing with so much information that they must also come up with new methods to comprehend it. Developing new analysis tools has become as important as using them to understand brain health and development. A team including researchers at the University of Washington recently used new software to compare MRIs from 300 babies…
A researcher from Japan evaluates the shear viscosities of popular water models widely used in biomolecular research. Water is one of the most abundant substances on Earth and partakes in countless biological, chemical, and ecological processes. Thus, understanding its behavior and properties is essential in a wide variety of scientific and applied fields. To do so, researchers have developed various water models to reproduce the behavior of bulk water in molecular simulations. While these simulations can provide valuable insights into…
Researchers identify the first enzymatic step in the biosynthesis of these plant steroids important in the medical treatment of heart disease. Plants produce an impressive array of metabolites, including many medically valuable steroids. Well-known examples of this class of substances obtained from plants are cardenolides. As early as 1785, the British physician William Withering (1741-1799) published a book on the red foxglove and its use in medicine (An account of the foxglove, and some of its medical uses: with practical…
– charting the sizes and abundance of our body’s cells reveals mathematical order underlying life. An international team of scientists has created the first comprehensive index of human cells, mapping the sizes and abundance of all cell types across the entire body. This groundbreaking study, published in PNAS, reveals surprising mathematical patterns underlying cell size and number, challenging our fundamental understanding of cell growth and proliferation. Led by Dr. Ian Hatton of the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the…
Researchers at IOCB Prague are the first to describe the causes of the behavior of one of the fundamental aromatic molecules, which fascinates the scientific world not only with its blue color but also with other unusual properties – azulene. Their current undertaking will influence the foundations of organic chemistry in the years to come and in practice will help harness the maximum potential of captured light energy. The article appeared in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS)….
Our brain cell components were forming in shallow seas around 800 million years ago. A study in the journal Cell sheds new light on the evolution of neurons, focusing on the placozoans, a millimetre-sized marine animal. Researchers at the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona find evidence that specialized secretory cells found in these unique and ancient creatures may have given rise to neurons in more complex animals. Placozoans are tiny animals, around the size of a large grain of…
A team led by scientists at UW–Madison has exploited those limitations of chemical combinations to write a cookbook with hundreds of recipes that have the potential to give rise to life. Life on a faraway planet — if it’s out there — might not look anything like life on Earth. But there are only so many chemical ingredients in the universe’s pantry, and only so many ways to mix them. A team led by scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison…
Max Planck Scientists from Dortmund show how the signaling molecules BMP and FGF act as antagonists during embryonic development and thus guide cell differentiation. Bricklayer, banker, teacher – choosing a career is one of the most exciting and important decisions in our lives. At the beginning of embryonic development, our cells are also faced with this decision. Some of them become blood cells, others muscle cells and still others become nerve cells. A team led by Christian Schröter at the…
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