More than 30 previously unknown RNA viruses in sea lice have been identified by University of British Columbia (UBC) researchers. Sea lice are parasitic copepods (small crustaceans) found in many fresh and saltwater habitats, and have been implicated in the decline of wild salmon populations. The research sheds greater light on the types of viruses being carried by sea lice, and how the viruses and host are interacting. “We found many more types of viruses than are known in sea…

– Nature’s secret for holding it together. An obscure aquatic plant has helped to explain how plants avoid cracking up under the stresses and strains of growth. The finding by researchers Dr Robert Kelly-Bellow and Karen Lee in the group of Professor Enrico Coen at the John Innes Centre, started with a curious observation in a dwarf mutant of the carnivorous plant Utricularia gibba. The stems of this floating plant are filled with airspaces and this hollowness means that the…

… aided by deep learning and holographic imaging, can help accelerate vaccine and drug development. In a new paper published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, a team of scientists led by Professor Aydogan Ozcan from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at UCLA and an associate director of the California NanoSystems Institute, developed a rapid, stain-free, and automated viral plaque detection system enabled by holography and deep learning. This system incorporates a cost-effective and high-throughput holographic imaging device that continuously monitors…

Successfully reducing animal testing: Scientists at the Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN) are increasingly using cell cultures to draw conclusions about the consequences of climate change. According to animal experimentation statistics, fish are the second most commonly used group of animals in research after mice. They play an important role in aquaculture and also serve as model animals in various research areas. “Applying the 3Rs principle means reducing, refining and replacing animal experiments to improve ethical standards and…

… and immune system. In the quest to find the origin of the puzzling symptoms in four children, researchers from St. Anna Children’s Cancer Research Institute, the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), and the Medical University of Vienna have discovered a completely new disease, linking disruptions of blood formation, the immune system, and inflammation. This groundbreaking discovery provides the basis for a better understanding of similar diseases. It is a milestone that…

A gel that combines both stiffness and toughness is a step forward in the bid to create biodegradable implants for joint injuries, according to new UBC research. Mimicking articular cartilage, found in our knee and hip joints, is challenging. This cartilage is key to smooth joint movement, and damage to it can cause pain, reduce function, and lead to arthritis. One potential solution is to implant artificial scaffolds made of proteins that help the cartilage regenerate itself as the scaffold…


Understanding neuronal communication with ultra-thin fiber-based endo-microscope. In order to investigate the activity of neuronal structures as well as the interaction of nerve cells, minimally invasive technologies providing images from delicate deep-brain tissues are required. A new hair-thin endo-microscope, developed by an international team with the participation of Leibniz IPHT, promises extremely gentle in-depth observations. It offers the potential to investigate areas of the brain in great detail and to study the onset and progression of severe neuronal diseases. The…

The aim of proton radiation therapy in fighting cancer is to kill as many tumor cells as possible while also protecting the surrounding healthy tissue. As there is yet no direct method for mapping the beam range during dose delivery, physicians work with safety margins around the tumor that affect the conformity of dose distribution and reduce accurate targeting. Dresden scientists led by Prof. Aswin L. Hoffmann have succeeded in visualizing the proton beam’s trajectory in a fluid-filled phantom using…

Robot is made of metal and yet is soft and flexible. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart have developed a magnetically controlled soft medical robot with a unique, flexible structure inspired by the body of a pangolin. The robot is freely movable despite built-in hard metal components. Thus, depending on the magnetic field, it can adapt its shape to be able to move and can emit heat when needed, allowing for functionalities such as selective…

The techniques used for this “off-the-shelf” solution can be extended to improve the quality of life for cancer patients facing debilitating side effects from chemotherapy and radiation therapy. FINDINGS Scientists at City of Hope, one of the largest cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States and a leading research center for diabetes and other life-threatening illnesses, have developed universal donor stem cells that could one day provide lifesaving therapy to children with lethal brain conditions, such as Canavan…

Researchers slow down and scan multiple times individual DNA molecules. EPFL researchers have achieved near-perfect control over the manipulation of individual molecules, allowing them to be identified and characterized with unprecedented precision. Aleksandra Radenovic, head of the Laboratory of Nanoscale Biology in the School of Engineering, has worked for years to improve nanopore technology, which involves passing a molecule like DNA through a tiny pore in a membrane to measure an ionic current. Scientists can determine DNA’s sequence of nucleotides – which…

Researchers created a new and improved way to view the mechanics of life. There are various ways to image biological samples on a microscopic level, and each has its own pros and cons. For the first time, a team of researchers, including those from the University of Tokyo, has combined aspects from two of the leading imaging techniques to craft a new method of imaging and analyzing biological samples. Its concept, known as RESORT, paves the way to observe living…

Dr. Zoltan Nagy has been accepted into the prestigious Emmy Noether Programme by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The biologist will receive over 1.7 million euros in funding for a period of six years to establish a research group at the Institute of Experimental Biomedicine, University Hospital Würzburg to investigate the maturation process of blood-forming cells known as megakaryocytes. Würzburg. Those with an increased risk of bleeding may require platelet transfusion in various medical situations such as after a severe…

Researchers at the University of Birmingham have demonstrated that silver retains antimicrobial activity for longer when it is impregnated into ‘bioactive glass’, and shown for the first time how this promising combination delivers more long-lasting antimicrobial wound protection than conventional alternatives.  Bioactive glasses are a unique class of synthetic biomaterials made from silicone and have been used for some years in bone grafting. Silver has long been known to prevent or reduce the growth of biofilms (communities of bacteria) in…

Get up. Go to the kitchen. Prepare some cereal – but a look into the fridge shows: the milk bottle is empty. What now? Skip breakfast? Ask the neighbour for milk? Eat jam sandwiches? Every day, people are confronted with situations that were actually planned quite differently. Flexibility is what helps. The origin of this skill in the brain is called cognitive flexibility. A neuroscientific research team at the Berufsgenossenschaftliches Universitätsklinikum Bergmannsheil, University Hospital of Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, and…

UNIGE scientists have identified a new type of molecular sensor that enables the malaria parasite to infect human cells or mosquitoes at just the right moment. With almost 250 million cases a year, 621,000 of them fatal, malaria remains a major public health problem, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria is a parasitic disease transmitted by mosquitoes and caused by a microbe of the genus Plasmodium. On its journey from mosquito to human, Plasmodium must adapt to the specificities of the many…