Scientists from the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH), along with colleagues from the United Kingdom, have found clues as to how we maintain constant blood sugar levels after we have eaten. Analyzing the DNA of nearly 55,000 participants from different studies, they identified ten genomic regions containing genetic variants responsible for regulating blood sugar levels after a meal. In further experiments, they were able to show how these genetic variants influence insulin resistance in cells. Their findings, which…

How do our genes determine the immune response to pathogens? This depends on small differences in the genome. The situation is complex, as a new study shows. Not everyone reacts to infectious agents in the same way: some fall ill very severely, others only slightly, and still others possibly not at all. There are many different reasons for this variability. One important reason is that the genome of different people differs from one another. For example, single molecules can be…

A team of researchers from IRB Barcelona and CNAG identifies the IL-17 protein as a determining factor in skin ageing. Blocking the function of IL-17 reduces the pro-inflammatory state and delays the appearance of age-related features in the skin. Published in the journal Nature Aging, the work opens up new perspectives in the development of therapies to improve skin ageing health. A team of scientists from the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) in collaboration with the National Center…

New cryo-EM structure of a zinc-transporter protein reveals how this molecular machine functions to regulate cellular levels of zinc, an essential micronutrient. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have determined the atomic-level structure of a zinc-transporter protein, a molecular machine that regulates levels of this crucial trace metal micronutrient inside cells. As described in a paper just published in Nature Communications, the structure reveals how the cellular membrane protein shifts its shape to move zinc…

Pathways in the brain The different areas in the brain are connected to each other via billions of nerve fibres. These connections are vital for proper brain function. The quest for a comprehensive map of all neural connections critically depends on imaging techniques that can disentangle these fibres, most of them only about a micrometre thin. Particularly challenging are regions with densely packed and highly interwoven nerve fibres. Miriam Menzel, Assistant Professor at the Department of Imaging Physics of TU…

Large study in children reveals Selenomonas sputigena as a key partner of Streptococcus in cavity formation. Collaborating researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine and the Adams School of Dentistry and Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina have discovered that a bacterial species called Selenomonas sputigena can have a major role in causing tooth decay. Scientists have long considered another bacterial species, the plaque-forming, acid-making Streptococcus mutans, as the principal cause…

EPFL researchers have published a first study on the mechanics of surgical knots, with results that could be used to train surgeons to tie stronger, safer sutures – a skill that usually requires years of practice to master. Think about the last time you tied your shoe: maybe you tied it tightly, or tied multiple knots to ensure the laces wouldn’t come undone. You likely relied on intuition to tell you how much tension to apply to keep the laces…

Antibiotics affect the composition and dynamics of the gut microbiome. Treatment with antibiotics not only leads to a loss of biodiversity of microorganisms, but also often favours the selection of resistant strains of bacteria. It has been unclear how the microbiome responds to repeated antibiotic therapy. In a preclinical study, an international research team led by two DZIF scientists used metagenome and cultivation analyses to identify evolutionary mechanisms that contribute to the resilience of the microbial community after repeated antibiotic…

The bacterium Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) can cause severe diseases such as meningitis and blood poisoning in young children. Researchers from the MHH Institute of Clinical Biochemistry have deciphered the pathway of the bacterial capsule and thus created the basis for producing the Hib vaccine inexpensive and safe. The bacterium Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) inhabits the human nasal cavity. It causes infections of the upper and lower respiratory tract, especially in infants and young children. But even more…

Mix and Match: Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany, have uncovered the molecular secrets of a methane-generating microbe that can transform sulfate into sulfide – a ready-to-use cellular building block. This discovery opens up exciting opportunities in biofuel production. Sulfur, an essential building block of life Sulfur is a fundamental element of life and all organisms need it to synthesize cellular materials. Autotrophs, such as plants and algae, acquire sulfur by converting sulfate into…

The Institute for Drug Discovery led by Humboldt Professor Jens Meiler is to receive 1.9 million dollars (1.77 million euros) for the development of vaccines. The international Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) will fund computer-aided vaccine development at Leipzig University with the aim of building a digital ‘vaccine library’ of components and virtual antigen designs. Using classical and AI-based software, vaccine candidates will be designed for ten priority virus families with epidemic and pandemic potential, with the aim of…

MHH Cardiology participates in a nationwide project to improve risk assessment thanks to structured and standardized data. Digitization in the healthcare sector is intended to improve patient care and simplify workflows in clinics and practices. This is also the goal of the large-scale ACRIBiS project. Here, 15 German research institutions want to jointly advance personalized risk assessment for cardiovascular diseases and improve the prevention, diagnosis and therapy of these diseases. ACRIBiS is an application project of the Medical Informatics Initiative…

Alzheimer’s disease, an irreversible form of dementia, is considered the world’s most common neurodegenerative disease. The prime risk factor for Alzheimer’s is age, although it remains unclear why. It is known that the insulating layer around nerve cells in the brain, named myelin, degenerates with age. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Multidisciplinary Sciences in Göttingen have now shown that such defective myelin actively promotes disease-related changes in Alzheimer’s. Slowing down age-related myelin damage could open up new…

Missing link explains mRNA delivery in brain cells. Teams from MPI Institutes in Dresden, Dortmund, Frankfurt am Main and Göttingen have joined forces to gain the first evidence of a protein complex responsible for the transport of messenger RNA in neurons. Brain cells manufacture proteins in every corner, including their long branches. Neurons missing this ability cause severe neurological disorders like disability and epilepsy. The groups of Marino Zerial, Max Planck Institute (MPI) of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in…

What the international team of researchers actually set out to do was to detect a mysterious chemical object: a dielectron in solution. A dielectron is made up of two electrons, but unlike an atom, it has no nucleus. Up to now, scientists have been unable to directly detect such an object. While the researchers led by ETH Zurich Professor Ruth Signorell were experimenting with dielectrons, they accidentally discovered a new process for producing slow electrons. These can be used to…

… realign autonomously when cut. The advance presages a new era of robots and prosthetics wrapped in self-healing synthetic materials imbued with human-like sense of touch. Human skin is amazing. It senses temperature, pressure, and texture. It’s able to stretch and spring back, time and again. And it provides a barrier between the body and bad things in the world—bacteria, viruses, toxins, ultraviolet radiation and more. Engineers are, accordingly, keen to create synthetic skin. They imagine robots and prosthetic limbs…