Organic chemist develop new catalyst to selectively activate carbon-hydrogen bonds. Substituted aromatics are among the most important building blocks for organic compounds such as drugs, crop­protecting agents, and many materials. The function of the molecules is determined by the spatial arrangement of the different building blocks, the substitution pattern. A research team from the Otto Diels Institute of Organic Chemistry at Kiel University has now presented a method in the journal Chem to produce compounds with a particularly attractive but…

Cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases are closely linked. Researchers at the MHH now want to demonstrate the molecular mechanisms and investigate the influence of age-related changes in the heart, lungs and immune system. Cardiovascular diseases and diseases of the lower respiratory tract are among the most common causes of death, especially in older people. Epidemiological studies examining the incidence and distribution of diseases demonstrate a close link between cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases. However, little is known about the molecular biological causes….

A DZHK research team at the University Medical Center Mainz has discovered a new signaling pathway of the coagulation system that controls scar formation after a heart attack. If this signaling pathway could be inhibited, heart attacks could heal with less subsequent damage. When you have a heart attack, you need to act quickly. Because the heart tissue does not receive enough blood, it begins to die. If revascularization occurs shortly after the onset of symptoms, i.e. reopening of the…

Researchers uncover neuronal circuitry tuned to rewarding forms of social touch, opening leads for harnessing touch as a treatment of social and emotional disorders. A parent’s reassuring touch. A friend’s warm hug. A lover’s enticing embrace. These are among the tactile joys in our lives. Now, scientists at Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute and two partner institutions report previously unidentified starting points in the neurobiological pathways underlying pleasurable, sexual and otherwise rewarding social touch. Most notably in their mouse studies, they for…

– how a sugar cane pathogen is gearing up a new era of antibiotic discovery. A potent plant toxin with a unique way of killing harmful bacteria has emerged as one of the strongest new antibiotic candidates in decades. The antibiotic, called albicidin, is produced by the bacterial plant pathogen Xanthomonas albilineans, which causes the devastating leaf scald disease in sugar cane. Albicidin is thought to be used by the pathogen to attack the plant, enabling its spread. It has…

A new research project at Aarhus University aims to find new forms of treatment for diseases such as multiple sclerosis, which breaks down myelin and nerve fibres, by developing new, artificial nerve fibres. Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease in which the body’s own immune cells attack myelin in the brain and spinal cord. Myelin or the myelin sheath is a protective layer of fat that insulates nerve fibres, much like plastic around an electrical cord. The sheath makes sure…

SPOP is the most mutated protein in prostate cancer and plays a role in endometrial, uterine and other cancers. Despite this importance, how SPOP mutations drive cancer has been incompletely understood. Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital used cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to capture the first 3D structure of the entire SPOP assembly. The study, published today in Molecular Cell,revealed previously unknown SPOP interfaces that harbor clusters of cancer-causing mutations. The normal function of SPOP is to control the level of certain proteins within…

Researchers have developed a new tool and technique that uses “vortex ultrasound” – a sort of ultrasonic tornado – to break down blood clots in the brain. The new approach worked more quickly than existing techniques to eliminate clots formed in an in vitro model of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST). “Our previous work looked at various techniques that use ultrasound to eliminate blood clots using what are essentially forward-facing waves,” says Xiaoning Jiang, co-corresponding author of a paper on…

New study uses AlphaFold and AI to accelerate design of novel drug for liver cancer. New research uses AlphaFold, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered protein structure database, to accelerate the design and synthesis of a drug to treat hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common type of primary liver cancer. It is the first successful application of AlphaFold to hit identification process in drug discovery. This study by an international team of researchers, published last week in Chemical Science, is led by…

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology reveal how a methane-generating microbe can grow on toxic sulfite without becoming poisoned. Methanogens are microorganisms that produce methane when little or no oxygen is present in their surroundings. Their methane production – for example in the digestive tract of ruminants – is relevant for global carbon cycling, as methane is a very potent greenhouse gas, but can also be used as an energy source to heat our houses. A toxic base…

New research reveals a region specific corticothalamic pathway between the thalamic reticular nucleus and the layer 5 cells of the frontal cortex. The pathway recruits inhibition in the thalamus proportional to the degree of cortical synchrony. The cortex is at the apex of information processing in the mammalian brain. Interestingly, however, beside olfactory inputs, no fast, precise information reaches the cortex without a thalamic transfer. Indeed, without exception all cortical regions receive thalamic inputs and none of them (olfactory cortex…

… into layered materials impacts ion storage capability. Investigating the interplay between the structure of water molecules that have been incorporated into layered materials such as clays and the configuration of ions in such materials has long proved a great experimental challenge. But researchers have now used a technique elsewhere commonly used to measure extremely tiny masses and molecular interactions at the nano level to observe these interactions for the first time. Their research was published in Nature Communications on…

Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have discovered a new drug target for Ewing sarcoma, a rare kind of cancer usually diagnosed in children and young adults. Their experiments show that the cells causing this cancer can essentially be reprogrammed with the flick of a genetic switch. Shutting down a single protein forces the cancer cells to take on a new identity and behave like normal connective tissue cells, a dramatic change that reins in their growth. This discovery suggests…

Researchers are building detailed maps of colorectal cancer to better understand the dynamics of the disease. At a glance: Researchers are building detailed 2D and 3D maps of colorectal cancer to better understand the dynamics of the disease The maps have revealed new information about colorectal cancers, including tumors’ molecular structure and how they interact with the immune system The ultimate goal of the colorectal cancer atlas is to propel cancer research, improve diagnosis and treatment In the United States,…

… leads to reduced warning signal conspicuousness. Monarch butterflies that sequester large amounts of plant toxins to defend against predators do so at the cost of increased oxidative damage, which is visible in the conspicuousness of their orange wings. An international research team including scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena has discovered that the striking orange and black wings of monarch butterflies not only send the message to predators that these butterflies are highly toxic,…

First, they walked. Then, they saw the light. Now, miniature biological robots have gained a new trick: remote control. The hybrid “eBiobots” are the first to combine soft materials, living muscle and microelectronics, said researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Northwestern University and collaborating institutions. They described their centimeter-scale biological machines in the journal Science Robotics. Rashid Bashir Photo by L. Brian Stauffer “Integrating microelectronics allows the merger of the biological world and the electronics world, both with many…