… reveals UV radiation played a part in mass extinction events. New research has uncovered that pollen preserved in 250 million year old rocks contain compounds that function like sunscreen, these are produced by plants to protect them from harmful ultraviolet (UV-B) radiation. The findings suggests that a pulse of UV-B played an important part in the end Permian mass extinction event. Scientists from the University of Nottingham, China, Germany and the UK led by Professor Liu Feng from Nanjing…

Study in mice and human cells suggests existing cancer drug may be effective against the insidious disease. Using the latest technologies—including both single-nuclear sequencing of mice and human liver tissue and advanced 3D glass imaging of mice to characterize key scar-producing liver cells—researchers have uncovered novel candidate drug targets for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The research was led by investigators at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Utilizing these innovative methods, the investigators discovered a network of…

By identifying a key regulator of cell identity, a team from the UNIGE and the FMI has succeeded in modifying the structure and function of tentacle cells in hydra. Humans, animals, plants: all multicellular organisms are made up of specialized cells called differentiated cells. Thus, the cells that make up the epidermis do not have the same identity – nor the same function – as those that line the digestive system, for example. However, the mechanisms by which these cells…

Insilico Medicine (“Insilico”), a clinical stage, end-to-end artificial intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery company, held the launch ceremony for Life Star – a 6th generation Intelligent Robotics Drug Discovery Laboratory – in Suzhou BioBAY Industrial Park on Dec. 29. The fully automated AI-powered robotics laboratory performs target discovery, compound screening, precision medicine development, and translational research. The lab will allow Insilico to further accelerate its end-to-end drug discovery and optimize the success rate of its drug development as it moves its novel therapeutics…

Component of bacterial immune defense paralyzes infected cells and could advance molecular biology diagnostics. It is an unexpected discovery by scientists at the Helmholtz Institute Würzburg in cooperation with Benson Hill, Inc. (Missouri) and Utah State University in the U.S.: They have found a nuclease, which they dubbed Cas12a2, that represents an entirely new type of CRISPR immune defense. Unlike any other previously known nuclease of the CRISPR-Cas immune system, the source of “gene scissors”, Cas12a2 destroys DNA to shut…

Adding charge acceptors can slow electron transfer in some light-activated materials. Chemists from Rice University and the University of Texas at Austin discovered more isn’t always better when it comes to packing charge-acceptor molecules on the surface of semiconducting nanocrystals. The combination of organic and inorganic components in hybrid nanomaterials can be tailored to capture, detect, convert or control light in unique ways. Interest in these materials is high, and the pace of scientific publication about them has grown more…

Salk researchers find that neural networks responsible for spatial perception change in a nonlinear manner and may have implications for neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s disease. Young children sometimes believe that the moon is following them, or that they can reach out and touch it. It appears to be much closer than is proportional to its true distance. As we move about our daily lives, we tend to think that we navigate space in a linear way. But Salk scientists have…

Salk researchers find that timing calorie intake synchronizes circadian rhythms across multiple systems in mice. Numerous studies have shown health benefits of time-restricted eating including increase in life span in laboratory studies, making practices like intermittent fasting a hot topic in the wellness industry. However, exactly how it affects the body on the molecular level, and how those changes interact across multiple organ systems, has not been well understood. Now, Salk scientists show in mice how time-restricted eating influences gene…

Researchers hope that ionocaloric cooling could someday help replace refrigerants with high global warming potential and provide safe, efficient cooling and heating for homes. Adding salt to a road before a winter storm changes when ice will form. Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have applied this basic concept to develop a new method of heating and cooling. The technique, which they have named “ionocaloric cooling,” is described in a paper published Dec. 23…

Researchers uncover how embryonic cells sense their mechanical environment to collectively form tissues. Building tissues and organs is one of the most complex and important tasks that cells must accomplish during embryogenesis. Individual cells do not make these decisions; rather, building tissue is a collective task that requires cells to constantly communicate with each other. Different communication methods exist, including chemical cues, similar to a cell’s sense of smell, and also mechanical cues, the cell’s sense of touch. Researchers in…

Grafting and mobile CRISPR for genome editing in plants. A ground-breaking twist to the CRISPR tool – aka “genetic scissors” – is being put to use to edit plant genomes by scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, signalling a methodology change. The discovery that was recently published in the prestigious journal Nature Biotechnology could simplify and speed up the development of novel, genetically stable commercial crop varieties by combining grafting with a ‘mobile’ CRISPR tool. An…

Researchers from Erlangen and Würzburg develop reliable rapid test on the basis of magnetic nanoparticles. Functionalized nanoparticles could soon revolutionize point-of-care diagnostics. Researchers at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) and Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg have developed a method for binding specific molecules in samples and serums, such as antibodies in the blood, to the surface of iron oxide particles thus allowing them to be identified using an inexpensive and compact detector. The researchers have now published their findings in the journal Nature Communications. The…

Unprecedented views of the interior of cells and other nanoscale structures are now possible thanks to innovations in expansion microscopy. The advancements could help provide future insight into neuroscience, pathology, and many other biological and medical fields. In the paper “Magnify is a universal molecular anchoring strategy for expansion microscopy,” published Jan. 2 in the journal Nature Biotechnology, collaborators from Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh and Brown University describe new protocols for dubbed Magnify. “Magnify can be a…

A new method can illuminate the identities and activities of cells throughout an organ or a tumor at unprecedented resolution, according to a study co-led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian and the New York Genome Center. The method, described Jan. 2 in a paper in Nature Biotechnology, records gene activity patterns and the presence of key proteins in cells across tissue samples, while retaining information about the cells’ precise locations. This enables the creation of complex, data-rich “maps”…

Mouse study IDs gene and protein that could be targets for therapy. People with a condition known as dry eye disease are more likely than those with healthy eyes to suffer injuries to their corneas. Studying mice, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that proteins made by stem cells that regenerate the cornea may be new targets for treating and preventing such injuries. The study is published online Jan. 2 in the Proceedings of…

Ammonia (NH3) is a substantial important fertilizer and chemical for human society, however, its production by the traditional Haber-Bosch process consumes substantial fossil fuel energy and produces massive carbon dioxide emissions. Powered by renewable energy, electrocatalytic reduction of nitrogen (N2) to NH3 under eco-friendly and mild conditions provides a highly attractive solution to carbon neutrality. Despite recent significant progress, electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction (eNRR) still suffers from limited selectivity and activity. This is due to the super-stability of N≡N triple…