When cancer is detected at an early stage, the rates of survival increase drastically, but today only a few cancer types are screened for. An international study led by researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, shows that a new, previously untested method can easily find multiple types of newly formed cancers at the same time – including cancer types that are difficult to detect with comparable methods. Cancer is one of the deadliest diseases in the world and is…

A research team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has, for the first time, produced dark-field X-ray images of patients infected with the corona virus. In contrast to conventional X-ray images, dark-field images visualize the microstructure of the lung tissue, thereby providing additional information. This approach has the potential to provide an alternative to computed tomography (CT), which requires a significantly higher radiation dose. The lungs of Covid-19 patients are normally visualized using computed tomography (CT). CT technology uses…

Proteins that emit longer wavelengths of near-infrared light help create detailed, hi-res biomedical images. Biomedical and genetic engineers at Duke University and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine have designed a small fluorescent protein that emits and absorbs light that penetrates deep into biological tissue. Tailored to wavelengths in the near-infrared (NIR) spectrum, this protein can help researchers capture deeper, cleaner, more precise biomedical images. This work appeared Dec. 1 in the journal Nature Methods. Imaging deep tissues with light…

New Collaborative Research Center combines life sciences and polymer research. German Research Foundation has approved new CRC 1551 “Polymer Concepts in Cellular Function” under the aegis of Mainz University. The researchers of the new Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 1551, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), intend to apply findings of polymer research to molecular processes in order to better understand what happens in body cells. The CRC entitled “Polymer Concepts in Cellular Function” will be initiated in January 2023…

Researchers are using a natural material derived from seaweed to promote vascular cell growth, prevent blood clots and improve the performance of synthetic vascular grafts used in heart bypass surgery. The new approach, developed and tested at the University of Waterloo, is especially important in cases involving small artificial blood vessels – those less than six millimetres in diameter – which are prone to clots that can develop into full blockages. “There is a crucial need to develop synthetic vascular…

Detective work by molecular biologists and bioinformatics researchers. Basic researchers at Leipzig University have solved a puzzle in the evolution of bacterial enzymes. By reconstructing a candidate for a special RNA polymerase as it existed about two billion years ago, they were able to explain a hitherto puzzling property of the corresponding modern enzymes. Unlike their ancestors, they do not work continuously and are thus significantly more effective – these pauses in activity constitute evolutionary progress. The reconstruction of the…

… anywhere you want. Columbia researchers discover that the cationic charged P-G3 reduces fat at targeted locations by inhibiting the unhealthy lipid storage of enlarged fat cells. Researchers have long been working on how to treat obesity, a serious condition that can lead to hypertension, diabetes, chronic inflammation, and cardiovascular diseases. Studies have also revealed a strong correlation of obesity and cancer–recent data show that smoking, drinking alcohol, and obesity are the biggest contributors to cancer worldwide. The development of…

Photochemistry… Rather than being released into the atmosphere and exacerbating the problem of climate change, CO2 can also be used as a raw material for substances required in industrial processes, such as formic acid or methanol. The conversion of CO2 has already been investigated in detail in laboratory studies, with nanodiamonds serving as an environmentally friendly photocatalyst. Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Microengineering and Microsystems IMM are now working with partners to turn this reaction into a contin-uous process…

Precise therapeutics testing — preventing animal testing. To prevent testing on animals and create even more precise ways of testing therapeutics, the pharmaceutical industry is increasingly turning to human immune cells. However, the availability of cells like these has been limited to date. Now, Fraunhofer researchers have succeeded in scaling the production of customized immune cells from laboratory up to industrial level. Human immune cells and immune cell preparations are gaining an increasingly prominent role in modern medicine – in…

New research helps explain the progression of Alzheimer’s disease and predicts its severit. Alzheimer’s disease has always had its puzzles and contradictions. For Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) researcher Vladislav Petyuk, whose research on the progressive, age-related disease spans over a decade, some of the struggles have come from studies where “we can only connect the dots a pair at a time.” Petyuk’s research touches multiple areas in biological and computational science at PNNL. He has produced dozens of publications…

Thanks to laboratory produced human mini-retinas, researchers were able to observe complex changes in the retina as they occur in macular degeneration. This enabled them to discover the so-called cell extrusion as a potential mechanism for neurodegenerative diseases. Visual cells in the human retina may not simply die in some diseases, but are mechanically transported out of the retina beforehand. Scientists from DZNE and the Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden (CRTD) at TU Dresden have now discovered this. For their…

Automated reaction path search method predicts accurate stereochemistry of pericyclic reactions using only target molecule structure. Researchers at the Institute for Chemical Reaction Design and Discovery (WPI-ICReDD) have demonstrated the expanded use of a computational method called the Artificial Force Induced Reaction (AFIR) method, predicting pericyclic reactions with accurate stereoselectivity based only on information about the target product molecule. The accurate prediction of a molecule’s stereochemistry—i.e., the 3D arrangement of its constituent atoms—is unprecedented for such an automated reaction path…

… drives a deeper understanding of ALS, Alzheimer’s. Oregon State University scientists have taken a key step toward better understanding neurodegenerative diseases by using a suite of biophysical techniques to learn more about a motor protein whose malfunction is associated with many disorders. The study, published in the journal eLife, represents important progress toward improved care for the millions of people around the world affected by conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis. Neurodegenerative…

Understanding of cell motility’s evolution swims forward! The origin of all biological movements, including walking, swimming, or flying, can be traced back to cellular movements; however, little is known about how cell motility arose in evolution. A research team led by graduate student Hana Kiyama, from the Graduate School of Science at Osaka City University, and Professor Makoto Miyata, from the Graduate School of Science at Osaka Metropolitan University, introduced seven proteins, believed to be directly involved in allowing Spiroplasma…

… revealed by high-resolution three-dimensional imaging. Insights that are not possible with conventional two-dimensional platforms include characterization of obliterated airways in tuberculosis and hemorrhage from ruptured blood vessels in COVID-19 lungs, at near-microscopic levels. Gross anatomy reveals three-dimensional shapes of pathology at a large scale. Histology, in contrast, reveals the microscopic anatomy of biological structures. But that magnification comes at a cost — histology shows only two-dimensional shapes because it studies small, flat slices of stained tissue. This lack of…

When our immune system runs it sets in motion antibodies, white blood cells and phagocytes. But how this works is not yet understood in all details – specifically, in the lymph nodes, which are important elements of the immune system. It was unclear, for example, how the blood supply to and within the nodes works in detail. This question has now been unravelled by an interdisciplinary research team with the participation of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, 3D images have been obtained…