Prodrug curcumin shows clinical potential in mice. Curcumin, a natural molecule related to turmeric, has been used to treat cancer patients in cancer clinical studies. While it has documented antitumor effects, challenges involving its chemistry have caused drug development to lag. Now, a team of researchers at Kyoto University has developed a prodrug form of curcumin, TBP1901, that has shown anti-tumor effects without toxicities. “Curcumin has long been used as a spice or food coloring, so we expect to see…

Battery research – Dr. Aleksandr Savateev, group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, has developed a unique online database. To do so, he has analyzed and standardized research data from 300 papers published over the past forty years in the field of photocharged semiconductors. The database could be used to find suitable photosemiconductors for designing new batteries, rechargeable batteries and supercapacitors more quickly and in a more targeted manner. Materials chemistry is a rapidly evolving area…

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute in Plön show that reputation plays a key role in determining which rewarding policies people adopt. Using game theory, they explain why individuals learn to use rewards to specifically promote good behaviour. Often, we use positive incentives like rewards to promote cooperative behaviour. But why do we predominantly reward cooperation? Why is defection rarely rewarded? Or more generally, why do we bother to engage in any form of rewarding in the first place? Theoretical…

Enzymatic reactions create micro-environments to organize cellular processes. Inside cells, molecular droplets form defined compartments for chemical reactions. Not only sticky interactions between molecules, but also dynamic reactions can form such droplets, as it was found by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPI-DS) and the University of Oxford. They revealed a new regulatory mechanism by which life controls and organizes itself. Traditionally, cellular organelles defined by a membrane have been considered the functional units of…

Pick an object in front of you—a teacup, for example—and fix your gaze on it.  You may think that you’re keeping your eyes still, but you’re not: Your eyes are frequently moving unbeknownst to you, making tiny involuntary jitters called microsaccades. In fact, these jitters are the reason you continue to see the teacup at all—they introduce just enough variety in the light patterns on your eyes to prevent your visual neurons from completely adapting to what they’re looking at….

The novel genetic engineering approach, tested in mice and laboratory-grown nerve and light-receiving cells, will initially have research applications. Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they have successfully used a cell’s natural process for making proteins to “slide” genetic instructions into a cell and produce critical proteins missing from those cells. If further studies verify their proof-of-concept results, the scientists may have a new method for targeting specific cell types for a variety of disorders that could be treated with gene…

LJI scientists connect TET loss of function to missing genes in embryonic stem cells. Genetic mutations kick start cancers. Some mutations shuffle the genetic code, others come from the deletion of key genes. At La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI), researchers have made a major breakthrough in understanding how deletion of the genes that encode TET proteins can lead to cancer growth. Their new study, published in Nature Communications, is the first to show the immediate consequences of deleting all…

… for more cost-effective laser systems in ophthalmology. Scientists at the Berlin-based Ferdinand-Braun-Institut (FBH) have developed prototypes of miniaturized and robust laser modules for ophthalmology. They can be used as reasonably priced pump sources in laser systems to treat retinal detachments. In addition, their wavelength can be precisely adjusted to the respective application. Detachment of the retina in the eye can lead to visual impairment and even blindness. Laser coagulation is a well-established method to treat holes or fissures in…

– how actin filaments drive the cell’s motion. Actin filaments are protein fibers that make up the internal skeleton of the cell. They support cellular processes like the cell’s fusion and are also a major constituent of muscle cells. For the first time, researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology in Dortmund, Germany, have been successfully able to visualize hundreds of water molecules in the actin filament. Using the technique of electron cryo microscopy (cryo-EM), Stefan Raunser’ group…

International research team from pharmacy and chemistry develops an estrogen that can be switched on and off. Unwanted side effects in the body, drug resistance or environmentally harmful residues – drugs not only cure diseases or relieve pain, but can also have negative effects on people or the environment. This could be reduced by medical compounds that are only active at the site of an illness in the body. A research team from Pharmacy and Chemistry at Kiel University (CAU),…

MHH research team finds two promising AAV capsid variants for gene therapy in the liver. There are numerous severe, hardly treatable monogenetic diseases that are caused by a defect in a single gene – also in the liver. These include the blood coagulation disorders haemophilia A or B or the metabolic disease phenylketonuria. Gene therapies could help here, in which intact genes are transported directly into the cell as a “drug”. In Europe, some gene therapies have already been approved…

Using a new technology, researchers hope to create better control systems for prosthetic limbs. Using a simple set of magnets, MIT researchers have come up with a sophisticated way to monitor muscle movements, which they hope will make it easier for people with amputations to control their prosthetic limbs. In a new pair of papers, the researchers demonstrated the accuracy and safety of their magnet-based system, which can track the length of muscles during movement. The studies, performed in animals,…

… for applications in organic electronics. Marburg chemist Prof. Dr. Michael Gottfried receives an ERC Synergy Grant. Marburg chemist Prof. Dr. Michael Gottfried has been awarded an ERC Synergy Grant by the European Research Council (ERC), together with Prof. Dr. Michael Mastalerz from the University of Heidelberg and Prof. Dr. Holger Bettinger from the University of Tübingen. With their project “Tackling the Cyclacene Challenge” (TACY), the three researchers are pursuing the goal of generating a special class of ring-shaped carbon…

New study finds the chances of uncovering life on Mars are better than previously expected. Researchers simulated Mars’ harsh ionizing radiation conditions to see how long dried, frozen bacteria and fungi could survive Previous studies found ‘Conan the Bacterium’ (Deinococcus radiodurans) could survive over a million years in Mars’ harsh ionizing radiation New study shatters that record, finding the hearty bacterium could survive 280 million years if buried This means evidence of life could still be dormant and buried below Mars’…

European Research Council supports “n-AQUA” collaboration. If water is spatially confined to nanometer dimensions, the so-called “continuum description” breaks down, and molecular details matter. There are indications that new and previously unknown phenomena appear. An understanding is quintessential for technological applications, such as water purification. A project (ERC Synergy Grant) by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz (MPI-P), the CNRS and École normale supérieure – PSL in Paris (ENS-PSL), and the University of Cambridge now…

The new tool allows us to know when neuronal differentiation takes place in their definitive form and, in addition, the researchers have shown that their final position in the tissue depends on their birth time and place. The tissues of every living organism, for example the brain, are always born from a few cells that divide and move until they reach their final destination and position. The process of how a certain tissue or organ is formed is called morphogenesis,…