New findings suggest an explanation for how chromosome recombination is regulated during sexual reproduction. In most higher organisms, including humans, every cell carries two versions of each gene, which are referred to as alleles. Each parent passes on one allele to each offspring. As they are linked together on chromosomes, adjacent genes are usually inherited together. However, this is not always the case. Why? The answer is recombination, a process that shuffles the allele content between homologous chromosomes during cell…

Major depressive disorder affects women twice as often as men, but researchers are still trying to identify the reasons why. Researchers at Michigan State University have recently received a $3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue their investigation of how male and female brains respond to stress differently and how testosterone could be the key to increasing resilience. The National Institute of Mental Health has begun to look at biological sex as a variable that could…

… enables early detection of hereditary cancer risk. The NCT is a cross-site cooperation between the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the Heidelberg University Hospital (UKHD) in Heidelberg, as well as the DKFZ, the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Dresden, the Carl Gustav Carus Faculty of Medicine at TU Dresden and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) in Dresden. Hereditary genetic mutations play an important role in oncogenesis, but they usually remain undetected. An international team of researchers in the German…

The early-stage research tested the delivery and safety of the new implantable catheter design in two sheep to determine its potential for use in diagnosing and treating diseases in the brain. If proven effective and safe for use in people, the platform could simplify and reduce the risks associated with diagnosing and treating disease in the deep, delicate recesses of the brain. It could help surgeons to see deeper into the brain to diagnose disease, deliver treatment like drugs and laser ablation…

Research team uses CRISPR/Cas technology to repair C282Y mutation in primary haemochromatosis. Hereditary primary haemochromatosis is one of the most common inborn errors of metabolism in Europe. In this disorder, also known as iron storage disease, the body is overloaded with iron. The excess iron accumulates in organs and tissues and leads to slowly progressive damage to the liver, heart, pancreas, pituitary gland and joints. This can lead to changes in the heart muscle (cardiomyopathies) or diabetes mellitus (bronchial diabetes),…

The high level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the rheumatoid arthritis (RA) microenvironment and its persistent inflammatory nature can promote damage to joints, bones, and the synovium. Strategies that integrate effective RA microenvironment regulation with imaging-based monitoring could lead to improvements in the diagnosis and treatment of RA. A joint research team from the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Texas at Austin has proposed a new strategy that can…

Ferroptosis, an iron-dependent regulated cell death process driven by excessive lipid peroxides and membrane injury, can enhance cancer vulnerability to chemotherapy. Lipid peroxidation of unsaturated lipids (UL) in biological membranes is a key to inducing ferroptosis. However, there is a significant thermodynamic barrier for hydrophilic polar nonelectrolytes (e.g., hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and hydroxyl radicals (•OH)) and ions to diffuse toward the center of the lipid bilayer for the initiation of lipid peroxidation. Improving the local content of diffusion-limited ROS in…

Scientists at Swansea University developing a platform that would use Artificial Intelligence to speed up the process of detecting biomarkers in biofluids have shown that the concept could work.  It would mean faster test results for health conditions such as cardiovascular disorders, joint quality, and Alzheimer’s. This new diagnostic tool could revolutionise the healthcare sector due to the application of a form of artificial intelligence (AI) – machine learning (ML).  The implementation of ML has meant it is possible, for the first time, for results to…

Engineers develop stable devices that don’t require expensive iridium. Creating a hydrogen economy is no small task, but Rice University engineers have discovered a method that could make oxygen evolution catalysis in acids, one of the most challenging topics in water electrolysis for producing clean hydrogen fuels, more economical and practical. The lab of chemical and biomolecular engineer Haotian Wang at Rice’s George R. Brown School of Engineering has replaced rare and expensive iridium with ruthenium, a far more abundant precious metal, as the positive-electrode catalyst in a reactor that splits water into…

A new study reveals that the protein MTCH2, which is essential in a variety of cellular processes, is responsible for shuttling various other proteins into the membrane of mitochondria. The finding could have implications for cancer treatments. Mitochondria — the organelles responsible for energy production in human cells — were once free-living organisms that found their way into early eukaryotic cells over a billion years ago. Since then, they have merged seamlessly with their hosts in a classic example of symbiotic…

The multicellular stage of the amoeba Dicyostelium discoideum is partially regulated by an intensely yellow natural substance, as researchers of the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology – Hans Knöll Institute (Leibniz-HKI) have discovered. The newly identified natural substance of the polyketide family prevents the amoebae spores from hatching too early. The study was published in the scientific journal PNAS. Social amoebae are unicellular organisms that can join together to form a multicellular organism visible to the…

Researchers of the University of Freiburg have discovered that septins – a part of the cytoskeleton – form a barrier to the penetration of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The process is dependent on the LecA molecule on the surface of the bacteria. The team working with cell biologists Prof. Dr. Winfried Römer and Dr. Carsten Schwan of the University of Freiburg and the Excellence Cluster the CIBSS – Centre for Integrative Biological Signalling Studies are using high-resolution live cell imaging and atomic…

A “hub and spoke” system enables plant cells to efficiently coordinate cellular trafficking, particularly for cellular recycling, the so-called autophagy process. Specialized vesicles, the autophagosomes, engulf harmful molecules and carry them to the vacuole, where they are degraded. During this journey, the autophagosomes mature using molecular mechanisms about which little is known in plants. Now, researchers from the Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (GMI) characterize the mechanism by which autophagy uses the…

The function of the human brain is exceptional, driving all aspects of our thoughts and creativity. Yet the part of the human brain – the neocortex – responsible for such cognitive functions has a similar overall structure to other mammals. Through close collaboration between The University of Queensland (UQ), The Mater Hospital and the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, researchers have discovered the human brain’s enhanced processing power may stem from differences in the structure and function of our neurons….

After University of Missouri researchers started examining the impact of smoke on plant growth after a wildfire, their surprising discovery could one day lead to new farming practices. Richard Ferrieri never thought a simple bottle of liquid smoke would change the trajectory of his team’s research. Originally, Ferrieri and a team of researchers at the University of Missouri focused on studying how soil, saturated by the intense smoke caused by wildfires, alters plant growth. But after they began their research,…

A new highly selective PET imaging agent can detect the presence of overexpressed monoamine oxidase-B (MAO-B) in cognitively unimpaired individuals with high beta amyloid (Aβ)—one of the earliest signs of Alzheimer’s disease—according to research published in the October issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. The radiotracer, 18F-SMBT-1, allows for a better understanding of the role of inflammation in Alzheimer’s disease, which can enable more accurate staging and prognosis at earlier stages. Brain inflammation that accompanies Alzheimer’s disease involves reactive astrocytes, which…