… on a mission to one day battle cancer. Scientists add artificial components to bacteria for better control and an extra therapeutic effect in seeking and destroying tumor cells Stuttgart – A team of scientists in the Physical Intelligence Department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems have combined robotics with biology by equipping E. coli bacteria with artificial components to construct biohybrid microrobots. Firstly, as can be seen in Figure 1, the team attached several nanoliposomes to each…

When researchers working on the Human Genome Project completely mapped the genetic blueprint of humans in 2001, they were surprised to find only around 20,000 genes that produce proteins. Could it be that humans have only about twice as many genes as a common fly? Scientists had expected considerably more. Now, researchers from 20 institutions worldwide bring together more than 7,200 unrecognized gene segments that potentially code for new proteins. For the first time, the study makes use of a…

Mechanism Discovered that Enables Innate Immune System to Detect Viruses Like HIV early. Researchers at the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut participating in an international research network have discovered a two-step mechanism of the innate immune system that also makes it possible to specifically recognise HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) and trigger an early immune response. This knowledge could be used in the development of vaccines that could strengthen this mechanism. The body could thus produce its own defence against HIV effectively and early. Molecular…

Scientists discover previously unknown mechanism that regulates the growth hormone auxin. Plant growth is not a uniform process: Plants grow in length at the shoot and root tip in particular, while in other places they form new leaves or flowers. These different processes must be coordinated with each another and at the same time react to external influences such as temperature and light. The plant hormone auxin is an important integrator in this regard: The molecule functions as a growth…

Humans are famously social animals. But they are not alone in their tendency to team up with other individuals of the same species (conspecifics) to reach their goals. In fact, herds of mammals, flocks of birds, or shoals of fish are abundantly observed in nature. How does an animal’s brain recognize other animals of its own kind? Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence, in foundation, study this process in young zebrafish. They now discovered a neuronal circuit…

Immune responses against commensal bacteria in donated organs add to the response against the organ itself, reducing the effectiveness of immunosuppressive drugs and causing damage to the organ graft. Organ transplant recipients take life-long immunosuppressive drugs to prevent their bodies from mounting an immune response against the donated organ, yet a substantial number of them still reject the organs. A new study by researchers from the University of Chicago shows that transplant recipients also mount an immune response against commensal…

Several substances that killed antibiotic-resistant bacteria were found by Brazilian researchers in a marine sponge native to Fernando de Noronha, an archipelago off the coast of the Northeast. A research group led by scientists at the University of São Paulo (USP) in São Carlos, Brazil, has identified a number of bioactive compounds in a marine sponge collected on Fernando de Noronha, an archipelago about 400 km off the coast of Brazil’s Northeast region. Some of the substances proved capable of…

UC San Diego researchers describe the biochemical pathway that leads to inflammation characteristic of autoimmune diseases, findings that may lead to new therapies. Mitochondria are self-contained organelles (they possess their own mini-chromosome and DNA) residing within cells and are charged with the job of generating the chemical energy needed to fuel functions essential to life and well-being. When stressed, damaged or dysfunctional, mitochondria expel their DNA (mtDNA), oxidized and cleaved, into the cytosol— the fluid within a cell in which…

With particles that release their payloads at different times, one injection could provide multiple vaccine doses. Most vaccines, from measles to Covid-19, require a series of multiple shots before the recipient is considered fully vaccinated. To make that easier to achieve, MIT researchers have developed microparticles that can be tuned to deliver theiir payload at different time points, which could be used to create “self-boosting” vaccines. In a new study, the researchers describe how these particles degrade over time, and…

During sperm production, an enormous amount of DNA has to be packed into a very small space without breaking anything. A central role is played by certain proteins around which the DNA thread is wrapped – the protamines. A recent study by the University of Bonn provides new insights into this important mechanism. The results have been published in the journal PLoS Genetics. If you are moaning once again about your suitcase being far too small as your vacation approaches,…

… in advanced tumour disease. What factors influence the life expectancy of patients with advanced gastric cancer? Scientists at Leipzig University Hospital have discovered that the body’s inflammatory response is accompanied by reduced muscle quality in patients and ultimately constitutes the decisive factor for the prognosis. Their results have been published in the “Annals of Oncology.” A research group at Leipzig University Hospital, led by Professor Ulrich Hacker, together with scientists from Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic, has investigated…

Observations reveal the angle dependence of the magnetic field needed to suppress superconductivity in CeRh₂As₂. Uniquely, the behavior of “odd parity” superconductors is revealed. Superconductivity is a fascinating state of matter in which an electrical current can flow without any resistance. Usually, it can exist in two forms. One is destroyed easily with a magnetic field and has “even parity”, i.e. it has a point symmetric wave function with respect to an inversion point, and one which is stable in…

University of Toronto Engineering team creates bioartificial left ventricle. Lab-grown model is made with living heart cells and capable of pumping fluid inside a tube. University of Toronto Engineering researchers have grown a small-scale model of a human left heart ventricle in the lab. The bioartificial tissue construct is made with living heart cells and beats strongly enough to pump fluid inside a bioreactor. In the human heart, the left ventricle is the one that pumps freshly oxygenated blood into…

New understanding of how mechanical features of bone marrow affect resident immune cells in fibrotic cancer points to future therapeutic strategies for cancers and fibrotic diseases. By Benjamin Boettner Fibrosis is the thickening of various tissues caused by the deposition of fibrillar extracellular matrix (ECM) in tissues and organs as part of the body’s wound healing response to various forms of damage. When accompanied by chronic inflammation, fibrosis can go into over-drive and produce excess scar tissue that cannot be…

Findings provide mechanism to diagnose and treat autoimmune diseases. Using UT Southwestern’s Cryo-Electron Microscopy Facility, researchers for the first time have captured images of an autoantibody bound to a nerve cell surface receptor, revealing the physical mechanism behind a neurological autoimmune disease. The findings, published in Cell, could lead to new ways to diagnose and treat autoimmune conditions, the study authors said. “We’re entering a new era of understanding how autoimmune disease works in the central nervous system,” said Colleen M. Noviello, Ph.D., Assistant Professor…

… pave the way for better drugs to treat heart disease. The first full-length structures of the human angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) have been determined by researchers from the University of Cape Town (UCT) using cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM). ACE is a blood pressure-regulating protein that is critical for heart health. Published in The EMBO Journal [https://www.embopress.org/doi/10.15252/embj.2021110550] on 12 July 2022, the cryo-EM structures of ACE in two different conformations have the potential to improve drug design for cardiovascular disease – the…