HIRI scientists show that target RNA levels influence defense against invaders. Friend or foe? Immune systems constantly face this question. They must recognize and clear foreign invaders without eliciting autoimmunity. Prokaryotic CRISPR-Cas systems recognize invaders based on genetic sequence. But what happens if the host genome shares the same sequences? A research team of the Helmholtz Institute in Würzburg in cooperation with the North Carolina State University (USA) has now discovered a control mechanism exhibited by CRISPR-Cas systems that use…

New strategy is less expensive, less energy intensive than current industrial processes. Northwestern University chemists have taken inspiration from plants to revolutionize the way an important industrial chemical is made. In a first for the field, the Northwestern team used light and water to convert acetylene into ethylene, a widely used, highly valuable chemical that is a key ingredient in plastics. While this conversion typically requires high temperatures and pressures, flammable hydrogen and expensive metals to drive the reaction, Northwestern’s…

Genetic and clinical research reveals new type of macular dystrophy, a cause of central vision loss. Researchers from the National Eye Institute (NEI) have identified a new disease that affects the macula, a small part of the light-sensing retina needed for sharp, central vision. Scientists report their findings on the novel macular dystrophy, which is yet to be named, in JAMA Ophthalmology. NEI is part of the National Institutes of Health. Macular dystrophies are disorders that usually cause central visual…

Researchers used bacteria-eating viruses to treat 20 complex, antibiotic-resistant lung infections, resulting in no adverse reactions and more than half of treated patients experiencing favorable clinical outcomes. An international team of researchers, led by scientists at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and the University of Pittsburgh, report promising results from the largest case series yet of patients treated with bacteriophage therapy for antibiotic-resistant infections. The findings published in the June 9, 2022 online issue of Clinical Infectious…

Paramagnetic encoding of molecules. Today we commonly encounter contactless RFID chips in a number of products, but can similar technology be implemented at the molecular level? The answer is yes. The principle of molecular encoding conceived by Miloslav Polášek and his team at IOCB Prague represents a novel method on the frontier of chemistry and modern technologies. Their paper on paramagnetic encoding of molecules was recently published in the journal Nature Communications. The new principle of molecular encoding and prototype…

The chemical precursors of present-day biomolecules could have formed not only in the deep sea at hydrothermal vents, but also in warm ponds on the Earth’s surface. The chemical reactions that may have occurred in this “primordial soup” have now been reproduced in experiments by an international team led by researchers of Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany. They even found that one of the nucleobases, which represent the code of our genetic material, could have originated from the surface of…

First successful treatment of severe pulmonary hypertension. Hannover Medical School doctors successfully treat three-year-old girl / Publication in “Nature Cardiovascular Research. Clinical researchers at Hannover Medical School (MHH) have succeeded for the first time worldwide in stopping the usually fatal course of the disease in severe pulmonary hypertension thanks to a novel therapeutic approach. A three-year-old girl suffering from so-called pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) was treated for six months a total of five times with mesenchymal stem cell products obtained…

Faster diagnosis could help limit deadly outbreaks. A new tool can quickly and reliably identify the presence of Ebola virus in blood samples, according to a study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and colleagues at other institutions. The technology, which uses so-called optical microring resonators, potentially could be developed into a rapid diagnostic test for the deadly Ebola virus disease, which kills up to 89% of infected people. Since it was discovered in 1976,…

Insilico Medicine to launch a fully automated AI-driven robotics lab later this year. Insilico Medicine’s end-to-end AI-driven drug discovery platform, Pharma.AI, draws its strength from the quality and quantity of its data. As Insilico scientific advisory board member and Nobel Prize laureate in chemistry Dr. Michael Levitt has said, Insilico’s platform capitalizes on the ability of artificial intelligence to take vast amounts of data from many different components and find patterns and make predictions that can point the way to…

Mitoribosomes are nano particles essential for the synthesis and maintenance of bioenergetic proteins that produce more than 90% of our energy to support a human life. Eight years ago, the term Resolution Revolution was coined in relation to the first structure determination of the mitoribosome. Its intricate structure consists of over 80 different components, and more recent structural studies have further deepened our understanding of the mitoribosome structure, function and antibiotic binding. However, we still lack information on the assembly of the mitoribosomal…

Scripps Research scientists find evidence that the immune protein CSF1 may contribute to feelings of anxiety during alcohol withdrawal. The anxiety that occurs during withdrawal from excessive alcohol use, and contributes to relapse, may be driven in part by the release of an immune protein in the brain, according to a new study from scientists at Scripps Research. The discovery, reported online June 6, 2022, in Molecular Psychiatry, illuminates the molecular details of the brain’s response to alcohol withdrawal, and…

Researchers at the University of Gothenburg have produced a porous and stable material in which the cavities can be used to store various substances. The material can be used both in the pharmaceutical industry and for filtration at the molecular level. Porous materials are very interesting to scientists since they can interact with guest particles, such as ions, atoms, and molecules, in the cavities of the material. Inorganic porous materials like zeolites are already being used in detergents, where they…

Paralyzed mice “walk” again after new treatment created with the aid of the Advanced Photon Source. The Science A new injectable therapy for spinal cord injuries uses specially engineered molecules that trigger a healing response in spinal cells. The research team used X-ray characterization at the Advanced Photon Source (APS). This allowed the researchers to determine the structure of these molecules as they come together to form tiny fibers in a liquid solution. Scientists can control the motion of these…

New evidence for an autoimmune cause of schizophrenia. Researchers from Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) identify an autoantibody that may cause schizophrenia in some individuals. Schizophrenia is a disorder that affects how people act, think, and perceive reality. It is often very difficult to treat because it has many different causes and symptoms. In a study published last month in Cell Reports Medicine, researchers from Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) have identified an autoantibody—a protein that is produced…

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have developed a tiny sensor for detecting pesticides on fruit in just a few minutes. The technique, described as a proof-of-concept in a paper in the journal Advanced Science, uses flame-sprayed nanoparticles made from silver to increase the signal of chemicals. While still at an early stage, the researchers hope these nano-sensors could help uncover food pesticides before consumption. “Reports show that up to half of all fruits sold in the EU contain pesticide…

Tobacco hornworms neutralize different defense mechanisms of tobacco plants after ingestion. A combined defense of different chemical defense substances could result in a negative interaction and mutual detoxification, according to researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in a new study on the wild tobacco species Nicotiana attenuata and one of its specialized herbivores. Chemical analyses of frass revealed that larvae of the tobacco hawkmoth Manduca sexta are able to split off components of one defense substance and…