Researchers uncover a new strategy to avoid cancer immunotherapy side effects. It’s not often that a failed clinical trial leads to a scientific breakthrough. When patients in the UK started showing adverse side effects during a cancer immunotherapy trial, researchers at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) Center for Cancer Immunotherapy and University of Liverpool went back through the data and worked with patient samples to see what went wrong. Their findings, published recently in Nature, provide critical clues to…

Regulatory “tethering elements” control the expression of genes involved in embryo formation. Organisms such as plants, mammals and insects undergo a carefully orchestrated developmental program as they transition from single-celled embryos to their multicellular adult forms. In a paper that appeared May 4, 2022 in the journal Nature, researchers at Princeton University demonstrate how specialized genetic sequences coordinate the exquisite choreography of gene expression required for normal development of the early fly embryo. During embryonic development, specific sets of genes must be…

Handheld device could painlessly identify skin cancers. Stevens Institute of Technology uses millimeter-wave imaging to slash rate of unnecessary biopsies. Skin biopsies are no fun: doctors carve away small lumps of tissue for laboratory testing, leaving patients with painful wounds that can take weeks to heal. That’s a price worth paying if it enables early cancer treatment. However, in recent years, aggressive diagnostic efforts have seen the number of biopsies grow around four times faster than the number of cancers…

Eight different herpes viruses are known to date in humans. They all settle down permanently in the body after acute infection. Under certain circumstances, they wake up from this dormant phase, multiply and attack other cells. This reactivation is often associated with symptoms, such as itchy cold sores or shingles. In the course of evolution, most herpesviruses have learned to use small RNA molecules, so-called microRNAs, to reprogram their host cells to their advantage. A research team led by Bhupesh…

Mountains of sugar under seagrass meadows. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology report that seagrasses release large amounts of sugar into their soils – worldwide more than 1 million tons of sucrose, enough for 32 billion cans of coke. Such high concentrations of sugar are surprising. Normally, microorganisms quickly consume any free sugars in their environment. The scientists found that seagrasses excrete phenolic compounds, and these deter most microorganisms from degrading the sucrose. This ensures that the…

In poplars, two plant hormones boost each other in defense against pathogenic fungi. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology showed that higher levels of jasmonic acid were also detectable in poplars that had been modified to produce increased levels of salicylic acid or that had been treated with salicylic acid. Plants that had higher concentrations of both hormones were also more resistant to the rust fungus Melamspora larici-populina, with no negative effect on growth. Knowledge of the…

Combination of nucleic acid nanotechnology and cryo-EM gives unprecedented insights into the structures of large and small RNAs, advancing RNA biology and drug design. We live in a world made and run by RNA, the equally important sibling of the genetic molecule DNA. In fact, evolutionary biologists hypothesize that RNA existed and self-replicated even before the appearance of DNA and the proteins encoded by it. Fast forward to modern day humans: science has revealed that less than 3% of the human…

The new technology could make at-home diagnosis of diseases faster and more affordable. A University of Minnesota Twin Cities research team has developed a new microfluidic chip for diagnosing diseases that uses a minimal number of components and can be powered wirelessly by a smartphone. The innovation opens the door for faster and more affordable at-home medical testing. The researchers’ paper is published in Nature Communications, a peer-reviewed, open access, scientific journal published by Nature Research. Researchers are also working…

Ruthenium and copper catalyze a more environmentally friendly way to produce essential chemical. A dash of ruthenium atoms on a mesh of copper nanowires could be one step toward a revolution in the global ammonia industry that also helps the environment. Collaborators at Rice University’s George R. Brown School of Engineering, Arizona State University and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory developed the high-performance catalyst that can, with near 100% efficiency, pull ammonia and solid ammonia — aka fertilizer — from low levels of nitrates that are widespread…

When it comes to fixing carbon, plants have nothing on soil bacteria that can do it 20 times faster. The secret is an enzyme that “juggles” reaction ingredients. Plants rely on a process called carbon fixation – turning carbon dioxide from the air into carbon-rich biomolecules ­– for their very existence. That’s the whole point of photosynthesis, and a cornerstone of the vast interlocking system that cycles carbon through plants, animals, microbes and the atmosphere to sustain life on Earth….

Devised by Scripps Research scientists, the new method could speed the development of many new drugs. Scientists at Scripps Research have invented a way to image, across different tissues and with higher precision than ever before, where drugs bind to their targets in the body. The new method could become a routine tool in drug development. Described in a paper in Cell on April 27, 2022, the new method, called CATCH, attaches fluorescent tags to drug molecules and uses chemical…

Fewer complications with device implanted under the skin. High-risk patients who need defibrillators to prevent cardiac arrest can experience fewer complications with a type of device implanted under the skin, a Canadian study has found. Traditional defibrillators, while highly effective, involve placing a wire through a vein, into the chest and into the heart itself.  The wires, known as ‘leads,’ in the traditional defibrillator – called a tranvenous ICD (TV-ICD) – can cause complications including perforations in the heart muscle…

In the past decade, advances in synthetic biology paved the way toward the sustainable synthesis of complex natural products. The baking yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been widely used in food industry and has become one of the main platforms for building cell factories due to its robustness, convenient cellular engineering, and reliable safety. Recently, a research group led by Prof. ZHOU Yongjin from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in collaboration with…

The findings in mice could lead to new insights and treatments for a wide range of brain and neurological diseases, from epilepsy to Alzheimer’s. Researchers at Tufts University School of Medicine have discovered a previously unknown function performed by a type of cell that comprises nearly half of all cells in the brain. The scientists say this discovery in mice of a new function by cells known as astrocytes opens a whole new direction for neuroscience research that might one day lead…

In the quest to build smart skin that mimics the sensing capabilities of natural skin, ionic skins have shown significant advantages. They’re made of flexible, biocompatible hydrogels that use ions to carry an electrical charge. In contrast to smart skins made of plastics and metals, the hydrogels have the softness of natural skin. This offers a more natural feel to the prosthetic arm or robot hand they are mounted on, and makes them comfortable to wear. These hydrogels can generate…

It helps to deliver the medicine to the tumor without affecting healthy cells. Researchers at Ural Federal University (UrFU) have proposed the use of polyoxometallate nanoclusters as a carrier for chemotherapy drug. It will help to deliver medications precisely to the focus of a pathological process, such as a cancerous tumor, without toxic effects on healthy cells. Delivery can be accomplished either by electrophoresis or by injection into the bloodstream. The development is described in the AIP Conference Proceedings. “We’ve explored…