In the brain, neurons and astrocytes work together to process information and enable complex behavior and cognitive abilities. Astrocytes have many functions like controlling the blood-brain barrier, providing nutrients to the nervous tissue, and supporting its repair. An interesting feature of astrocytes is that they form large networks of connected cells. These couplings are made of specific membrane pores that are formed by a group of proteins called connexins. And through these connections, astrocytes can communicate with each other by…

… completes trial operation. The world’s first demonstration device for 1,000 tons/year production of gasoline from carbon dioxide (CO2) hydrogenation located in Zoucheng Industrial Park, Shandong province, China has completed its trial operation and technology assessment on March 4. The project was jointly developed by the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Zhuhai Futian Energy Technology Co., Ltd. Hydrogenation of CO2 into liquid fuels and chemicals can not only realize the resource utilization of CO2,…

Researchers have made tiny ‘skyscrapers’ for communities of bacteria, helping them to generate electricity from just sunlight and water. The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, used 3D printing to create grids of high-rise ‘nano-housing’ where sun-loving bacteria can grow quickly. The researchers were then able to extract the bacteria’s waste electrons, left over from photosynthesis, which could be used to power small electronics. Other research teams have extracted energy from photosynthetic bacteria, but the Cambridge researchers have found that…

Microglia, the immune cells of the brain, are known for eating up unwanted items like germs and debris, much as their counterparts do in the rest of the body. In early childhood, certain microglia remove unneeded connections, or synapses, to shape the adult brain’s organized circuitry. Now, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Professor Linda Van Aelst has found that in mice, microglia also help neurons grow synapses critical to cognitive functioning. “Most immune cells are known to target and eat—let’s call it…

Harvard Wyss Institute’s eRapid sensor technology licensed to Antisoma Therapeutics. The low-cost multiplexed electrochemical biomarker detection platform will be commercialized in point-of-care diagnostics to be put into the hands of patients and primary health practitioners. Today, the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and Australian biotech company The iQ Group Global Ltd. announced that the Institute’s electrochemical eRapid technology has been licensed to Antisoma Therapeutics Pty. Ltd., a subsidiary of The iQ Group Global. The licensing agreement was coordinated by Harvard University’s Office of Technology Development and…

Researchers in biomedical physics and biology have significantly improved micro-computed tomography, more specifically imaging with phase contrast and high brilliance x-ray radiation. They have developed a new microstructured optical grating and combined it with new analytical algorithms. The new approach makes it possible to depict and analyze the microstructures of samples in greater detail, and to investigate a particularly broad spectrum of samples. Micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) is an imaging method which generates detailed three-dimensional images of the internal structure of…

Researchers of the Cluster of Excellence ImmunoSensation2 at the University of Bonn specifically stimulate the RNA receptor RIG-I SARS-CoV-2 viruses can hide from recognition by the immune system. However, the antiviral immune receptor RIG-I can be stimulated, which improves protection against lethal SARS-CoV-2 infections. Researchers led by Prof. Gunther Hartmann from the Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Pharmacology at the University Hospital Bonn, in cooperation with other members of the cluster of excellence ImmunoSensation2 at the University of Bonn,…

Insights into the oxidation of hydrocarbons at vanadium pentoxide pave the way for a new catalyst design. The experimental elucidation of the structures at the interface between a working catalyst and the reacting molecules is the key to a fundamental understanding of heterogeneous catalysis. Researchers from the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society have reassigned the vibrational spectrum of vanadium pentoxide, an important catalyst for the synthesis of valuable products through the reaction of organic molecules with gas-phase…

A pulse wave is a wave in which the blood flow – that originates from the heartbeat – is transmitted to the body. It is an important biosignal that indicates cardiovascular health. Analyzing the pulse wave signal can diagnose cardiac conditions including high blood pressure, arteriosclerosis and more. However, conventional pulse wave measuring devices are cumbersome as they require wearing the blood-pressure measuring cuff or stiff tong-shaped sensor and can mostly be performed at hospitals. Recently, a POSTECH research team…

New process for the production of active compounds. A research team at the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology – Hans Knöll Institute (Leibniz-HKI) in Jena, Germany has developed a new method to produce complex natural products in amoebae. These polyketides include various antibiotics but also olivetolic acid, a precursor of the herbal active ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). The results were published in Nature Biotechnology. Polyketides are natural products with a wide range of therapeutic applications. Among them…

Investigators from Weill Cornell Medicine and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center have discovered how a drug for multiple sclerosis interacts with its targets, a finding that may pave the way for better treatments. The study, published Feb. 8 in Nature Communications, details the precise molecular structure of the multiple sclerosis drug siponimod as it interacts with its target, the human S1P receptor 1 (S1P1), and off-target receptors using a cutting-edge electron microscopy technique called cryo-EM. This knowledge could help scientists develop drugs for the disease that are…

Nanoparticles (which have sizes ranging between 3–500 nm), and sub-nanoclusters (which are around 1 nm in diameter) are utilized in many fields, including medicine, robotics, materials science, and engineering. Their small size and large surface-area-to-volume ratios give them unique properties, rendering them valuable in a variety of applications, ranging from pollution control to chemical synthesis. Recently, quasi-sub-nanomaterials, which are about 1-3 nm in scale have attracted attention because they have a dual nature–they can be regarded as nanoparticles, as well…

Biologists from ETH Zurich have discovered speargun-​like molecular injection systems in two types of bacteria and have described their structure for the first time. The special nanomachines are used by the microbes for the interaction between cells and could one day be useful as tools in biomedicine. Many bacteria have sophisticated molecular injection devices that are used to do some amazing things. For example, a bacterium inoculates certain molecules into a worm larva via such a nanomachine composed of proteins,…

Massive study of the relationships among grasses provides insight to the evolution of a type of photosynthesis involved in heat and drought tolerance. The evolutionary relationships among grasses—including important crop plants like wheat, rice, corn, and sugarcane—have been clarified in new molecular study of the grass family tree. Having a clear picture of the relationships among the grasses can help understanding of how important crop traits like seed size or disease resistance evolves and eventually could inform manipulation of these…

More than 20 years after the first release of the human genome, scientists at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne, Germany, have for the first time deciphered the highly complex genome of the potato. Their impressive technical feat, published in Nature Genetics, will accelerate efforts to breed superior varieties. Shopping for potatoes on a market today, it is well possible that the buyer will be going home with a variety that was…

One of the grand challenges with using CRISPR-based gene editing on humans is that the molecular machinery sometimes makes changes to the wrong section of a host’s genome, creating the possibility that an attempt to repair a genetic mutation in one spot in the genome could accidentally create a dangerous new mutation in another. But now, scientists at The University of Texas at Austin have redesigned a key component of a widely used CRISPR-based gene-editing tool, called Cas9, to be…