… is latest use of new strategy against diseases. Using the same approach they recently used to create effective vaccine candidates against COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), scientists are tackling another virus: the tick-borne Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF). It causes death in up to 40% of cases, and the World Health Organization identified the disease as one of its top priorities for research and development. The results appear today in the journal Science. Using what scientists refer to as…

Engineers and physicians teamed up to develop a wireless device to monitor and protect bone health. A team of University of Arizona researchers has developed an ultra-thin wireless device that grows to the surface of bone and could someday help physicians monitor bone health and healing over long periods. The devices, called osseosurface electronics, are described in a paper published Thursday in Nature Communications. “As a surgeon, I am most excited about using measurements collected with osseosurface electronics to someday provide my…

Since its invention over 400 years ago, the microscope has continued to evolve, peering ever deeper into nature’s mysteries at the smallest scales. In new research, Prof. Shaopeng Wang, his postdoctoral research scholar Guangzhong Ma along with their colleagues at the Biodesign Center for Bioelectronics and Biosensors at Arizona State University describe advances in microscopy based on a phenomenon known as surface plasmon resonance (SPR). The new study highlights a series of experiments that show how SPR technology can be used to precisely image 100…

The intestine is essential for maintaining our energy balance and is a master at reacting quickly to changes in nutrition and nutrient balance. It manages to do this with the help of intestinal cells that among other things are specialized in the absorption of food components or the secretion of hormones. In adult humans, the intestinal cells regenerate every five to seven days. The ability to constantly renew and develop all types of intestinal cells from intestinal stem cells is…

First microfluidic organ-on-a-chip model of the disease could help bring much needed drugs, and personalized medicine approaches to patients. The inherited progressive disorder cystic fibrosis (CF) causes severe damage to the lungs, and other tissues in the body by affecting the cells that produce mucus, sweat, and digestive juices. In individuals carrying mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene, which encodes an ion channel controlling the flow of ions and water in and out of cells, the…

Fear is essential for survival, but must be well regulated to avoid harmful behaviors such as panic attacks or exaggerated risk taking. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology have now demonstrated in mice that the brain relies on the body’s feedback to regulate fear. The brain’s insular cortex strongly reacts to stimuli signaling danger. However, when the body freezes in response to fear, the heartbeat slows down leading to attenuated insular cortex activity. Processing these opposing signals helps…

… discovered at University of Notre Dame. Researchers at the University of Notre Dame discovered a new type of cell in the heart that may help regulate heart rate, and could be an important key in understanding certain types of congenital heart defects and other diseases that involve the heart. The cells, which were termed nexus glia, resemble critical glial cells called astrocytes in the brain, according to research completed in the lab of Cody Smith, the Elizabeth and Michael Gallagher…

Single-atom dimer electrocatalyst for green hydrogen production. The limited reservoir of fossils fuels and the ever-increasing threats of climate change have encouraged researchers to develop alternative technologies to produce eco-friendly fuels. Green hydrogen generated from the electrolysis of water using renewable electricity is considered a next-generation renewable energy source for the future. But in reality, the overwhelming majority of hydrogen fuel is obtained from the refining of fossils fuels due to the high cost of electrolysis. Currently, the efficiency of…

Research offers new understanding of lung development, diseases that affect millions. Researchers have compiled the most comprehensive road map of the protein composition of human lungs, providing a clearer picture of the healthy development of this essential organ that made terrestrial life possible. The study, led by scientists at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, describes how thousands of molecules are modulated in a coordinated fashion during the formation of pulmonary tissue. The findings are expected to provide…

Research led by UT Southwestern and the University of Washington could lead to a wealth of drug targets. UT Southwestern and University of Washington researchers led an international team that used artificial intelligence (AI) and evolutionary analysis to produce 3D models of eukaryotic protein interactions. The study, published in Science, identified more than 100 probable protein complexes for the first time and provided structural models for more than 700 previously uncharacterized ones. Insights into the ways pairs or groups of proteins fit…

Max Planck Institute’s researchers highlight the mechanism that enhances toxicity of pathogens in the human cell. For the first time, researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology in Dortmund, Germany, in collaboration with the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France, have discovered how the structure of the toxin becomes more ordered when interacting with actin, one of the main components of the cytoskeleton. It appears that the docking of ExoY to actin induces a stabilisation downhill at the toxin…

A surprising discovery at TU Wien: A catalyst seems to contradict usual laws and can exhibit completely different activity states at the same time. Sometimes chemical reactions in the lab work the way you imagine them to, and sometimes they don’t. Neither is unusual. What is highly unusual, however, is what a research team at TU Wien has now observed when studying hydrogen oxidation on a rhodium catalyst: The surface of a rhodium foil can be highly chemically active in…

Researchers from Osaka University and Osaka City University synthesize and crystallize a molecule that is otherwise too unstable to fully study in the laboratory, and is a model of a revolutionary class of magnets. Since the first reported production in 2004, researchers have been hard at work using graphene and similar carbon-based materials to revolutionize electronics, sports, and many other disciplines. Now, researchers from Japan have made a discovery that will advance the long-elusive field of nanographene magnets. In a…

The new molecule can improve the yield of reactions for generating pharmaceuticals and other useful compounds. By mimicking photosynthesis, the light-driven process that plants use to produce sugars, MIT researchers have designed a new type of photocatalyst that can absorb light and use it to drive a variety of chemical reactions. The new type of catalyst, known as a biohybrid photocatalyst, contains a light-harvesting protein that absorbs light and transfers the energy to a metal-containing catalyst. This catalyst then uses…

Convolutional neural networks trained to identify abnormalities on upper extremity radiographs are susceptible to a ubiquitous confounding image feature that could limit their clinical utility: radiograph labels. According to an open-access Editor’s Choice article in ARRS’ American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR), convolutional neural networks (CNN) trained to identify abnormalities on upper extremity radiographs are susceptible to a ubiquitous confounding image feature that could limit their clinical utility: radiograph labels. “We recommend that such potential image confounders be collected when possible…

Experts have developed a unique method for retrieving high resolution images of fingermarks from curved objects like bullet casings that offers greater detail and accuracy than traditional forensic methods. Scientists from the University of Nottingham developed a rotation stage to allow researchers and forensic practitioners to perform highly sensitive, non-destructive Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (ToF-SIMS) measurements and develop high resolution fingerprint images on surfaces that conventional fingerprint imaging fails to pick up at all. The rotation stage that they have developed opens up new…