Seagrasses provide a vital habitat in shallow coastal seas. They also remove large amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere. Up to now, researchers have assumed that the plants take up nitrogen necessary for growth primarily from the seawater and sediment. However, in many regions where seagrasses thrive little nitrogen is available. Researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology show that seagrass in the Mediterranean Sea lives in symbiosis with bacteria that reside in their roots and provide the…

Cellular immunotherapies have so far not been very effective against non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. A team led by Armin Rehm of the MDC has discovered a possible reason. As the they describe in “Cell Reports”, this cancer induces changes in the large blood vessels through which immune cells normally migrate to the lymph nodes. Immunotherapies have become an indispensable part of modern cancer treatment. They are particularly effective against cancers like Hodgkin’s disease, a type of blood cancer that attacks the lymphatic system….

MEDICA 2021: Point-of-care diagnostics. Resistance to antibiotics is on the rise worldwide. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Physical Measurement Techniques IPM alongside the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich have developed a process for rapidly detecting multidrug-resistant pathogens. The unique feature: Even one single molecule of DNA is sufficient for pathogen detection. In future, the platform could be introduced as part of point-of-care diagnostics on hospital wards or in medical practices as an alternative to the established PCR analyses or…

Implants can actively support the body, as in the case of pacemakers, neuro-prostheses or cochlear implants. In the future, active implants will be smaller, less energy-intensive and, above all, more patient-friendly. This is why the Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering IBMT is working on miniaturization, external power supplies and wirelessly networked implants. The latest developments will be presented at COMPAMED/MEDICA in Düsseldorf from November 15 to 18 (Hall 13, Stand D60). While dental implants “just” replace the tooth and help…

The humble quillworts are an ancient group of about 250 small, aquatic plants that have largely been ignored by modern botanists. A group of researchers, led by Boyce Thompson Institute’s Fay-Wei Li, have sequenced the first quillwort genome and uncovered some secrets of the plant’s unique method of photosynthesis – secrets that could eventually lead to the engineering of crops with more efficient use of water and carbon dioxide. Most plants breathe in carbon dioxide (CO2) and use sunlight to…

Cancer diagnosis is confirmed through histopathology by removing a part of the tissue in question after conducting imaging tests such as MRI, CT, ultrasound, or endoscopy. Based on this clinical diagnosis, the cancerous tissue is surgically removed and suspected tissues or lymph nodes are additionally examined. Future treatment plans, chemotherapy, and radiation are formulated based on these results. Recently, a research team led by POSTECH and Gachon University College of Medicine has developed a machine learning-based histopathology method. A research…

Lung model mimicking complex anatomy may enable air volume assessment. Take a nice, deep breath. Now imagine your lungs: myriad airways like branches, each with tiny alveoli like leaves. This alveolar structure is key to the absorption of oxygen and excretion of carbon dioxide that we call “breath.” As we breathe, the volume of gases in the lungs is continually changing with varying degrees of inhalation and exhalation. These volumes are medically important for clinical assessment and diagnosis of respiratory…

Using cold temperatures and machine learning, researchers visualized individual molecules in a synthetic soft material for the first time. The Science Scientists have created thin, paper-like crystalline sheets using a synthetic, protein-like molecule called a polypeptoid. These nanosheets are only one molecule thick, with the molecules arranged in very specific ways. Scientists take images of these nanosheets using electron microscopes under cryogenic conditions. Until recently these images were blurry because of the tiny number of electrons that can pass through…

A needle-free COVID-19 vaccination could be possible, with University of Queensland scientists successfully protecting mice from the virus by administering a US-developed vaccine candidate with a ‘patch’. The University of Texas Hexapro vaccine candidate – delivered via the UQ-developed and Vaxxas-commercialised high-density microarray patch (HD-MAP) – provided protection against COVID-19 disease with a single, pain-free ‘click’ from a pocket-sized applicator. Dr David Muller, from UQ’s School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, said the vaccine patch produced strong immune responses that were shown to be effective when…

A team using the nation’s fastest supercomputer to look at protein binding finds that some binding processes are simpler than expected. The Science Proteins bind to one another through a complex mix of chemical interactions. What if some proteins bind due to their shapes, a much simpler process? To answer this question, researchers used Summit, the nation’s fastest supercomputer, to model lock-and-key interactions. In these interactions, molecules in the proteins that are binding together must chemically “fit” precisely. The team…

Coral restoration could become easier and quicker with the use of 3D printing. As the technology matures, it could be used to rapidly and reliably create support structures for corals to grow on. Coral reefs around the world are suffering from warming oceans and increasing pollution. Reef restoration efforts employ concrete blocks or metal frames as substrates for coral growth. The resulting restoration is slow because corals deposit their carbonate skeleton at a rate of just millimeters per year. Charlotte…

A new study published in Nature reports on a new antibiotic that binds to the ribosome of bacterial cells and stops drug-resistant pathogens from making mice sick. Co-authored by researchers from the University of Illinois Chicago, the study not only shows the potential of the drug — called iboxamycin — to one day help humans who are ill because of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, but also identifies how the drug overcomes the most widespread mechanism of resistance to this class of antibacterials….

Over the past decade, single-atom catalysts (SACs) have been intensively investigated in the field of heterogeneous catalysis. However, SACs only contain one metal center, which makes it difficult to break the scaling relationship in many catalytic processes. In recent years, it has been proposed to construct “dual-atom catalysts”, which can overcome the limitations of SACs by introducing a second metal site. While DACs are attracting ever-increasing interest, there are still many challenges remaining. A comprehensive overview of the current landscape…

Discovery of new metabolic pathway for stored sugars helps explain how cellular energy is produced and expended in obesity, advancing therapeutic potential. Humans carry around with them, often abundantly so, at least two kinds of fat tissue: white and brown. White fat cells are essentially inert containers for energy stored in the form of a single large, oily droplet. Brown fat cells are more complex, containing multiple, smaller droplets intermixed with dark-colored mitochondria — cellular organelles that give them their…

Hydrogen from real biogas: TU Graz and the start-up Rouge H2 Engineering have scored a world’s first in producing high-purity hydrogen from biogas directly at a biogas plant using a new chemical looping process. Green hydrogen is seen as a beacon of hope in the energy and mobility revolution, but it is not yet suitable for mass production. There are several reasons for this. Hydrogen is currently produced mainly centrally from fossil raw materials. It then has to be compressed…

“Immortality protein” fires up the cell’s power plants. The aging researchers Prof. Judith Haendeler from the Medical Faculty and the molecular biologist Prof. Joachim Altschmied from the Department of Biology together with their teams have shown for the first time in the cardiovascular system that Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase (TERT) within the mitochondria, the powerhouses of the cells, has a protective function in myocardial infarction. This work, which was performed together with other groups from the University Hospital Düsseldorf and the…