Woman receives novel type of artificial heart at UofL Health — Jewish Hospital by University of Louisville physicians. A cardiothoracic surgical team with UofL Health – Jewish Hospital and the University of Louisville has performed the world’s first Aeson® bioprosthetic total artificial heart implantation in a female patient. The investigational device, currently intended as a bridge to heart transplant, is part of an Early Feasibility Study (EFS) sponsored by CARMAT, a French medical device company, in partnership with UofL, UofL…

Hoverflies use a combination of the sun and their body clock to navigate when they fly south for the winter, new research shows. The insects keep the sun on their left in the morning, then gradually adjust to maintain a southward route as the day goes on. Pied and yellow-clubbed hoverflies – which are important pollinators – spend their summers in locations such as the UK and Scandinavia, then fly to the Mediterranean and North Africa in autumn. These migrations…

Study provides new target for increasing oil content of plant tissues for potential applications in bioenergy, chemical engineering, and nutrition. Scientists seeking to unravel the details of how plants produce and accumulate oil have identified a new essential component of the assembly line. They discovered a particular sterol—a molecule related to cholesterol—that plays a key role in the formation of oil droplets. “This research greatly extends our understanding of the molecular factors that govern the formation of lipid droplets, which…

Rice engineers find more efficient models to analyze contrast agents that find disease. Gadolinium-based contrast agents, the gold standard in magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) to determine the health of a patient, can be improved, according to Rice University engineers who are refining models they first used to enhance oil and gas recovery. The team led by Dilip Asthagiri and Philip Singer of the George R. Brown School of Engineering had studied how nuclear magnetic resonance tools, commonly used in the oil industry to characterize deposits underground, could be optimized through…

For centuries, humans have mined materials to build the tools we use every day, from batteries and cell phones to airplanes and refrigerators. While the process of obtaining these important minerals used to rely entirely on heavy machinery, fire, and human labor, scientists have learned how to harness the natural power of microbes to do some of the work. This process, called biomining, has become common as a cost efficient and environmentally friendly way to obtain the metals around us…

A simple but revolutionary approach to early Alzheimer’s diagnosis is being pioneered by researchers through an initiative that could pave the way for improved outcomes for individuals who develop the disease in the future. The innovative research, led by psychologists at the University of Bath and funded by the dementia charity BRACE, uses a new method to passively measure brain activity. It involves participants looking at a series of flashing images on a computer over two minutes, whilst their brain…

Is it a Rembrandt or a Vermeer? For lay people, it is often challenging to distinguish paintings by these two old masters. For the trained eye of an expert, on the other hand, it is not difficult at all. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology have now demonstrated that mice can also become experts in sorting images into categories. The study shows that part of the category knowledge is already present in early visual areas, highlighting how widespread…

​The research team led by Prof. GONG Weimin from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), collaborating with Dr. ZHOU Zhenghong from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), clarified the architecture of tube-forming proteins that function as a protein transport tube across the mycobacterial outer envelope. The study was published in Science Advances. Tuberculosis-causing mycobacteria have been plaguing human society as the leading cause of death by a single infectious agent. Due to the distinctive structure of a…

New tool could help increase food supply. Seeds that would otherwise lie dormant will spring to life with the aid of a new chemical discovered by a UC Riverside-led team. Plants have the ability to perceive drought. When they do, they emit a hormone that helps them hold on to water. This same hormone, ABA, sends a message to seeds that it isn’t a good time to germinate, leading to lower crop yields and less food in places where it’s…

Researchers at the University of Bonn show how machine learning improves the evaluation of blood analysis data. The presence of cancer of the lymphatic system is often determined by analyzing samples from the blood or bone marrow. A team led by Prof. Dr. Peter Krawitz from the University of Bonn had already shown in 2020 that artificial intelligence can help with the diagnosis of such lymphomas and leukemias. The technology fully utilizes the potential of all measurement values and increases…

Cells are characterized to be stable yet highly flexible. They constantly modify their shape and even move through tissue. These vital properties are based on a dynamically organized network of branched actin filaments, which generates pushing forces to move the cell membrane. An interdisciplinary team lead by Peter Bieling and Stefan Raunser from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology (MPI) in Dortmund has now revealed a previously unknown mechanism, explaining how stopping the growth of older actin filaments within…

In order to counter the increasing threat posed by multi-drug resistant germs, we need to understand how their resistance mechanisms work. Transport proteins have an important role to play in this process. In an article published in the journal Nature Communications, a German/UK research team led by Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) has now described the three-dimensional structure of transport protein Pdr5, found also in a similar form in pathogenic fungi. The results could help develop mechanisms to combat dangerous…

Using radicalized NOX derivatives supported on metal oxides. NOX is fused with oxygen on a metal oxide surface and forms supported NO3- acting as a decomposer (NO3 radical) of an aqueous pollutant upon radicalization. NOX (X=1 or 2) emitted from stationery/mobile sources are conventionally deemed as notorious, anthropogenic precursors of ultrafine particulate matters (PM2.5) because NOX can undergo a series of SO2-assisted photochemical transformative stages to finally evolve PM2.5 functioning as an air pollutant. Recently, a research group in South…

A UCLA-led team of engineers and chemists has taken a major step forward in the development of microbial fuel cells — a technology that utilizes natural bacteria to extract electrons from organic matter in wastewater to generate electrical currents. A study detailing the breakthrough was recently published in Science. “Living energy-recovery systems utilizing bacteria found in wastewater offer a one-two punch for environmental sustainability efforts,” said co-corresponding author Yu Huang, a professor and chair of the Materials Science and Engineering Department at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering. “The natural populations of bacteria can…

Assessing potential coronavirus drug targets in organoids. Researchers from the group of Hans Clevers in collaboration with the group of Bart Haagmans (Erasmus MC) established an organoid biobank to search for the genes that are essential for the spreading of a SARS-CoV2 infection. Their study was published in Nature Communications on 17 September and highlights the usefulness of organoids for basic research into coronaviruses, as well as highlighting potential drug targets. Organoids are tiny 3D structures grown from stem cells…

Quickly and precisely determining the flavor profile of cocoa samples. Because a plethora of flavor compounds contribute to the distinctive taste of cocoa, its composition is difficult to analyze. Now, scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Leibniz Institute of Food Systems Biology (LSB) have developed a new methodology that quickly, easily, and precisely quantifies the flavor profile of cocoa samples. The new method is already suitable for practical use in companies and can be applied at…