Researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, together with epidemiologist Lone Simonsen from Roskilde University form part of the panel advising the Danish government on how to tackle the different infection-spreading situations we have all seen unfold over the past year. Researchers have modelled the spread of infections under a variety of scenarios, and the Coronavirus has proven to not follow the older models of disease spreading. An increasingly varied picture of its behaviour and thus its impact…

A University of Bristol-led team of international scientists with an interest in protoliving technologies, has today published research which paves the way to building new semi-autonomous devices with potential applications in miniaturized soft robotics, microscale sensing and bioengineering. Micro-actuators are devices that can convert signals and energy into mechanically driven movement in small-scale structures and are important in a wide range of advanced microscale technologies. Normally, micro-actuators rely on external changes in bulk properties such as pH and temperature to…

Implications for functions ranging from tissue repair to antimicrobial responses. WHAT: National Institutes of Health scientists and their collaborators have identified an internal communication network in mammals that may regulate tissue repair and inflammation, providing new insights on how diseases such as obesity and inflammatory skin disorders develop. The new research is published in Cell. The billions of organisms living on body surfaces such as the skin of mammals–collectively called microbiota–communicate with each other and the host immune system in…

TRON uses GSI/FAIR experiment period for cancer research… It is a strong alliance for research in the fight against cancer, opening the way for exciting new developments. On one hand, the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt with its worldwide unique accelerator facilities and the cancer therapy with ion beams developed here. On the other hand, the biopharmaceutical and translational research institute TRON in Mainz with its highly specialized oncology research. Via its founder Professor Ugur Sahin and further scientists,…

Versatile, fast and reliable… During the continued progression of the Corona pandemic, rapid, inexpensive, and reliable tests will become increasingly important to determine whether people have the associated antibodies – either through infection or vaccination. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have now developed such a rapid antibody test. It provides the result in only eight minutes; the aim is to further reduce the process time to four minutes. There are currently more than 20 different test procedures…

New findings on magnetic sensing in birds are presented by an international team of researchers led by the Universities of Oldenburg and Oxford. The results are published in the journal Nature. Humans perceive the world around them with five senses – vision, hearing, taste, smell and touch. Many other animals are also able to sense the Earth’s magnetic field. For some time, a collaboration of biologists, chemists and physicists centred at the Universities of Oldenburg (Germany) and Oxford (UK) have…

Acoustoelectronic tweezers gently manipulate biological nanoparticles just a few nanometers wide. Engineers at Duke University have devised a system for manipulating particles approaching the miniscule 2.5 nanometer diameter of DNA using sound-induced electric fields. Dubbed “acoustoelectronic nanotweezers,” the approach provides a label-free, dynamically controllable method of moving and trapping nanoparticles over a large area. The technology holds promise for applications in the fields ranging from condensed matter physics to biomedicine. The research appears online on June 22 in Nature Communications….

The spinal cord is an important component of our central nervous system: it connects the brain with the rest of the body and plays a crucial part in coordinating our sensations with our actions. Falls, violence, disease – various forms of trauma can cause irreversible damage to the spinal cord, leading to paralysis, sometimes even death. Although many vertebrates, including humans, are unable to recover from a spinal cord injury, some animals stand out. For instance, the axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum),…

International research team describes complete reaction path for electrocatalytic hydrogen generation. The way in which a compound inspired by nature produces hydrogen has now been described in detail for the first time by an international research team from the University of Jena, Germany and the University of Milan-Bicocca, Italy. These findings are the foundation for the energy-efficient production of hydrogen as a sustainable energy source. Nature as a model There are naturally occurring microorganisms that produce hydrogen, using special enzymes…

To understand what role an individual gene plays in development, degeneration, and disease, biologists have, for a hundred years, been using a trick of nature: While in principle, the genome in all cells of an organism is the same, mutations can and do arise in individual cells. These mutations make a cell different from its neighbors, and the organism forms a “genetic mosaic.” Now, Simon Hippenmeyer, Professor at IST Austria, has advanced genetic mosaic analysis, making almost all genes in…

Heidelberg researchers model complex metabolic disturbance. A rare genetic defect that affects the so-called ALG2 gene can cause serious metabolic diseases in humans. It does so through the defective formation of proteins and sugar molecules. Until now, its rareness and complexity made it difficult to study this congenital glycosylation disorder. A research team led by Prof. Dr Joachim Wittbrodt and Dr Thomas Thumberger from the Centre for Organismal Studies (COS) of Heidelberg University has finally succeeded in introducing the underlying…

The nucleus is much more than a storage compartment for chromosomes: It also contains the complex machinery that produces transcripts of the genes that are currently needed and releases them into the cell body. Some of the proteins involved herein are not evenly distributed in the nucleus, but cluster at specific sites. A study by the universities of Würzburg, Heidelberg and Bonn with the help of Evotec SE at the Martinsried site now shows how these “flash mobs” are regulated….

A team of scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich has now discovered that the odorant receptor OR5K1 is specialized to recognize pyrazines in both humans and domesticated animals. These are volatile substances that contribute to the typical odor of many vegetables or are formed when food is heated. In addition, pyrazines also play a role as signaling substances in intra- or interspecific communication. The new research results contribute to a better…

Helsinki University research group used live tissue imaging for the first time to visualise the emergence of the mammary gland. Despite long-standing interest, the cellular mechanisms driving the initiation of mammary gland development have remained elusive for decades, mostly due to technical limitations in studying dynamic cell behaviors in live tissues. Recent advances in microscopic methods and availability of various mouse models allowed the research group of Marja Mikkola from HiLIFE Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki to address this…

In pioneering work, a German-Japanese research team at BESSY II has been able to determine the 3D structure of a metalloprotein that plays an important role as a catalyst in all plant cells. All plant cells obtain their energy mainly from two organelles they contain – chloroplasts (responsible for photosynthesis) and mitochondria (responsible for the biochemical cycle of respiration that converts sugars into energy). However, a large number of a plant cell’s genes in its mitochondria and chloroplasts can develop…

A new study paves the way for the development of next generation therapeutics for the prevention and treatment of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI), the most frequent cause of healthcare-acquired gastrointestinal infections and death in developed countries. Published today in Nature Communications, the study reveals the first 3D structure of the Clostridioides difficile toxin B (TcdB) in complex with chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan 4 (CSPG4), a human receptor. The study was co-led by senior author Rongsheng Jin, PhD, a professor in the…