A team of international researchers from the Friedrich Miescher Laboratory of the Max Planck Society developed a new DNA sequencing method that provides fast and efficient tracking of genetic information. Their new technique called haplotagging now enables scientists to quickly and precisely trace and match genome data. Haplotagging delivers rich genome information and facilitates accurate determination of our genetic make-up. This allows for fast genetic analyses in human populations or reveals previously unsuspected mixing of species in nature. The results…

University Hospital Tübingen cooperates with ImaginAb and is Europe’s first center for the production of radiolabeled CD8 minibodies. The Preclinical Imaging and Radiopharmacy Department of the University Hospital Tübingen and ImaginAb, a global market leading biotech company, are cooperating in the field of cancer immunotherapy. Under the terms of the collaboration, ImaginAb will provide Tübingen University Hospital with its CD8 ImmunoPET agent who will radioactively label these so-called CD8 minibodies for non-invasive imaging of a specific group of immune cells…

Researchers have succeeded for the first time in demonstrating the role of hypothalamic astrocytes in obesity-related hypertension. In addition, they showed that the hormone leptin is involved in the increase of blood vessels in the hypothalamus of obese mice, contributing of hypertension. Helmholtz Zentrum München led the study and collaborated with Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, the Technical University of Munich and the German Diabetes Center. Hypertension is a widespread comorbidity of patients with obesity that greatly increases the risk of mortality and…

Organic semiconductors have earned a reputation as energy efficient materials in organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) that are employed in large area displays. In these and in other applications, such as solar cells, a key parameter is the energy gap between electronic states. It determines the wavelength of the light that is emitted or absorbed. The continuous adjustability of this energy gap is desirable. Indeed, for inorganic materials an appropriate method already exists – the so-called blending. It is based…

Penn scientists have developed a new method for tracing the lineage and gene expression patterns of metastatic cancer at the single-cell level. It’s often cancer’s spread, not the original tumor, that poses the disease’s most deadly risk. “And yet metastasis is one of the most poorly understood aspects of cancer biology,” says Kamen Simeonov, an M.D.-Ph.D. student at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. In a new study, a team led by Simeonov and School of Veterinary Medicine…

A new imaging technique has the potential to detect neurological disorders–such as Alzheimer’s disease–at their earliest stages, enabling physicians to diagnose and treat patients more quickly. Termed super-resolution, the imaging methodology combines position emission tomography (PET) with an external motion tracking device to create highly detailed images of the brain. This research was presented at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging’s 2021 Virtual Annual Meeting. In brain PET imaging, the quality of the images is often limited by…

An international team of researchers has identified the cause of a rare, severe muscle disease. According to these findings, a single spontaneously occurring mutation results in the muscle cells no longer being able to correctly break down defective proteins. As a result, the cells perish. The condition causes severe heart failure in children, accompanied by skeletal and respiratory muscle damage. Those affected rarely live beyond the age of 20. The study also highlights experimental approaches for potential treatment. Whether this…

The team say their findings have implications for the treatment of viruses in future. Researchers from the Universities of York and Leeds, collaborating with the Hilvert Laboratory at the ETH Zürich, studied the structure, assembly and evolution of a ‘container’ composed of a bacterial enzyme. The study – published in the journal Science – details the structural transformation of these virus-like particles into larger protein ‘containers’. It also reveals that packaging of the genetic cargo in these containers becomes more…

Biochemists discover highly selective phage activation based on signal molecule. Bacteriophages are still a relatively unknown component of the human microbiome. However, they can play a powerful role in the life cycles of bacteria. Biochemist Thomas Böttcher from the University of Vienna and PhD student Magdalena Jancheva were able to show for the first time how Pseudomonas bacteria use a self-produced signal molecule to selectively manipulate phages in a competing bacterial strain to defeat their enemy. This targeted control of…

Meiosis is a specialized cell division process required to generate gametes, the reproductive cells of an organism. During meiosis, paternal and maternal chromosomes duplicate, pair, and exchange parts of their DNA in a process called meiotic recombination. In order to mediate this exchange of genetic material, cells introduce double strand breaks (DSBs) into their chromosomal DNA. Scientists from the lab of Franz Klein from the Department of Chromosome Biology at the Max Perutz Labs, a joint venture of the University…

Implications for brain repair… Neurons, nerve cells in the brain, are central players in brain function. However, a key role for glia, long considered support cells, is emerging. A research group at the University of Basel has now discovered two new types of glial cells in the brain, by unleashing adult stem cells from their quiescent state. These new types of glia may play an important role in brain plasticity and repair. The brain is malleable well into adulthood. Brain…

A new study conducted by the researchers at the University of Liverpool reveals how the ancient photosynthetic organisms – cyanobacteria – evolve their photosynthetic machinery and organise their photosynthetic membrane architecture for the efficient capture of solar light and energy transduction. Oxygenic photosynthesis, carried out by plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, produces energy and oxygen for life on Earth and is arguably the most important biological process. Cyanobacteria are among the earliest phototrophs that can perform oxygenic photosynthesis and make significant…

Through the biological fixation of the element nitrogen by the enzyme nitrogenase, organisms gain access to molecular nitrogen (N2) in the Earth‘s atmosphere, which is essential for building cellular structures. In addition, a vanadium-dependent variant of nitrogenase can reduce the toxic gas carbon monoxide (CO) to hydrocarbons. These reductions of N2 and CO are among the most important processes in industrial chemistry, as they are used to produce both fertilizers and synthetic fuels. However, researchers have not yet been able…

Small pieces of plastic are everywhere, stretching from urban environments to pristine wilderness. Left to their own devices, it can take hundreds of years for them to degrade completely. Catalysts activated by sunlight could speed up the process, but getting these compounds to interact with microplastics is difficult. In a proof-of-concept study, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces developed self-propelled microrobots that can swim, attach to plastics and break them down. While plastic products are omnipresent indoors, plastic…

New technology could speed cancer diagnosis, ensure surgeons remove 100% of a tumor and inspect drugs for dangerous chemicals. Engineers at Duke University have demonstrated a prototype X-ray scanning machine that reveals not just the shape of an object but its molecular composition. With unprecedented resolution and accuracy, the technology could revolutionize a wide range of fields such as cancer surgery, pathology, drug inspection and geology. Many of the ideas behind the prototype were originally conceived in the pursuit of…

Collaboration between TU Darmstadt, British and US universities. Research teams from TU Darmstadt, British and US universities are focusing on one possible main process that leads to the death of brain cells – chemical reactions between different proteins in the brain and essential metals such as copper and iron – in their investigation of the causes and mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease. Their results are published in “Science Advances”. Alzheimer’s disease causes tremendous loss of life years and life quality. Tens…