The strength and beauty of mother-of-pearl, also known as nacre, comes from its remarkably regular and uniform architecture. Until now, it was unclear how this intricate structure could be built by a multitude of single cells, all secreting materials at different locations at the same time. In a new study published in Nature Physics, researchers from the B CUBE – Center for Molecular Bioengineering at TU Dresden and European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble describe, for the first time,…

Plants can perceive and react to light across a wide spectrum. New research from Prof. Nitzan Shabek’s laboratory in the Department of Plant Biology, College of Biological Sciences shows how plants can respond to blue light in particular. “Plants can see much better than we can,” Shabek said. Plants don’t have dedicated light-detecting organs, like our eyes. They do have a variety of dedicated receptors that can sense almost every single wavelength. One such are the blue light photoreceptors called…

Scientists at the IST Austria discover how plants adapt their root growth to changes of nutrients. Nitrogen is one the most essential nutrients for plants. Its availability in the soil plays a major role in plant growth and development, thereby affecting agricultural productivity. Scientists at the IST Austria were now able to show, how plants adjust their root growth to varying sources of nitrogen. In a new study published in The EMBO Journal they give insights in the molecular pathways…

Toxicological risk assessment for chemicals It is still the case that data from animal studies is required in order to evaluate the safety of a substance for humans. However, the Fraunhofer Institute for Toxicology and Experimental Medicine ITEM has teamed up with 39 partners from 13 countries on a range of projects, all of which have a common aim: to bring about a paradigm shift – away from animal experimentation and towards a deeper understanding of how chemical substances work….

Product safety In 1912, Victor Grignard was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of what came to be known as Grignard reagents. Since then, these compounds have come to play a key role in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Now, in a development by Fraunhofer researchers, a new type of microreactor will not only make reactions with these reagents faster and safer but also yield a purer product. What’s more, the new microreactor is scalable and can…

Scientists develop a fluorescence “lifetime” microscopy technique that uses frequency combs and no mechanical parts to observe dynamic biological phenomena. Fluorescence microscopy is widely used in biochemistry and life sciences because it allows scientists to directly observe cells and certain compounds in and around them. Fluorescent molecules absorb light within a specific wavelength range and then re-emit it at the longer wavelength range. However, the major limitation of conventional fluorescence microscopy techniques is that the results are very difficult to…

Scientists at Osaka University devise a method to improve the conductivity of molecular wires by intentionally adding periodic twists to the conjugated chains, which may lead to sophisticated and more environmentally friendly electronics. Researchers at Osaka University synthesized twisted molecular wires just one molecule thick that can conduct electricity with less resistance compared with previous devices. This work may lead to carbon-based electronic devices that require fewer toxic materials or harsh processing methods. Organic conductors, which are carbon-based materials that…

Thanks to the marine worm Platynereis dumerilii, an animal whose genes have evolved very slowly, scientists from CNRS, Université de Paris and Sorbonne Université, in association with others at the University of Saint Petersburg and the University of Rio de Janeiro, have shown that while haemoglobin appeared independently in several species, it actually descends from a single gene transmitted to all by their last common ancestor. These findings were published on 29 December 2020 in BMC Evolutionary Biology. Having red…

Biotechnologists measure the forces with which algae cells adhere to surfaces and move on them How can cells adhere to surfaces and move on them? This is a question which was investigated by an international team of researchers headed by Prof. Michael Hippler from the University of Münster and Prof. Kaiyao Huang from the Institute of Hydrobiology (Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China). The researchers used the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii as their model organism. They manipulated the alga by…

Light-controlled genes could reveal how gut bacteria impact health. Baylor College of Medicine researcher Meng Wang had already shown that bacteria that make a metabolite called colanic acid (CA) could extend the lifespan of worms in her lab by as much as 50%, but her collaboration with Rice University synthetic biologist Jeffrey Tabor is providing tools to answer the bigger question of how the metabolite imparts longer life. In a study published in eLife, Wang, Tabor and colleagues showed they…

Tohoku University scientists have, for the first time, provided experimental evidence that cell stickiness helps them stay sorted within correct compartments during development. How tightly cells clump together, known as cell adhesion, appears to be enabled by a protein better known for its role in the immune system. The findings were detailed in the journal Nature Communications. Scientists have long observed that not-yet-specialized cells move in a way that ensures that cell groups destined for a specific tissue stay together….

Detailed structure of ribosomes in nerve cells revealed. Protein synthesis is a finely tuned process in the cell by macromolecules known as ribosomes. Which regulators are responsible for controlling protein synthesis in the brain, and how do they exert their control on the ribosome? To address this question, a team of researchers from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin studied the structure of the brain’s ribosomal complexes in great detail. The team was able to identify a new factor which is also…

New study decodes the molecular diversity of neurons in the zebrafish retina. Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) are the bottleneck through which all visual impressions flow from the retina to the brain. A team from the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, University of California Berkeley and Harvard University created a molecular catalog that describes the different types of these neurons. In this way, individual RGC types could be systematically studied and linked to a specific connection, function and behavioral response. When…

NIH BRAIN Initiative scientists used machine learning to redesign a bacterial ‘Venus flytrap’ protein that can monitor brain serotonin levels in real time. Serotonin is a neurochemical that plays a critical role in the way the brain controls our thoughts and feelings. For example, many antidepressants are designed to alter serotonin signals sent between neurons. In an article in Cell, National Institutes of Health-funded researchers described how they used advanced genetic engineering techniques to transform a bacterial protein into a…

Dual-acting immuno-antibiotics block an essential pathway in bacteria and activate the adaptive immune response. Wistar Institute scientists have discovered a new class of compounds that uniquely combine direct antibiotic killing of pan drug-resistant bacterial pathogens with a simultaneous rapid immune response for combatting antimicrobial resistance (AMR). These finding were published today in Nature. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared AMR as one of the top 10 global public health threats against humanity. It is estimated that by 2050, antibiotic-resistant…

Glioblastoma is the most common malignant brain tumor in adults. Roughly five in every 100,000 people develop this type of cancer each year. The diagnosis amounts to a death sentence: Even after surgical resection followed by radiation and chemotherapy, the glioblastoma will kill the patient in a few months. This is because the tumor invariably returns after treatment, and in a more aggressive form than before. Researchers investigating glioblastoma tissue always find immune cells inside the tumor. They have therefore…