Artificial light abnormally increases mosquito biting behavior at night in a species that typically prefers to bite people during the day, according to research from the University of Notre Dame that was published in The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Increased biting by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which normally fly and bite in the early morning and during the afternoon, highlights the concern that increasing levels of light pollution could impact transmission of diseases such as dengue fever, yellow…

The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is known to infect cells via the receptor ACE2. An international research team under German-Finnish coordination has now identified neuropilin-1 as a factor that can facilitate SARS-CoV-2 entry into the cells’ interior. Neuropilin-1 is localized in the respiratory and olfactory epithelia, which could be a strategically important localization to contribute to SARS-CoV-2 infectivity and spreading. Experts from the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Technical University of Munich, University Medical Center Göttingen, University of Helsinki and other…

Neurons in a visual brain area of zebrafish are arranged as a map for catching prey. Spotting, pursuing and catching prey – for many animals this is an essential task for survival. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology now show in zebrafish that the localization of neurons in the midbrain is adapted to a successful hunting sequence. Far away, in the periphery of its visual field, a tiny zebrafish larva detects a small dot moving sideways. Is it…

Changing the surface chemistry of electrodes leads to the preferential growth of a novel electroactive bacterium that could support improved energy-neutral wastewater treatment. To grow, electroactive bacteria break down organic compounds by transferring electrons to solid-state substrates outside their cells. Scientists have utilized this process to drive devices, such as microbial electrochemical systems, where the bacteria grow as a film on an electrode, breaking down the organic compounds in wastewater and transferring the resultant electrons to the electrode. Scientists are…

CAR-T biotherapeutics company Carina Biotech and researchers at the University of South Australia have developed a novel approach based on microfluidic technology to “purify” the immune cells of patients in the fight against cancer. UniSA’s Future Industries Institute PhD student Mona Elsemary has developed a microfluidic approach to purify chimeric antigen receptor (CAR-T) cells, the bioengineered immune cells that are the basis of groundbreaking cellular immunotherapy – a transformative cancer therapy that harnesses the power of a patient’s immune system…

Decades-old data is being used to describe the propagation of tiny droplets; now a fluid dynamics team has developed new models: Masks and distancing are good, but not enough. Wear a mask, keep your distance, avoid crowds – these are the common recommendations to contain the COVID-19 epidemic. However, the scientific foundations on which these recommendations are based are decades old and no longer reflect the current state of knowledge. To change this, several research groups from the field of…

Nearly every organism hosts a collection of symbiotic microbes–a microbiome. It is now recognized that microbiomes are major drivers of health in all animals, including humans, and that these symbiotic systems often exhibit strong daily rhythms. New research led by University of Hawai’i at Manoa scientists revealed that, in the mutually beneficial relationship between with the Hawaiian bobtail squid, Euprymna scolopes, and the luminescent bacterium, Vibrio fischeri, an immune protein called “macrophage migration inhibitory factor” or “MIF,” is the maestro…

The happiness neurotransmitter serotonin can act as a growth factor for the stem cells in the fetal human brain that determine brain size. During human evolution, the size of the brain increased, especially in a particular part called the neocortex. The neocortex enables us to speak, dream and think. In search of the causes underlying neocortex expansion, researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) in Dresden, together with colleagues at the University Hospital Carl…

The way DNA is organized in the cell nucleus is very important for the normal development and function of the cell. A mutation that affects the packaging of the genetic material in the cell nucleus can lead to developmental disorders or diseases such as cancer. A team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute in Münster, the MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences in London and the Center for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona has developed a method for automated analysis…

The present SARS-coronavirus-2 pandemic with all its effects on society – both health and economic – highlights the urgency of developing new therapies for COVID-19 treatment. At the same time, it demonstrates the necessity to become well prepared for new virus infections we may be facing in the future. To help control the current pandemic and brace for novel pathogens that may cause future pandemics, Fraunhofer researchers have initiated the project BEAT-COVID to develop independent novel therapy strategies and build…

Coronavirus uses enzymatic cutter for virus production and to disable essential immune proteins. American and Polish scientists, reporting Oct. 16 in the journal Science Advances, laid out a novel rationale for COVID-19 drug design – blocking a molecular “scissor” that the virus uses for virus production and to disable human proteins crucial to the immune response. The researchers are from The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) and the Wroclaw University of Science…

The results of the VIBRA project of the Politecnico di Milano Funded by ERC and just completed, the project uncovers the cellular mechanisms underlying various diseases thanks to a new optical microscopy technique. The VIBRA project, “Very fast Imaging by Broadband coherent Raman”, has just ended at the Politecnico di Milano. Funded by the prestigious European Research Council of the European Community and lasted 5 years (2015-2020), it led to the development of a new revolutionary optical microscope in the…

A joint research team led by Prof. WANG Hui and Prof. LIN Wenchu from the High Magnetic Field Laboratory of the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science developed a synthesis of metal-free multifunctional therapeutic reagents, called graphitic carbon nitride quantum dots embedded in carbon nanosheets (CNQD-CN), via a one-step hydrothermal treatment. Metal-free multifunctional nanomaterials have broad application prospects in integrated cancer diagnosis and treatment. The team took an organic solvent (formamide) as the carbon and nitrogen source and then developed CNQD-CN….

Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have developed a new way to diagnose diseases of the blood like sickle cell disease with sensitivity and precision and in only one minute. Their technology is smaller than a quarter and requires only a small droplet of blood to assess protein interactions, dysfunction or mutations. The team published its results Oct. 15 in the journal Small. “In Africa, sickle cell disease is the cause…

Scientists develop a technique that improves the resolution of cryo-electron microscopy. We’ve all seen that moment in a cop TV show where a detective is reviewing grainy, low-resolution security footage, spots a person of interest on the tape, and nonchalantly asks a CSI technician to “enhance that.” A few keyboard clicks later, and voila – they’ve got a perfect, clear picture of the suspect’s face. This, of course, does not work in the real world, as many film critics and…

The brain and its functions still pose many open questions. One of them is how exactly we form long-term memories about the environment. In a new study Ryuichi Shigemoto and his group from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria) together with researchers from Aarhus University and the National Institute for Physiological Sciences in Japan discovered a new signaling pathway in the hippocampus area of the brain that regulates how information about new environments is transferred into long-term…