One project will explore how psilocybin, the psychoactive compound in “magic mushrooms,” changes brain activity at a cellular level. How do neurons react to magic mushrooms? What happens in the brain when we see motion, or when we recognize grain patterns in a piece of wood? How do our brains track the subtle changes in our friends’ appearances over time? The Allen Institute has launched four projects to investigate these questions through OpenScope, a shared neuroscience observatory. Just as astronomers use a…

A research team from the University Alliance Ruhr, Germany, has found a catalyst that can be used to convert ammonia into the energy carrier hydrogen and the fertilizer precursor nitrite. The production of hydrogen and the production of fertilizer have so far been separate chemical processes. With the new approach, the team from Ruhr University Bochum and the University of Duisburg-Essen is demonstrating that the two can be combined on a laboratory scale. The Bochum-based group led by Ieva Cechanaviciute…

International team of evolutionary biologists investigate genomic underpinnings for the adaptive potential of spoonworts. Plant cold specialists like the spoonworts have adapted well to the cold climates of the Ice Ages. As cold and warm periods alternated, they developed a number of species that also resulted in a proliferation of the genome. Evolutionary biologists from the universities of Heidelberg, Nottingham, and Prague studied the influence this genome duplication has on the adaptive potential of plants. The results show that polyploids…

A method to screen a wide variety of drug candidates without laborious purification steps could advance the fight against drug-resistant bacteria. Efforts to combat the increasing threat of drug-resistant bacteria are being assisted by a new approach for streamlining the search for antimicrobial drug candidates, pioneered by researchers at Hokkaido University, led by Assistant Professor Kazuki Yamamoto and Professor Satoshi Ichikawa of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Their methods, developed together with researchers elsewhere in Japan and in the USA,…

Scientists investigating Alzheimer’s disease have determined the structure of molecules within a human brain for the very first time. Published today in Nature, the study describes how scientists used cryo-electron tomography, guided by fluorescence microscopy, to explore deep inside an Alzheimer’s disease donor brain. This gave 3-dimensional maps in which they could observe proteins, the molecular building blocks of life a million-times smaller than a grain of rice, within the brain. The study zoomed in on two proteins that cause…

Researchers at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) have found that inflammation in an immune cell may be responsible in part for some severe symptoms in a group of rare genetic conditions called lysosomal storage diseases (LSDs). LSDs affect about one in 7,700 live births worldwide. Children with the condition typically present at a young age with progressive neurodegeneration. Many children with LSDs die prematurely, and current treatments focus on symptom management. Until now, the role of macrophages in the…

Sounds paradoxical: varicella zoster virus spreads better in the body by enhancing an immune defence mechanism. Varicella zoster virus (VZV) can cause chickenpox, as well as shingles and severe complications. When one comes into contact with VZV for the first time, the virus enters the body through the airways, reaching the mucous membranes in the nasopharynx and adjacent lymphatic tissues, from where VZV infects T lymphocytes. In these immune cells, VZV spreads throughout the body, reaching skin cells – resulting…

Researchers from The University of Queensland have identified how a common bacterium is able to manipulate the human immune system during respiratory infections and cause persistent illness. The research, led by Professor Ulrike Kappler from UQ’s School of Chemical and Molecular Biosciences, studied the virulence mechanisms of Haemophilus influenzae, a bacterium that plays a significant role in worsening respiratory tract infections. “These bacteria are especially damaging to vulnerable groups, such as those with cystic fibrosis, asthma, the elderly, and Indigenous communities,” Professor Kappler said….

Cervical cancer is the fourth most common malignant tumour in women worldwide. In the early stages, surgery can be of benefit to most patients. In a comparative study including more than 1000 patients with more than 10 years of follow-up, the standard treatment for this cancer has now been compared with a new surgical method, total mesometrial resection (TMMR), developed and routinely performed at the University of Leipzig Medical Center. TMMR was associated with a significantly lower risk of disease…

UTA-led program gives high school teachers and students access to college concepts. More than 70 high school students and science teachers gathered at Young Middle School in Arlington this summer to learn about quantum information science (QIS). The annual workshop and camp are part of a national pilot program called Quantum for All led by Karen Jo Matsler, assistant professor in practice and master teacher in the UTeach program at The University of Texas at Arlington. “Just the word ‘quantum’ scares people,…

Findings could enable new therapies and improved treatments: New research by the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) in cooperation with the University of Bonn has shown for the first time that certain early changes in patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) can lead to a measurable local loss of vision. This discovery could help to improve the treatment and monitoring of this eye disease in older patients, which otherwise slowly leads to central blindness, and to test new therapies. AMD mainly…

… extracting metals with microorganisms. TUBAF develops innovative process for the bioleaching of copper, indium and zinc. Microorganisms work in an underground bioreactor and convert ores or residual materials from mining into the valuable metals copper, indium and zinc. Innovative membrane filters then filter the valuable metals from the resulting process water. In a pilot plant of a current mining project near Pöhla in Saxony, a team from the TU Bergakademie Freiberg wants to combine both procedures into an innovative…

… offers therapeutic potential. A team led by Prof. Dr. Han Sun from the Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP) has elucidated an important mechanism in the function of TREK channels at an atomic level. The results, published in the journal “Nature Communications,” could facilitate the development of therapeutics for diseases such as ischemia, epilepsy, and depression. The human body is composed of cells where various processes occur constantly. Some of these processes take place across the cell membrane through potassium…

Female mammals – including humans – are born with all of their egg cells. Of a woman’s one to two million egg cells, about 400 mature before menopause and can be fertilized. Some egg cells therefore survive for several decades – and need to remain functional over this long time. Extremely long-lived proteins in the ovary seem to play an important role in this, as teams of researchers from Göttingen (Germany) have now discovered in experiments with mice. These long-lived…

Ice in nature is surrounded by liquid most of the time, and therefore it is key to understand how ice and liquid interact. A Kobe University and Institute for Molecular Science study could now for the first time directly observe the precise shape of ice at the interface between ice and liquid – by using antifreeze and a refrigerated microscope. When we slide on ice, when snowflakes form, when we lick ice cream, the surface of the ice is always covered…

Awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, quantum dots have a wide variety of applications ranging from displays and LED lights to chemical reaction catalysis and bioimaging. These semiconductor nanocrystals are so small—on the order of nanometers—that their properties, such as color, are size dependent, and they start to exhibit quantum properties. This technology has been really well developed, but only in the visible spectrum, leaving untapped opportunities for technologies in both the ultraviolet and infrared regions of the electromagnetic…