Visual marker in petunia flowers offers glimpse into little-known process. A Purdue University-led research team has begun translating the complex molecular language of petunias. Their grammar and vocabulary are well hidden, however, within the countless proteins and other compounds that fill floral cells. Being rooted to the ground, plants can’t run away from insects, pathogens or other threats to their survival. But plant scientists have long known that they do send warnings to each other via scent chemicals called volatile…

…for comprehensive heart monitoring. In a boon for medical researchers, new tool is the first that can measure both mechanical movement and electrical signal in vitro using a single sensor. A team of engineers led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst and including colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) recently announced in the journal Nature Communications that they had successfully built a tissue-like bioelectronic mesh system integrated with an array of atom-thin graphene sensors that can simultaneously measure…

New model can advance research into neurodegenerative diseases. In a joint project between TU Wien and MedUni Vienna, the world’s first 3D-printed “brain phantom” has been developed, which is modelled on the structure of brain fibres and can be imaged using a special variant of magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI). As a scientific team led by TU Wien and MedUni Vienna has now shown in a study, these brain models can be used to advance research into neurodegenerative diseases such as…

Room-temperature, ambient-pressure conversion reaction for carbon monoxide could be part of a larger cascade strategy for efficiently turning atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) into liquid fuel. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (UNC) have demonstrated the selective conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) into methanol using a cascade reaction strategy. The two-part process is powered by sunlight, occurs at room temperature and at ambient pressure, and employs a recyclable…

Cellulose, abundantly available from plant biomass, can be converted into molecules used to make a new class of recyclable polymers, to sustainably replace some plastics. Researchers at Hokkaido University have taken a significant step forward in the drive to make recyclable yet stable plastics from plant materials. This is a key requirement to reduce the burden of plastic pollution in the environment. They developed a convenient and versatile method to make a variety of polymers from chemicals derived from plant…

Researchers at the University of Bayreuth have synthesized unique scandium polynitrides under extreme conditions, with exotic chemistry and potential applications as high-energy-density materials. Their results are published in the “Nature Communications” journal. High-energy density materials (HEDMs) are pivotal in various applications due to their superior energetic performance, which includes high detonation velocity, detonation pressure, and energy storage capacity. Their application in space exploration as rocket propellants and in defense as explosives is of critical importance for modern society. The unique…

Scientists have developed an ingestible capsule dotted with sensors that can detect pressure in a patient’s guts and detect points of failure. The ingestible system will give colorectal medical teams an unprecedented understanding of the movement of a patient’s digestive tract, or lack thereof. Instead of simply taking images of inside the guts, the system will sense whether it’s contracting, how much pressure is exerted and exactly where it might be inactive. The system has been tested in a synthetic…

The curvature of a surface determines the migration behavior of biological cells. They preferentially move along valleys or grooves while avoiding ridges. These findings with contribution from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPI-DS) and the Weizmann Institute of Science gave rise to a model predicting cellular behavior. Such universal principles now allow a better understanding of the migration of immune and cancer cells, paving the way for new treatment options. Cell migration within the body is a…

In nerve cells, the hormone regulates whether mitochondria are shut down or kept running. The hormone insulin controls many cellular processes and adapts them to the body’s current energy supply. One of the insulin-regulated processes is the quality control of cellular power plants in neurons, Angelika Harbauer and her team at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence discovered. When sufficient energy is available in the body, insulin facilitates the elimination of defective mitochondria. When energy is scarce or when…

Results enable research on better breast cancer treatment options. Cell lines are an important in vitro model in breast cancer research. A team around biochemist Dr. Sonja Eberth and bioinformatician Dr. Claudia Pommerenke from the Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH (Braunschweig, Germany) has extensively characterized the molecular properties of the breast cancer cell lines from the institute’s collection. The results of the study, recently published in the renowned journal Cells, allow the individual breast cancer…

How the brain switches between different behaviors. How does our brain switch between different behaviors? A current study has now provided the first answers to this key question in neuroscience. Using mice, the researchers investigated electrical activity in a certain area within the brain. Results were then analyzed with the help of an adaptive computer algorithm. This artificial intelligence identified a type of typical fingerprint in the signals. Analyzing this signal allowed researchers to predict which behavior the animals would…

The adhesive neck patch is the latest advance by UCLA bioengineers in speech technology for people with disabilities. People with voice disorders, including those with pathological vocal cord conditions or who are recovering from laryngeal cancer surgeries, can often find it difficult or impossible to speak. That may soon change. A team of UCLA engineers has invented a soft, thin, stretchy device measuring just over 1 square inch that can be attached to the skin outside the throat to help…

… with the development of a new optical sensor. For decades, people with diabetes have relied on finger pricks to withdraw blood or adhesive microneedles to measure and manage their glucose levels. Researchers have taken an important step towards eliminating this discomfort. For decades, people with diabetes have relied on finger pricks to withdraw blood or adhesive microneedles to measure and manage their glucose levels. In addition to being painful, these methods can cause itching, inflammation and infection. Researchers at…

Anyone who wants to produce medication, plastics or fertilizer using conventional methods needs heat for chemical reactions – but not so with photochemistry, where light provides the energy. The process to achieve the desired product also often takes fewer intermediate steps. Researchers from the University of Basel are now going one step further and are demonstrating how the energy efficiency of photochemical reactions can be increased tenfold. More sustainable and cost-effective applications are now tantalizingly close. Industrial chemical reactions usually…

Medical image analysis using AI has developed rapidly in recent years. Now, one of the largest studies to date has been carried out using AI-assisted image analysis of lymphoma, cancer of the lymphatic system. Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, have developed a computer model that can successfully find signs of lymph node cancer in 90 percent of cases. New computer-aided methods for interpreting medical images are being developed for various medical conditions. They can reduce the workload…

T cells are often called “assassins” or “killers” because they can orchestrate and carry out missions to hunt down bacteria, viruses, and cancer cells throughout the body. Mighty as they may be, recent research has shown that once T cells infiltrate the environment of a solid tumor, they lose the energy needed to combat the cancer. A research team led by Jessica Thaxton, PhD, MsCR, associate professor of cell biology and physiology and co-leader of the Cancer Cell Biology Program…