Max Planck researchers from Dortmund reveal the first-ever detailed structure of the bacterial toxin Mcf1. Insect-killing bacteria typically release toxins to slay their hosts. The bacterium Photorhabdus luminescens, for example, pumps insect larvae full of the lethal ‘Makes caterpillars floppy 1’ (Mcf1) toxin, leading them to first become droopy and then dead. However, it has so far been a mystery how Mcf1 unfolds its devastating effect. Researchers led by Stefan Raunser, Director at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology…

To rapidly transmit electrical signals in the brain, the long nerve fibers are insulated by specialized cells called oligodendrocytes. These cells also respond to the electrical signals of active nerve fibers and provide them with energy on demand, as UZH researchers have discovered. If this process, regulated by potassium, is disabled in mice, the nerve fibers are severely damaged as the animals age – resembling the defects of neurodegenerative diseases. Brain function depends on the swift movement of electrical signals…

Whether we stay healthy or become seriously ill is determined by our genes. But also, the folding of our genome has a significant influence on this, as the 3D genome organization regulates which genes are switched on and off. Researchers led by Marieke Oudelaar and Elisa Oberbeckmann at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Multidisciplinary Sciences have now succeeded in recreating the 3D folding of the yeast genome in the laboratory and deciphering the underlying mechanisms. Our body consists of…

Black gold and solar light’s renaissance. In a significant breakthrough, Prof. Polshettiwar’s group at TIFR, Mumbai have developed a novel “Plasmonic Reduction Catalyst Stable in Air,” defying the common instability of reduction catalysts in the presence of air. The catalyst merges platinum-doped ruthenium clusters, with ‘plasmonic black gold’. This black gold efficiently harvests visible light and generates numerous hot spots due to plasmonic coupling, enhancing its catalytic performance. What sets this catalyst apart is its remarkable performance in the semi-hydrogenation…

KIMM develops technology for detecting injection of medication to prevent medical accidents related to analgesic drug infusion pump in hospitals. KIMM develops technology for a sensor to measure low flow rate and bubbles during drug infusion. Mass production of the world’s first safe electric drug infusion pump equipped with a flow sensor is in progress. Excessive administration of analgesic drugs frequently results in medical accidents. To prevent the occurrence of these accidents, a drug infusion pump featuring a technology for…

Scripps Research team restored neuron-to-neuron connections in human cells. Nerve cells in the brain demand an enormous amount of energy to survive and maintain their connections for communicating with other nerve cells. In Alzheimer’s disease, the ability to make energy is compromised, and the connections between nerve cells (called synapses) eventually come apart and wither, causing new memories to fade and fail. A Scripps Research team, reporting in the journal Advanced Science on January 18, 2024, has now identified the…

“Artificial molecular motors are molecules that absorb light from an external source, such as sunlight, and convert the energy in light into kinetic energy,” says Bo Durbeej, professor at Linköping University (LiU), who led the study published in Chemistry – a European Journal. “Molecular motors” may sound like science fiction, but in the body there are many biological molecular motors that drive muscles and transport substances inside cells. Chemistry and nanotechnology researchers have long been aiming to develop artificial molecular…

Researchers at OU Health Stephenson Cancer Center at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences have embarked on a revolutionary new research study that could improve the detection of a deadly disease — pancreatic cancer — and give patients a chance to live longer, healthier lives. The research focuses on an innovative combination of imaging techniques: a newly created contrast agent that recognizes pancreatic cancer cells, paired with Multispectral Optoacoustic Tomography, or MSOT. Together, the approach can detect pancreatic cancer cells…

The spongelike structure of metal organic frameworks (MOFs) allows these polymers to possibly carry and deliver a range of therapeutic compounds. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Bio Materials treated a chromium-containing MOF with a dose of acetic acid, more concentrated than in vinegar, to expand its pore size and surface area. The puffed-up MOFs held more ibuprofen or chemotherapy drug compared to the original version and had improved performance as a potential drug-delivery vehicle. Taking medications by mouth is…

Humans are attracted to symmetry: in our buildings, our gardens, in our potential partners. For plants, the symmetrical shapes of organs are a matter of survival because the form directly impacts the function. If we can unravel the mechanisms underlying the shapes of leaves, petals, or the complex reproductive parts of plants, then it may be possible to fine tune this physiology to make our crops more sustainable and productive. A challenge is the huge morphological diversity of these shapes…

Researchers develop implantable device that can record a collection of individual neurons over months. Recording the activity of large populations of single neurons in the brain over long periods of time is crucial to further our understanding of neural circuits, to enable novel medical device-based therapies and, in the future, for brain–computer interfaces requiring high-resolution electrophysiological information. But today there is a tradeoff between how much high-resolution information an implanted device can measure and how long it can maintain recording…

For the first time, scientists have engineered an enzyme that can break stubborn man-made bonds between silicon and carbon that exist in widely used chemicals known as siloxanes, or silicones. The discovery is a first step toward rendering the chemicals, which can linger in the environment, biodegradable. “Nature is an amazing chemist, and her repertoire now includes breaking bonds in siloxanes previously thought to evade attack by living organisms,” says Frances Arnold, the Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering…

EfficientBioAI – New Open-Source Software Makes AI Models Lighter & Greener. Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an indispensable component in the analysis of microscopic data. However, while AI models are becoming better and more complex, the computing power and associated energy consumption are also increasing. Researchers at the Leibniz-Institut für Analytische Wissenschaften (ISAS) and Peking University have therefore created a free compression software that allows scientists to run existing bioimaging AI models faster and with significantly lower energy consumption. The…

Ovarian cancer is often very aggressive and responds poorly to the therapies currently available. A recent study by Goethe University Frankfurt and University Hospital Frankfurt offers hope that this could change in the medium term. The researchers used an mRNA as a therapeutic. With its help, the tumor cells produced a protein again that prevents their own uncontrolled proliferation or induces cell death. The mRNA therapeutic successfully combated cancerous cells and tumors in vitro as well as metastases in mice….

A common powerful mutation found in melanoma can push heart muscle cells to multiply in laboratory models of heart tissue. Biomedical engineers at Duke University have demonstrated that one of the most dangerous mutations found in skin cancers might moonlight as a pathway to mending a broken heart. The genetic mutation in the protein BRAF, a part of the MAPK signaling pathway that can promote cell division, is one of the most common and most aggressive found in melanoma patients….

In findings that have implications for potential new HIV therapies, researchers from Texas Biomedical Research Institute (Texas Biomed) used genetic sequencing techniques on the nonhuman primate version of the virus to identify that lymph nodes in the abdomen are the leading source of rebound infection after the first week of stopping antiretroviral treatment. The study regarding simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) was reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine. SIV is very closely related to HIV and is commonly used as a…