Researchers want to know why cells produce tiny packages called vesicles — and whether these bundles could be used for therapy. Graça Raposo was a young postdoc in the Netherlands in 1996 when she discovered that cells in her laboratory were sending secret messages to each other. She was exploring how immune cells react [...]
Magnetic bacteria possess extraordinary capabilities due to the magnetic nanoparticles, the magnetosomes, which are concatenated inside their cells. A research team at the University of Bayreuth has now transferred all of the approximately 30 genes responsible for the production of these particles to non-magnetic bacteria in a broad series of experiments. This resulted in [...]
Researchers have invented a nano-thin superbug-slaying material that could one day be integrated into wound dressings and implants to prevent or heal bacterial infections. The innovation – which has undergone advanced pre-clinical trials – is effective against a broad range of drug-resistant bacterial cells, including ‘golden staph’, which are commonly referred to as superbugs. The [...]
The medial temporal lobe (MTL) houses the human memory system. Broadly, it contains the hippocampus, parahippocampal cortex, perirhinal cortex, and entorhinal cortex. “One big challenge in studying the MTL is its great anatomical variability across people. Therefore, prior studies that were using group-averaged data, blurred fine anatomical details between different subregions of the human [...]
C. diff might not originate from external transmission but rather from within the infected patient themselves. Hospital staff dedicate significant effort to safeguard patients from infections during their hospital stay. Through practices ranging from hand cleanliness to the use of isolation rooms and stringent cleaning procedures, they strive to prevent infections. Yet, even with [...]
Google says it has made a significant step in identifying disease-causing genes, which could help spot rare genetic disorders. A new model named AlphaMissense is able to confidently classify 89 per cent of all possible “missense” variants in genes, identifying whether they are likely to cause diseases or benign. That compares with just 0.1 [...]
MINDWATCH study reveals cognitive peaks with everyday pleasures. Listening to music and drinking coffee are the sorts of everyday pleasures that can impact a person’s brain activity in ways that improve cognitive performance, including in tasks requiring concentration and memory. That’s a finding of a new NYU Tandon School of Engineering study involving MINDWATCH, a groundbreaking [...]
Moderna has developed a new and improved version of its COVID-19 vaccine. The unique formulation (mRNA-1283) reduces the vaccine's content from the full-length SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to a narrowly focused encoding of just two segments—the N-terminal domain (NTD) and the receptor binding domain (RBD). In a paper, "Domain-based mRNA vaccines encoding spike protein N-terminal and [...]
Breast cancer in its various forms affects more than 250,000 Americans a year. One particularly aggressive and hard-to-treat type is triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), which lacks specific receptors targeted by existing treatments. The rapid growth and metastasis of this cancer also make it challenging to manage, leading to limited therapy options and an often [...]
Scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have created a process that can upcycle most plastics into chemical ingredients useful for energy storage, using light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and a commercially available catalyst, all at room temperature. The new process is very energy-efficient and can be easily powered by renewable energy in the future, [...]
