Science and Technology Research News

Scientists Identify Critical Window for Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease

Neuroscientists at the University of Southampton have made a significant development in understanding how Alzheimer’s disease spreads through the brain, discovering a significant period of time where medical intervention could halt its onset.

A hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease is the accumulation of tau protein in neurons which causes loss of brain volume. This build up, known as…

Wyss Institute Researchers Demonstrate Machine-Guided Engineering of AAV Capsids for Gene Therapy

High-throughput synthetic biology approach reveals hidden AAV features and could help fast-track future gene therapies

Adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) have become the go-to vehicle for delivering therapeutic gene cargo to target tissues for the wave of gene therapies that are in development in academic and biotechnology laboratories. However, natural AAVs do not specifically target diseased…

New Strategies Against the Antibiotics Crisis: Evolutionary Principles Improve Treatment Efficacy

Kiel research team investigates which evolutionary mechanisms can be used for sustainable antibiotic therapy

One of the most serious threats to public health worldwide is posed by antibiotic-resistant pathogens. The World Health Organization (WHO) warns of the imminent beginning of a postantibiotic era in which harmless infections can no longer be treated and could once again become one of the…

65 Ways to End the HIV Epidemic

Scientists, community groups from areas in U.S. with high rates of HIV meet to determine how to get prevention and treatment to people who need it

Science has the tools to end the HIV epidemic in the U.S., but it persists because prevention and treatment efforts are not reaching the right people at the right time.

Scientists from HIV research centers around the country, their partners in…

Dance of the RNases: Coordinating the Removal of RNA-DNA Hybrids

Two research teams led by Professors Brian Luke and Helle Ulrich at the Institute of Molecular Biology have deciphered how two enzymes, RNase H2 and RNase H1, are coordinated to remove RNA-DNA hybrid structures from chromosomes. In their article, which was published today in Cell Reports, Brian and Helle show that RNase H2 removes RNA-DNA hybrids after DNA replication, and then any remaining…

High-Intensity Exercise Improves Memory and Wards off Dementia

For the first time in human history, older people outnumber younger people. This has created unique health challenges. Dementia may be one of the scariest — a debilitating condition that erases memories; a condition without a cure.

But dementia does not have to be your fate. Exercise protects our memories from being erased and our latest research shows that it is never too late to start.

As…

Precisely Poking Cells en Masse to Cure Cancer

Device can mass-produce engineered cells at lower cost, a tipping point for emerging lifesaving therapies

What if you could cure cancer by re-engineering patients’ cells to better target and destroy their own tumors? With the advent of powerful new cellular engineering technologies, this is no longer the stuff of science fiction. 

In the past few years, these technologies have enabled the…

Signaling Waves Determine Embryonic Fates

Rice lab shows cell-signal pathway dynamics prompt first patterns in embryos

Timing is everything for young cells waiting to determine their identities.

Research by Rice University bioscientist Aryeh Warmflash and graduate student Sapna Chhabra shows homogenous colonies of human embryonic stem cells use dynamic molecular signaling waves that pass from cell to cell and trigger them to…

Electrodes to Study How Our Brain Recognises Objects

For the first time ever, researchers from KU Leuven have carried out tests on human brains in the area that is responsible for our vision. This research method is unique. The results have been published in PLOS Biology.

To gain a better understanding of the human brain, researchers can rely on several methods. One option is to make scans of people’s brains and see which parts are active while…

Using Sound Waves to Remotely Target Drugs to Tumors

The lack of a clinically viable method to track and direct cancer drugs to tumors is a big problem for targeted therapeutics.

But a new ultrasonic method proposed by biomedical engineers from Qifa Zhou’s team at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles could enable acoustic control and real-time tracking of drug release within the body. The researchers report on their manipulation…

Parkinson’s Disease: Stimulation of Brain, Feet May Help People Overcome Freezing Episodes

Paolo Sanvito would often freeze like a statue after entering a meeting room when he was working as a manager in a multinational company. Known as freezing of gait, it’s a disabling symptom of Parkinson’s disease, a degenerative brain disorder that he suffers from.

During a freezing episode, a patient feels like their feet are stuck to the ground for a few seconds or more while they are trying…

Study: Underground Fungal Relationships Key to Thriving Plants

For a plant to thrive, it needs the help of a friendly fungus—preferably one that will dig its way deep into the cells of the plant’s roots.

Plants live in symbiosis with root-associated, or mycorrhizal, fungi. The fungi provide up to 80 percent of the nutrients and water a plant needs to grow, and the plants produce up to 30 percent of the photosynthate—a food substance made through…

Supplements Don’t Preserve Kidney Health in Type 2 Diabetes

Vitamin D and fish oil don’t prevent loss of kidney function in adults with type 2 diabetes, a clinical study shows.

Supplements of vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids (often sold as fish oil) do not help people with type 2 diabetes stave off chronic kidney disease, according to findings from the largest clinical study to date of the supplements in this patient population.

The paper was…

New Maps of Salinity Reveal the Impact of Climate Variability on Oceans

Since the saltiness of ocean surface waters is a key variable in the climate system, understanding how this changes is important to understanding climate change. Thanks to ESA’s Climate Change Initiative, scientists now have better insight into sea-surface salinity with the most complete global dataset ever produced from space.

If you’re a keen sea-swimmer, you may have noticed that the water…

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have improved a method for small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) to such an extent that it can now be used in the development or quality control of novel fibre-reinforced composites. This means that in the future, such materials can be investigated not only with X-rays from especially powerful sources such as the Swiss Light Source SLS, but also with…

Mini-Organs and Microtissues Open New Dimensions for Discovery

When the phone call comes, it’s all hands on deck in Melanie Ott’s lab. A patient with hepatitis C is going in for surgery to remove a liver tumor, and the research team must prepare to receive a sample of the liver cells.

With the patient’s permission, the cells are rushed across town (freezing them would ruin them) from the operating room to the lab. There, the researchers quickly yet…

Magnetic Skin Ensures the Force Is with You

A magnetic skin that is safe and comfortable to wear could open the door to a wide range of wireless, remotely controlled applications.

https://vimeo.com/367535771 KAUST electrical engineers have developed an artificial electronic skin that requires no power supply or data storage. © 2019 KAUST

Who has not unleashed their inner Jedi to use “the force” to open automatic doors at the shopping…