Curated News: Nature (journal)

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A team of researchers from the University of California, Irvine, have revealed the first crystal structures of the receptor-binding domain of botulinum neurotoxin E (BoNT/E) in complex with its human neuronal receptors, synaptic vesicle glycoprotein 2A (SV2A). This structure and other findings in the new study could be harnessed to engineer new BoNT/E variants with modified specificities toward different SV2 isoforms for new clinical developments.

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An international team of researchers led by Prof. MA Keping from the Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IBCAS) has shown that forests with higher tree species richness tend to have greater arthropod diversity.

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Researchers led by Sanford Burnham Prebys assistant professor Lukas Chavez, Ph.D., are leveraging the latest technology to take a never-before-seen look at ependymoma, one of the deadliest pediatric brain tumors. By visualizing how the genome is organized and arranged within tumor cells, they were able to reveal genes in tumors that may be future targets for therapy. The results appear in Nature Communications.

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Researchers have found a way to replicate in a non-living system a behavior often found in living ones. This could be the secret to more efficient organic semiconductors for electronic devices.

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Among families with children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, Johns Hopkins University researchers say they have found a link between chemical “marks” on DNA in the sperm of fathers and autistic traits in their 3-year-old children.

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Most medical AI models in use today are trained to perform one or two specific tasks and have limited utility.

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Some things are related, others are not. Suppose you randomly select a person from a crowd who is significantly taller than the average. In that case, there is a good chance that they will also weigh more than the average.

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Researchers design “mini gene” therapy for severe syndrome that causes blindness and deafness

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Experts in nuclear physics and quantum information have demonstrated the application of a photon-number-resolving system to accurately resolve more than 100 photons. The feat is a major step forward in capability for quantum computing development efforts. It also may enable quantum generation of truly random numbers, a long-sought goal for developing unbreakable encryption techniques for applications in, for instance, military communications and financial transactions.

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New research from a multidisciplinary team at Cornell helps to illuminate the mechanisms behind circadian rhythms, offering new hope for dealing with jet lag, insomnia and other sleep disorders.

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Scientists studying the supermassive black hole at the heart of the M87 galaxy have revealed the origins of the monster’s powerful jet and imaged the jet and its source together for the first time. What’s more, the observations have revealed that the black hole’s ring is much larger than scientists previously believed.

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A gene in the brain driving anxiety symptoms has been identified by an international team of scientists. Critically, modification of the gene is shown to reduce anxiety levels, offering an exciting novel drug target for anxiety disorders. The discovery, led by researchers at the Universities of Bristol and Exeter, is published online today [25 April] in Nature Communications.

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Un equipo científico que estudió el agujero negro supermasivo presente en el corazón de la galaxia M87 reveló los orígenes de su poderoso chorro y logró obtener las primeras imágenes del chorro y su fuente juntos. Las observaciones también revelaron que el anillo del agujero negro es mucho más grande de lo que la comunidad científica creía.

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The cells of living organisms are equipped with proteins that are involved in the shaping and remodeling of cellular membranes, thereby performing important tasks.

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A team of international researchers led by Federico Baltar of the University of Vienna and José M González of the University of La Laguna has identified a previously unknown group of bacteria, called UBA868, as key players in the energy cycle of the deep ocean. They are significantly involved in the biogeochemical cycle in the marine layer between 200 and 1000 meters. The results have now been published in the journal Nature Microbiology.

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Mangrove forests are an essential component of the coastal zones in tropical and subtropical areas, providing a wide range of goods and ecosystem services that play a vital role in ecology. They are also threatened, disappearing, and degraded across the globe.

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The discovery shows why it can be so difficult to tackle drug-resistant bacteria, but does provide a possible avenue for tackling the problem.

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Scientists have long been intrigued by the remarkable properties of spider silk, which is stronger than steel yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. Now engineers have made a significant breakthrough in the fabrication of synthetic spider silk, paving the way for a new era of sustainable clothing production.

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The quantum computers of today grew out of this binary paradigm, but in fact the physical systems that encode their quantum bits (qubit) often have the potential to also encode quantum digits (qudits), as recently demonstrated by a team led by Martin Ringbauer at the Department of Experimental Physics at the University of Innsbruck.

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Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered how a bacterium that infects people after they eat raw or undercooked shellfish creates syringe-like structures to inject its toxins into intestinal cells. The findings, published in Nature Communications, could lead to new ways to treat food poisoning caused by Vibrio parahaemolyticus.

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Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have demonstrated in a preclinical study a potential new therapeutic approach to treating the most common form of lung cancer. The strategy involves inhibiting the immune-system molecule TREM2 while enhancing natural killer cells (the so-called protectors of the immune system). It was described in the April 20 online issue of Nature Immunology.

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A single species invades an ecosystem causing its collapse. A cyberattack on the power system causes a major breakdown. These type of events are always on our mind, yet they rarely result in such significant consequences. So how is it that these systems are so stable and resilient that they can withstand such external disruptions? Indeed, these systems lack a central design or blueprint, and still, they exhibit exceptionally reliable functionality.

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In a paper published today in Molecular Psychiatry, a team of scientists from the University of Pittsburgh in collaboration with researchers in Italy described shared patterns of sleep disturbances and irregularities in daily rhythms of rest and activity across patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder, or SSD.

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In a study published in Nature Communications, a team led by Krembil Brain Institute at UHN Senior Scientists, Drs. Lorraine Kalia and Suneil Kalia, and University of Toronto (U of T) Professor, Dr. Philip M. Kim, identified a protein-protein interaction that contributes to Parkinson's disease. In the disease, a protein called α-synuclein (a-syn) accumulates in the brain and leads to cell death.

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A new study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis reveals that a connection between the body and mind is built into the structure of the brain. The study shows that parts of the brain area that controls movement are plugged into networks involved in thinking and planning, and in control of involuntary bodily functions such as blood pressure and heart rate.

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As climate change causes ocean temperatures to rise, one of Greenland’s previously most stable glaciers is now retreating at an unprecedented rate, according to a new study.

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Stars that contain comparatively large amounts of heavy elements provide less favourable conditions for the emergence of complex life than metal-poor stars, as scientists from the Max Planck Institutes for Solar System Research and for Chemistry as well as from the University of Göttingen have now found.

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The immuno-oncology (IO) clinical trial landscape is shifting in new directions. While the number of total clinical trials is down, there are healthy signs of innovation.

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Supersolids are a relatively new and exciting area of research. They exhibit both solid and superfluid properties simultaneously.

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For decades, researchers have marveled at the ability of glioblastoma, a particularly aggressive brain cancer, to turn off a patient’s cancer-fighting immune cells, thereby allowing tumors to grow freely.

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Researchers have developed a drug that undercuts antibiotic resistance

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The high seas have been colonized by a surprising number of coastal marine invertebrate species, which can now survive and reproduce in the open ocean, contributing strongly to the floating community composition.

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The dreaded tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) virus infects different types of brain cells in different parts of the brain, depending on whether the affected person's immune system is activated or not. This is shown in a new study at Umeå University, Sweden.

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A parabolic dish on the EPFL campus is easily overlooked, resembling a satellite dish or other telecommunications infrastructure.

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Protein-protein interactions are essential for life. Researchers used DeepMind’s AlphaFold 2 to develop a deep learning approach for predicting and modeling multi-protein interactions. The AF2Complex approach generates much more accurate structural models than previous methods for modeling a protein complex. As a proof of concept, the researchers used AF2Complex to virtually screen key proteins in E. coli, discovering unexpected protein-protein interactions.

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Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard showed how prime editing can correct mutations that cause sickle cell disease in a potentially curative approach.

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PCB has been banned in most countries since the 1970s, but that doesn't mean it no longer exists. Now, deep-sea researchers report that they have found PCB at the bottom of the Atacama Trench in the Pacific Ocean.

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An international phase 3 clinical trial led by physicians at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has shown that the investigational drug motixafortide — when combined with the standard therapy for mobilizing stem cells — significantly increases the number of stem cells that can be harvested, compared with treatment with the standard agent alone.

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A research model of dietary intake in 184 countries estimates poor diet contributed to over 14.1 million cases of type 2 diabetes in 2018, representing over 70% of new diagnoses globally.

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Discovery of a gene in multiple mammalian species could pave the way for a highly effective, reversible and non-hormonal male contraceptive for humans and animals.