Scientists for the first time combine organoids with bioengineering. Using small microfilaments, they show improved tissue architecture that mimics human brain development more accurately and allows more targeted studies of brain development and its malfunctions, as reported in the current issue of Nature Biotechnology.
A team of biomedical engineers at Washington University in St. Louis recently completed a study offering profound implications for how sensory information may be encoded in the brain.
Using genomics, a chemistry lab has worked out the biosynthetic machinery that makes a new class of antibiotic compounds called the beta-lactones. Like the beta-lactams, they have an unstable four-member ring. The key to their kill mechanism it is also difficult to synthesize.
A multiyear research endeavor led a Penn State food scientist to form a natural food coloring company based on avocado pits.
As part of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s International Wheat Yield Partnership Program, researchers aim to improve wheat yields by increasing grain size and weight using a precise gene-editing tool known as CRISPR/Cas9.
Cost-effectively breaking down bioenergy crops into sugars that can then be converted into fuel is a barrier to commercially producing sustainable biofuels. Enabled by DOE User Facilities, a team reports that early lineages of fungi can form enzyme complexes capable of degrading plant biomass.
Researchers have identified the SUR2 gene as playing a key role in the production of auxin, a hormone that affects soybean nodule development. The work is part of a National Science Foundation project to identify the genetic mechanisms that direct and coordinate formation of the soybean nodule.
Ronen Marmorstein, PhD, a professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, is one of five investigators who received a grant from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation for the creation of a state-of-the-art cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) facility. The investment supports research in chemistry and the life sciences and will also go towards maintaining the cryo-EM facilities and hiring of new faculty skilled in its uses.
Clostridium botulinum is the bacterium that causes the neurointoxication, which produces one of the most potent toxins on earth and is classified as a potential bioterrorism threat. While no cure exists—and botulism treatment options are limited—a serendipitous discovery by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) may provide a new therapy that can stop the neurotoxin even in its more severe, advanced stages of action.
A new study looks at how three varieties of camelina perform when grown in two different regions within the Great Plains. The end goal is to find the camelina variety that performs best in each location or environment--beyond the genetics involved.
A research team from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has performed the first-ever direct nanoscale examination of a living cell membrane. In doing so, it also resolved a long-standing debate by identifying tiny groupings of lipid molecules that are likely key to the cell’s functioning.
ROCHESTER, Minn. ─ An injured body always seeks to heal. But that process is far from simple. A host of cells organize to restore what was damaged. Then, critically, the process tapers off. And when it doesn’t, the effects can be disastrous. Fibrosis is the thickening and scarring of tissue due to an overactive healing response.
A new process triples the fraction of biomass converted to high-value products to nearly 80 percent, also tripling the expected rate of return for an investment in the technology from roughly 10 percent (for one end product) to 30 percent.
In studies with mice, Janelia researchers discovered that to maintain certain short-term memories, the brain’s cortex relies on connections with the thalamus.
Using neutron crystallography, a Los Alamos research team has mapped the three-dimensional structure of a protein that breaks down polysaccharides, such as the fibrous cellulose of grasses and woody plants, a finding that could help bring down the cost of creating biofuels.
Research findings to be published about new blood test technology that will greatly reduce errors in labwork and improve care in public health and infectious disease. Press briefing scheduled for May 16, reserve press access to live virtual event now.
A study at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) found that a novel device can significantly reduce contamination of blood cultures, potentially reducing risky overtreatment and unnecessary use of antibiotics for many patients. This approach could also substantially reduce healthcare costs, according to the study. Thousands of U.S. patients get their blood drawn every day for blood cultures in order to diagnose serious infections such as sepsis, which can be a deadly condition. A small but significant percentage of the blood cultures are contaminated, due in part to skin fragments containing bacteria that are dislodged during a blood draw. This leads to false results that can mislead clinicians into thinking a patient has a potentially serious bloodstream infection. The consequences are costly and put patients at risk.
Newswise hosts a virtual live press briefing on upcoming journal study with research results concerning a new blood collection technique that reduces contamination of blood samples and improves treatment outcomes.
Waste material from the paper and pulp industry soon could be made into anything from tennis rackets to cars. Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientist discovers how to make good quality carbon fiber from lignin waste.
As part of a project dedicated to modeling how single-celled purple bacteria turn light into food, a team of computational scientists from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) simulated a complete ATP synthase in all-atom detail. The work builds on the project’s first phase—a 100-million atom photosynthetic organelle called a chromatophore—and gives scientists an unprecedented glimpse into a biological machine whose energy efficiency far surpasses that of any artificial system.
The American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS), recognized ground-breaking research in the pharmaceutical sciences with awards presented at the 2017 National Biotechnology Conference.
A group of six Binghamton University engineering students has created a functional biomechanical hand using 3D printing technology for an amputee who works on campus, as an opportunity to improve her life.
Researchers from Missouri University of Science and Technology are working with physicians and clinicians from Phelps County Regional Medical Center on medical research that could lead to new treatments for cancer and traumatic brain injury, a new way to predict potential problems at childbirth, and a method to attract and capture poisonous brown recluse spiders.
We humans like to think our DNA is well-protected in the nucleus of each cell. But it’s a hard life for the hard-working genetic code.
In their quest to replicate themselves, viruses have gotten awfully good at tricking human cells into pumping out viral proteins. That’s why scientists have been working to use viruses as forces for good: to deliver useful genes to human cells and help patients who lack important proteins or enzymes. A team of researchers led by Associate Professor Vijay Reddy at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) has now uncovered the structural details that make one virus a better tool for future therapies than its closely related “cousin.”
Using gene sequencing tools, scientists from Johns Hopkins Medicine and the University of British Columbia have found a set of genetic mutations in samples from 24 women with benign endometriosis, a painful disorder marked by the growth of uterine tissue outside of the womb. The findings, described in the May 11 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, may eventually help scientists develop molecular tests to distinguish between aggressive and clinically “indolent,” or non-aggressive, types of endometriosis.
For the millions of people every year who have or need medical devices implanted, a new advancement in 3D printing technology developed at the University of Florida promises significantly quicker implantation of devices that are stronger, less expensive, more flexible and more comfortable than anything currently available.
Scientists at IMBA (Institute of Molecular Biotechnology) describe novel organoid technology combining various brain regions for investigation of epilepsy, and other neurological diseases, as reported in the current issue of Nature Methods.
Engineering researchers at the University of Minnesota have developed a revolutionary process for 3D printing stretchable electronic sensory devices that could give robots the ability to feel their environment. The discovery is also a major step forward in printing electronics on real human skin.
Neuroscientist Manuel Zimmer, a group leader at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna, has been selected as HHMI-Wellcome International Research Scholar. His work on C. elegans worms aims to uncover how the brain processes information to generate behaviour.
Three chemists from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI)—Dale Boger, Jin-Quan Yu and Phil Baran—have received awards from the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), a renowned professional organization for chemists based in the United Kingdom, with more than 54,000 members worldwide.
Researchers from the Mechanobiology Institute, Singapore at the National University of Singapore have described, for the first time, how plastin, an actin-bundling protein, acts as a molecular rivet, providing global connectivity to the cortex underlying the plasma membrane of embryonic cells to facilitate polarisation and cell division.
Scientists have demonstrated the capacity to grow specialized neurons that relay visual data to the brain, creating a source of cells for future treatments of glaucoma and other optic neurodegenerative diseases. The research is being presented during a press conference at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) in Baltimore, Md., on Monday, May 8 from 9:30 – 10:15am.
Chemists from Italy and Canada specializing in nanotechnology create a molecular slingshot that could shoot drugs at precise locations in the human body once triggered by specific disease markers.
“Electrical” bacteria are the key ingredient in a new process developed by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory that recycles wastewater from biofuel production to generate hydrogen. The hydrogen can then be used to convert bio-oil into higher grade liquid fuels such as gasoline or diesel.
John Shanklin, a biochemist investigating the fundamental processes that underlie the production of plant oils at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, is being honored as an "Inventor of the Year" by Battelle—the global science and technology organization that, together with Stony Brook University, manages Brookhaven Lab through the company Brookhaven Science Associates.
A recent discovery by Sandia National Laboratories researchers may unlock the potential of biofuel waste — and ultimately make biofuels competitive with petroleum.
A George Washington University researcher will study the underlying mechanisms of the Hedgehog receptor, thanks to $1.7 million NIH grant.
Neuroscientists at Tufts have discovered a new signaling pathway that directly connects the brain’s NMDA and a7nACh receptors – both associated with learning and memory –– which has significance for development of drugs to treat schizophrenia. Astrocytes are the key elements that link the receptors.
Southern Research is launching a new biosafety training center as the centerpiece of an advanced program called TrainSafe to teach health care workers and laboratory staff how to protect themselves against pathogens responsible for serious infectious diseases.
Scientists have completed the first outdoor field trial sanctioned by the EPA for genetically engineered algae. A genetically engineered strain of algae tested in outdoor ponds demonstrated that genetically engineered algae can be successfully cultivated outdoors without adversely impacting native algae populations.
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso (TTUHSC El Paso) officially broke ground on the Medical Sciences Building (MSB) II, an $83 million, 219,900-square-foot facility.
/PRNewswire/ -- CannonDesign, a global design firm, is pleased to announce that the Novartis Institutes BioMedical Research (NIBR) Cambridge Campus has won a Special Recognition for Innovative Systems in R&D Magazine's prestigious Lab of the Year Awards. The annual program recognizes the world's most innovative laboratory environments; this year, only five laboratories received the recognition.
Enhanced software tools will accelerate gene discovery and characterization, vital for new forms of fuel production.
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have discovered why some cancers may reoccur after years in remission.
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) — a condition that can lead to liver cirrhosis and cancer — isn’t typically detected until well advanced. Even then, diagnosis requires a biopsy. To more easily detect NAFLD, UC San Diego School of Medicine researchers and their collaborators report that the microbial makeup of a patient’s stool — gut microbiome — can be used to predict advanced NAFLD with 88 to 94 percent accuracy. The study is published May 2 in Cell Metabolism.
Columbia University researchers have created a new tool, based on the principles of topology, to generate a roadmap of the many possible ways in which a stem cell may develop into specialized cells.
Spider silks, ounce for ounce, can be stronger than steel, and much more tough and flexible. They tend not to provoke the human immune system and some even inhibit bacteria and fungi, making them potentially ideal for surgery and medical device applications. Exploitation of silks has been slow, due to challenges with identifying and characterizing their genes, but researchers have now made a major advance with the largest-ever study of spider silk genes.
Ferroelectric tunnel junctions show ability to make strong or weak connections and learn pattern recognition
An ASU research project is pursuing a method of brain stimulation that may improve learning and retention and boost the performance of troops, athletes, students, and musicians.
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