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Miniaturized Sensor System can Detect Specific Seizure Gases

In people with epilepsy, seizure-alert dogs can smell small changes in body chemistry and warn of an impending seizure an hour or more before it occurs.

21 Jun 2023

Review: Role of Alternative Splicing Defects in Major Neurodegenerative Diseases

Alternative splicing, a clever way a cell generates many different variations of messenger RNAs -; single-stranded RNAs involved in protein synthesis -; and proteins from the same stretch of DNA, plays an important role in molecular biology.

21 Jun 2023

New Method Provides Near-Perfect Control Over the Manipulation of Individual Molecules

Aleksandra Radenovic, Head of the School of Engineering’s Laboratory of Nanoscale Biology, has spent years working to enhance nanopore technology, which primarily involves a molecule like DNA through a tiny pore in a membrane to quantify an ionic current.

20 Jun 2023

Theta Supercomputer Used To Find Essential Factors That Control Structural Change of HIV Protease

Every disease has a protein basis. For some diseases, like HIV, changes in protein structure are critical for how the virus infects a person's cells.

20 Jun 2023

A New Class of Molecular Sensor Prevents Parasite Replication and Transmission

Malaria continues to be a serious public health issue, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, with almost 250 million cases per year and 621,000 fatalities.

19 Jun 2023

Understanding How Genes Predispose Humans to Allergies

New research is expanding the scientific understanding of why some people are more allergic than others. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine discovered how genetic changes that modify a specific protein called ETS1 can affect our body’s response to allergens.

16 Jun 2023

Reengineering the Cellular Synthetic Machinery to Produce Never-Before-Seen Polymers

Synthetic biologists have become increasingly creative in engineering yeast or bacteria to churn out useful chemicals -; from fuels to fabrics and drugs -; beyond the normal repertoire of microbes.

14 Jun 2023

Dual CRISPR Gene Drive Systems Target a Specific Gene

According to recent research from North Carolina State University, scientists have created a “homing gene drive system” based on CRISPR/Cas9 that could be used to suppress populations of Drosophila suzukii vinegar flies—so-called “spotted-wing Drosophila” that severely damage soft-skinned fruit in North America, Europe, and parts of South America.

13 Jun 2023

Achieving 3D Printing Inside 'Mini-Organs' Growing in Hydrogels

Scientists from the NIHR Great Ormond Street Hospital Biomedical Research Centre (a collaboration between GOSH and UCL), London, and University of Padova, Italy, have shown for the first time how 3D printing can be achieved inside 'mini-organs' growing in hydrogels -- controlling their shape, activity, and even forcing tissue to grow into 'molds.'

12 Jun 2023

Can Temperature Influence the Octopus Neural Transcriptome?

Each cell has a finite set of instructions inscribed in its DNA. Life, on the other hand, is unpredictable, and when the situation changes, animals must change.

9 Jun 2023

Chemical Transformation Produces a Wide Range of Complex Molecules

Diversity, according to chemists like Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Professor John Moses, is a doorway to discovery. Scientists are more likely to discover something valuable if they have access to more molecules to study.

8 Jun 2023

The New Player in ALS—An Ancient, Virus-Like Protein

ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) is a deadly neurodegenerative disease that attacks nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, progressively robbing individuals of their capability to speak, move, eat, and breathe.

8 Jun 2023

Determining the Genome of West Nile Virus

Connecticut Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory (CVMDL) researchers from UConn’s College of Agriculture, Health, and Natural Resources determined the genetic makeup of West Nile virus strains reported in an alpaca and a crow.

7 Jun 2023

Brazilian Algorithm Projects the Future of Vegetation in the Amazon

A group of researchers at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), in São Paulo state, Brazil, has developed an algorithm that projects the future of vegetation in the Amazon, presenting scenarios for transformation of the forest driven by climate change.

7 Jun 2023

Nitrogen Uptake by Corn From Fertilizer is Less Than What Farmers Think

Corn growers seeking to increase the amount of nitrogen taken up by their crop can adjust many aspects of fertilizer application, but recent studies from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign show those tweaks don’t do much to improve uptake efficiency from fertilizer.

6 Jun 2023

Scientists Unearth the "Butterfly Chaos Effect" in Swarms and Herds of Animals

Researchers at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid have discovered a phase shift between chaotic states that can appear in herds of animals and, in particular, in swarms of insects.

6 Jun 2023

eDNA Captured Along With Particulate Matter Reflects Local Biodiversity

The increasing loss of biodiversity and the rising incidence of species extinction is a severe threat to global ecosystems. However, measuring those losses on a global scale has been impossible, owing in large part to a lack of the necessary infrastructure.

6 Jun 2023