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Largest Gestational Diabetes Study Reveals 9 New Genetic Regions

The largest genetic study of gestational diabetes to date has led to a discovery of nine novel genetic regions linked to this severe and common pregnancy complication.

8 Jan 2024

Engineering Plants to Fight Disease with Friendly Bacteria

For the first time, scientists have modified the plant microbiome to increase the amount of “good” bacteria that shield the plant from harm.

8 Jan 2024

Unlocking the Gut's Metabolic Secrets

The variety of enzymes that microbes employ to make energy in the low-oxygen environment of the gut is highlighted by a survey of bacterial genomes.

8 Jan 2024

Breakthrough in Bdellovibrio's Prey Recognition System

Researchers from the Universities of Birmingham and Nottingham have uncovered how naturally occurring antimicrobial predatory bacteria, known as Bdellovibrio bacterivorous, produce fiber-like proteins on their surface to entice prey in a study published on January 4th, 2024, in Nature Microbiology.

8 Jan 2024

New Method Reveals Bacteria's Protein Targeting System

Disease-causing bacteria of the genus Salmonella or Yersinia can use tiny injection apparatuses to inject harmful proteins into host cells, much to the discomfort of the infected person.

5 Jan 2024

B12-Producing Gut Bacteria Modulate Neurotransmitter Levels and Reduce Seizures in C. elegans

A new study published in Nature Cell Biology by Mark Alkema, PhD, professor of neurobiology, establishes an important molecular link between specific B12-producing bacteria in the gut of the roundworm C. elegans and the production of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter important to memory and cognitive function.

5 Jan 2024

Research Reveals Unforeseen Functions for Autophagy Genes in Neuronal Health and Aging

Autophagy, which declines with age, may hold more mysteries than researchers previously suspected. In the January 4th issue of Nature Aging, it was noted that scientists from the Buck Institute, Sanford Burnham Prebys and Rutgers University have uncovered possible novel functions

5 Jan 2024

Scientists Develop Tiny Human Cerebellums to Decipher Disease and Design Therapies

In a first for USC Stem Cell scientists, the laboratory of Giorgia Quadrato, an assistant professor of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine, has pioneered a novel human brain organoid model that generates all the major cell types of the cerebellum, a hindbrain region predominantly made up of two cell types necessary for movement, cognition, and emotion: granule cells and Purkinje neurons.

5 Jan 2024

A Pair of Force-Activated Gene Regulating Proteins Guide Fetal Bone Development

A pair of proteins, YAP and TAZ, has been identified as conductors of bone development in the womb and could provide insight into genetic diseases such as osteogenesis imperfecta, known commonly as "brittle bone disease."

5 Jan 2024

Unraveling the Mysteries of COPII-Mediated Protein Transport

Similar to postal workers who deliver packages in inclement weather, such as snow, rain, or heat waves, a vital set of proteins found in mammals enables cells to operate normally, even in less-than-ideal circumstances.

4 Jan 2024

Enhancing Photosynthesis Modulating Chlorophyll for Improved Crop Efficiency

Plants have evolved to have high chlorophyll levels in their leaves because chlorophyll is essential to photosynthesis.

4 Jan 2024

Zipping Up Chromosomes: The Synaptonemal Complex Revealed

We have two copies of each chromosome in every cell in our bodies except in our reproductive cells. Sperm and egg cells contain a single copy of each chromosome with a unique mix of genes from our parents, an evolutionary trick to give our offspring genetic variability.

4 Jan 2024