Digestion News and Research

RSS

Digestion is the mechanical and chemical breaking down of food into smaller components, to a form that can be absorbed, for instance, into a blood stream. Digestion is a form of catabolism; a break-down of macro food molecules to smaller ones.

New Synthetic Catalyst Breaks Down Cellulose: Study

Yan Zhao gestured toward the trees outside his campus window on a rainy afternoon.

22 Aug 2023

Bioplastics From Black Soldier Flies: A Sustainable and Eco-Friendly Solution

Imagine using insects as a source of chemicals to make plastics that can biodegrade later -; with the help of that very same type of bug.

16 Aug 2023

Study Shows How Sensory Neurons Control Gastrointestinal Tracts

Gastrointestinal and digestive issues impact roughly 3 million people across the United States alone, and that number is growing.

4 Aug 2023

Major Progress in Next-Gen Probiotic Development

One of the beneficial gut bacteria found in the human gut that ordinarily cannot thrive in an oxygen-rich environment can now be made oxygen-tolerant. This is an important result in the development of future probiotic treatments to enhance glucose management in people with prediabetes.

3 Aug 2023

Fossil Phytoliths Reveal That Early Birds Were Leaf Eaters

A new type of analysis of a spectacular 120-million-year-old fossil skeleton of the extinct early bird Jeholornis from northeastern China has revealed the oldest evidence for birds eating leaves, marking the earliest known evolution of arboreal plant-eating among birds.

2 Aug 2023

Revolutionizing Drug Design with Light-Activated Molecular Machines

Cells “talk” to one another to coordinate crucial biological activities such as immune activation, muscle contraction, hormone release, neuronal firing, and digestion using calcium signaling as a primary mechanism.

11 Jul 2023

New Technology can Help Probe the Connections Between the Brain and Gut

The brain and the digestive tract are in constant communication, relaying signals that help to control feeding and other behaviors.

23 Jun 2023

New Oral Probiotic Delivery System Keeps “Good” Bacteria Safe

Probiotics can help maintain a healthy gut microbiome or rebuild populations of “good bacteria” following an antibiotic course. They may now be utilized as a viable treatment strategy for certain intestinal diseases like Crohn’s disease.

22 Jun 2023

Experts Receive Grant to Boost UK’s Burgeoning Green Industry

Investigators are using artificial intelligence to start developing microorganism-led mechanisms that effectively “eat” products like food waste, wastewater, and animal manure to enhance the UK’s emerging green industry.

15 Jun 2023

Heat-Damaged DNA in Food Linked to Possible Genetic Risks

Researchers have newly discovered a surprising and potentially significant reason why eating foods frequently cooked at high temperatures, such as red meat and deep-fried fare, elevates cancer risk. The alleged culprit: DNA within the food that's been damaged by the cooking process.

14 Jun 2023

How the Disturbed Recycling Chain of Endoplasmic Reticulum Causes Neurodegenerative Diseases

Our cells are crisscrossed by a system of membrane tubes and pockets called the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). It is crucial for the production of biomolecules and is continuously built up and degraded.

29 May 2023

Breeding Bacteria-Free Salmon Fry

Researchers, including from NTNU, are breeding bacteria-free fish fry. This pursuit is more important than you might think.

2 May 2023

Genome Sequencing of 'Lablab Bean' Paves Way for Wider Cultivation of the African Crop

An international team of researchers has fully sequenced the genome of a climate-resilient bean that could bolster food security in drought-prone regions.

2 May 2023

Increased Fucose Digestion by Gut Bacteria Linked to Lower Immune Responses to COVID-19 Vaccine

Gut bacteria that break down a sugar called fucose could be dampening our immune response to the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, according to a study led by researchers from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology.

21 Apr 2023

Mind-Body Connection is More Than Just an Abstraction

Calm body, calm mind, say the practitioners of mindfulness. A new study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis indicates that the idea that the body and mind are inextricably intertwined is more than just an abstraction.

20 Apr 2023

UCF Scientists Develop a Digital Topographical Map of the Cardiac Sympathetic Neural Network

A team of UCF College of Medicine researchers has created a digital topographical map of the cardiac sympathetic neural network, the region that controls the body's heart rate and its "fight-or-flight" response.

18 Apr 2023

Research Identifies Protective Drugs that may Lessen the Collateral Damage Caused by Antibiotics

Antibiotics help to fight bacterial infections, but they can also harm the helpful microbes living in the gut, which can have long-lasting health consequences.

17 Apr 2023

Resistance genes in human gut influenced by national trends in antibiotic consumption

According to a new study performed at the Earlham Institute and Quadram Institute in Norwich, the community of microbes living in and on human bodies might be serving as a reservoir for antibiotic resistance.

28 Mar 2023

Immunity adaptation found in genomes of Stone Age farmers

New research suggests that diversity in genes implicated in immunity might have facilitated the shift from hunter-gatherer lifestyles to agriculture that occurred in prehistoric Europe over the course of around 1,500 years.

23 Mar 2023

“Bacterial suicide squad” recruits and activates innate and adaptive antitumor immune responses

Combining discoveries in cancer immunology with sophisticated genetic engineering, Columbia University researchers have created a sort of "bacterial suicide squad" that targets tumors, attracting the host's own immune cells to the cancer to destroy it. The new work, published today in Science Advances, marks a major step forward in efforts to enlist non-pathogenic bacteria to combat cancer.

9 Mar 2023