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Unlocking the mystery of the fruit fly's internal compass

For decades, researchers had a theory about how an animal's brain keeps track of where it is relative to its surroundings without outside cues – like how we know where we are, even with our eyes closed

3 Oct 2024

Dietary zinc may reduce plasmid transfer in gut microbes

Genes responsible for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) can spread from microbe to microbe through circular genetic material called plasmids, and this lateral transfer occurs in the gut.

3 Oct 2024

Houston Methodist researchers join national consortium to develop herpesvirus vaccine

Houston Methodist researchers will be part of a national consortium funded by an up to $49 million award from the U.S. Government's Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to develop a vaccine against two of the most common and destructive strains of herpesviruses that latently infect a majority of Americans and can lead to acute infections, multiple forms of cancer, autoimmune disease and birth defects.

3 Oct 2024

Quantum discovery shows potential to revolutionize pharmaceutical development

University of Copenhagen mathematicians have developed a recipe for upgrading quantum computers to simulate complex quantum systems, such as molecules.

3 Oct 2024

Insights into bacterial coexistence in fungal cells

An organism as a tenant in another - in biology, this often works quite well. ETH researchers have now shed light on how such a partnership of a cell in a cell can establish.

3 Oct 2024

New pathway linking neuron selectivity to cognitive disorders uncovered

Neuroscientists from Johns Hopkins Medicine say they have determined how a brain cell surface molecule shapes the way certain neurons behave.

3 Oct 2024

Key RNA pathway controlling DNA packaging and cancer progression

Inside every cell, inside every nucleus, your continued existence depends on an incredibly complicated dance. Proteins are constantly wrapping and unwrapping DNA, and even minor missteps can lead to cancer.

3 Oct 2024

Fruit fly brain connectome offers critical clues for understanding brain function and behavior

A scientific team supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) unveiled the first complete map of the neural connections of the common fruit fly brain. The map provides a wiring diagram, known as a connectome, and is the largest and most complete connectome of an adult animal ever created.

3 Oct 2024

Study uncovers how listeria monocytogenes survives in nutrient-poor environments

The detection tests commonly used to check for the absence of microbes in hospitals or the agri-food industry are based on microbial growth, i.e. the laboratory cultivation of microorganisms from a sample to be checked.

3 Oct 2024

Scientists overcome major challenge in gene therapy and drug delivery

Imagine trying to poke a hole in the yolk of a raw egg without breaking the egg white. It sounds impossible, but researchers at the University of California San Diego have developed a technology that performs a similarly delicate task in living cells. They created an array of nanopillars that can breach the nucleus of a cell-;the compartment that houses our DNA-;without damaging the cell's outer membrane.

3 Oct 2024

Study highlights the role of genetic factors in COVID-19 thrombosis and inflammation

Despite global vaccination efforts, COVID-19 continues to pose significant risks, leading to severe complications and fatalities. These risks are driven by disrupted coagulation, impaired fibrinolysis, which is the process of breaking blood clots, and heightened inflammatory responses.

3 Oct 2024

New insights into the link between respiratory infections and chronic lung diseases

A 3D reconstruction of a mouse lung four days after infection with fluorescent Sendai virus reveals widespread virus presence (red) and active replication (green).

3 Oct 2024

Researchers develop technology to change protein identity in vivo

Researchers at the RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research (CPR) have developed technology that can alter, within the body, the recognized identity of proteins. The innovation, published in Nature Communications on October 2, allowed researchers to target mouse tumors with a protein and then transport that protein out of the body.

3 Oct 2024

Scientists identify gut microbial signatures that distinguish diseases and predict health states

Study reveals significant gut microbial differences across diseases in the Chinese population, identifying universal microbial signatures that could predict disease states with high accuracy.

2 Oct 2024

CheekAge can accurately predict the risk of mortality, study shows

We don't all age at the same rate. But while some supercentenarians may age exceptionally slowly due to winning the genetics jackpot, a plethora of behavioral and lifestyle factors are known to speed up aging, including stress, poor sleep, poor nutrition, smoking, and alcohol.

1 Oct 2024