Body

CINCINNATI -- A study led by University of Cincinnati (UC) lipid metabolism researchers lends additional insight into how bacteria in the gut, or lack thereof, influences intestinal mast cells (MMC) activation and perhaps fat absorption.The study, "Antibiotics Suppress Activation of Intestinal Mucosal Mast Cells and Reduce Dietary Lipid Absorption in Sprague-Dawley Rats," is currently available in the online edition of Gastroenterology.

Several years ago, biologists discovered a new type of genetic material known as long noncoding RNA. This RNA does not code for proteins and is copied from sections of the genome once believed to be "junk DNA."

Since then, scientists have found evidence that long noncoding RNA, or lncRNA, plays roles in many cellular processes, including guiding cell fate during embryonic development. However, it has been unknown exactly how lncRNA exerts this influence.

Sept. 8, 2016

Sharks have a big reputation for their teeth.

The ocean predators use their buzz saw mouths to efficiently dismantle prey, ranging from marine mammals and sea turtles to seabirds and -- as Hollywood likes to remind us -- an occasional human.

There are more than 400 species of sharks in the world and each has a unique tooth shape. Some are simple triangles, while others are deeply notched or spear-shaped. But despite this variety, scientists haven't detected a difference in how different shark teeth cut and poke tissue.

DENVER (Sept 6, 2016) - The Global Down Syndrome Foundation has funded a landmark study led by renowned scientist, Dr. Joaquín Espinosa, Associate Director for Science at the Linda Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome. The results of the study were published online by eLife, an open-access life sciences and biomedical research journal targeted at the very high end and run by scientists including Nobel Laureate and Editor-in-Chief, Randy Schekman. The journal was established by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Max Planck Society, and the Wellcome Trust.

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Several national surveys have found that approximately 15 to 20 percent of adults in the U.S. will report high levels of stress. A new study by Mayo Clinic researchers identified stress and burnout as a major problem employees face within the medical industry, leading to negative health behaviors. With rising stress levels in the workplace for employees, many companies are looking to integrate, engage and enroll employees into wellness programs.

A research team including Professor William Laurance from James Cook University has discovered there has been a catastrophic decline in global wilderness areas during the past 20 years.

The team showed that since the 1990s, one-tenth of all global wilderness has vanished--an area twice the size of Alaska. The Amazon and Central Africa have been hardest hit.

The findings underscore an urgent need for international policies to recognise the value of wilderness and to address unprecedented threats to it, the researchers said.

A new study puts some old folk wisdom to "feed a cold and starve a fever" to the test. In mouse models of disease, Yale researchers looked at the effects of providing nutrients during infection and found opposing effects depending on whether the infections were bacterial or viral. Mice with bacterial infections that were fed died, while those with viral infections who were fed lived. The paper appears September 8 in Cell.

Researchers at Boston Children's Hospital have developed a technology to quickly generate mouse models for testing and tweaking potential HIV vaccines. Such models could speed up the quest for the AIDS field's "holy grail"-- a vaccine that elicits broadly neutralizing antibodies able to fight any mutant HIV strain. Findings are published September 8 in the journal Cell.

Today's industrial yeast strains are used to make beer, wine, bread, biofuels, and more, but their evolutionary history is not well studied. In a Cell paper publishing September 8, researchers describe a family tree of these microbes with an emphasis on beer yeast. The resulting genetic relationships reveal clues as to when yeast was first domesticated, who the earliest beer brewers were, and how humans have shaped this organism's development.

Up until now, scientists had only recognized a single species of giraffe made up of several subspecies. But, according to the most inclusive genetic analysis of giraffe relationships to date, giraffes actually aren't one species, but four. For comparison, the genetic differences among giraffe species are at least as great as those between polar and brown bears.

A research team led by a Northwestern University scientist has discovered that male animals, through their invisible chemical "essence," prime female animals for reproduction but with the unfortunate side effect of also hastening females' aging process.

During HIV infection, the virus mutates too rapidly for the immune system to combat, but some people produce antibodies that can recognize the virus even two years after infection. With an eye towards developing a vaccine, in four related papers from multiple groups publishing September 8 in Cell and Immunity, researchers describe a multi-step method for "training" the immune system to produce these antibodies in genetically engineered mice.

People have been enjoying the ability of yeasts to produce beer and wine since the dawn of civilization. Researchers from VIB, KU Leuven and Ghent University found that yeasts used for beer and winemaking have been domesticated in the 16th century, around 100 years before the discovery of microbes. Together with a US research team, the Belgian teams analyzed the genomes and fermentation characteristics of more than 150 industrial yeasts used to produce different beers, wines and bread.

A new study has estimated, for the first time, the numbers of people with Down syndrome in the U.S., from 1950 until 2010. The total number arrived at by the investigation, which also is the first to break down its findings by ethnic group, is considerably less than previously estimated by several organizations.

Researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on September 8 show catastrophic declines in wilderness areas around the world over the last 20 years. They demonstrate alarming losses comprising a tenth of global wilderness since the 1990s - an area twice the size of Alaska. The Amazon and Central Africa have been hardest hit.

The findings underscore an immediate need for international policies to recognize the value of wilderness and to address the unprecedented threats it faces, the researchers say.