Culture
LEXINGTON, Ky (July 25, 2019) -- A team of scientists have designed and tested in mice a novel and promising therapeutic strategy for treating Lafora Disease (LD), a fatal form of childhood epilepsy. This new type of drug - called an antibody-enzyme fusion or AEF -- is a first-in-class therapy for LD and an example of precision medicine that has potential for treating other types of aggregate-based neurological diseases.
Future wireless data networks will have to reach higher transmission rates and shorter delays, while supplying an increasing number of end devices. For this purpose, network structures consisting of many small radio cells will be required. To connect these cells, high-performance transmission lines at high frequencies up to the terahertz range will be needed. Moreover, seamless connection to glass fiber networks must be ensured, if possible.
After nerve injury, the protein complex mTORC1 takes over an important function in skeletal muscle to maintain the neuromuscular junction, the synapse between the nerve and muscle fiber. Researchers at the University of Basel's Biozentrum have now shown that the activation of mTORC1 must be tightly balanced for a proper response of the muscle to nerve injury. The study published in Nature Communications opens new insights into muscle weakness related to neuromuscular diseases or caused by ageing.
A research team led by experts at the Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center reports favorable five-year survival rates from the first multidose clinical trial of the immunotherapy drug nivolumab (anti-PD-1) as a treatment for patients whose previous therapies failed to ste
The large, error-correcting quantum computers envisioned today could be decades away, yet experts are vigorously trying to come up with ways to use existing and near-term quantum processors to solve useful problems despite limitations due to errors or "noise."
A key envisioned use is simulating molecular properties. In the long run, this can lead to advances in materials improvement and drug discovery. But not with noisy calculations confusing the results.
A mutant worm with a change in one mitochondrial gene produces more reactive oxygen species (ROS), which can be harmful to cells by causing oxidative stress. However, this mutant worm is able to live twice as long as the wild type. Professor Dr. Aleksandra Trifunovic and her team at the CECAD Cluster of Excellence in Aging Research at the University of Cologne showed for the first time that this longevity is driven by a detoxification pathway, directly regulated by the level of ROS.
WASHINGTON, July 25, 2019 -- Your body is a delicately balanced chemical system, and if you take too much of a drug, you destroy that balance. That's what happens when you overdose. This week on Reactions, learn how to spot an overdose and the ways different types of drugs wreak havoc on your brain: https://youtu.be/xLSz3wEgwJ8.
The neurotransmitter brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) acts in the muscle, so that during strength training endurance muscle fiber number is decreased. Researchers at the University of Basel's Biozentrum have more closely investigated this factor, from the group of myokines, and demonstrated that it is produced by the muscle and acts on both muscles and synapses. The results published in PNAS also provide new insights into age-related muscle atrophy.
The spread of pathogens like the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is often studied in a test tube, i.e. in two-dimensional cell cultures, even though it hardly reflects the much more complex conditions in the human body. Using innovative cell culture systems, quantitative image analysis, and computer simulations, an interdisciplinary team of scientists from Heidelberg University has now explored how HIV spreads in three-dimensional tissue-like environments. The researchers' results show that the tissue structure forces the virus to spread through direct cell-to-cell contact.
The Zika virus has affected over 60 million people, mostly in South America. It has potentially devastating consequences for pregnant women and their unborn children, many of whom are born with severe microcephaly and other developmental and neurological abnormalities. There is currently no vaccine or specific treatment for the virus.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Moore's law - which says the number of components that could be etched onto the surface of a silicon wafer would double every two years - has been the subject of recent debate. The quicker pace of computing advancements in the past decade have led some experts to say Moore's law, the brainchild of Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in the 1960s, no longer applies. Particularly of concern, next-generation computing devices require features smaller than 10 nanometers - driving unsustainable increases in fabrication costs.
In the modern media world, consumers are constantly bombarded with advertisements claiming that products are "luxury," "European," created with "old-world traditions and craftsmanship" and more, but how do people know if these descriptions are true? The name Haagen-Dazs evokes a premium, imported brand image, but the company's original brand name was Senator Frozen Foods.
DALLAS (July 19, 2019) - Researchers at the Center for BrainHealth®, part of The University of Texas at Dallas, in collaboration with a team from UT Southwestern, have developed technology for a novel diagnostic method for multiple sclerosis (MS). The new approach has the potential to determine which damaged regions in an MS patient's brain have the capacity to heal themselves, and which do not.
When David Dao was forcibly removed from a United Airlines flight in 2017 after declining to give up his seat for United employees, there was immediate public outrage against the airline. But quickly after the event, news spread that Dao had used his medical license to trade prescription drugs for sex. Online reports implied that Dao, rather than United Airlines, was to blame because he was viewed as a bad person.
Published in Nature Communications, the study is the largest of its kind and was led by Walter and Eliza Hall Institute computational biologists Professor Tony Papenfuss, Dr Daniel Cameron and Mr Leon Di Stefano.
The new study reveals the world's top genomic rearrangement detection tools providing summaries on their performance and recommendations for use. Dr Cameron said the study could ultimately help clinicians determine the best treatments for their patients.