Body

For the first time, researchers have succeeded in producing 3D images showing oxygen and CO2 transport in the lungs. The new method provides hope for better treatment of COPD and lung cancer.

About 25 years ago, Michael Hall discovered the protein "Target of Rapamycin" (TOR) in yeast. It is one of the most studied members of the protein kinase family, an important family of regulatory proteins that control many cellular processes. Later, a TOR kinase was also found in mammalian cells, where it is known as mTOR - the mammalian Target of Rapamycin.

Prof. Hyung Joon Cha (Dept. of Chemical Engineering) and a team of researchers examined the behavior of sea anemone to create a mechanically durable hydrogel. Since the body length and width of sea anemone varies almost ten-fold by shrinking rapidly and expanding slowly under stimulus, the team assumed that mechanically durable protein in its body could play an important role in contraction and relaxation. Their research was published in Biomacromolecules.

A new statistical method could help to clarify the function of unknown genes. A research team under Uwe Ohler of the Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology (BIMSB) at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) has adapted and tested a filter method from speech signal processing that makes sequencing data more interpretable. "We can use this to watch the ribosome at work," says Ohler.

An international research project with the involvement of Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and the Animal Health Research Centre (IRTA-CReSA), has designed a vaccine shown to be effective in protecting dromedaries against the coronavirus (CoV) that causes Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). This vaccine may reduce animal-to-animal and animal-to-human infections by significantly reducing nasal excretion of the virus, and could be also tested for the protection of persons at greater risk of infection by the virus.

Phagocytosis represents a critical innate barrier against infection and serves the clearance of extracellular microbes, infected and dying cells. Different immune cells use phagocytosis for microbial killing, but in dendritic cells (DCs) it mainly serves the processing and presentation of specific molecules (antigens) that are able to alert the immune system and to initiate immune responses.

DOWNERS GROVE, Ill - Dec. 17, 2015 -- According to a study in the December issue of GIE: Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE), endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) appears to be a safe and effective minimally invasive treatment for patients with superficial pharyngeal (throat) cancer.

Proteins are like a body's in-house Lego set. These large, complex molecules are made up of building blocks called amino acids. Most of the time, proteins fold correctly, but sometimes they can misfold. This misfolding causes the proteins to get sticky, and that can promote clumping, or aggregation, which is the hallmark of several neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

One of the scourges of infections in hospitals -- biofilms formed by bacteria that stick to each other on living tissue and medical instruments, making them harder to remove -- can be tricked into dispersing with the targeted application of nanoparticles and heat, researchers have found.

The University of New South Wales study, jointly led by Associate Professor Cyrille Boyer of the School of Chemical Engineering and deputy director of Australian Centre for NanoMedicine, appears in today's issue of Nature's open access journal Scientific Reports.

A newly discovered connection between two common prostate cancer treatments may soon make prostate cancer cells easier to destroy. Drugs that could capitalize on the discovery are already in the pipeline, and a clinical trial to test whether the finding could improve treatments for prostate cancer patients could be only a few years away.

The discovery also may allow doctors to better determine which forms of treatment will most benefit individual patients, and there may be implications for other forms of cancer as well.

An Unexpected Connection

Cincinnati, OH, December 18, 2015 -- In 2013, car accidents resulted in approximately 8,500 infants requiring hospitalization or emergency department visits and 135 infant deaths. When used properly, car seats can reduce the risk of infant death and injury by 71%. However, in a new study scheduled for publication in The Journal of Pediatrics, researchers found that most families with newborns made at least one serious error in the use and installation of their car safety seat.

New analysis by a George Washington University academic examines the possibility of using in vitro gametogenesis (IVG) for human reproduction and its ethical and practical implications. The paper is published today (Friday) in the Journal of Law and the Biosciences[1].

New York, NY, December 17, 2015 - A patient's mental health prior to surgery can influence postoperative outcomes. Removal of the bladder, or radical cystectomy (RC), is an effective treatment for locally advanced bladder cancer, but complications occur in as many as 66% of patients. In a study in The Journal of Urology®, researchers found that patients whose self-assessment of mental health was low suffered more high grade complications in the 30 days following surgery than patients with higher self-assessments.

Scientists have drawn up molecular blueprints of a tiny cellular 'nanomachine', whose evolution is an extraordinary feat of nature, by using one of the brightest X-ray sources on Earth.

The scientists produced the structural map of this nanomachine - diacylglycerol kinase - by using a "hit and run" crystallography technique. In doing so, they have been able to understand how the tiny enzyme performs critical cellular duties - answering questions that have been on the table for over 50 years about this 'paradigmatic protein'.

(Edmonton) An antifreeze glycopeptide that mimics a naturally occurring glycoprotein found in Arctic fish is helping to significantly improve the efficacy of cell transplant treatments for diabetes patients--a procedure that transplants insulin producing islets to render them insulin independent for periods of time.