Showing 20 articles starting at article 1641

< Previous 20 articles        Next 20 articles >

Categories: Biology: Cell Biology, Environmental: Wildfires

Return to the site home page

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Fresh insights into how our bodies interact with the microbes living in our guts suggest that a two-drug combination may offer a new way to treat inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

While pollinator populations of many species have plummeted worldwide, one bee species is blowing up the map with its rapid population expansion. The key to this insect's success? Its passion for pumpkins, zucchinis, and other squashes, and the massive increase in cultivation of these crops across North America over the last 1,000 years. A new study found that the squash bee (Eucera pruinosa) has evolved in response to intensifying agriculture -- namely squashes in the genus Curcurbita. The research has demonstrated the role of agriculture as an evolutionary force acting on a wild insect pollinator and may have implications for food security.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have discovered, using a recently developed technology, that genetically identical cells within a bacterial community have different functions, with some members behaving more docile and others producing the very toxins that make us feel ill.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A family of 'promiscuous' proteins found in all land plants is responsible for many different plant functions, despite remaining relatively unchanged for over 450 million years.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

For more than 50 years, it has been suspected that fat cells constantly remodel the lipids they store. Researchers have now demonstrated this process directly for the first time using culture cells. Among other things, the study shows that the cells quickly eliminate harmful fatty acids. They refine others into molecules that can be used more effectively. In the long term, this turns the components of palm fat into the building blocks of high-quality olive oil, for example.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A lower body temperature is one of the most effective mechanisms to prolong the lifespan of animals. New research has now described precisely how this works. The scientists show that cold can prevent the pathological aggregation of proteins typical for two aging-associated neurodegenerative diseases.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Wastewater is a more potent environment for antibiotic resistance to evolve than previously known. A study shows that wastewaters have unique characteristics, allowing resistance genes to start their journey from harmless bacteria to those that cause disease.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have succeeded in developing an E. coli-based 'smart microbe' that secretes therapeutic payloads, including antibodies, into the gut. The genetically modified beneficial strain of bacteria blocks intestinal inflammation in a preclinical model of inflammatory bowel disease and has the potential to treat intestinal-based diseases.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have developed a technology for delivering a microrobot to a target point of a hippocampus in an in-vitro environment, connecting neural networks, and measuring neural signals. The findings are expected to contribute to neural network research and the verification and analysis of cell therapy products.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Shigella bacteria can infect humans but not mice. A team can now explain why. Their findings may explain the multifariousness of a key weapon of our immune system.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Aging cells express a protein that is produced by human cytomegalovirus and is targeted by certain immune cells in the body. Harnessing the immune response to this protein could have multiple health benefits during aging.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

New research has discovered a cold 'coping' mechanism that is under the control of the plant biological clock and could offer solutions to breeding more resilience into crops less suited to cold climates.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers used computational modeling to reveal finer details surrounding the outer shell of the COVID-19 virus. The work expands the scientific community's understanding of SARS-COV-2, and could lead to more refined antiviral therapies and better vaccines.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Acetylcholine regulates blood flow, but the source of blood acetylcholine has been unclear. Now, researchers have discovered that certain T cells in human blood can produce acetylcholine, which may help regulate blood pressure and inflammation. The study also demonstrates a possible association between these immune cells in seriously ill patients and the risk of death.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The fruit of the cocklebur plant, which grows worldwide and is often considered a noxious weed, has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory components that could make it useful as a skin protectant, according to new research.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

The Indo-West Pacific is the largest marine ecosystem on Earth, but scientists who study its diversity have to contend with a problem so well-known it was remarked upon by Charles Darwin: related species in the IWP have similar appearances, making it difficult to assess just how many there are. A new study reveals that nearly identical crab species have one consistently distinguishing feature, which only evolves when their ranges overlap.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have developed a method to measure coral biodiversity through extracting the environmental DNA (or eDNA) from a liter of surface seawater collected from above a reef. The method has been confirmed to work through observations made by scientific divers in the same areas of ocean. This has paved the way for large-scale comprehensive surveys of reef-building coral to take place and removes the reliance of direct observations made through scientific scuba diving or snorkeling.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

A group of researchers discovered that the rhodopsin -- a protein in the eye that detects light -- of whale sharks has changed to efficiently detect blue light, which penetrates deep-sea water easily. The amino acid substitutions -- one of which is counterintuitively associated with congenital stationary night blindness in humans -- aid in detecting the low levels of light in the deep-sea. Although these changes make the whale shark rhodopsin less thermally stable the deep-sea temperature, allows their rhodopsin to keep working. This suggests that the unique adaptation evolved to function in the low-light low-temperature environment where whale sharks live.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Have a cough, sore throat and congestion? Any number of respiratory viruses could be responsible. Today, scientists report using a single-atom-thick nanomaterial to build a device that can simultaneously detect the presence of the viruses that cause COVID-19 and the flu -- at much lower levels and much more quickly than conventional tests for either.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers discover that actin acts in the cell nucleus and is partly responsible for the expression of male sexual characteristics.