Eurekalert

A recent study from the University of Helsinki monitors the breakthrough progresses in the development of microneedles for immunotherapy and discusses the challenges regarding their production. Researchers suggest using microneedles for immunotherapy due to the high abundance of immune cells under the skin. The aim is to vaccinate or treat different diseases, such as cancer and autoimmune disorders, with minimal invasiveness and side effects.

Researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) report in Neuropsychopharmacology that a mutation in the gene EPHB2 is linked to increased autism risk in girls.

Biophotonics in Photomedicinehttps://doi.org/10.15212/bioi-2020-0043Announcing a new article publication for BIO Integration journal. In this editorial the authors Hui Liu and Juan Chen from Shanxi Eye Hospital, Taiyuan, China discuss biophotonics in photomedicine.

In this latest press release from the Imperial Brands Science website, we detail how our researchers developed an advanced 3D lung tissue model, leading to the first peer-reviewed vaping study evaluating repeated cigarette smoke and aerosol exposure. Results showed minimal effects to lung tissue from vape aerosol compared to cigarette smoke.

A series of distributional lists is being published for a group of organisms that, despite its size and diversity, is still poorly known: the insect order Hymenoptera, which includes ants, bees and wasps. The surveyed area spreads across Canada, Alaska and Greenland. When complete, this will be the largest species checklist for northern North America. The checklists are being published as a topical collection of eleven papers in the open-access, peer-reviewed Journal of Hymenoptera Research.

The examination of an Estonian girl with progressive muscle weakness brought about collaboration of researchers from ten countries, which led to the discovery of a new form of muscular dystrophy caused by changes in the Jagged2 (JAG2) gene. In the research, a special muscle magnetic resonance imaging study was used in Estonia for the first time, revealing a pattern of muscle involvement characteristic of pathogenic variants in JAG2.

As in many other socially-living species, humans form coalitions to gain advantage in conflicts or to seek or maintain social status. However, studying coalition formation in human societies is complicated by the formal institutions - such as businesses, courts, and governments - that structure social relationships and conflict resolution. But even in small-scale human societies with a relative lack of such formal institutions, there is scant research on the details of coalition formation.

At the University Hospital of Tuebingen, a clinical trial led by Prof. Dr. Peter Kremsner, Director of the Institute of Tropical Medicine and Dr. Rolf Fendel, Research Group Leaderat the Institute of Tropical Medicine partnered with the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), was able to show that the vaccine, "Sanaria® PfSPZ-CVac", which is being developed in Tuebingen together with the biotechnology company Sanaria Inc., provides 77 percent cross-strain protection against malaria parasites.

Rarely has the United States-Mexico border become the source of positive news of lately. However, a new study, published in the Journal of Hymenoptera Research, demonstrates it's in fact one of the world's top biodiversity hotspots for bees. A multi-year survey led by Robert Minckley of the University of Rochester found more than 470 bee species in 16km2 of Chihuahuan Desert, equivalent to 14% of all known bee species from the United States.

How can a highly effective drug be transported to the precise location in the body where it is needed? In the journal Angewandte Chemie, chemists at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) together with colleagues in Aachen present a solution using a molecular cage that opens through ultrasonification.

A curiously yellow pre-supernova star has caused astrophysicists to re-evaluate what's possible at the deaths of our Universe's most massive stars. The team describe the peculiar star and its resulting supernova in a new study published today in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

2D superconductors have drawn considerable attention both for the fundamental physics they display as well as for potential applications in fields such as quantum computing. Although considerable efforts have been made to identify them, materials with high transition temperatures have been hard to find. Materials featuring both superconductivity and non-trivial band topology have proven even more elusive. A recent Nano Letters paper predicts just such a material in the easily exfoliable, topologically non-trivial semimetal W2N3.

Larger bumblebees are more likely to go out foraging in the low light of dawn, new research shows.

What happens on a molecular level, when our immune system detects antigens? Scientists in Vienna have found out, how T cells exert tiny forces on antigens. Bonds between T cells and antigen presenting cells break, and this behaviour tells the T cell whether or not it has found the right antigen.

Agricultural soils under conventional farming practices contain up to 10 times higher pesticide levels than soils under organic management, according to a study across Europe from the collaboration of Diverfarming, Recare and iSQAPER projects.

Using whole exome sequencing, CHOP researchers discovered a genetic mutation responsible for a new condition that prevents patients from making B cells and antibodies to fight infections. The study describing this condition, which CHOP researchers named PU.1 Mutated agammaglobulinemia (PU.MA), was published today in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

We live in times when among the most limited and precious resources on Earth are air and water. No matter the geographical location, the pollution spreads quickly, negatively affecting even the purest regions like Mount Everest. Thus, anthropogenic activity decreases the quality of the environment, making it harmful for flora and fauna. Current waste treatment methods are not sufficient, so novel and effective methods for maximizing pollutants removal are highly needed.

The first civilisations to build monumental palaces and urban centres in Europe are more genetically homogenous than expected, according to genomes gathered from archaeological sites around the Aegean. Individuals from the northern Aegean were considerably different by the Middle Bronze Age, sharing half their ancestry with people from the Pontic-Caspian steppe. These populations were highly similar to present-day Greeks. This supports theories that Proto-Greek and Indo-European languages originated in Anatolia or the Pontic-Caspian Steppe region.

Combining expertise has shed new light on how cells self-destruct during microbial infection.

Researchers at Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) conducted a case study in the first-mile mobility market from origins to subway stations in Tampines, Singapore, to find out the impact of competition between public transit and shared autonomous vehicles. The study revealed that with the right conditions, the competition can be beneficial for both parties and improve overall transport systems.