In recent decades, treatment options for people with cystic fibrosis have improved dramatically. The newest drugs, known as potentiators, target a protein called cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator, which is mutated in people with the disease. Yet, while these medications can help some people with CF, they are far from perfect. Moreover, researchers haven't been able to figure out how the drugs actually work--until now.
November 8, 2018 was a dry day in Butte County, California. The state was in its sixth consecutive year of drought, and the county had not had a rainfall event producing more than a half inch of rain for seven months. The dry summer had parched the spring vegetation, and the strong northeasterly winds of autumn were gusting at 35 miles per hour and rising, creating red flag conditions: Any planned or unplanned fires could quickly get out of control.
Astrophysicists know that iron (chemical symbol: Fe) is one of the most abundant elements in the universe, after lightweight elements such as hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen. Iron is most commonly found in gaseous form in stars such as the Sun, and in more condensed form in planets such as Earth.
Iron in interstellar environments should also be common, but astrophysicists detect only low levels of the gaseous kind. This implies that the missing iron exists in some kind of solid form or molecular state, yet identifying its hiding place has remained elusive for decades.
Coral reefs are retreating from equatorial waters and establishing new reefs in more temperate regions, according to new research in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series. The researchers found that the number of young corals on tropical reefs has declined by 85 percent – and doubled on subtropical reefs – during the last four decades.
Did you know that 90% of cancer patients die from distant metastasis? The latter occurs when cancer cells have the ability to move within the patient's body and invade its healthy tissues. In a study published in Nature Communications, researchers from the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM) have shown the key role that a protein called Ran plays in the mobility of ovarian cancer cells. They demonstrated these cells cannot migrate from cancerous sites without the help of Ran.
PITTSBURGH (July 9, 2019) … A bioengineering group from the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering is bringing the worlds of computational modeling and experimentation closer together by developing a methodology to help analyze the wealth
of imaging data provided by advancements in imaging tools and automated microscopes.
RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Move aside, electrons; it's time to make way for the trion.
A research team led by physicists at the University of California, Riverside, has observed, characterized, and controlled dark trions in a semiconductor -- ultraclean single-layer tungsten diselenide (WSe2) -- a feat that could increase the capacity and alter the form of information transmission.
Experts at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and 45 worldwide scientific and medical societies pushed for change to the national guidelines that would allow more patients with the chronic diseases of obesity and diabetes to be eligible for bariatric surgery at the 2019 Annual Minimally Invasive Surgery Symposium by Global Academy for Medical Education.
Researchers from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the University of Bath have developed a satellite-based early warning system that could spot tiny movements in bridges that indicate they could collapse.
Combining data from a new generation of satellites with a sophisticated algorithm, the monitoring system could be used by governments or developers to act as a warning system ensuring large-scale infrastructure projects are safe.
The role of Hox genes in changing the layout of different body parts during evolution has been challenged by a study led by researchers out of the University of Pittsburgh's Department of Biological Sciences.
Hox genes are vital to developing differences in repeated body parts such as vertebrae, limbs, or digits in most animal species, including human beings. Ever since their discovery, scientists have thought that modifications to Hox genes could be the primary way that the animal body plan has been altered during evolution.