Body

Microalgae hold tremendous potential for industrial biotechnology. They are an important resource in the production of food and medications, and in many other applications. In comparison to bacteria and fungi, however, they still play only a minor role. The economic use of these organisms has been difficult in the past primarily because existing production procedures are too costly.

Beijing, China - Chromatin remodeling proteins (chromatin remodelers) are essential and powerful regulators for critical DNA-templated cellular processes, such as DNA replication, recombination, gene transcription/repression, and DNA damage repair. These molecular and genetic processes are important for a wide spectrum of cellular functions, including cell cycle, death, differentiation, pluripotency, and genome integrity. Recently, many scientific reports have shown that chromatin remodeling proteins could be promising new targets for the treatment of human malignancy.

Amsterdam, July 13, 2016 - A new method for extracting, enriching and identifying chemical warfare agents from oils and other organic liquids could help government officials and homeland security protect civilians more effectively from their deadly effects. The method, published in Journal of Chromatography A, uses nanoparticles to capture the chemicals.

Neuherberg/Tübingen, July 13, 2016. It is widely accepted that physical exercise lowers the risk of developing diabetes. Yet in one in five participants in related studies this positive effect fails to materialize. Researchers and clinicians involved in a collaborative translational project launched by the German Center for Diabetic Research between the Helmholtz Zentrum München and the University Hospital Tübingen have now discovered what occurs in the muscle of these so-called "non-responders". The results of their research were published recently in the Diabetes journal.

TORONTO, July 13, 2016 -- New research led by York University Professor Michael Connor highlights how fat cells could help determine the most effective way to fight breast cancer; including using exercise to combat the disease.

UK scientists may have found a way to destroy HIV's last refuge. A study by Oxford University has confirmed that a treatment developed by a British company can remove the virus in its chosen hiding place, in laboratory conditions, offering hope of a viable treatment.

Professor Lucy Dorrell and her team at the University of Oxford worked with Immunocore Ltd - a UK biotechnology company based in Oxfordshire - to investigate the potency of novel engineered immune-mobilising T cell receptors-based drugs ('ImmTAVs'), designed to clear HIV-infected cells.

A new study led by Assistant Medical Professor Philip Smith of The City College of New York's Sophie Davis Biomedical Education/CUNY School of Medicine, and conducted in collaboration with researchers at Yale University and Yeshiva University, found important differences between women and men in their ability to quit smoking when taking medications commonly prescribed to help smokers quit.

(Boston)--Researchers have developed a diagnostic model that is highly predictive of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Referred to as the Framingham Steatosis Index (FSI), this novel model may become a cheaper and easier alternative to screen for liver fat, the major feature of this condition.

Is it possible to change our behaviour when it comes to food choices only by presenting the food to the guests in a canteen in a different order, or by making it more difficult to reach the less healthy food? Yes, a review of existing research in this area concludes. The review shows that manipulation of food product order or proximity can influence food choice and that healthy food nudging seems promising. Eighteen studies were included in the review. Sixteen of the studies showed nudging made a positive impact.

It is common knowledge that salt consists of the cation sodium and the anion chloride. However, the substance used to season food has been a cause of great concern to farmers for some time now: In times of climate change, more and more agricultural areas have to be irrigated. This inevitably leads to the increasing salinisation of soils, that is the accumulation of sodium and chloride ions.

A Freiburg-based research group has developed a microfluidic chip where more than one hundred apidose-derived adult stem cell cultures can grow and divide. In the human body, adipose tissue acts as a primary energy store. Adult stem cells have the task of maintaining and regenerating this process. The researchers used the new lab-on-a-chip to study how adult stem cells in adipose tissue develop into mature fat cells, conducting their investigations outside the body.

Scientists from the Institut Pasteur and the CNRS have identified two new strains of the HTLV-4 virus in two hunters who were bitten by gorillas in Gabon. These findings, published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, support the notion that gorillas represent a major source of infectious agents that can be passed on to humans.

LA JOLLA, CA - July 13, 2016 - With the Rio Olympics just weeks away, many are wondering how Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt will perform. Bolt is the fastest runner ever timed, but he's also been nursing a tendon injury--the kind of injury that can take years to heal.

Why are tendon injuries--which also plague Kobe Bryant and Serena Williams, among many others--so tough to treat? Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) are working to answer that question by investigating how tendons develop and stay healthy in the first place.

PHILADELPHIA - A receptor protein that is the target of the breast cancer drug trastuzumab (Herceptin) is needed for proper heart blood-vessel development, reported researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. They published their findings this month in Nature Communications. These discoveries have implications for better understanding the cardiovascular side effects of trastuzumab commonly used for cancer and provide an example of integration at the molecular level of pathways involved in tissue growth and blood-vessel patterning.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- As the world prepares to watch the Summer Olympics' track and field events in Rio, it will come as no surprise that the runners in each race travel in the same direction around the track. But new research shows that if those runners were bacteria, the dynamics on the track would be a bit more complex -- and more than a little puzzling.