Body

Molecular tools for bioengineering eukaryotic microalgae

Eukaryotic microalgae are increasingly important for the sustainable production of environmental friendly, renewable biochemicals and biofuels. Recent technological advances in genomics and physiology of algae to produce industrially relevant products combined with advanced tools for genetic manipulation have enabled bioengineering of new strains of algae that heretofore had been impossible. The complexity of the eukaryotic genome (having nuclear, chloroplastic and mitochondrial genomes) provides challenges but opportunities that are not possible in prokaryotic systems.

A new bio-ink for 3-D printing with stem cells

The new stem cell-containing bio ink allows 3D printing of living tissue, known as bio-printing.

The new bio-ink contains two different polymer components: a natural polymer extracted from seaweed, and a sacrificial synthetic polymer used in the medical industry, and both had a role to play.

The synthetic polymer causes the bio-ink to change from liquid to solid when the temperature is raised, and the seaweed polymer provides structural support when the cell nutrients are introduced.

Science Bulletin published Special Topic on 'plant development and reproduction'

Plant development includes the initiation of structure patterning, and maturation as plants grow via cell division, elongation, and differentiation. Unlike animals that form all their body parts early in their life, plants constantly generate new structures from meristems in the apex, vascular, and cork cambium tissues throughout their lives. This process is regulated by interactions of endogenous genetic mechanisms and environmental stimuli.

The silencer: Study reveals how a cancer gene promotes tumor growth

New Haven, Conn. -- A Yale-led study describes how a known cancer gene, EGFR, silences genes that typically suppress tumors. The finding, published in Cell Reports, may lead to the development of more effective, individualized treatment for patients with lung cancer and other cancer types.

Malaria -- a mapping of artemisinin resistance confirms that resistance is confined to Asia

The first global mapping of artemisinin resistance (the KARMA study) has definitively confirmed that resistance to the main drug currently used in the treatment of Plasmodium falciparum malaria is for the moment confined to Southeast Asia and has not spread to sub-Saharan Africa. Led by researchers from both the Institut Pasteur in Paris and the Institut Pasteur in Cambodia, KARMA gathers a large consortium of institutions including 13 members of the Institut Pasteur International Network.

Migratory bears down in the dumps

University of Utah biologists working in Turkey discovered two surprising facts about a group of 16 brown bears: First, six of the bears seasonally migrated between feeding and breeding sites, the first known brown bears to do so. Second, and more sobering, the other 10 bears stayed in one spot all year long: the city dump.

Rice scientists streamline synthesis of potential cancer drug

HOUSTON - (June 23, 2016) - A team led by Rice University scientists has improved the production of a potent anti-tumor antibiotic known as uncialamycin.

The Rice lab of synthetic chemist K.C. Nicolaou announced this month it had streamlined the total synthesis of uncialamycin to make it simpler to create novel variations of the molecule. Such variations could allow the substance, which is too toxic in its original form, to be made into useful drugs to fight cancer.

The new work by Nicolaou and colleagues appears in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

How yeast cells regulate their fat balance

FRANKFURT. Not only humans but also each of their body cells must watch their fat balance. Fats perform highly specialised functions, especially in the cell membrane. A research group at the Buchmann Institute for Molecular Life Sciences (BMLS) of Goethe University in Frankfurt, together with colleagues at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics, has now discovered how yeast cells measure the availability of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids in foodstuffs and adapt their production of membrane lipids to it.

CU Anschutz program increases number of grants won by researchers

AURORA, Colo. (June 23, 2016) - While the lure of academic medicine careers often lies in the promise of finding life-saving cures and new medical treatments, many young faculty leave the field in frustration after failing to win grants to fund their research. As a result, the best and brightest recruits are often lost to academic medicine.

But a new study at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus demonstrates that a program pairing junior faculty members with seasoned mentors can result in significantly more grants.

A better way to predict diabetes

TORONTO -- An international team of researchers has discovered a simple, accurate new way to predict which women with gestational diabetes will develop type 2 diabetes after delivery. The discovery would allow health care providers to identify women at greatest risk and help motivate women to make early lifestyle changes and follow other strategies that could prevent them from developing the disease later in life.

Novel gene-hunting method implicates new culprit in pancreatic cancer

Using an innovative approach to identify a cancer's genetic vulnerabilities by more swiftly analyzing human tumors transplanted into mice, researchers have identified a new potential target for pancreatic cancer treatment, published online in Cell Reports.

The team, led by scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, found the gene WDR5 protects pancreatic tumors from DNA damage, working with the previously known cancer-promoting gene called Myc to help tumors thrive.

An effective but painful treatment

Severe paleness and photosensitivity are two symptoms of a rare group of hereditary diseases that affect haem, a substance in the blood. While these metabolic disorders - known as the porphyrias - are extremely rare, a similar effect is often deliberately triggered by dermatologists in localised areas during the treatment of pre-cancerous skin lesions and skin cancers. This treatment is called photodynamic therapy and involves using a special cream which stimulates haem production in the diseased cells. This produces several photosensitive molecules known as porphyrins.

Not only trauma but also the reversal of trauma is inherited

Traumatic experiences in childhood increase the risk of developing behavioral and psychiatric disorders later in life. It is also known that the consequences of a trauma can likewise be observed in the children of people affected even if those children have themselves not experienced any trauma. However, childhood trauma in some conditions can also help individuals deal better with difficult situations later in life. This ability, too, is passed onto following generations.

Some viruses could survive on children's toys for hours and cause infection, study finds

ATLANTA--Certain viruses, such as influenza, could survive on children's toys long enough to result in exposures, placing children at risk for getting infectious diseases, according to researchers at Georgia State University.

The researchers tested how long an enveloped virus could survive on pieces of a flexible plastic children's toy, a squeaking frog. They were able to recover infectious virions (complete viral particles) from the toy up to 24 hours after the toy's contamination at 60 percent relative humidity, and up to 10 hours at 40 percent relative humidity.

Sex with the lights on

When you're a firefly, finding "the one" can change the world.

Literally.

A new study by UCSB evolutionary biologists Todd Oakley and Emily Ellis demonstrates that for fireflies, octopuses and other animals that choose mates via bioluminescent courtship, sexual selection increases the number of species -- thereby impacting global diversity. Their results appear in the journal Current Biology.