Body

LOGAN, UTAH, Sept. 1, 2016 - In arid Utah, a marshy wetland, teeming with aquatic life and migratory birds is among the most cherished natural resources in the state.

Nagoya, Japan - Dr. Toshiaki Tameshige, Associate Professor Naoyuki Uchida and Professor Keiko Torii of the Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules (ITbM) of Nagoya University, and their colleagues at the University of Washington (USA) and Nara Institute of Science and Technology (Japan) have reported their new findings in the journal Current Biology, on how a peptide and its receptors work to regulate auxin response and control leaf tooth growth in plants.

Scientists at the University of British Columbia have made a discovery that could potentially lead to treatments for a debilitating complication of Crohn's disease.

Crohn's disease is an inflammatory bowel disease in which the intestines of some patients can become blocked by thickened and scarred connective tissue--a condition known as fibrosis. When fibrosis occurs, surgical intervention is required to restore proper digestion. Repeated surgeries are not uncommon in Crohn's patients.

Hamilton, ON (September 2, 2016) -- By the time they are in their early 30s, extremely low birth weight (ELBW) babies are four times more likely to develop dysglycemia, or abnormal blood glucose, than their normal birth weight (NBW) peers.

These babies who were born weighing less than 2.2 pounds are also more likely than their peer group to have higher body fat and lower lean mass in adulthood, although both groups have a similar body mass index (BMI), says research published in the journal Pediatrics today.

Cooperation between Finnish and Chinese research groups has opened up new opportunities for developing treatments targeting aggressive acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (T-ALL).

A research group led by Professor Daoguang Yan from Jinan University in Guangdong has cooperated with Professor Vesa Olkkonen from the Minerva Foundation Institute for Medical Research on the Meilahti Campus to uncover a new mechanism which enhances the viability of cancerous T-cells and promotes their reproduction.

In many species, the sex chromosomes are unequally distributed: in humans as well as in the model organism Drosophila melanogaster male cells only possess one X chromosome, unlike female cells, which contain two Xs. Male fruit flies compensate for this short-coming by doubling the activity of their single X chromosome. This vital process is controlled by the enzyme complex known as DCC (dosage compensation complex).

In 2014, the susceptibility of gonococci to two of the recommended antibiotics for gonorrhoea treatment has shown signs of improvement, according to results from the European Gonococcal Antimicrobial Surveillance Programme (Euro-GASP). At the same time, a significant increase in resistance to another antibiotic agent that is part of the suggested dual therapy of gonorrhoea was observed.

Graphene is one of the most promising new materials. However, researchers across the globe are still looking for a way to produce defect-free graphene at low costs. Chemists at Friedrich-Alexander-Universiät Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) have now succeeded in producing defect-free graphene directly from graphite for the first time. They recently published their findings in the journal Nature Communications (DOI: 10.1038/ncomms12411).

Researchers at Helmholtz Zentrum München, a partner in the German Center for Lung Research (DZL), have discovered that the number of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) is increased in the blood of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). The higher the number of MDSC, the more limited the lung function. The findings on this new biomarker have now been published in the European Respiratory Journal.

Hibernation has long been considered the secret behind the relatively long lifespan of the edible dormouse. However, a team of researchers from Vetmeduni Vienna has now shown for the first time that high food availability during the active season in summer contributes to a long life. Increased food availability during this time allows the animals to slow their cellular aging. The study was published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

Friday, September 2nd, Baltimore, MD - Insilico Medicine, Inc, one of the leading companies applying latest advances in artificial intelligence to drug discovery, biomarker development and aging research is co-organizing the 3rd International Practical Applications for Aging Research Forum at the Basel Life Science Week in Basel, Switzerland, September 21-22. On September 21st, the CEO of Insilico Medicine will present new data on geroprotectors, small molecules that mimic the young healthy state in old human tissues.

Cell models from stem cells serve an ever-increasing role in research of cardiac dysfunction. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have succeeded in producing cells which offer new insights into properties of the heart. They installed a molecular sensor into the cells which emits light, and not only makes the cells' electrical activity visible, but also makes it possible for the first time to quickly identify cell types.

Individuals who are born with a low birth weight are less likely to be good at sports at school or participate in exercise later on in life.

The study, published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, used data from the Medical Research Council (MRC) National Survey for Health and Development, a unique birth cohort that closely monitors a group of people all born in the same week in March 1946. This particular research involved data from 2,739 of study participants.

It is known that genes inherited from ancient retroviruses are essential to the placenta in mammals, a finding to which scientists in the Laboratoire Physiologie et Pathologie Moleacuteculaires des Retrovirus Endogenes et Infectieux (CNRS/Universite Paris-Sud) contributed. Today, the same scientists reveal a new chapter in this story: these genes of viral origin may also be responsible for the more developed muscle mass seen in males. Their findings are published on 2 September 2016 in PLOS Genetics.

Almost half our genes can be the starting point for diseases. Scientists have identified 11,000 genes that occur in the human genome in variants that can cause disease. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Plön and the Harvard Medical School have studied why such high-risk genes persist in the human genome instead of being eliminated by selection. Their analyses suggest that the continuous adaptation to new pathogens in the course of evolution has increased the diversity of our immune genes but also comes at a price.