PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

When bacteria are buckling

When bacteria are buckling
2024-06-15
(Press-News.org)

Cyanobacteria are one of the oldest and most important life forms in the world – for example as they took an essential part in producing the oxygen in our atmosphere. Some types form long filaments composed of a few to more than 1,000 individual cells. In this form, the filamentous bacteria can move around. The principles of this locomotion have now been investigated by a research team led by Stefan Karpitschka, group leader at the MPI-DS and professor at the University of Konstanz, in collaboration with the University of Bayreuth and the University of Göttingen. 

"We measured the force during locomotion on individual filamentous bacteria," says first author Maximilian Kurjahn, describing the approach. "We found that they start to bend when force is applied above a certain length, while shorter filaments remain straight," Kurjahn continues. To do this, the researchers used a special microfluidic chip in which the bacteria were directed into channels and finally hit an obstacle. This bending test revealed that the threads start to kink and buckle at a length of around 150 micrometres.

Critical length enables flexibility of the system

"Interestingly, the length of most cyanobacteria is also in this range," reports Karpitschka. He continues: "This means that slight changes in the length of a population change its movement. This indicates a natural tipping point with which the bacteria adapt their behavior to external conditions." The bacteria appear to move by adhesion to the surface, as they have no cilia or other external propellers, and higher forces generate higher friction.

Cyanobacteria use sunlight as an energy source and therefore offer promising applications in biotechnology. As bio-solar collectors, for example, they can be used to produce biofuel. Due to their filamentous structure with a similar thickness to a carbon fiber, they could also be used in adaptive biomaterials in which the shape can be changed by light. A better understanding of their movement properties therefore contributes to the technological use of cyanobacteria.

END


[Attachments] See images for this press release:
When bacteria are buckling

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

In brief: Multi-omics analysis identifies molecularly defined Alzheimer’s disease subtypes

2024-06-15
Omics analysis is the process of analyzing large data sets to extract meaningful information about biological molecules—genes, DNA, RNA, proteins, metabolites or more—with the goal of illuminating typical molecular pathways and deciphering where things go awry in disease. In a study led by Bruno A. Benitez, MD, a human geneticist and director of the Neurobiorepository in the department of Neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), investigators used machine learning approaches to integrate high-throughput transcriptomic, proteomic, metabolomic, and lipidomic profiles to provide novel ...

New study offers a better way to make AI fairer for everyone

2024-06-15
In a new paper, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and Stevens Institute of Technology show a new way of thinking about the fair impacts of AI decisions. They draw on a well-established tradition known as social welfare optimization, which aims to make decisions fairer by focusing on the overall benefits and harms to individuals. This method can be used to evaluate the industry standard assessment tools for AI fairness, which look at approval rates across protected groups. "In assessing fairness, the AI community tries to ensure equitable treatment for groups that differ in economic level, ...

NRL researchers receive Navy’s Top Scientists and Engineers Award

NRL researchers receive Navy’s Top Scientists and Engineers Award
2024-06-14
WASHINGTON  –  U.S. Naval Research Laboratory scientists and engineers received the prestigious Department of Navy Dr. Delores M. Etter Top Scientists and Engineers of the Year Award, June 12, during an awards ceremony hosted at the Pentagon. “The Top Scientists and Engineers of the Year award program recognizes and acknowledges the excellence of our highest performing scientists and engineers in support of the Department of the Navy," said Frederick J. Stefany, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, ...

CDC-funded program improved cardiovascular health of Nebraska women

2024-06-14
Waltham — June 14, 2024 — When implemented in Nebraska, the WISEWOMAN program supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which offers services for women ages 40–64 who are low-income and uninsured/underinsured, improved hypertension, blood pressure self-management, diet, physical activity, and body weight. Jianping Daniels, PhD and colleagues, of the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, detail these findings in a supplement to the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.  In an introduction ...

Novel gene-editing therapy continues to show positive results in sickle cell patients

2024-06-14
Researchers have presented the latest findings from a clinical trial aimed at discovering a cure for sickle cell disease, a painful genetic blood disorder with limited treatment options. Conducted as part of the multicenter RUBY Trial, researchers shared data on the safety and effectiveness of renizgamglogene autogedtemcel (reni-cel, formerly known as EDIT-301), an experimental one-time gene editing cell therapy, among its 18 patients at the European Hematology Association 2024 Hybrid Congress (EHA) in Madrid, Spain. This innovative treatment modifies a patient’s own blood-forming stem cells ...

Technique improves the reasoning capabilities of large language models

2024-06-14
CAMBRIDGE, MA - Large language models like those that power ChatGPT have shown impressive performance on tasks like drafting legal briefs, analyzing the sentiment of customer reviews, or translating documents into different languages. These machine-learning models typically use only natural language to process information and answer queries, which can make it difficult for them to perform tasks that require numerical or symbolic reasoning. For instance, a large language model might be able to memorize and recite a list of recent U.S. presidents and their birthdays, but that same model could fail if asked the question “Which U.S. presidents elected after 1950 ...

URI study examines challenges, barriers to care for individuals leaving residential substance use facilities

2024-06-14
Residential treatment is among the most effective tools for treating substance use disorder, with people in these settings showing improvement not only in their substance use but also in their mental health, social functioning and quality of life. However, when people leave residential substance use facilities, they face immense challenges as they attempt to reintegrate into their communities and return to their normal lives. As many as 40 to 70 percent of people who complete residential treatment return ...

Some CRISPR screens may be missing cancer drug targets

2024-06-14
CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing has made possible a multitude of biomedical experiments including studies that systematically turn off genes in cancer cells to look for ones that the cancer cells heavily depend on to survive and grow. These genes, or “cancer dependencies,” are often promising drug targets. But new research shows that many of these CRISPR screening experiments rely on components, called CRISPR/Cas9 guides, that do not perform equally well in cells from people of all ancestries, which can cause CRISPR screens to miss cancer dependencies. These CRISPR guides are short sequences of RNA that ...

$18.5 million U19 grant will study B and T memory cells in transplanted lungs, uteruses and kidneys

$18.5 million U19 grant will study B and T memory cells in transplanted lungs, uteruses and kidneys
2024-06-14
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Memory immune cells reside in many tissues, poised to react to a second infection or continuing antigen. Yet little is known about these tissue-resident memory cells — how they get there, how they evolve and how they compete in tissues. A five-year, $18.5 million grant will allow University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers to investigate T and B tissue-resident memory cells, known as TRM and BRM cells, in three unique sites — transplanted lungs, transplanted kidneys and the transplanted ...

Improving soil health yields unexpected benefits for farmers

2024-06-14
In the U.S., as farmers wrestle with extreme heat and drought, heavy rainfall and flooding, and erosion—all factors of climate change which can take a toll on crops—there's been a lot of buzz over regenerative agriculture over the past few years, as big agriculture companies promise opportunities to make money from "carbon farming" while also improving soil health.   Regenerative farming strives to improve soil health through various methods, including reduced or no tillage, keeping the soil covered year-round through ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

New jab protects babies from serious lung infection, study shows

July Tip Sheet from Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center

Current application status and innovative development of surgical robot

Counterfeited in China: New book assesses state of industry and its future

Machine learning reveals historical seismic events in the Yellowstone caldera

First analyses of Myanmar earthquake conclude fault ruptured at supershear velocity

Curved fault slip captured on CCTV during Myanmar earthquake

Collaboration rewarded for work to further deployment of batteries in emerging economies

Heart-healthy habits also prevent cancer, Alzheimer’s, COPD, other diseases, Emory study finds

Scientists will use a $1M grant to build a support system addressing sea level rise and flooding in South Florida

New research examines how pH impacts the immune system

Inhaled agricultural dust disrupts gut health

New study reveals hidden regulatory roles of “junk” DNA

Taking the sting out of ulcerative colitis

Deep life’s survival secret: Crustal faulting generates key energy sources, study shows

Idaho National Laboratory to lead advancements in US semiconductor manufacturing

AI-assisted sorting, other new technologies could improve plastic recycling

More than just larks and owls!

Call for nominations: 2026 Dan David Prize

New tool gives anyone the ability to train a robot

Coexistence of APC and KRAS mutations in familial adenomatous polyposis and endometrial cancer: A mini-review with case-based perspective

First global-to-local study reveals stark health inequalities from COVID-19 in 2020–2021

rcssci: Simplifying complex data relationships with enhanced visual clarity

Why some ecosystems collapse suddenly—and others don’t

One-third of U.S. public schools screen students for mental health issues

GLP-1 RA use and survival among older adults with cancer and type 2 diabetes

Trends in physician exit from fee-for-service Medicare

Systematic investigation of tumor microenvironment and antitumor immunity with IOBR

Common feature between forest fires and neural networks reveals the universal framework underneath

New R package revolutionizes gene set enrichment analysis visualization for biomedical research

[Press-News.org] When bacteria are buckling