ROCKVILLE, MD – Marcel P. Goldschen-Ohm, of the University of Texas at Austin, USA will be honored as the recipient of the Biophysical Journal Paper of the Year-Early Career Investigator Award at the 69th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society, held February 15-19 in Los Angeles, California. This award recognizes the work of outstanding early career investigators in biophysics. The winning paper is titled “GABAA Receptor Subunit M2-M3 Linkers Have Asymmetric Roles in Pore Gating and Diazepam Modulation.” The paper was published in Volume 123, Issue 14 of Biophysical Journal. GABAA receptors mediate inhibitory synaptic signaling ...

ROCKVILLE, MD – Phytoplankton, tiny plant-like organisms in the ocean, are incredibly important for life on Earth. They're a major food source for many sea creatures and produce almost half the oxygen we breathe.  They also help control the climate by soaking up a lot of carbon dioxide, a gas that contributes to global warming. Scientists want to learn more about how these phytoplankton use sunlight to make energy and oxygen, which can be useful in the context of environmental monitoring during ...

ROCKVILLE, MD – The Apennine brown bear, also known as the Marsican brown bear (Ursus arctos marsicanus), is a unique and critically endangered subspecies of brown bear found only in the remote and rugged Apennine Mountains of central Italy. A new study by the Italian Endemixit project (endemixit.com) reveals a potentially critical genetic flaw in the endangered Apennine brown bear population of Italy, offering insights that could help boost conservation efforts. The work will be presented at the 69th Biophysical Society Annual Meeting, to be held February 15 - 19, 2025 in Los Angeles. This distinct population has been isolated for centuries, evolving unique physical ...

ROCKVILLE, MD – Brain inflammation, while a crucial part of the body's immune response, takes on a detrimental role in Alzheimer's disease. Unlike the acute, short-lived inflammation that combats infection, the inflammation associated with Alzheimer's becomes chronic and persistent. Scientists have been trying to understand why this happens.  New research reveals key differences in how the brain's immune system responds to the disease compared to a bacterial infection. The work will be presented at the 69th ...

ROCKVILLE, MD – In a surprising discovery, scientists have found that the heart possesses "sweet taste" receptors, similar to those on our tongues, and that stimulating these receptors with sweet substances can modulate the heartbeat. This research opens new avenues for understanding heart function and potentially for developing novel treatments for heart failure. While taste receptors are traditionally associated with the tongue and our ability to perceive flavors, recent studies ...

ROCKVILLE, MD – Viruses, like those that cause COVID-19 or HIV, are formidable opponents once they invade our bodies. Antiviral treatments strive to block a virus or halt its replication. However, viruses are dynamic—constantly evolving and changing shape, which can make designing antiviral treatments a challenge. But new research utilizes an innovative computational modeling approach to capture the complex and diverse shapes that viral proteins can adopt. The work will be presented at the 69th Biophysical Society Annual Meeting, to be held February 15 - 19, 2025 in Los Angeles. This new approach, implemented in the open-source Integrative Modeling Platform ...

ROCKVILLE, MD – When scientists develop new molecules—whether for the purposes of agriculture, species control, or life-savings drugs—it’s important to know exactly what its targets are. Thoroughly understanding a molecule's interactions, both intended and unintended, is crucial for ensuring its safety and efficacy. A cone snail toxin known to affect both insects and fish inspired Weizmann Institute scientists to develop a new way of finding molecular targets. By combining artificial intelligence with traditional ...

Tokyo, Japan – Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have developed a way to treat ageing-related muscular atrophy using regenerative medicine. Conventional methods to implant myoblasts, precursors to muscle fiber, required prior scarring for the new cells to graft properly. By adding extracellular matrix (ECM) fluid into the implant, the team successfully grafted myoblasts onto healthy muscle in mice. Their technique opens the way for using implantation to treat unscarred muscle atrophied by ageing.   Age-related muscular atrophy in skeletal muscle can have a devastating impact on people’s quality ...

Three innovative design techniques substantially enhance wireless transmitter performance and can boost power efficiency and elevate data rates concurrently, as reported by the researchers from Science Tokyo, Japan. This effectively aligns with the growing demand for speed and efficiency, accelerating the widespread deployment of wireless devices. This enables synergistic operation of wireless electronic devices and better quality of modern life.   Background: Integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into everyday life requires the interconnectedness of all electronic devices via a technology called the Internet of Things (IoT). The rapid expansion of the IoT market has ...

The clownfish-anemone living arrangement is one of the most widely recognized examples of symbiosis. Researchers have made a breakthrough in understanding how anemonefish can live safely among sea anemones without being stung by their venomous tentacles, solving a century-long mystery.   Scientists at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) and their international collaborators have discovered that anemonefish have evolved to maintain very low levels of sialic acid in their skin mucus to avoid triggering the release of nematocysts (stinging cells) in ...

Sotagliflozin, a drug recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat type 2 diabetes and kidney disease with additional cardiovascular risk factors, can significantly reduce heart attack and stroke among these patients, according to results from an international clinical trial led by a Mount Sinai researcher. Sotagliflozin is a sodium-glucose cotransporter (SGLT) inhibitor. It blocks the function of two proteins, known as SGLT1 and SGLT2, which move glucose and sodium across cell membranes and help control blood sugar levels. Other SGLT2 inhibitors do not as significantly block SGLT1. The study, published ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Scientists discovered years ago that the hypothalamus — which helps to manage body temperature, hunger, sex drive, sleep and more — includes neurons that express the protein opsin 3 (OPN3). Far less clear, however, was what this light-sensing protein does so deep inside the brain. A study published in PNAS suggests that OPN3 plays an important role in regulating food consumption.  “Our results uncover a mechanism by which the nonvisual opsin ...

 New blood test could improve Alzheimer’s Disease diagnosis, research finds Up to half of all people living with Alzheimer’s Disease in Ireland remain undiagnosed. Now, a new blood test may have the potential to transform patient care, allowing for better diagnosis, earlier interventions and more targeted treatments. Researchers at Trinity College Dublin, the Tallaght Institute of Memory and Cognition and St James’s Hospital, Dublin are exploring the ability of a new blood test, plasma p-tau217, to detect Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). This test could potentially replace the current diagnostic method, a lumbar puncture/spinal tap (which ...

Cal Poly Assistant Professor Joni Roberts has been chosen, with two additional university faculty members, as the first Cal Poly Faculty Excellence Award honorees. The inaugural Faculty Excellence Award — an honor recognizing outstanding contributions in teaching, research and service — is administered by the Office of the Provost and funded by generous donor contributions. The award reflects Cal Poly’s commitment to academic excellence and its Learn by Doing philosophy.  The ...

A new Colorado State University study of the interior U.S. West has found that tree ranges are generally contracting in response to climate change but not expanding into cooler, wetter climates – suggesting that forests are not regenerating fast enough to keep pace with climate change, wildfire, insects and disease.  As the climate becomes too warm for trees in certain places, tree ranges have been expected to shift toward more ideal conditions. The study analyzed national forest inventory data for more than 25,000 plots in ...

From punch card-operated looms in the 1800s to modern cellphones, if an object has an “on” and an “off” state, it can be used to store information. In a computer laptop, the binary ones and zeroes are transistors either running at low or high voltage. On a compact disc, the one is a spot where a tiny indented “pit” turns to a flat “land” or vice versa, while a zero is when there’s no change. Historically, the size of the object making the “ones” and “zeroes” has put a limit on the size of the storage device. But now, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- In a paper published earlier this month in Physical Review Letters, a team of physicists led by Jonathan Richardson of the University of California, Riverside, showcases how new optical technology can extend the detection range of gravitational-wave observatories such as the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO, and pave the way for future observatories.  Since 2015, observatories like LIGO have opened a new window on the universe. Plans for future upgrades to the 4-kilometer LIGO detectors and the construction of a next-generation 40-kilometer observatory, Cosmic Explorer, aim to push the gravitational-wave ...

Dravet syndrome and other developmental epileptic encephalopathies are rare but devastating conditions that cause a host of symptoms in children, including seizures, intellectual disability, and even sudden death.  Most cases are caused by a genetic mutation; Dravet syndrome in particular is most often caused by variants in the sodium channel gene SCN1A. Recent research from Michigan Medicine takes aim at another variant in SCN1B, which causes an even more severe form of DEE.  Mice without the SCN1B gene experience seizures and 100 percent mortality just ...

In late July to October 2022, residents of the Manu’a Islands in American Samoa felt the earth shake several times a day, raising concerns of an imminent volcanic eruption or tsunami. An earthquake catalog for the area turned up nothing, because the islands lacked a seismic monitoring network that could measure the shaking and aid seismologists in their search for the source of the earthquake swarm. But the residents of the Taʻū, Ofu, and Olosega islands needed answers, so Clara Yoon of the ...

LA JOLLA (February 14, 2025)—Antidepressants like Prozac are commonly prescribed to treat mental health disorders, but new research suggests they could also protect against serious infections and life-threatening sepsis. Scientists at the Salk Institute have now uncovered how the drugs are able to regulate the immune system and defend against infectious disease—insights that could lead to a new generation of life-saving treatments and enhance global preparedness for future pandemics. The Salk study follows recent findings that users of selective ...

University of Leeds news Embargoed until 14 February 2025 (19:00 GMT) --- The cool conditions which have allowed ice caps to form on Earth are rare events in the planet’s history and require many complex processes working at once, according to new research. A team of scientists led by the University of Leeds investigated why Earth has existed in what is known as a 'greenhouse' state without ice caps for much of its history, and why the conditions we are living in now are so rare. They found ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Humanity may not be extraordinary but rather the natural evolutionary outcome for our planet and likely others, according to a new model for how intelligent life developed on Earth. The model, which upends the decades-old “hard steps” theory that intelligent life was an incredibly improbable event, suggests that maybe it wasn't all that hard or improbable. A team of researchers at Penn State, who led the work, said the new interpretation of humanity’s origin increases the probability ...

CLEVELAND—The process of separating useful molecules from mixtures of other substances accounts for 15% of the nation’s energy, emits 100 million tons of carbon dioxide and costs $4 billion annually. Commercial manufacturers produce columns of porous materials to separate potential new drugs developed by the pharmaceutical industry, for example, and also for energy and chemical production, environmental science and making foods and beverages. But in a new study, researchers at Case Western Reserve University have found these ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A new test developed at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign can predict the performance of a new type of cementitious construction material in five minutes — a significant improvement over the current industry standard method, which takes seven or more days to complete. This development is poised to advance the use of next-generation resources called supplementary cementitious materials — or SCMs — by speeding up the quality-check process before leaving the production floor. Due ...

Drs. Vanderlei Bagnato, Rodney Bowersox and Don Lipkin from Texas A&M University’s College of Engineering have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Class of 2025, joining 128 new members and 22 international members. This is one of the highest professional honors for engineers. “Congratulations to Drs. Bagnato, Bowersox and Lipkin for achieving this recognition. This prestigious honor reflects their groundbreaking contributions to engineering and underscores the exceptional talent within our faculty,” said Dr. Robert H. Bishop, vice chancellor and dean of Texas A&M ...