How does unicellular life transition to multicellular life? The research team of Professor Lutz Becks at the Limnological Institute of the University of Konstanz has taken a major step forward in explaining this very complex process. They were able to demonstrate - in collaboration with a colleague from the Alfred Wegner Institute (AWI) - that the unicellular green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, over only 500 generations, develops mutations that provide the first step towards multicellular life. This experimentally confirmed a theory on the origin of multicellular life, which says that the evolution of cell groups and the subsequent steps towards multicellularity can only take place when cell groups are both better at reproduction and more likely to survive than single cells. ...

Although the giant panda is in practice a herbivore, its masticatory system functions differently from the other herbivores. Through the processes of natural selection, the giant panda's dietary preference has strongly impacted the evolution of its teeth and jaws. Researchers from the Institute of Dentistry at the University of Turku and the Biodiversity unit of the University of Turku together with researchers from the China Conservation and Research Center for Giant Panda (CCRCGP) have been the first in the world to solve the mystery of how the giant panda's special stomatognathic system functions. The bamboo diet of the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) has long been a ...

Pichia pastoris (syn. Komagataella phaffii), a model methylotrophic yeast, can easily achieve high density fermentation, and thus is considered as a promising chassis cell for efficient methanol biotransformation. However, inefficient gene editing and lack of synthetic biology tools hinder its metabolic engineering toward industrial application. Recently, a research group led by Prof. ZHOU Yongjin from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences established an efficient genetic engineering platform in Pichia pastoris. The study was published in Nucleic Acids Research on July 1. The researchers developed ...

Depression has been treated traditionally with inhibitors of serotonin reuptake in the central nervous system. These drugs do not come without side effects, such as lack of immediate therapeutic action, the need for daily doses and the danger of becoming addicted to some of these drugs. That is why scientists continue to work on new therapies to treat depression. In 2019, an international group of researchers co-led by Dr Yousef Tizabe from the Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, D.C., and Professor José Aguilera from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Institut de Neurociències ...

To splice or not to splice... In an article published in the journal RNA, Karan Bedi, a bioinformatician in Mats Ljungman's lab, Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Michigan Medical School, investigated the efficiency of splicing across different human cell types. The results were surprising in that the splicing process appears to be quite inefficient, leaving most intronic sequences untouched as the transcripts are being synthesized. The study also reports variable patterns between the different introns within a gene and across cell lines, and it further highlights ...

Researchers at the University of Freiburg and the University of Stuttgart have developed a new process for producing movable, self-adjusting materials systems with standard 3D-printers. These systems can undergo complex shape changes, contracting and expanding under the influence of moisture in a pre-programmed manner. The scientists modeled their development based on the movement mechanisms of the climbing plant known as the air potato (Dioscorea bulbifera). With their new method, the team has produced its first prototype: a forearm brace that adapts to the wearer and which can be further developed for medical applications. ...

Recess quality, not just the amount of time spent away from the classroom, plays a major role in whether children experience the full physical, mental and social-emotional benefits of recess, a new study from Oregon State University found. "Not all recess is created equal," said William Massey, study author and an assistant professor in OSU's College of Public Health and Human Sciences. With schools returning to full-time in-person classes this fall, he said, "Now is a good time to rethink, 'How do we create schools that are more child-friendly?' I think ensuring quality access to play time and space during the school day is a way we can do that." ...

A research group including Kobe University's Professor TAKUMI Toru (also a Senior Visiting Scientist at RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research) and Assistant Professor TAMADA Kota, both of the Physiology Division in the Graduate School of Medicine, has revealed a causal gene (Necdin, NDN) in autism model mice that have the chromosomal abnormality (*1) called copy number variation (*2). The researchers hope to illuminate the NDN gene's molecular mechanism in order to contribute towards the creation of new treatment strategies for developmental disorders including autism. These research results were published in Nature Communications on July 1, 2021. Main Points The research ...

Although Covid-19 affects men and women differently, the large majority of current clinical studies of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 makes no mention of sex/gender. Indeed, only a fraction, 4 percent, explicitly plan to address sex and gender in their analysis, concludes a new analysis of nearly 4,500 studies. 21 percent only take this variable into account when selecting participants while 5.4 % go as far as planning to have sex-matched or representative subgroups and samples. The article is published in Nature Communications. During the corona pandemic, differences can be observed between men and women. Men are more vulnerable to a severe course of COVID-19; ...

Tokyo, Japan - Scientists from The University of Tokyo Institute of Industrial Science have designed a machine learning algorithm to predict the size of an individual cell as it grows and divides. By using an artificial neural network that does not impose the assumptions commonly employed in biology, the computer was able to make more complex and accurate forecasts than previously possible. This work may help advance the field of quantitative biology as well as improve the industrial production of medications or fermented products. As in all of the natural sciences, biology has developed mathematical models to help fit data and make predictions about the future. However, because of the inherent complexities of living ...

Split liver transplantation (SLT) provides an opportunity to divide a donor liver and offer transplants to two small patients, one or both of whom could be a child. SLT, which is underused in the United States, could be used more widely to decrease the number of deaths of people on transplant waiting lists. In a new article, researchers address some of the ethical decisions that go into decisions to split a liver and provide a model to help hospitals make SLT decisions. The article, by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), appears in The BMJ, which is published by the Institute of Medical Ethics. "Should a large liver always be split if it is medically safe to do so?" asks Sridhar Tayur, Professor of Operations ...

Tsukuba, Japan - A scientist from the Division of Quantum Condensed Matter Physics at the University of Tsukuba has formulated a new theory of superconductivity. Based on the calculation of the "Berry connection," this model helps explain new experimental results better than the current theory. The work may allow future electrical grids to send energy without losses. Superconductors are fascinating materials that may look unremarkable at ambient conditions, but when cooled to very low temperatures, allow electrical current to flow with zero resistance. There are several obvious applications of superconductivity, such as lossless energy ...

Researchers from Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) identify pathways that link a high-fat diet to atherosclerosis in mice Tokyo, Japan - It's long been known that a high-fat diet can lead to clogged arteries, but we have only recently begun to learn in detail how the process works. A new study in experimental mice could go a long way to finding treatments to keep arteries open and flowing. In a study published this month in JACC Basic To Translational Science, researchers from Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) have continued their research into how a high-fat diet causes atherosclerosis, the fatty buildup of plaques on the walls of blood vessels that can lead to heart attacks and other vascular disease. Atherosclerosis is not as simple as fats ...

Research has shown that listening to music daily improves language recovery in patients who have experienced a stroke. However, the neural mechanisms underlying the phenomenon have so far remained unknown. A study conducted at the University of Helsinki and the Turku University Hospital Neurocenter compared the effect of listening to vocal music, instrumental music and audiobooks on the structural and functional recovery of the language network of patients who had suffered an acute stroke. In addition, the study investigated the links between such changes and language recovery during a three-month follow-up period. The study was published in the eNeuro journal. Based ...

The shale boom (mining of shale oil and gas) has contributed to an increase of crime rates in US states where 50-60% of the population lives in rural areas. That is West Virginia, North Dakota, and Arkansas. Especially the number of violent crimes has increased. This is the conclusion reached by economists from Ural Federal University (UrFU, Russia) and Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania (USA). The research results are published in The Extractive Industries and Society. The researchers studied utilizes panel data from various sources and comprised all US states from 1999 to 2015. They compared the performance before and after 2007, when the shale boom occurred. Researchers made ...

Leesburg, VA, July 9, 2021--According to ARRS' American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR), reduced-dose CT depicts greater than 90% of lung nodules in children and young adults with cancer, identifying the presence of nodules with moderate sensitivity and high specificity. "CT performed at 0.3 mSv mean effective dose has acceptable diagnostic performance for lung nodule detection in children and young adults and has the potential to reduce patient dose or expand CT utilization (e.g., to replace radiography in screening or monitoring protocols)," wrote corresponding author Andrew T. Trout of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in Ohio. Trout and colleagues' prospective study enrolled ...

Every pandemic affects life and actions of people, which in turn controls the course of the pandemic. Until now the factors that determine our social, political and psychological sphere could not be described by mathematical models, making it difficult to venture forecasts for the Corona pandemic. The new study will improve the situation. Researcher Prof. Kai Wirtz of the Hereon Institution for Coastal Systems - Analysis and Modeling quantitatively describes the social phenomena hinted at above. "As a scientist, social modeling has been driving me for a while. It has also reached coastal research in the meantime. The greatest challenge in this development was the integration ...

In spite of many clinical options, people with mental health problems including eating disorders often do not access professional help within the crucial first 12 months - in part because of lack of information in the community about accessing targeted services. Anxiety and depression are normal reactions to situations such as pandemic lockdowns but arming yourself with some useful strategies can alleviate this, says Flinders University Distinguished Professor of Psychology Tracey Wade. For example, a randomised trial of 'unguided' low intensity cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) was found to decrease signs of anxiety and depression in the comparative study led by Curtin University and international experts, including Matthew Flinders Professor Wade. The results of the study ...

Mitochondria, the powerhouse of the cell, convert sustenance into energy, fueling the cell's activities. In addition to power, mitochondria also produce reactive oxygen species, byproduct molecules primed to help facilitate communication among the other units in the cells. But when produced too abundantly, they damage DNA and render some cellular components dysfunctional. Now, an international research team has revealed how mitochondria keep their reactive oxygen species production in check. They published their results on June 30 in Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology. "Excessive generation of reactive oxygen species in mitochondria damages ...

A lump in the thyroid gland is called a thyroid nodule, and 5-10% of all thyroid nodules are diagnosed as thyroid cancer. Thyroid cancer has a good prognosis, a high survival rate, and a low recurrence rate, so early diagnosis and treatment are crucial. Recently, a joint research team in Korea has proposed a new non-invasive method to distinguish thyroid nodules from cancer by combining photoacoustic (PA) and ultrasound image technology with artificial intelligence. The joint research team - composed of Professor Chulhong Kim and Dr. Byullee Park of POSTECH's Department of Electrical Engineering, Department of Convergence IT Engineering and Department of Mechanical ...

Evidence suggests that what happens in one generation--diet, toxin exposure, trauma, fear--can have lasting effects on future generations. Scientists believe these effects result from epigenetic changes that occur in response to the environment and turn genes on or off without altering the genome or DNA sequence. But how these changes are passed down through generations has not been understood, in part, because scientists have not had a simple way to study the phenomenon. A new study by researchers at the University of Maryland provides a potential tool for unraveling the mystery of how experiences can cause inheritable changes to an animal's biology. By mating nematode worms, they produced permanent epigenetic changes that lasted for more than 300 generations. The research ...

Eyewitnesses can identify perpetrators more accurately when they are able to manipulate 3D images of suspects, according to a new study. A team of researchers in the University of Birmingham's School of Psychology developed and tested new interactive lineup software which enables witnesses to rotate and view lineup faces from different angles. When the eyewitnesses were able to rotate the image to match the alignment of the face in their memory, they were more likely to accurately pick out the criminal from the lineup. Lineups are used around the globe to help police identify criminals. Typically these involve ...

Most countries have not introduced nationwide prostate-cancer screening, as current methods result in overdiagnoses and excessive and unnecessary biopsies. A new study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, which is published in The New England Journal of Medicine, indicates that screening by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and targeted biopsies could potentially cut overdiagnoses by half. The results are presented today at the European Association of Urology Congress. "Our results from a large, randomised study show that modern methods for prostate cancer screening maintain the benefits of screening, while decreasing the harms substantially. This addresses the greatest barrier to the introduction of nationwide screening," ...

Players of the popular game Red Dead Redemption 2 learn how to identify real American wildlife, new research shows. The game, set in the American West in 1899, features simulations of about 200 real species of animals. The new study, by the University of Exeter and Truro and Penwith College, challenged gamers to identify photographs of real animals. On average, RDR2 players were able to identify 10 of 15 American animals in a multiple-choice quiz - three more than people who had not played the game. The best performers were players who had completed the game's main storyline (meaning they had played for at least 40-50 hours) ...

Oncotarget published "Transcriptome analyses of urine RNA reveal tumor markers for human bladder cancer: validated amplicons for RT-qPCR-based detection" which reported that in case of bladder cancer, urine RNA represents an early potentially useful diagnostic marker. Here the authors describe a systematic deep transcriptome analysis of representative pools of urine RNA collected from healthy donors versus bladder cancer patients according to established SOPs. This analysis revealed RNA marker candidates reflecting coding sequences, non-coding sequences, and circular RNAs. Next, they designed and validated PCR amplicons for a set of novel marker candidates and tested them in human bladder cancer cell lines. This ...