It is believed to be involved in the development of chronic inflammatory intestinal diseases, to trigger diabetes, to be responsible for obesity, even neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's could have their causes here - not to mention depressions and autistic disorders. We are talking about the microbiome - the vast collection of bacteria in the human gut. It is estimated that each person carries around 100 trillion bacterial cells in their digestive tract, belonging to several thousand species. The microbiome has been the focus of research for 20 years - ever since a new technique made it possible to analyse these bacteria quickly and precisely: high-throughput sequencing. Since then, there has been an increasing body of findings that ...

By Karina Toledo | Agência FAPESP* – A study conducted at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil shows that the incidence of infections by the novel coronavirus among professional soccer players in São Paulo state during the 2020 season was 11.7%, the same as among health workers in the front line of the response to the pandemic. To arrive at this number, the researchers retrospectively analyzed almost 30,000 RT-PCR tests performed on swabs from 4,269 athletes during eight tournaments of the São Paulo State Soccer Federation (FPF), the league responsible for organizing official championships in the state – six for men (the São Paulo Cup, Under-23s, U-20s, and the three divisions of the São Paulo Championship) and two for women (the ...

URBANA, Ill. - Food insecurity is a major problem in the U.S., and it worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provides some relief, but millions of Americans still lack adequate access to healthy food. A new study from the University of Illinois proposes a potential solution. "Restructuring SNAP as a Universal Basic Income (UBI) program or modified UBI is a straightforward way to eliminate food insecurity in United States. It's expensive but it is not difficult," says Craig Gundersen, distinguished professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at U of I. Gundersen authored the study, published ...

Tsukuba, Japan - Extended exposure to light during nighttime can have negative consequences for human health. But now, researchers from Japan have identified a new type of light with reduced consequences for physiological changes during sleep. In a study published in June 2021 in Scientific Reports, researchers from University of Tsukuba compared the effects of light-emitting diodes (LEDs), which have been widely adopted for their energy-saving properties, with organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) on physical processes that occur during sleep. Polychromatic white LEDs emit a large amount ...

Tsukuba, Japan - Scientists from the Division of Physics at the University of Tsukuba used the quantum effect called "spin-locking" to significantly enhance the resolution when performing radio-frequency imaging of nitrogen-vacancy defects in diamond. This work may lead to faster and more accurate material analysis, as well as a path towards practical quantum computers. Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers have long been studied for their potential use in quantum computers. A NV center is a type of defect in the lattice of a diamond, in which two adjacent carbon atoms have been replaced with a nitrogen atom and a void. This leaves an unpaired electron, which can be detected using radio-frequency waves, because its probability of emitting a photon ...

The discovery of the first high-temperature superconductor in 1986 brought with it the hope that superconductivity would one day revolutionise power transmission, electronic devices and other technologies. Materials that show superconductivity (zero electrical resistance) generally do so at an extremely low temperature. For their use to become widespread and world-changing, we need to develop a material that is superconducting close to room temperature. Research showed that the first high-temperature superconductor - a copper oxide compound - was part of a ...

Anyone who likes to sing in the shower probably knows that they sometimes sing out of tune. But what about professional singers? How well do they evaluate their own abilities? And what role does this self-assessment play in becoming a better musician? A research team from the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt, New York University, and the University of Hamburg has now investigated these questions scientifically in a study of professional singers. The study participants, all female sopranos, were each recorded singing "Happy Birthday" in a studio. They were then asked to listen to all of the recordings and rate the pitch accuracy of both their ...

Babies younger than four weeks old, called neonates, were once thought not to perceive pain due to not-yet-fully-developed sensory systems, but modern research says otherwise, according to researchers from Hiroshima University in Japan. Not only do babies experience pain, but the various levels can be standardized to help nurses recognize and respond to the babies' cues -- if the nurses have the opportunity to learn the scoring tools and skills needed to react appropriately. With tight schedules and limited in-person courses available, the researchers theorized, virtual e-learning may be able to provide a path forward for nurses to independently pursue training in this area. To test this hypothesis, researchers conducted a pilot study ...

Drs. Nobuo Noda (Director) and Tatsuro Maruyama (Researcher) et al. at the Institute of Microbial Chemistry (BIKAKEN, Tokyo, Japan) discovered that lipidated Atg8(1), the most famous factor that mediates autophagy, has membrane perturbation activity and elucidated that this activity is responsible for efficient autophagosome formation. Autophagosome formation is an essential step in determining the target of degradation in autophagy, which is one of the mechanisms of intracellular protein degradation. It is known that lipidated Atg8 plays a primary role in autophagy processes; however, the molecular function of lipidated Atg8 on the autophagy-related ...

A new study from Queen Mary University of London has demonstrated that immune cells can be stimulated to assemble into special structures within pancreatic cancer such that, at least in a pre-clinical model, researchers can demonstrate an improvement in the efficacy of chemotherapy. The body's immune system is a critical defence against illness such as infections, as has been highlighted by the recent COVID-19 pandemic. The same immune system can also help us fight cancer. However, pancreatic cancer is different; a key feature of this cancer type is that the pancreatic cancer cells are surrounded by a dense, impenetrable barrier known as the stroma, which often blocks the access of immune cells to ...

Coral reefs are a favorite spot for scuba divers and are among the world's most diverse ecosystems. For example, the Hawaiian coral reefs, known as the "rainforests of the sea," host over 7,000 species of marine animals, fishes, birds and plants. But coral reefs are facing serious threats, including a number of diseases that have been linked to human activity. To understand the connection between human activity and a type of tumorlike disease called growth anomalies (GAs), researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have collaborated with the U.S Geological Survey (USGS) and the National ...

ATLANTA--The American College of Rheumatology (ACR), in partnership with the Vasculitis Foundation (VF), released three new guidelines for the treatment and management of systemic vasculitis. Vasculitis is a group of about 20 rare diseases that have inflammation of blood vessels in common, which can restrict blood flow and damage vital organs. The three guidelines cover six forms of vasculitis, and a fourth guideline on Kawasaki disease will be released in the coming weeks. "Many rheumatologists may have limited experience caring for patients with these diseases," ...

Strokes, which occur when the blood supply to part of our brain is interrupted or reduced, are the leading cause of death and disability in the adult population. Among the patients who survive, 75% will experience difficulties carrying out daily activities independently and need long-term functional exercises and rehabilitation. But the outcomes using traditional rehabilitation equipment are poor. In addition, the motivation of patients to train is often low. The Department of Neurology in Tongji Hospital, which is affiliated to Tongji Medical College at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology, is recognised in China for the quality of its scientific research and clinical strength. Similarly, Zhejiang BrainCo, Ltd., incubated by the Harvard Innovation Lab, is a market ...

Contrary to conventional thought, songbirds can taste sugar--even though songbirds are the descendants of meat-eating dinosaurs and are missing a key protein that allows humans and many other animals to taste sweetness. An international team investigated how many bird species can taste sweet and how far back that ability evolved. Their work was published today in the journal Science. The researchers offered two species of songbirds a choice between sugar water and plain water--nectar-taking honeyeaters, as well as canaries, a grain-eating bird not known for consuming sweet foods. They also examined taste receptor responses sampled from a variety of other species. Regardless of whether their main ...

A team of physicists from the Harvard-MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms and other universities has developed a special type of quantum computer known as a programmable quantum simulator capable of operating with 256 quantum bits, or "qubits." The system marks a major step toward building large-scale quantum machines that could be used to shed light on a host of complex quantum processes and eventually help bring about real-world breakthroughs in material science, communication technologies, finance, and many other fields, overcoming research hurdles that are beyond the capabilities of even the fastest supercomputers today. Qubits are the fundamental building blocks on which quantum computers ...

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 ...