The recent publication in Science by Mogila, Tamulaitiene et al. represents a continuation of the successful scientific research conducted by Gintautas Tamulaitis’ group. In this study, the Vilnius University researchers using bioinformatic analysis, biochemical, and structural studies characterized a novel family of effector proteins, named Cami1. They showed that when a virus attacks a bacterium, CRISPR-Cas10 signaling molecules activate Cami1 - a ribosome-dependent ribonuclease. “Activated Cami1 cleaves mRNAs that are involved in protein synthesis, thereby inhibiting cell growth. This allows the bacterium to save resources and prevents production ...

A major clinical trial led by Queen Mary University of London and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has found that vitamin D supplements do not increase bone strength or prevent bone fractures in children with vitamin D deficiency. The findings challenge widely held perceptions relating to the effects of vitamin D on bone health. Around one-third of children have at least one fracture before the age of 18. This is a major global health issue, as childhood fractures can lead to life years of disability and/or poor quality of life. The potential for vitamin D supplements to improve bone strength has attracted growing interest in recent years, based ...

Societies and political structures, like the humans they serve, appear to become more fragile as they age, according to an analysis of hundreds of pre-modern societies. A new study, which holds implications for the modern world, provides the first quantitative support for the theory that the resilience of political states decreases over time.  Triggers of societal collapse have been well studied and vary from conquest and coups to earthquakes and droughts. This new study shows that pre-modern states faced a steeply increasing risk of collapse within the first two centuries after they ...

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Similar to a burglar breaking a window to get into a house, Indiana University researchers have discovered a previously unknown process by which pathogens enter a cell with physical force, breaching the body's immune defenses that prevent infection. The work, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, introduces a potential game-changer in the fight against intracellular pathogens responsible for causing devastating infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, malaria and chlamydia. These diseases are notoriously ...

Texas has the second-most bridges in the United States after California, 30% of which do not have sufficient height, width or capacity to handle the increasing volume and type of traffic using them. Nur Yazdani, a civil engineering professor at The University of Texas at Arlington, has received a three-year, $997,275 grant from the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to evaluate the performance of selected deteriorating and aging highway bridges. His approach includes non-destructive evaluation (NDE), on-site load testing and computer simulation to help engineers determine the current condition of bridges ...

It first appeared as a glowing blob from ground-based telescopes and then vanished completely in images from the Hubble Space Telescope. Now, the ghostly object has reappeared as a faint, yet distinct galaxy in an image from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Astronomers with the COSMOS-Web collaboration have identified the object AzTECC71 as a dusty star-forming galaxy. Or, in other words, a galaxy that’s busy forming many new stars but is shrouded in a dusty veil that’s hard to see through — from nearly 1 billion years after the Big Bang. ...

A University of Texas at Arlington civil engineer is leading a statewide initiative to use more accurate forecasting to guide reservoir storage and release to improve water supply reliability and reduce flood damages. Yu Zhang, a UT Arlington associate professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, is heading a new project—“Advancing Forecast-Informed Drought Planning for the West Gulf Region Through Integration of Climate Forecasts and Predictions of Reservoir Water Balance Predictions”—funded by the National ...

Botanist Denis Conover does not have to go far to study the growing problem of invasive plants. During an autumn stroll outside his office at the University of Cincinnati, the biology professor pointed out numerous examples of nonnative, invasive species in campus landscaping. “This is winged euonymus, otherwise known as burning bush. And here is Chinese silver grass. It’s a popular ornamental, but the seeds are dispersed by the wind,” he said. And there were many others: English ivy, wintercreeper, Callery pear. For his latest study published in the journal Ecological Restoration, he and his students examined the impact ...

Texas Children’s Hospital, an internationally-recognized, top-ranked children’s hospital and pediatric research center affiliated with Baylor College of Medicine, is the first to deliver a novel gene therapy to treat Rett syndrome in pediatric patients. Two female patients with Rett syndrome were the first children worldwide to receive this promising treatment. This exciting milestone is part of an ongoing first-in-human Phase I/II trial of a new investigational gene therapy, NGN-401, conducted by Neurogene Inc., a clinical-stage company founded to bring life-changing genetic medicines to patients ...

Robotics researchers have already made great strides in developing sensors that can perceive changes in position, pressure, and temperature – all of which are important for technologies like wearable devices and human-robot interfaces. But a hallmark of human perception is the ability to sense multiple stimuli at once, and this is something that robotics has struggled to achieve. Now, Jamie Paik and colleagues in the Reconfigurable Robotics Lab (RRL) in EPFL’s School of Engineering have developed a sensor that can perceive combinations of bending, stretching, compression, and temperature changes, all using a robust system that boils down ...

new study from Simon Fraser University researchers examines the Canadian military’s efforts to reduce the impacts of underwater noise pollution on species during training exercises in the Pacific Ocean but caveat that more can still be done. The paper, published today in Marine Policy, takes aim at a report commissioned by the Canadian Department of National Defence (DND) to reduce the effects of noise pollution from military small-arms munitions training within “Whiskey Hotel”, a 330-square-kilometre ...

A new paper in Innovation in Aging, published by Oxford University Press, shows that a great deal of media coverage of the actor Bruce Willis’ condition, frontotemporal degeneration, was inaccurate, revealing the public’s limited knowledge of the disease. In 2022, Willis’ family released a statement saying that he had been diagnosed with aphasia, an acquired language impairment, and would retire from acting. Ten months later, the family issued another statement indicating doctors had diagnosed Willis with a more specific condition, frontotemporal degeneration. ...

“One limitation [of Cre-LoxP], the focus of this editorial, is the potential loss of fidelity of Cre recombinase expression especially in the context of modeling cancer in mice.” BUFFALO, NY- December 1, 2023 – A new editorial paper was published in Oncoscience (Volume 10) on November 14, 2023, entitled, “Be mindful of potential pitfalls when using the Cre-LoxP system in cancer research.” In this new editorial, researchers Piotr Czarnota and Jaroslaw Cisowski from Jagiellonian University discuss Cre-LoxP — a widely used system to conditionally modify gene expression in mouse models of cancer and other diseases.  “It ...

Philadelphia, December 1, 2023 – Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CARs) have opened up an exciting new field of therapeutic advancements for rare and difficult-to-treat cancers, as they have the ability to deliver targeted therapies that can kill tumor cells. Peptide-centric CARs (PC-CARs) rely on specific peptide “barcodes,” which are derived from proteins within the cell created by potentially cancer-causing oncogenes, are designed to find and target cancer cells. These “barcodes” are displayed by human leukocyte antigens (HLAs), which help the immune system distinguish its own proteins from foreign invaders, ...

NEWS RELEASE EMBARGOED UNTIL FRI, DEC. 1 -- 2:00 P.M. EASTERN   Contact Colleen McDonald - Sr. Consultant, Earned Media 414.801.3146 | cmcdonald@mcw.edu     Milwaukee, Wis. – Dec. 1, 2023 – Preeclampsia is a mysterious condition that occurs in about one of 10 pregnancies without any early warning signs. After 20 weeks or more of normal blood pressure during the pregnancy, patients with preeclampsia will begin to experience elevated blood pressure and may also have increased levels of protein in their urine due to hypertension reducing the filtering power of the kidneys. Prolonged hypertension due ...

Following an 18-month meditation programme can improve the wellbeing of older adults, finds a new randomised controlled trial by an international team co-led by UCL. The findings, published in PLOS ONE, show that meditation can improve people’s awareness, connection to others, and insight. While the meditation training did not confer significant benefits on two commonly used measures of psychological wellbeing and quality of life, the researchers say their findings may reveal limitations in existing methods of tracking wellbeing. Lead author Marco Schlosser (UCL Psychiatry and University of Geneva) said: “As the global population ...

What happens in the human brain when we learn from positive and negative experiences? To help answer that question and better understand decision-making and human behavior, scientists are studying dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter produced in the brain that serves as a chemical messenger, facilitating communication between nerve cells in the brain and the body. It is involved in functions such as movement, cognition and learning. While dopamine is most known for its association with positive emotions, scientists are also exploring ...

Upon infection or immunization, all jawed vertebrate species generate proteins called antibodies that bind and neutralize pathogens. Strong and long-lasting antibody responses in warm-blooded species such as mammals are produced in secondary lymphoid microstructures (SLMs) among which germinal centers (GCs) are the centerpiece. Despite the apparent absence of GCs or similar SLMs in cold-blooded vertebrates (e.g., fish), these species can mount significant antibody responses that can persist for several months. Thus, for decades, the outstanding question has remained as to how and where ...

  Babies and children need vitamins, including vitamin B-12, to help their brains and bodies develop and grow. Babies get B-12 from their mothers and can have low levels of B-12 if their mothers had low vitamin levels during pregnancy and breastfeeding. The vitamin B-12 levels of infants strongly depend on maternal levels. Adequacy of vitamin B-12 in breast milk is particularly important for infants during the first six months of life when breastfeeding is highly recommended. Even after the first six months of life, breast milk may continue ...

  Children must be taught more about the importance of plants if education about climate change and sustainability is to be effective, experts have warned. Botany should feature more heavily in the school curriculum, and be a greater focus of educational policy, the study says. It warns neither the importance of plants for sustainability or the threats facing many of them are adequately represented in science education. While the problem has been identified for some time, attempts to address it have often struggled to gain a foothold in science education practice. Dr Bethan Stagg from the University of Exeter and Professor Justin Dillon ...

Cambridge, MA - Want to avoid a root canal? In the future, you might be able to opt for tissue regeneration instead. ADA Forsyth scientists are testing a novel technology to treat endodontic diseases (diseases of the soft tissue or pulp in your teeth) more effectively. The study, “RvE1 Promotes Axin2+Cell Regeneration and Reduces Bacterial Invasion,” which appeared in The Journal of Dental Research, demonstrates regenerative properties of resolvins, specifically Resolvin E1 (RvE1), when applied to dental pulp. Resolvins ...

Plastics are firmly entrenched in today’s world thanks to their cheap, light and versatile nature, but the downside is that plastic waste continues piling up. Earlier this year, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that every day, the equivalent of over 2,000 garbage trucks full of plastics is dumped into our oceans, rivers and lakes. According to the World Economic Forum, the United States only recycled about 6% of the 40 million tons of plastic waste it generated in 2021. Around the world, about 400 million tons of plastic waste is produced each year. Much of it ends up in landfills, oceans and natural ...

Auburn University's Department of Physics is hosting a special meeting targeting college students passionate about pursuing a PhD in Physics. This engaging event is set for December 8 at 2 PM Central Time. Interested individuals can join the session virtually via Zoom at https://aub.ie/faKH5W. Studying Physics at Auburn University is an immersive journey into the universe's fundamental principles. Our PhD program offers a robust foundation in physics and promotes groundbreaking research and discovery. Known for small class sizes and personalized ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — If Thanksgiving dinner conversations have turned into heated political arguments over the past two decades, social media may be to blame. Popular social media figures — or influencers — who create or share distorted political messages may cause political parties to moderate their policies to win over independent voters in general elections but tend to polarize the rest of society, according to researchers who created a model to study how social media may affect election ...

More older Americans use cannabis now than before the pandemic, with 12% saying they’ve consumed a THC-containing substance in the past year and 4% saying they do so multiple times a week, according to a new study of people aged 50 to 80. Those who drink alcohol at risky levels have a much higher rate of cannabis use. The new findings, published in the journal Cannabis and Cannabinoids Research by a team from the University of Michigan’s Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, suggest a need for more education and screening of older adults for cannabis-related ...