Why rats prefer company of the young and stressed
Researchers have identified a neural pathway implicated in social interaction between adult and juvenile animals.
Read moreBiotechnology
CRISPR-BEST prevents genome instability
Scientists have developed CRISPR-BEST, a new genome editing tool for actinomycetes. It addresses the problem of genome instability caused by DNA double-stranded breaks in current CRISPR-technologies.
Read moreHow chromosomes change their shape during cell differentiation
Scientists have provided an explanation of how chromosomes undergo structural changes during cell differentiation.
Read moreResearch maps key signaling pathways linking calcium entry and exit in activated T cells
Like entrance and exit doors on a building, a cell's outer surface has doors — channels, pumps, and transporters that selectively control what molecules enter or exit. In the immune system, T cells possess unique sets of 'doors', including ones that specialize in calcium ion movement. Now, researchers describe a unique mechanism for coordinating these calcium entrance and exit 'doors' on T cells that helps them carry out their jobs and ensure normal immune function.
Read moreDNA metabarcoding useful for analyzing human diet
A new study demonstrates that DNA metabarcoding provides a promising new method for tracking human plant intake, suggesting that similar approaches could be used to characterize the animal and fungal components of human diets. The study demonstrated that dietary plant DNA can be amplified and sequenced from human stool using methods commonly applied to wildlife studies.
Read moreNew study is 'chilling commentary' on future of antibiotics
The health care market is failing to support new antibiotics used to treat some of the world's most dangerous, drug-resistant 'superbugs,' according to a new analysis.
Read moreHistone modifications are the influencers of zygotic genome awakening
Scientists have observed changes to the gene-regulating factors during zebrafish development and discovered that modifications to 'histone H3', one of the proteins around which DNA is bound, play an important role in 'zygotic genome activation' or transition of control of zebrafish embryonic development from maternal material to the zygote.
Read moreNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2019: How cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability
The 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is being awarded jointly to William G. Kaelin Jr., Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe and Gregg L. Semenza for identifying molecular machinery that regulates the activity of genes in response to varying levels of oxygen.
Scientists find timekeepers of gut's immune system
Shift work and jet lag disrupt not just sleep cycles, but feeding and digestive cycles as well. Such disruptions have been linked to risk of obesity, inflammatory bowel disease, infection, and other conditions. Now, researchers have identified an immune cell that helps set the daily rhythms of the gut. The findings open the door to new treatments for digestive ailments targeting such cells.
Read moreNew fluorescence method reveals signatures of individual microbes
Researchers have developed a new method that reveals the unique fluorescence patterns produced by individual cells in mixtures of bacteria, yeast and fungi. They combined confocal microscopy with micro-spectroscopy to determine the fluorescence signatures from different types of microbes. They trained machine learning systems to analyze the images and identify different individual cells and cell-types automatically, even those with very similar shapes and sizes.
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