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Researchers from the Universitat de València have developed a new methodology to detect and visualise zinc in astrocytes (cells that help in the correct function of nerve cells), both at microscopy and electronic level. The project, published in the magazine Microscopy and Microanalysis, confirms the importance of astrocytes in the control of zinc levels in our brain, an essential element for many neural functions.

Current findings from a Jena-Zurich research project form an important basis for the creation of artificial symbioses with specific properties that could be used for biotechnological applications in the future. For example, they could be used in Medicine, agriculture or environmental technology to protect plants against illnesses or to modify fungi so that they produce certain enzymes or active pharmaceutical ingredients.

Blocking the enzyme ACMSD can significantly reduce damage caused by metabolic liver disease according to a study from EPFL. Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) - previously known as "non-alcoholic fatty liver disease" - affects about 25% of the global population. Its severe form, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), can lead to liver fibrosis and even liver failure.

The protein GBP1 is a vital component of our body's natural defence against pathogens. This substance fights against bacteria and parasites by enveloping them in a protein coat, but how the substance manages to do this has remained unknown until now. Researchers from Delft University of Technology have now unravelled how this protein operates.

Universitat de València full-time university professor Rubén Artero is leading a research that has identified a promising therapy for treating myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1), based on anti-miRs. The study is being carried out by the Human Translational Genomics Group of the INCLIVA-Universitat de València Health Research Institute (Biotecmed).

An international team of researchers with significant involvement from the Department of Neurosurgery at Vienna General Hospital and MedUni Vienna has made significant progress in the visualisation of difficult-to-detect brain tumours during surgery. The recently published study is the first to investigate the combined use of 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) and digital stimulated Raman histology (SRH), a new type of microscopic fluorescence analysis tool.

ISTA scientists predict-and witness-evolution in a 30-year marine snail experiment Snails on a tiny rocky islet evolved before scientists' eyes. The marine snails were reintroduced after a toxic algal bloom wiped them out from the skerry. While the researchers intentionally brought in a distinct population of the same snail species, these evolved to strikingly resemble the population lost over 30 years prior.

The groundbreaking discovery at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB) in Bellinzona, affiliated with USI, has revealed, through the study of DNA repair mechanisms, a function of a protein with the ability to fight specific cancerous formations. In Professor Petr Cejka 's laboratory, a team of ten researchers has been studying the mechanisms of DNA repair, a crucial process for preventing diseases such as cancer.

The devices could be a useful tool for biomedical research, and possible clinical use in the future. Novel magnetic nanodiscs could provide a much less invasive way of stimulating parts of the brain, paving the way for stimulation therapies without implants or genetic modification, MIT researchers report.

Labs that can't afford expensive super-resolution microscopes could use a new expansion technique to image nanoscale structures inside cells. A classical way to image nanoscale structures in cells is with high-powered, expensive super-resolution microscopes. As an alternative, MIT researchers have developed a way to expand tissue before imaging it - a technique that allows them to achieve nanoscale resolution with a conventional light microscope.

Researchers from the Centro de Biología Molecular -Severo Ochoa- (CBMSO), the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) and the Hospital Universitario de Alcorcón have identified a possible key role of glial activation and inflammation in the neurodegeneration of the cerebellum of mice mimicking Friedreich's ataxia, an inherited neurodegenerative disease.

MINFLUX microscopy allows the determination of distances within biomolecules using an optical microscope A team led by physicists Steffen Sahl and Stefan Hell at the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences in Göttingen and the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg has succeeded in measuring distances within biomolecules using a light microscope, down to one nanometer and with Éngström precision.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been used to reveal details of a diverse and fundamental branch of life living right under our feet and in every corner of the globe. 161,979 new species of RNA virus have been discovered using a machine learning tool that researchers believe will vastly improve the mapping of life on Earth and could aid in the identification of many millions more viruses yet to be characterised.

Oct. 10-11, campus is open to McGill students, employees and essential visitors. Most classes are in-person. See Campus Public Safety website for details. Les 10 et 11 octobre, le campus est accessible aux étudiants et au personnel de l'Université, ainsi qu'aux visiteurs essentiels. La plupart des cours ont lieu en présentiel.

By generating mice with genetic mutations that disrupt the brain's TrkC-PTP? protein complex, researchers at the UdeM-affiliated IRCM find a key way that brain cells communicate. Scientists at Université de Montréal and its affiliated Montreal Clinical Research Institute (IRCM) have uncovered unique roles for a protein complex in the structural organization and function of brain cell connectivity, as well as in specific cognitive behaviors.

How a bunch of seemingly disorganized cells go on to form a robust embryo Embryo development starts when a single egg cell is fertilized and starts dividing continuously. Initially a chaotic cluster, it gradually evolves into a highly organized structure. An international team of researchers including scientists from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) has provided new insights into the process, emphasizing the critical role of both chaos and order.

A University of Queensland-led study has failed to find any strong links between drinking coffee during pregnancy and neurodevelopmental difficulties in children, but researchers are advising expectant mothers to continue following medical guidelines of caffeine consumption. Dr Gunn-Helen Moen and PhD candidate Shannon D'Urso from UQ's Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) led an in-depth genetic analysis of data from tens of thousands of families in Norway.

A new study adds evidence that consciousness requires communication between sensory and cognitive regions of the brain's cortex. Our brains constantly work to make predictions about what's going on around us to ensure that we can attend to and consider the unexpected, for instance. A new study examines how this works during consciousness and also breaks down under general anesthesia.

Plants can extract even the smallest traces of the important nutrient potassium from the soil. A team led by Würzburg biophysicist Rainer Hedrich describes how they achieve this in 'Nature Communications'. Potassium is one of the nutrients that plants need in large quantities. However, the amount of potassium in the soil can vary greatly: potassium-poor soils can contain up to a thousand times less of this nutrient than potassium-rich soils.

The effects of rapid exposure to alcohol in early pregnancy - when a woman consumes as many as six drinks in an hour - can be detected in the placenta, an UdeM study on mice suggests. The effects of alcohol exposure on an embryo prior to implantation in the uterus can be detected in the late-gestation placenta, according to new research by Université de Montréal scientists.