Category: 5. Biology

  • Researchers Observe Wolves Hunting Sea Otters and Seals

    Researchers Observe Wolves Hunting Sea Otters and Seals

    New observations of wolves hunting marine mammals in Alaska’s Katmai National Park challenge existing views on wolf diets, revealing a significant shift from land-based to marine prey. This groundbreaking research underscores wolves’ role in coastal ecosystems and paves the way for further ecological studies. Above is a wolf with a sea otter on Alaska’s Katmai…

  • Gut microbiota linked to social anxiety behaviors

    Gut microbiota linked to social anxiety behaviors

    In a recent study published in the journal PNAS, researchers investigated whether the gut microbiota plays a causal role in modulating behaviors relevant to social anxiety disorder (SAD). SAD, a mental condition defined by anxiety or acute dread in social situations, commonly begins in childhood and results in permanent functional impairment and impaired life quality.…

  • Tailored radiation dose according to margin width for patients with ductal carcinoma in situ after breast-conserving surgery

    In this study, patients with negative (≥ 2 mm) and close (< 2 mm) margins showed similar local recurrence rates with boost dose-escalation according to margin width. However, radiation doses > 65 Gy EQD2 did not nullify the negative effect of positive margins on local control. In patients with high-grade DCIS, more widely clear margins were associated with lower recurrence…

  • Mapping of individual sensory nerve axons from digits to spinal cord with the transparent embedding solvent system

    Animals Mice were purchased from the Jackson Lab with genotypes including C57BL/6 (JAX # 000664), Thy1-EGFP-M (JAX# 007788), Thy1-YFP-16 (JAX #003709), Ai14 (JAX# 007908), Ai 140 (JAX# 030220), Shh-CreERT2 (JAX# 005623) and Gli1-creERT2 (JAX# 007913). All animal experiments were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the Chinese Institute for Brain Research. For…

  • A naturally occurring variant of SHLP2 is a protective factor in Parkinson’s disease

    Human cohorts Health Retirement Study (HRS) Participants Data are from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a nationally representative sample of older Americans over age 50 [19, 20] in the contiguous United States. The present analysis was limited to participants who self-reported their race as white/Caucasian, verified by principal components analysis of ancestry markers, in…

  • TESOS: an integrated approach for uniform mesoscale imaging

    The Transparent Embedding Solvent System, an innovative imaging method, integrates tissue clearing and section-reconstruction imaging, ensuring consistent sub-micron resolution. This technique is adaptable and compatible with various imaging platforms and specimens. Recently, there has been a profound interest in gaining deeper insights into large biological samples to unravel structural and functional intricacies. 3D large-volume optical…

  • Programmable synthetic receptors: the next-generation of cell and gene therapies

    Naldini, L. Gene therapy returns to centre stage. Nature 526, 351–360 (2015). Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar  Yamanaka, S. Pluripotent stem cell-based cell therapy—promise and challenges. Cell Stem Cell 27, 523–531 (2020). Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar  Kimbrel, E. A. & Lanza, R. Next-generation stem cells — ushering in a new era of cell-based therapies.…

  • Cellular zinc metabolism and zinc signaling: from biological functions to diseases and therapeutic targets

    Huang, L. & Tepaamorndech, S. The SLC30 family of zinc transporters – a review of current understanding of their biological and pathophysiological roles. Mol. Asp. Med. 34, 548–560 (2013). Article  CAS  Google Scholar  Kambe, T., Tsuji, T., Hashimoto, A. & Itsumura, N. The Physiological, Biochemical, and Molecular Roles of Zinc Transporters in Zinc Homeostasis and…

  • Elusive cytonemes guide neural development, provide signaling ‘express route’

    Elusive cytonemes guide neural development, provide signaling ‘express route’

    St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists found that cytonemes (thin, long, hair-like projections on cells) are important during neural development. Cytonemes connect cells communicating across vast distances but are difficult to capture with microscopy in developing vertebrate tissues. The researchers are the first to find a way to visualize how cytonemes transport signaling molecules during…

  • First step towards synthetic CO2 fixation in living cells

    First step towards synthetic CO2 fixation in living cells

    Synthetic biology offers the opportunity to build biochemical pathways for the capture and conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2). Researchers at the Max-Planck-Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology have developed a synthetic biochemical cycle that directly converts CO2 into the central building block Acetyl-CoA. The researchers were able to implement each of the three cycle modules in the…