RESEARCH SPINOFF.COM

Acoustic waves can monitor stiffness of living cells

Simple drug combination creates new neurons from neighboring cells

A new method to treat osteoporosis in children without impairing bone growth

Cancer has a biological clock and new drug may keep it from ticking

The findings from scientists at Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience of the University of Southern California (UniSCal) and Nagoya University’s Institute of Transformative BioMolecules (ITbM) advance a burgeoning area of research: turning the body’s circadian rhythms against cancer (lat. Carcinoma). Scientists know that disrupting sleep and other elements of humans’ circadian rhythm can harm health. The same is true for the circadian clock of the cells themselves. If researchers could disturb the circadian clock of cancer cells, they theorize, they could potentially hurt or kill those cells.

by Yana Kurchenko

9 days ago

A cancer-fighting virus was developed

The scientific team at the Hokkaido University has engineered a virus that selectively targets and kills cancer (lat. Carcinoma) cells. The virus, called dl355, has an even stronger anticancer effect than another engineered virus currently used in clinical practice. Molecular oncologist Dr Fumihiro Higashino and colleagues deleted a gene involved in viral replication, called E4orf6, from a type of adenovirus. The team previously discovered that E4orf6 stabilizes a type of mRNA called ARE-mRNAs in the infected cells enabling viral replication. ARE-mRNAs are known to be stable in stressed cells and cancer cells, but rapidly degrade in normal cells.

by Karina Vrashchuk

11 days ago

Static electricity could charge the electronics

New research about the causes of static electricity that could ultimately help create more sustainable and longer-lasting power sources for small electronic devices has been conducted by the University at Buffalo team. The findings point to tiny structural changes that occur at the surface of materials when they come into contact with each other. The scientists are conducting research on the triboelectric effect, a phenomenon wherein one material becomes electrically charged after it contacts a different material through friction. Experts have known about the triboelectric effect since ancient times, but the tools for understanding and applying it have only become available recently due to the advent of nanotechnology.

by Tetiana Nedashkivska

16 days ago

New research framework may help predict infectious disease risks

New technology translates brain signals directly into speech

Renewables could dramatically cut tailpipe emissions

Brain biomarkers identify those at risk of severe PTSD symptoms

Biomarkers that may explain why symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be so severe for some people and not for others have been discovered by the researchers at Yale University. The study of combat veterans who have been exposed to intense events shows that those with severe symptoms of PTSD have distinct patterns of neurological and physiological responses affecting associative learning - the ability to distinguish between harmful and safe stimuli in the environment. Some people who experience trauma exhibit few or limited side effects after the event. The research team wanted to explore why others suffer greatly.

by Tetiana Nedashkivska

22 days ago

Gut immune cells cut inflammation in Multiple Sclerosis

Researchers at the University of Toronto (UToronto) and the University of California San Francisco (UniCalSF) have discovered that the intestine is the source of immune cells that reduce brain inflammation in people with multiple sclerosis (lat. Sclerosis multiplex, MS) and that increasing the number of these cells blocks inflammation entirely in a preclinical model of the disease. The cells in question are plasma cells – white blood cells that originate as B cells in the bone marrow but change their behavior when triggered by microbes in the gut. Studying mice and samples from human MS patients, the researchers found that plasma cells that reside in the gut and produce Immunoglobulin A (IgA) antibodies appear to migrate to the central nervous system and produce an anti-inflammatory effect during MS flare-ups.

by Yana Kurchenko

22 days ago

'Training gym' for lab-grown heart cells

A new device that uses a rigorous training regimen to grow small amounts of cardiac tissue and measure how strongly it beats has been developed by the researchers at the University of Toronto (UniToronto). The platform is ideal for testing the effects of potential drug molecules and could help bring personalized medicine closer to reality. Many potential new drugs fail because of toxicity issues, and cardiac toxicity is a major challenge. The researchers build devices that enable lab-grown cells and tissues to develop into 3-D forms that more closely resemble those in the human body. Five years ago, they created the Biowire, a platform in which heart cells grow around a silk suture. By pulsing electricity through the cells, the device causes them to elongate and become more like mature human heart cells.

by Tetiana Nedashkivska

22 days ago