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at 17 th century, Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens hung two of his newly invented pendulum clocks on a block of wood and observed that over time, the clocks synchronized their beats. He reported this finding, which he called ‘strange sympathy’, in 1665. Three and a half centuries later, neurons in the brain were found to synchronize their activity in the same way. Neurons in the brain often synchronize in quasi-rhythmic activity, collectively producing ‘brain waves’ that can sometimes be detected even from outside the skull using electroencephalography. Synchronization in these rhythms helps neurons to exchange information efficiently, which is essential for performing important functions such as learning, memory, attention, perception, and movement. How these rhythms are generated, maintained, and abolished to suit the ever-changing needs for smooth brain operation is an active area of ​​research. In a new study published today in Cell Reports, a team of n...

New research from the University of Cincinnati is showing early indications that light could be used as a treatment for certain ailments, including cancer. Researchers from UC, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and University at Buffalo published the results of their study showing light-activated proteins can help normalize dysfunction in cells in the journal. Nature Communication July 25. Research findings Research centers on the function of mitochondria, the organelles in cells that act as the cell’s “power generator” and source of energy. Organelles are small specialized structures that perform various jobs in the cell. Jiajie Diao, PhD, one of the study’s authors, says hundreds of mitochondria are constantly coming together (a process called fusion) and dividing into smaller pieces (a process called fission) to keep them in balance in healthy cells. But when mitochondria don’t function properly, an imbalance of these fission and fusion processe...

AI learns how to recognize and classify different dog breeds from images. A new machine learning method from CZ Biohub now makes it possible to classify and compare different human proteins from fluorescence microscopy images. Credit: CZ Biohub Humans are good at looking at pictures and finding patterns or making comparisons. Take a look at a collection of dog photos, for example, and you can sort them by color, ear size, face shape, and so on. But can you compare them quantitatively? And perhaps more interestingly, can machines extract meaningful information from images that humans cannot? Now Stanford University’s Chan Zuckerberg Biohub team of scientists have developed a machine learning method to quantitatively analyze and compare images—in this case microscopic images of proteins—without any prior knowledge. As reported in Natural Method , their algorithm, dubbed “cytoself”, provides rich and detailed informat...

In certain tissues or organs, cells may appear very similar or even identical. But at the molecular level, these cells can have small differences that lead to wide variations in their function. Alex K. Shalek, a professor of chemistry at MIT, loves the challenge of uncovering those tiny differences. In his lab, the researchers develop and deploy technologies such as single-cell RNA sequencing, which allows them to analyze differences in gene expression patterns and allows them to know how each cell contributes to tissue function. “Single-cell RNA sequencing is a very powerful way to check what a cell is doing at any given moment. By looking at the associations among the different mRNAs that cells express, we can identify very important tissue features — such as what cells are present and what they are trying to do,” said Shalek, who is also a core member of the MIT Institute for Medical Engineering and Science. and an extramural member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Canc...

Cell phone service providers fail to provide adequate coverage and sell consumer products they cannot use, according to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman. Key points: Ombudsman received 63,000 complaints about mobile phones in two years People are left without phone coverage during emergencies Help services operated by online bots and automation are not suitable for all customers A report released today shows cell phone complaints to the ombudsman’s office have surged over the past two years despite a decline in the overall number of complaints. The office received 63,000 complaints about cell phones during the period. The report details examples of people trapped without cell phone service in emergencies. “People come in with an idea of ​​what they think they want and they’re selling a product they may not want, need or understand,” says Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman Cynthia Gebert. Several people living in high-risk emergency areas told the ombu...

Your gut is an amazing place. The special layer of cells that line the inside of your small and large intestines take nutrients and water from what you eat while keeping anything bad out of your system. This layer is called the intestinal epithelium. It actually renews itself every four to seven days using stem cells. These are special types of cells that can self-renew by dividing and differentiating to produce other types of cells to renew your organs. Scientists still don’t know how exactly they make this decision, or what defines stem cells. Bernat Corominas-Murtra, formerly a postdoc at the Austrian Institute of Science and Technology (ISTA) and now an assistant professor at the University of Graz, and Edouard Hannezo, professor at ISTA, in collaboration with an international experimental research group led by Jacco Van Tim Rheenen in Amsterdam studied cells stems in the intestinal epithelium. They discovered an exciting new mechanism that could change our understanding...

Human immunodeficiency virus 1, more commonly known as HIV-1, is known for its remarkable ability to evade the immune system. Scientists at Scripps Research and collaborators have now discovered how our innate immune system – the body’s first line of defense against foreign invaders – detects HIV-1, even when the virus is present in very small amounts. His findings, published on July 8, 2022, in molecular cell , revealing a two-step molecular strategy that jolts the innate immune response into action upon exposure to HIV-1. These discoveries could impact the development of drugs for HIV treatments and vaccines, as well as shape our understanding of how the innate immune response is involved in other areas – including neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s. “This study illustrates how the immune system can recognize a very cryptic virus, and then activate a downstream cascade that leads to immunological activation,” said Sumit Chanda, PhD, professor in ...

by Jan Grabowski, TWINCORE – Zentrum für Experimentelle und Klinische Infektionsforschung The isomeric structure of itaconic acid. Credit: CC-BY F. Chen et al. The endogenous itaconic acid molecule has antiviral and anti-inflammatory effects, as recently demonstrated by researchers from TWINCORE. In collaboration with scientists from the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research in Braunschweig and the Helmholtz Saarland Pharmaceutical Research Institute, they have now investigated the closely related substance citric acid. The result: Citraconic acid protects cells through its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. It also inhibits the release of flu viruses from human cells. They published these results in the journal Natural Metabolism . “Itaconic acid has two isomers, natural relatives that differ only slightly in their chemical structure,...

CAMBRIDGE, MA – Receptors found on the surface of cells bind to hormones, proteins, and other molecules, helping cells respond to their environment. MIT chemists have now discovered how one of these receptors changes its shape when it binds to its target, and how that change triggers cells to grow and reproduce. This receptor, known as the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), is overexpressed in many cancers and is the target of several cancer drugs. These drugs often work well at first, but tumors can become resistant to them. Better understanding the mechanism of these receptors could help researchers design drugs that can circumvent that resistance, said Gabriela Schlau-Cohen, a professor of chemistry at MIT. “Thinking about more general mechanisms for targeting EGFR is an exciting new direction, and gives you new avenues for thinking about possible therapies that may not develop resistance easily,” he said. Schlau-Cohen and Bin Zhang, Pfizer-Laubach Assistant Prof...