Category Biology/Biotechnology

An international team of researchers led by the University of Bern has used observation-based computer modeling to find an explanation for how macromolecules can form in a short time in disks of gas and dust around young stars. These findings could be crucial for understanding how habitability develops around different types of exoplanets and stars.

Organic macromolecules are regarded as the building blocks of life, as they are of crucial importance for the life-friendly carbon and nitrogen composition of the earth.

Planetary scientists have long assumed that the organic macromolecules that make the Earth suitable for life come from so-called chondrites...

In November 2021, Northwestern University researchers introduced an injectable new therapy, which harnessed fast-moving “dancing molecules,” to repair tissues and reverse paralysis after severe spinal cord injuries.

Now, the same research group has applied the therapeutic strategy to damaged human cartilage cells. In the new study, the treatment activated the gene expression necessary to regenerate cartilage within just four hours. And, after only three days, the human cells produced protein components needed for cartilage regeneration.

The re...

A naturally occurring peptide called PEPITEM could potentially rejuvenate the immune response in older individuals and protect against ‘inflammageing’, which is widely believed to be the root cause of many age-related diseases.

The study, published today in the journal npj Aging, raises the exciting possibility of a protective agent that could dampen age-related inflammation and restore normal immune function in older adults.

PEPITEM (Peptide Inhibitor of Trans-Endothelial Migration) was initially identified at the University of Birmingham in 2015. While the role of the PEPITEM pathway has already been demonstrated in immune-mediated diseases, this is the first data showing that PEPITEM has the potential to increase healthspan in an aging population.

Researchers, led by Drs M...

A team led by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers has discovered a new way that cells regulate senescence, an irreversible end to cell division. The findings, published in Cell, could one day lead to new interventions for a variety of conditions associated with aging, including neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and cancer, as well as new therapies for a collection of diseases known as ribosomopathies.

“There is great interest in reducing senescence to slow or reverse aging or aging-associated diseases...