Category Biology/Biotechnology

For the very first time, a study led by Julian Chen and his group in Arizona State University’s School of Molecular Sciences and the Biodesign Institute’s Center for the Mechanism of Evolution, has discovered an unprecedented pathway producing telomerase RNA from a protein-coding messenger RNA (mRNA).

The central dogma of molecular biology specifies the order in which genetic information is transferred from DNA to make proteins. Messenger RNA molecules carry the genetic information from the DNA in the nucleus of the cell to the cytoplasm where the proteins are made. Messenger RNA acts as the messenger to build proteins.

“Actually, there are many RNAs (ribonucleic acids) that are not used to make proteins,”...

Both time-restricted eating (TRE) and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) have been shown to improve cardiometabolic health in people who are overweight and at risk of serious disease. Now a randomized, controlled trial has tested whether combining these two approaches is more effective than either of them on their own. The results, publishing in the journal Cell Metabolism on October 4, show that the combination improved the average long-term glycemic control compared to a no-intervention control group and induced 2-fold greater reductions in fat mass and visceral fat area compared with each intervention in isolation.

“Isolated TRE and HIIT have received increasing attention for being effective and feasible strategies for at-risk populations,” says senior author Trine Moholdt,...

Chemists discover key to early Earth chemistry, which could unlock ways to speed up chemical synthesis for drug discovery. Purdue University chemists have uncovered a mechanism for peptide-forming reactions to occur in water — something that has puzzled scientists for decades.

“This is essentially the chemistry behind the origin of life,” said Graham Cooks, the Henry Bohn Hass Distinguished Professor of Analytical Chemistry in Purdue’s College of Science...

The neurohormone oxytocin is well-known for promoting social bonds and generating pleasurable feelings, for example from art, exercise, or sex. But the hormone has many other functions, such as the regulation of lactation and uterine contractions in females, and the regulation of ejaculation, sperm transport, and testosterone production in males. Now, researchers from Michigan State University show that in zebrafish and human cell cultures, oxytocin has yet another unsuspected function: It stimulates stem cells derived from the heart’s outer layer (epicardium) to migrate into its middle layer (myocardium) and there develop into cardiomyocytes, muscle cells that generate heart contractions...