Category Biology/Biotechnology

Old Drugs Hint at New Ways to Beat Chronic Pain

Visualizing pain in mouse sensory neurons. Mouse sensory neurons are shown in magenta. BH4, the molecule driving chronic pain, is shown in green. Hence, the neurons “in pain” are seen in green/white. ©Cronin/IMBA

A newly identified link between chronic pain and lung cancer in mice offers hope for pain management. A new study points to possible new treatments for chronic pain with a surprising link to lung cancer. Findings of the research, conducted in laboratory mouse models, open up multiple therapeutic opportunities that could allow the world to improve chronic pain management and eclipse the opioid epidemic.

Pain is an important alarm system that alerts us to tissue damage and prompts us to withdraw from harmful situations...

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Researchers uncover Where and Why Proteins Malfunction in Parkinson’s disease

Super resolution image of α-synuclein in mitochondria of neuron (left) and single molecule TIRF image of individual α-synuclein aggregates (right)
Super resolution image of α-synuclein in mitochondria of neuron (left) and single molecule TIRF image of individual α-synuclein aggregates (right).
– Mathew Horrocks

Scientists at the Francis Crick Institute, UCL and the University of Edinburgh have uncovered how a build-up of harmful protein starts to happen within neurons in Parkinson’s disease, ultimately causing nerve cell death. By looking at how, where and why this build-up happens, the work provides unique insight into a key biological process driving Parkinson’s.

Parkinson’s is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that causes tremors, slowing of movements, stiffness and can progress to cause severe cognitive problems...

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Brief Exposure to Rapamycin has the same Anti-Aging effects as Lifelong Treatment

Rapamycin is currently the most promising anti-ageing drug. ©Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing

Imagine you could take a medicine that prevents the decline that come with age and keeps you healthy. Scientists are trying to find a drug that has these effects. The current most promising anti-ageing drug is Rapamycin, known for its positive effects on life and health span in experimental studies with laboratory animals. To obtain the maximum beneficial effects of the drug, it is often given lifelong. However, even at the low doses used in prevention for age-related decline, negative side effects may occur, and it is always desirable to use the lowest effective dose...

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‘Naturally Insulating’ Material Emits Pulses of Superfluorescent Light at Room Temperature

Graphic shows process of achieving superflorescence at room temperature.
The process for achieving superflorescence at room temperature is shown in a new paper in Nature Photonics.

Researchers looking to synthesize a brighter and more stable nanoparticle for optical applications found that their creation instead exhibited a more surprising property: bursts of superfluorescence that occurred at both room temperature and regular intervals. The work could lead to the development of faster microchips, neurosensors, or materials for use in quantum computing applications, as well as a number of biological studies.

Superfluorescence occurs when atoms within a material synchronize and simultaneously emit a short but intense burst of light...

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