Category Biology/Biotechnology

A combination of organic materials and electronics could open up new possibilities for unconventional future computing systems. The processor is the brain of a computer — an often-quoted phrase. But processors work fundamentally differently than the human brain. Transistors perform logic operations by means of electronic signals. In contrast, the brain works with neurons, which are connected via biological conductive paths, synapses. At a higher level, this signaling is used by the brain to control the body and perceive the surrounding environment. The reaction of the body/brain system when certain stimuli are perceived — for example, via the eyes, ears or sense of touch — is triggered through a learning process...

A chemical isolated from grape seed extract prolongs the lifespans of old mice by 9 per cent by clearing out their old, worn-out cells. The treatment also seems to make the mice physically fitter and reduces the size of tumours when used alongside chemotherapy to treat cancer.

The finding strengthens the case for future anti-ageing therapies that target senescent cells – aged cells that lose their ability to replicate and instead churn out substances that cause inflammation.

Senescent cells increase in number as we get older, and have been linked to various age-related conditions, including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and osteoporosis.

To find a substance that might destroy these cells, Qixia Xu at the...

A new study by the Oregon State University College of Engineering shows that machine learning techniques can offer powerful new tools for advancing personalized medicine, care that optimizes outcomes for individual patients based on unique aspects of their biology and disease features.

The research with machine learning, a branch of artificial intelligence in which computer systems use algorithms and statistical models to look for trends in data, tackles long-unsolvable problems in biological systems at the cellular level, said Oregon State’s Brian D. Wood, who conducted the study with then OSU Ph.D. student Ehsan Taghizadeh and Helen M. Byrne of the University of Oxford.

“Those systems tend to have high complexity — first because of the vast number of individual ce...

Now a European research team consisting of scientists from France, Germany and Denmark has shown the different ways that common medicines apparently affect gut bacteria. The work is published in the journal Nature.

“It has already been substantiated in various clinical trials that different kinds of food can both positively and negatively regulate the gut’s ‘chemical factory’...