Category Biology/Biotechnology

Scientists Detect Signatures of Life Remotely

Scientists detect signatures of life remotely
The spectropolarimeter instrument FlyPol aboard the helicopter, with which the team carried out the experiment. Image Credit: Jonas Kühn

It could be a milestone on the path to detecting life on other planets: Scientists detect a key molecular property of all living organisms from a helicopter flying several kilometers above ground. The measurement technology could also open up opportunities for remote sensing of the Earth.

Left hands and right hands are almost perfect mirror images of each other. But whatever way they are twisted and turned, they cannot be superimposed onto each other. This is why the left glove simply won’t fit the right hand as well as it fits the left. In science, this property is referred to as chirality.

Just like hands are chiral, molecules can be chiral, ...

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Thin, Stretchable ‘Biosensors could make Surgery Safer

Biosensor
The new biosensors allow for simultaneous recording and imaging of tissues and organs during surgical procedures. In this photo, researchers attached the biosensor to the heart of a pig that was obtained commercially. Credit: Bongjoong Kim, Purdue University

A research team from Los Alamos National Laboratory and Purdue University have developed bio-inks for biosensors that could help localize critical regions in tissues and organs during surgical $operations.

“The ink used in the biosensors is biocompatible and provides a user-friendly design with excellent workable time frames of more than one day,” said Kwan-Soo Lee, of Los Alamos’ Chemical Diagnostics and Engineering group.

The new biosensors allow for simultaneous recording and imaging of tissues and organs during surg...

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Link found between Gut Microbes and Stroke

Findings lay the groundwork for new stroke treatments, prevention strategies. New findings from Cleveland Clinic researchers show for the first time that the gut microbiome impacts stroke severity and functional impairment following stroke. The results, published in Cell Host & Microbe, lay the groundwork for potential new interventions to help treat or prevent stroke.

The research was led by Weifei Zhu, Ph.D., and Stanley Hazen, M.D., Ph.D., of Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute. The study builds on more than a decade of research spearheaded by Dr...

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Convergent Mechanism of Aging discovered

Fig. 3
dhfr-1i affects the methionine cycle and mimics methionine restriction.

Several different causes of ageing have been discovered, but the question remains whether there are common underlying mechanisms that determine ageing and lifespan. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing and the CECAD Cluster of Excellence in Ageing research at the University Cologne have now come across folate metabolism in their search for such basic mechanisms. Its regulation underlies many known ageing signalling pathways and leads to longevity. This may provide a new possibility to broadly improve human health during ageing.

In recent decades, several cellular signalling pathways have been discovered that regulate the lifespan of an organism and are thus of enormous importance for a...

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