Category Biology/Biotechnology

As the world awaits vaccines to bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control, UC San Francisco scientists have devised a novel approach to halting the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease.

Led by UCSF graduate student Michael Schoof, a team of researchers engineered a completely synthetic, production-ready molecule that straitjackets the crucial SARS-CoV-2 machinery that allows the virus to infect our cells...

Researchers have devised a test for face masks to show which are the best at blocking droplets of fluid – and rated several current options.

In a proof-of-concept study, scientists at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, devised a low-cost laser sensor that could spot the masks that were best at stopping droplets spreading.

The team led by Eric Westman found that medical-grade ‘N95’ masks and surgical masks performed extremely well.

Handmade cotton masks also performed well, eliminating a substantial amount of the spray from normal speech.

But improvised face coverings such as bandanas and balaclava-style face coverings were less effective, the researchers found.

Duke researchers created an ine...

A new mouse model helps researchers study the roles of cell types in keeping time inside the body. UT Southwestern scientists have developed a genetically engineered mouse and imaging system that lets them visualize fluctuations in the circadian clocks of cell types in mice...

Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have now identified a protein called histone deacetylase 3 (HDAC3) as the orchestrator of the immune system’s inflammation response to infection. By using both specially cultured cells and small animal models, HDAC3 was found to be directly involved in the production of agents that help kill off harmful pathogens as well as the restoration of homeostasis, the body’s state of equilibrium. This work, published in Nature, shows that some of the methods being tested to fight cancer and harmful inflammation, such as sepsis, that target molecules like HDAC3 could actually have unintended and deadly consequences.

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