Category Biology/Biotechnology

Irina M. Bochkis, Ph.D., of the University of Virginia School of Medicine, has made a new discovery that could let us prevent or cure diseases such as diabetes and fatty liver disease — and possibly let us turn back the clock on aging itself. Credit: Dan Addison, University of Virginia Communications

How would we do it? By using viruses as tiny aestheticians. A new discovery about the effects of aging in our cells could allow doctors to cure or prevent diabetes, fatty liver disease and other metabolic diseases – and possibly even turn back the clock on aging itself. The new finding from the University of Virginia School of Medicine suggests that fatty liver disease and other unwanted effects of aging may be the result of our cells’ nuclei getting wrinkly...

The image above shows collagen from a healthy engineered lung tissue. Credit: Ruogang Zhao

New biotech could reduce time and cost of developing medicine for deadly lung disease. The innovation, lung-on-a-chip technology, relies on the same technology used to print electronic chips, photolithography. Only instead of semiconducting materials, researchers placed upon the chip arrays of thin, pliable lab-grown lung tissues – in other words, its lung-on-a-chip technology.

“Obviously it’s not an entire lung, but the technology can mimic the damaging effects of lung fibrosis...

Pre-cue Spindles Prevented Post-cue Spindle Increases and Negatively Predicted Memory Retention

Sleep spindles may help memory storage keep memories separate. Leading theories propose that sleep presents an opportune time for important, new memories to become stabilized. And it’s long been known which brain waves are produced during sleep. But in a new study, researchers set out to better understand the brain mechanisms that secure memory storage.

The team from Northwestern and Princeton universities set out to find more direct and precisely timed evidence for the involvement of one particular sleep wave – known as the “sleep spindle.” In the study, sleep spindles, described as bursts of brain activity typically lasting around one second, were linked to memory reactivation...

In a series of experiments conducted by researchers at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, clothing treated with an insecticide known as permethrin had strong toxic effects on three primary species of ticks known to spread disease-causing pathogens in the United States (shown here, left to right): the blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis), lone star tick (Amblyomma americanum), and American dog tick (Dermacentor variabilis). Exposure to permethrin interfered with the ticks’ ability to move properly, making them sluggish and likely interfering with their ability to bite.

Lab tests show germ-carrying ticks can’t move properly after contact with treated garments. The case for permethrin-treated clothing to prevent tick bites keeps getting stronger...