Category Biology/Biotechnology

Hotspot Map example. The hotspot maps show protected areas (as of 2015) broken into three broad groups based on their primary management objectives as classified by the IUCN: categories I-IV; categories V-VI; and NA. The categories range from strictly protected nature reserves, wildlands and parks (I-IV) to areas of more lenient management with the potential for development and the sustainable use of natural resources (V-VI). Representing roughly 35% of the number of global protected areas tabulated, the NA category does not denote lax management policy, simply areas that for one reason or another have not adapted the IUCN management classification system.

In a forum on global urbanization, biodiversity and policy held at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design yesterday Earth Day,...

Intrahepatic IFN-I signaling and responsive CD8+ T cells promote metabolic disease in mice and correlate to worsened NAFLD in humans.

A high-fat diet and obesity turn “hero” virus-fighting liver immune cells “rogue”, leading to insulin resistance, a condition that often results in type 2 diabetes, according to research published today in Science Immunology. Using cells from mice and human livers, Toronto General Hospital Research Institute researchers demonstrated for the first time how under specific conditions, such as obesity, liver CD8+ T cells, white blood cells in the control of viral infections, become highly activated and inflammatory, reprogramming themselves into disease-driving cells.

Scientists have been trying for many years to discover why the liver continues to pump out too ...

A schematic of a biosensor platform resembling a spider web. Credit: Image courtesy of DGIST (Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology)

DGIST team has developed a biosensor platform which has 20 times faster detection capability than the existing biosensors using magnetic patterns resembling a spider web.The sensing capability of a biosensor is determined by the resolution of the sensor and the movement and reaction rate of molecules. Many research groups in Korea and other countries have been improving the resolution through the development of nanomaterials but there has been a limitation to improve the sensors’ sensitivity due to the low diffusion transport of biomolcules toward the sensing region.

Professor Kim and his team used a magnetic field in order to overcome the drawb...

In a human cell, CHIP (red) is recruited to clusters of a dementia-inducing protein (yellow). There is not enough CHIP for insulin receptor degradation in this situation. The cell undergoes premature aging. (Photo: CECAD)

Researchers uncover the link between protein aggregation, aging. Early in evolution, sugar intake and the regulation of life span were linked with each other. The hormone insulin is crucial here. It reduces blood sugar levels by binding to its receptor on the cell surface. However, many processes for stress management and survival are shut down at the same time. When there is a good supply of food, they appear unnecessary to the organism, although this reduces life expectancy over the long term. The insulin receptor thus acts like a brake on life expectancy...