Category Biology/Biotechnology

Zircones. Credit: Anders Lindskog

Sustained meteorite bombardment. Some 470 million years ago, during the middle part of the geological period known as the Ordovician, an asteroid collision took place somewhere between Mars and Jupiter. The collision caused an explosion that sent a cascade of meteorites towards Earth. The heavy bombardment of Earth continued for millions of years, and even today some 20% of all meteorites that reach Earth originate from this asteroid break-up. At the same time Earth witnessed the greatest rise in marine biodiversity since the origin of multicellular life...

These are the researchers. (From left) Dr. Rhonda Bassel-Duby, Dr. Lawrence Lum, Huanyu Zhou, Dr. Jesung Moon, and Dr. Wei Tan. Credit: UT Southwestern Medical Center

An anticancer agent in development promotes regeneration of damaged heart muscle – an unexpected research finding that may help prevent congestive heart failure, CHF in the future. Many parts of the body, such as blood cells and the lining of the gut, continuously renew throughout life. Others, such as the heart, do not. Because of the heart’s inability to repair itself, damage caused by a heart attack causes permanent scarring that frequently results in serious weakening of the heart, known as heart failure.

For years, Dr...

Study highlights mRNA-based vaccines and therapies. A new Zika vaccine candidate has the potential to protect against the virus with a single dose, according to a research team led by scientists from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. As reported in Nature this week, preclinical tests showed promising immune responses in both mice and monkeys. “We observed rapid and durable protective immunity without adverse events, and so we think this candidate vaccine represents a promising strategy for the global fight against Zika virus,” said Drew Weissman, MD, PhD, a professor of Infectious Disease at Penn. “We hope to start clinical trials in 12 to 18 months.”

Prompted by the recent Zika virus outbreaks in Latin America and some parts of the United States, scientis...

These images show a reduction in the number of macrophages infiltrating atherosclerotic plaques (in green) in animals treated with the IRE1 inhibitor. Credit: Image courtesy of University of California – Santa Barbara

Proteins begin life as long strings of amino acids that must fold into the 3D shape prescribed for their biological function. When proteins don’t fold as expected the cells activate stress responses meant to mitigate the problem. But severe or prolonged stress produces an acute response: Cell death is triggered to protect the organism.

Sustained activation of one such reaction – the unfolded protein response, or UPR – has been implicated in a number of diseases...