Category Biology/Biotechnology

Transmission electron microscope image of negative-stained, Fortaleza-strain Zika virus (red), isolated from a microcephaly case in Brazil. (Microscopy/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health)

First study to examine Zika infection in human neural stem cells from second-trimester fetuses. USC researchers have tracked down 2 Zika proteins potentially responsible for thousands of microcephaly cases in Brazil and elsewhere – taking one small step toward preventing Zika-infected mothers from birthing babies with abnormally small heads.The Zika virus contains 10 proteins, but only NS4A and NS4B matter when it comes to microcephaly...

On left is an activated “ordinary” platelet (scanning electron microscope image), the right — “super-activated” (procoagulant) platelet (transmission electron microscope image).

Scientists have discovered the mechanism of the platelet programmed cell death, resulting in acceleration of the blood coagulation process by a factor of 1,000 to 10,000. Platelets are small anucleated blood cells responsible for stopping bleeding. They detect blood vessel damage and agglutinate, creating aggregates and stopping the blood loss. This process is called hemostasis (from the Greek “haimatos” – blood, “stasis” – stop). Platelets become able to aggregate and plug the wound upon activation...

Josh Zimmerman, Ph.D., (right) and Todd McDevitt, Ph.D., discovered a biomaterials hack that can boost cells’ ability to combat inflammation and potentially treat autoimmune diseases. Credit: Elisabeth Fall

A biomaterials hack can boost cells’ ability to combat inflammation and potentially treat autoimmune diseases. With a trick of engineering, scientists at the Gladstone Institutes improved a potential weapon against inflammation and autoimmune disorders. Their work could one day benefit patients who suffer from IBD or organ transplant rejection.

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) reside in bone marrow and have been found to secrete anti-inflammatory proteins that help regulate the immune system...

Rotated wireframe of brain’s physical inference and action centers

The ‘Physics Engine’ of the brain predicts how world behaves; among ‘most important aspects of cognition for survival’. Whether or not they aced the subject in high school, human beings are physics masters when it comes to understanding and predicting how objects in the world will behave. A Johns Hopkins University cognitive scientist has found the source of that intuition, the brain’s “physics engine.”

This engine, which comes alive when people watch physical events unfold, is not in the brain’s vision center, but in a set of regions devoted to planning actions, suggesting the brain performs constant, real-time physics calculations so people are ready to catch, dodge, hoist or take any necessary action, on the fly...