Category Biology/Biotechnology

EPFL researcher and last author Johan Auwerx is pictured. Credit: © EPFL / Alain Herzog

Intestinal bacteria transform a molecule contained in the fruit with spectacular results. As we age, our cells increasingly struggle to recycle mitochondria, thus accumulate in the cell. This degradation affects the health of many tissues, including muscles, which gradually weaken over the years. A buildup of dysfunctional mitochondria is also suspected of playing a role in other diseases of aging, such as Parkinson’s disease. The scientists identified a molecule that, all by itself, managed to re-establish the cell’s ability to recycle the components of the defective mitochondria: urolithin A...

SANDIA BIOENGINEERS Marlene and George Bachand show off their new method for encrypting and storing sensitive information in DNA. Digital data storage degrades and can become obsolete and old-school books and paper require lots of space. (Photo by Lonnie Anderson)

Experiments at CERN’s LHC generate 15 million Gb of data per year. That is a lot of digital data to inscribe on hard drives or beam up to the “cloud.” George Bachand, a Sandia National Laboratories bioengineer is exploring a better, more permanent method for encrypting and storing sensitive data: DNA. Compared to digital and analog information storage, DNA is more compact and durable and never becomes obsolete. Tape- and disk-based data storage degrades and can become obsolete, requiring rewriting every decade or so...

Aerobic exercise training rescues cardiac protein quality control and blunts endoplasmic reticulum stress in heart failure rats. ie AET blunted MI-induced ER stress by reducing protein levels of UPR markers, and accumulation of both misfolded and polyubiquinated proteins, which was associated with restored proteasome activity

Heart failure is a common endpoint for many cardiovascular diseases and is characterized by having reduced cardiac output that leads to dyspnea, exercise intolerance and later death. >20 million people worldwide have heart failure and this will get worse since the prevalence of heart failure will rise as the mean age of the population increases.

Despite heart failure seems to be a multifactorial syndrome, a common point observed by several studies was the accumulation...

Rendering of bacteria and viruses. The chaotic swarming effect of dense active matter such as bacteria can be organised to turn cylindrical rotors and provide a steady power source, according to new research. Credit: © Jezper / Fotolia

A team of scientists from Oxford University has shown how the natural movement of bacteria could be harnessed to assemble and power microscopic ‘windfarms’ – or other human-made micromachines such as smartphone components. The study uses computer simulations to demonstrate that the chaotic swarming effect of dense active matter such as bacteria can be organised to turn cylindrical rotors and provide a steady power source.

Researchers say these biologically driven power plants could someday be the microscopic engines for tiny, human-made devices that are sel...