Category Biology/Biotechnology

This retinal scan of a uveitis patient demonstrates retinal thickening (red) involving the central retina resulting in compromising vision. University of Iowa researchers recently recently used proteomics (protein profiling) to devise a successful treatment strategy for a patient with uveitis, a disease which can have many causes, making it particularly difficult to diagnose and treat effectively. Credit: Vinit Mahajan, University of Iowa Health Care

Protein analysis can make diagnoses more accurate and treatments better targeted to individual patients. Researchers have used personalized proteomics to devise a successful treatment for a patient with uveitis, a potentially blinding eye disease that can have many causes, making it particularly difficult to diagnose and treat effectively.

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Why people lose their locks in old age may be related to the aging of hair follicle stem cells, two new studies suggest. Though it is known that mammals that live for longer lifespans lose their hair, the mechanisms underlying this fate have been a mystery. Hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs), which generate the sacs or follicles that produce hair, keep hair growth going repeatedly over time.

Satellite images of Emiliania huxleyi blooms. Credit: NASA images

Using a special profiling technique, scientists at Princeton have determined the mechanism of action of a potent antibiotic, tropodithietic acid (TDA), leading them to uncover its hidden ability as a potential anticancer agent. TDA is produced by marine bacteria belonging to the roseobacter family, which exist in a unique symbiosis with microscopic algae. The algae provide food for the bacteria, and the bacteria provide protection from the many pathogens of the open ocean.

“This molecule keeps everything out,” said Assistant Prof. Seyedsayamdost. “How could something so small be so broad spectrum? That’s what got us interested,” he said...

Here’s a reason for men to eat their lima beans -If research in male fruit flies holds up, it might help you live longer. New research suggests that oral administration of prunetin, found in lima beans, increased climbing activity and reduced glucose levels in male fruit flies but not in females. Prunetin is a plant-derived compound that belongs to the isoflavone group.

“Our study provides novel insights into plant bioactive research and suggests a potential to combat aging comparatively simple by the intake of a plant bioactive,” said Anika E. Wagner, Ph.D. “Further studies in mammalian species/humans are needed to validate initial data which were generated in the model organism Drosophila melanogaster.”

To make their discovery, scientists separated fruit flies according to sex prior to ...