Category Biology/Biotechnology

More than a century ago, scientists demonstrated that sleep supports the retention of memories of facts and events. Later studies have shown that slow-wave sleep, often referred to as deep sleep, is important for transforming fragile, recently formed memories into stable, long-term memories. Now, it has been shown deep sleep may also strengthen immunological memories of previously encountered pathogens.

Studies in humans have shown that long-term increases in memory T cells are associated with deep slow-wave sleep on the nights after vaccination. Taken together, the findings support the view that slow-wave sleep contributes to the formation of long-term memories of abstract, generalized information, which leads to adaptive behavioral and immunological responses...

A new UW study found arsenic levels in 98 percent of red wines tested exceed U.S. drinking water standards, but that health risks depend on one’s total diet.Mr.TInDC, flickr

A new study that tested 65 wines from America’s top 4 wine-producing states — California, Washington, New York and Oregon — found all but one have arsenic levels that exceed US drinking water standards. But health risks from that naturally-occurring toxic element depend on how many other high-arsenic foods and beverages, such as apple juice, rice, or cereal bars, an individual person eats.

The EPA allows drinking water to contain no more than 10 parts per billion of arsenic. The wine samples ranged from 10 to 76 parts per billion, with an average of 24 parts per billion...

New prosthesis aims to help people living with memory loss. It includes a small array of electrodes implanted into the brain, has performed well in laboratory testing in animals and is currently being evaluated in human patients. It relies on a new algorithm created by Dong Song. The development also builds on more than a decade of collaboration with Sam Deadwyler and Robert Hampson of the Department of Physiology & Pharmacology of Wake Forest Baptist who have collected the neural data used to construct the models and algorithms.

When your brain receives the sensory input, it creates a memory in the form of a complex electrical signal that travels through multiple regions of the hippocampus...

On the left is the schematic design of the TRAIL/Dox loaded platelet membrane-coated nanogel delivery system. The TRAIL is attached on the surface of membrane and Dox is loaded in the core of nanogel. On the right is a transmission electron microscope image of the drug delivery system. Black is the synthetic core nanogel, the outside shell is the platelet membrane. Credit: Quanyin Hu

It allows the drugs to last longer in the body and attack both primary cancer tumors and circulating tumor cells that can cause a cancer to metastasize. The work was tested successfully in an animal model. “There are two key advantages to using platelet membranes to coat anticancer drugs,” says assistant Prof Zhen Gu. “First, the surface of cancer cells has an affinity for platelets – they stick to each other...