Antiviral protein MDA-5 senses viral replication and governs immune response to SARS-CoV-2. Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute have identified the sensor in human lungs that detects SARS-CoV-2 and signals that it’s time to mount an antiviral response. The study, published today in Cell Reports, provides insights into the molecular basis of severe disease and may enable new strategies for the treatment and prevention of COVID-19.

“Our research has shown that MDA-5 is the immune cop that’s tasked to keep an eye out for SARS-CoV-2 and call for back-up,” says Sumit Chanda, Ph.D., director of the Immunity and Pathogenesis Program at Sanford Burnham Prebys and senior author of the study...

Study shows improvements to chemical sensing chip that aims to quickly and accurately identify drugs and other trace chemicals. University at Buffalo researchers are reporting an advancement of a chemical sensing chip that could lead to handheld devices that detect trace chemicals — everything from illicit drugs to pollution — as quickly as a breathalyzer identifies alcohol.

The chip, which also may have uses in food safety monitoring, anti-counterfeiting and other fields where trace chemicals are analyzed, is described in a study that appears on the cover of the Dec...

It is well known that the expansion of the universe is accelerating due to a mysterious dark energy. Within galaxies, stars also experience an acceleration, though this is due to some combination of dark matter and the stellar density. In a new study to be published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, researchers have now obtained the first direct measurement of the average acceleration taking place within our home galaxy, the Milky Way.

Led by Sukanya Chakrabarti at the Institute for Advanced Study with collaborators from Rochester Institute of Techn...

Transactions between processors and memory can consume 95% of the energy needed to do machine learning and AI, which severely limits battery life. A team of engineers has designed a system that can run AI tasks faster, and with less energy, by harnessing eight hybrid chips, each with its own data processor built right next to its own memory storage.

Smartwatches and other battery-powered electronics would be even smarter if they could run AI algorithms...