Skin Cancer Suppressor found

DIRC3 regulates IGFBP5-dependent gene expression programmes involved in cancer.

A molecule that suppresses melanoma tumours has been identified. A promising route to develop new treatments for skin cancer has been identified by University of Bath scientists, who have found a molecule that suppresses melanoma tumour growth.

Although the research is at an early stage, the team hope that their work could help develop new ways to combat melanoma and potentially other cancers too.

The team from the University of Bath’s Department of Biology & Biochemistry were researching a group of ‘long non-coding RNAs’ (IncRNAs) with colleagues at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at the University of Oxford, the Wellcome Sanger Institute and University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

IncRNA...

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Colloidal Quantum Dot Laser Diodes are just around the corner

Colloidal quantum dots operationg in LED mode.
Colloidal quantum dots operating in LED mode.

Los Alamos scientists have incorporated meticulously engineered colloidal quantum dots into a new type of light emitting diodes (LEDs) containing an integrated optical resonator, which allows them to function as lasers. These novel, dual-function devices clear the path towards versatile, manufacturing-friendly laser diodes. The technology can potentially revolutionize numerous fields from photonics and optoelectronics to chemical sensing and medical diagnostics.

“This latest breakthrough along with other recent advances in quantum dot chemistry and device engineering that we have achieved suggest that laser diodes assembled from solution may soon become a reality,” said Victor Klimov, head of the quantum dot group at Los Alamos Nationa...

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How the Solar System got its ‘Great Divide,’ and why it matters for Life on Earth

An orrery, a type of device once used to track the movements of the planets, sitting above an infrared image of a hypothetical "protoplanetary" disk that may have divided the solar system early in its history.
An orrery, a type of device once used to track the movements of the planets, sitting above an infrared image of a hypothetical “protoplanetary” disk that may have divided the solar system early in its history. (Credit: K. Ebert/Innovative Ideas & Methods)

Scientists, including those from the University of Colorado Boulder, have finally scaled the solar system’s equivalent of the Rocky Mountain range. In a study published in Nature Astronomy, researchers from the United States and Japan unveil the possible origins of our cosmic neighborhood’s “Great Divide.” This well-known schism may have separated the solar system just after the sun first formed.

The phenomenon is a bit like how the Rocky Mountains divide North America into east and west...

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Living Robots built using Frog Cells

Computer-designed organisms. Left is simulated design, right is deployed physical green and red organism.
On the left, the anatomical blueprint for a computer-designed organism, discovered on a UVM supercomputer. On the right, the living organism, built entirely from frog skin (green) and heart muscle (red) cells. The background displays traces carved by a swarm of these new-to-nature organisms as they move through a field of particulate matter. (Credit: Sam Kriegman, UVM)

Tiny ‘xenobots’ assembled from cells promise advances from drug delivery to toxic waste clean-up. Scientists repurposed living frog cells – and assembled them into entirely new life-forms. These tiny ‘xenobots’ can move toward a target and heal themselves after being cut. These novel living machines are neither a traditional robot nor a known species of animal...

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