Top left: PGC1 deficiency leads to severe muscle damage, evidenced by numerous centralized nuclei (highlighted with arrows), which is likely due to impaired mitochondrial energy metabolism (bottom left: blue staining shows impaired mitochondrial activity). Such muscle damage and mitochondrial impairment is largely rescued by ERR? overexpression (top and bottom right). Credit: Salk Institute

If you’ve ever wondered how strenuous exercise translates into better endurance, researchers at the Salk Institute may have your answer. In a study published in the journal Cell Reports on March 6, 2018, scientists in Ronald Evans’ lab have shown that the protein ERRγ (ERR gamma) helps deliver many of the benefits associated with endurance exercise...

Gene therapy successfully treated a canine version of Best disease, a blinding disorder, the effects lasting more than five years. In these images of the retina of untreated (left) and treated (right) dogs, one can see that BEST1 gene expression (in red) was restored following treatment. In addition, the threrapy restored the structure of the RPE (green layer), a layer of cells that supports the light-sensing photoreceptor cells.

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have developed a gene therapy that successfully treats a form of macular degeneration in a canine model. The work sets the stage for translating the findings into a human therapy for an inherited disease that results in a progressive loss of central vision and which is currently untreatable...

ACRYLIC ACID 

~ also known as 2-Propenoic acid, 79-10-7, Propenoic acid, Vinylformic acid, Prop-2-enoic acid (preferred IUPAC name) etc. is an incredibly common chemical in the manufacturing industry with over 1 million tons produced per year. It is the most simple unsaturated carboxylic acid.

Chemical structure: CH₂=CHCOOH, vinyl group attached to carboxylic acid terminus.

Odor: Acrid or tart

Production: 

a) From propylene: CH₂=CHCH₃ + ​³⁄₂ O₂ → CH₂=CHCO₂H + H₂O

b) Oxidation of propane to acrylic acid (under research)

c) Carboxylation to acrylic acid (under supercritical CO2).

d) Environmentally-friendly option: Using fermented sugar to produce 3-hydroxypropionic acid (3HP) = acrylic acid precursor

Chemical reactions and Uses:  Acrylic acid reacts with alcohol to form an es...

An example of 3D distribution of dark matter reconstructed via tomographic methods using the weak lensing technique combined with the redshift estimates of the background galaxies. (Credit: University of Tokyo/NAOJ)

A research team of multiple institutes, including the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and University of Tokyo, released an unprecedentedly wide and sharp dark matter map based on the newly obtained imaging data by Hyper Suprime-Cam on the Subaru Telescope. The dark matter distribution is estimated by the weak gravitational lensing technique. The team located the positions and lensing signals of the dark matter halos and found indications that the number of halos could be inconsistent with what the simplest cosmological model suggests...