Stanford scientists have designed a copper catalyst that produces ethanol from carbon dioxide and water. Credit: Mark Shwartz/Stanford University

Most cars and trucks in the US run on a blend of 90% gasoline and 10% ethanol, a renewable fuel made primarily from fermented corn. But to produce the 14 billion gallons of ethanol consumed annually by American drivers requires millions of acres of farmland. A recent discovery by Stanford University scientists could lead to a new, more sustainable way to make ethanol without corn or other crops. This promising technology has 3 basic components: water, CO2 and electricity delivered through a copper catalyst. The results are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

“One of our long-range goals is to produce renewable...

ATCA radio intensity maps zoomed in at J1015 and the nebula G283.1−0.59 at 16, 6, and 3 cm. The 16 cm image is obtained from the off-pulse phase bins with the pulsar binning data. The crosses mark the pulsar positionand the beam sizes are shown in the lower left. Credit: Ng et al., 2017.

Astronomers have recently identified a peculiar bubble-like structure associated with an energetic pulsar known as PSR J1015−5719. The newly found feature, designated G283.1−0.59, is most likely a polar wind nebula. Located some 16,600 light years away from the Earth, PSR J1015−5719 is an energetic pulsar with a spin period of 0.14 seconds and an estimated age of about 39,000 years. The pulsar was detected in 2003 by the Parkes Multibeam Pulsar Survey...

Eczema, or atopic dermatitis, is an inflammatory skin condition that affects an estimated 30 percent of the U.S. population, mostly children and adolescents.NIAID

Researchers have identified mutations in a gene called CARD11 that lead to atopic dermatitis, or eczema, an allergic skin disease. Scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, and other institutions discovered the mutations in four unrelated families with severe atopic dermatitis and studied the resulting cell-signaling defects that contribute to allergic disease. Their findings, reported in Nature Genetics, also suggest that some of these defects potentially could be corrected by supplementation with the amino acid glutamine.

The scientists analyzed the genetic sequences of patients with severe atopic dermatitis and identified 8 individuals from four families with mutations in the CARD11 gene, which provides instructions for production of a cell-signaling protein of the same name. While some people with these mutations had other health issues, such as infections, others did not, implying that mutations in CARD11 could cause atopic dermatitis without leading to other medical issues often found in severe immune system syndromes.

Each of the four families had a distinct mutation that affected a different region of the CARD11 protein, but all the mutations had similar effects on T-cell signaling. With cell culture and other laboratory experiments, the researchers determined that the mutations led to defective activation of two cell-signaling pathways, one of which typically is activated in part by glutamine.

Growing cultured T cells from patients with CARD11 mutations with excess glutamine boosted mTORC1 activation, a key part of one of the affected pathways, suggesting the potential to partially correct the cell-signaling defects that may contribute to atopic dermatitis. The scientists now are planning a study to assess the effect of supplemental glutamine and leucine, another amino acid that activates mTORC1, in people with atopic dermatitis with and without CARD11 mutations.
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/scientists-identify-single-gene-mutations-lead-atopic-dermatitis