New Hydrogel Stem Cell Treatment Repairs Injured Brain Tissue in Mice

Mouse brain tissue
Mouse brain tissue 28 days after injection of hydrogel with myoglobin shows a higher volume of healthy grafted brain tissue, compared to injections of the hydrogel without myoglobin. Image: Supplied.

A new ‘hybrid’ hydrogel, which allows clinicians to safely deliver stem cells to the site of a brain injury in mice, has been developed by researchers from the University of Melbourne and the Australian National University.

A hydrogel is a water-based gel that can be used to deliver substances into the body and can be used to promote the effective growth of new cells.

Published in Nature Communications, the proof-of-concept breakthrough solves a major challenge faced by stem cell researchers since the 1980s – keeping stem cells alive for long enough to allow them to evolve into the c...

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Baby Star Near the Black Hole in the Middle of our Milky Way: It exists after all

The baby star X3a in its envelope, X3 (shown in blue). The envelope is blown by stellar winds, which is why it forms a cigar-like shape. On timescales of less than 10 years clumps can form which in turn are swallowed by X3a. Copyright: Florian Peißker

Scientists have detected the heaviest and youngest infant star ever discovered close to the black hole at the center of our Galaxy. They also identified the region where this ‘impossible star’ may have formed.

An international team of researchers under the leadership of Dr Florian Peißker at the University of Cologne’s Institute of Astrophysics has discovered a very young star in its formation phase near the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A) at the centre of our Milky Way...

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Digital Twin Opens Way to Effective Treatment of Inflammatory Diseases

A vision of how digital twins can be used to tailor drugs: (A) Patients with different immune diseases. (B) Computers construct (C) digital twins of each patient’s disease mechanisms. These interact in molecular programmes, controlled by (D) switch proteins, which are measured in blood or tissue to (E) find the dominant protein(s) at which to target therapy. Illustration: The research group.

Inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis have complex disease mechanisms that can differ from patient to patient with the same diagnosis. This means that currently available drugs have little effect on many patients. Using so-called digital twins, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now obtained a deeper understanding of the “off and on” proteins that control these diseases...

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A New AI-based Tool to Detect DDoS Attacks

A new AI-based tool to detect DDoS attacks
IDS deployment on the ISP. Credit: Mustapha et al

Cybercriminals are coming up with increasingly savvy ways to disrupt online services, access sensitive data or crash internet user’s devices. A cyberattack that has become very common over the past decades is the so-called Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack.

This type of attack involves a series of devices connected to the internet, which are collectively referred to as a “botnet.” This “group” of connected devices is then used to flood a target server or website with “fake” traffic, disrupting its operation and making it inaccessible to legitimate users.

To protect their website or servers from DDoS attacks, businesses and other users commonly use firewalls, anti-malware software or conventional intrusion detection syste...

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