A multi-institution study led by Rohan Dharmakumar, PhD, of Indiana University School of Medicine, has identified that iron drives the formation of fatty tissue in the heart and leads to chronic heart failure in about fifty percent of heart attack survivors. The discovery, recently published in Nature Communications, paves the way for treatments that have the potential to prevent heart failure in nearly half a million people a year in the United States, and many millions more worldwide.

“For the first time, we have identified a root cause of chronic heart failure following a heart attack,” Dharmakumar said.

Dharmakumar is executive director of IU’s Krannert Cardiovascular Researc...

Finding paves the way for new generation of opto-electronic applications. Quantum dots are clusters of some 1,000 atoms which act as one large ‘super-atom’. It is possible to accurately design the electronic properties of these dots just by changing their size...

A trio of researchers from Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Universität Innsbruck and the University of Geneva, respectively, has discovered a “stripped, pulsating core of a massive star” for the first time. In their paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy, Andreas Irrgang, Norbert Przybilla and Georges Meynet, describe the unique object and the work that they did in verifying its makeup.

Stellar cores, as their name suggests, are the innermost parts of stars. Most often, such cores are covered by what space scientists call their “opaque envelope.” Theory has suggested that such cores can appear without their envelope if conditions arise that lead to its removal. But until now, this had never been observed.

In their pap...

The molecules, called SGDGs, may lead to new ways to treat age-related neurological diseases. Aging involves complicated plot twists and a large cast of characters: inflammation, stress, metabolism changes, and many others. Now, a team of Salk Institute and UC San Diego scientists reveal another factor implicated in the aging process — a class of lipids called SGDGs (3-sulfogalactosyl diacylglycerols) that decline in the brain with age and may have anti-inflammatory effects.

The research, published in Nature Chemical Biology on...