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Category: biotech/medical

3D Recordings of Swimming Algae

Measurements of the 3D fluid flow around a swimming microorganism could help researchers better understand the swimming dynamics of such microbes.

Swimming microorganisms set up complex fluid flows that affect their ability to feed and communicate. Using advanced holographic methods, researchers have now imaged the entire 3D flow field around a swimming alga, revealing vortex rings that help propel the organism [1]. The researchers hope that the experiments will lead to improvements in measuring the energy expenditure and swimming strategies of a wide range of microorganisms.

The single-cell alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii swims in a “breaststroke” style by beating its flagella—two hair-like appendages located at the front of its body—cycling 50 times per second. The flagella propel the organism forward while creating a surrounding fluid flow field that influences nutrient uptake and allows the organism to detect predators or mates. “The flow field generated by a swimming microorganism is one of its most fundamental characteristics,” says Xiang Cheng of the University of Minnesota. But he says that previous experiments have only captured partial details of this field, such as vortices to the left and right of the swimming organism. Researchers have speculated that these vortices might be connected in a larger coherent 3D flow pattern, but experiments have been unable to resolve such structures.

High-resolution imaging shines light on nanoscale nuclear organization

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have implemented an advanced microscopy technique to visualize multiple biomolecules inside the nucleus of a cancer cell simultaneously at incredibly high resolution. The biomolecules they visualized include critical components of the cell’s transcription machinery and proteins that provide structural support to the nucleus—providing one of the first detailed maps of nuclear organization.

The human body is composed of trillions of cells. Each cell is an intricately organized meshwork of millions of proteins, nucleic acids, and many other molecules vital for the cell’s health. “Building novel technologies to visualize many biomolecules in individual cells is crucial to push the boundaries of biological research,” says Mahipal Ganji, Assistant Professor at the Department of Biochemistry (BC) and corresponding author of the study published in Nature Communications. Conventional imaging techniques, however, allow scientists to visualize only two or three biomolecules in each cell at a time.

In the study, the researchers turned to a microscopy technique called DNA-Points Accumulation for Imaging in Nanoscale Topography (DNA-PAINT), which allows for the visualization of biomolecules inside cells at incredible detail—far beyond the limits of conventional microscopes. It uses small fluorescent DNA fragments or tags that briefly attach to specific targets inside the cell and light up like tiny, blinking signals when a laser beam is shined on them.

Light near surface of ultra-thin optical fibers can sort twisted nanoparticles

Many important objects in the world can be divided into two categories based on their chirality or handedness, including molecules important for life such as amino acids. Such chiral objects (formally defined as objects which are not identical to their mirror images) are often characterized by a structure which twists in a given direction.

An everyday example of a chiral object is a screw. A right-handed screw moves into a material when rotated clockwise, but its mirror image (i.e., a left-handed screw) moves out.

Just as right-and left-handed screws behave differently when turned, chiral particles behave differently when exposed to light with a circular polarization. This fact allows them to be sorted in principle, which is expected to be important for applications such as drug development, where the handedness of a chiral molecule determines how it interacts with biological systems.

Re-engineered human cells boost gene-editing particle potency across multiple delivery systems

Gene editing has emerged as a powerful approach for targeting the genetic causes of disease, but getting the editing machinery into the right cells efficiently, safely, and at the scale needed for therapies remains one of the biggest set of challenges in the field.

Among the leading delivery vehicles are engineered virus-like particles, which resemble viruses—and share their knack for entering human cells—but carry no viral genes. Scientists load them with gene editing tools and use them to make precise changes in targeted cells.

Most efforts to improve these particles have focused on redesigning the particles themselves. A new study led by Valhalla Fellow at Whitehead Institute, Aditya Raguram and lab technician Diana Ly, focuses instead on the human cells that produce them.

Natural-language AI helps chemists design molecules step by step

Designing molecules is one of chemistry’s most complex challenges. From life-saving drugs to advanced materials, each compound requires a precise sequence of reactions. Planning these steps demands both technical knowledge and strategic insight, making it a task that often relies on years of experience.

Two problems plague much of modern chemistry. The first is retrosynthesis: Chemists start from a target molecule and work backward to identify simpler building blocks and viable reaction pathways. Retrosynthesis involves countless decisions, from choosing starting materials to determining when to form rings or protect sensitive functional groups. While computers can explore vast “chemical spaces,” they often struggle to capture the strategic reasoning used by human experts.

The second problem is reaction mechanisms. These describe how chemical reactions unfold step by step through the movements of electrons. Mechanistic insight helps scientists predict new reactions, improve efficiency, and reduce costly trial and error. Existing computational methods can generate many possible pathways, but often lack the chemical intuition needed to identify the most plausible ones.

Blood and spinal fluid proteins reveal distinct fingerprints of four brain diseases

Researchers at WashU Medicine have uncovered new molecular insights into Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and other forms of dementia by analyzing thousands of proteins in both cerebrospinal fluid and blood plasma. The study, led by Carlos Cruchaga, the Barbara Burton & Reuben Morriss III Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and director of the NeuroGenomics and Informatics Center at WashU Medicine, represents one of the largest and most comprehensive multi-tissue analyses of proteins across multiple neurodegenerative diseases to date. The findings raise the possibility of developing blood tests for earlier and more precise diagnosis of these conditions.

In the study, published March 30 in Neuron, a multi-institutional team of clinicians, neuroscientists and data scientists, steered by Muhammad Ali, an assistant professor of psychiatry at WashU Medicine and first author of the study, analyzed nearly 7,000 proteins in samples of spinal fluid and blood from nearly 6,000 people—including people with neurodegenerative diseases as well as healthy controls—to better understand four major neurodegenerative diseases: Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, and frontotemporal dementia.

By analyzing these diseases in parallel, the researchers could distinguish both shared and disease‑specific “molecular fingerprints.” Across all four diseases, the protein analysis indicated clear evidence of inflammation, damage to the connections between nerve cells, and changes in the scaffolding around cells known as the extracellular matrix.

Chromosomes condense in three timed chemical waves during cell division, study shows

DNA does not float freely in the cell. Instead, it is wrapped around histone proteins to form structures called nucleosomes. These histones carry numerous chemical modifications that act as molecular signals, controlling how tightly the DNA is packaged and which genes are active. During cell division, this DNA-histone complex—known as chromatin—must be further condensed into compact, rod-shaped chromosomes. Histone modifications play a key role in this process: They change significantly during condensation and regulate the conversion of chromatin.

For the first time, researchers have precisely tracked how molecular marks on DNA proteins change during cell division—and disproved a long-held assumption in the process.

An international research team led by Professor Axel Imhof at LMU’s Biomedical Center and Professor William Earnshaw (University of Edinburgh) has analyzed these changes during cell division with unprecedented precision. To this end, the researchers developed an innovative method that synchronizes the division of cell populations. They then employed high-resolution mass spectrometry to precisely record the changes in histone modifications during cell division. The findings are published in Molecular Cell.

The Immune System Impacts Longevity: What To Measure

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Boosting good gut bacteria population through targeted interventions may slow cognitive decline

The origin of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s or dementia isn’t limited to the brain. The state of your gut can quietly set off a cycle of chronic, system-wide inflammation that nudges the brain toward cognitive decline. But how does the pathogenesis of a disease that seems purely brain-based begin in the gut—an organ that is mostly busy producing chemicals for digesting food?

It turns out these two entities are linked by the gut-brain axis, a two-way communication superhighway that constantly sends signals between the digestive tract and the central nervous system. It runs on chemical messengers like neurotransmitters and fatty acids, sharing information that shapes our memory, mood, and inflammation triggers.

An analysis of 15 studies involving more than 4,200 participants found that the gut-brain highway can be put to work as a drug-free route to support cognitive health. Tuning the gut microbiota through diet, supplements, or medical interventions such as fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) can help improve memory, executive function, and overall cognitive performance, particularly in early or mild cases of cognitive impairment.

Phage therapy case reveals hidden antibodies can block treatment of drug-resistant infections

A new treatment for patients with life-threatening infectious diseases is being pioneered in Melbourne by researchers at The Alfred and Monash University. VICPhage, a clinical partnership between The Alfred and Monash, is one of the first in Australia to offer end-to-end capacity in phage therapy to treat some of the most challenging infections.

It involves injecting a patient with viruses called bacteriophages, or phages for short, to kill bacterial infections that have not responded to other treatments.

Professor Anton Peleg, Director of the Department of Infectious Diseases at The Alfred and Monash University and the Center to Impact AMR at Monash University, is co-lead of VICPhage and senior author of a new paper published in Nature Medicine.

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