This is the first time that scientists have discovered a signal coming from a galaxy 9 billion light years from Earth.
The radio signal was detected by Pune, India’s giant VHF radio telescope.
The huge radio telescope is equipped with thirty parabolic antennas, each pointed skyward and with a diameter of about 45 meters.
European research led by University College London (UCL), together with Amsterdam UMC and the University of Basel, shows that a significant proportion of patients who suffer a stroke due to carotid artery narrowing can be treated with medication only.
A risky carotid artery operation, currently still the standard treatment for many patients, may then no longer be necessary for this group of patients. This research, published in The Lancet Neurology, may lead to the global guidelines for the treatment of these patients being adjusted.
In the Netherlands, about 2,000 people with carotid artery stenosis are operated on every year after they have had a stroke. Thirty years ago, large studies showed that an operation in which a narrowing in the carotid artery is removed reduced the risk of a new stroke.
In a first-ever near-infrared study of a recurrent nova beyond the Milky Way, astronomers have discovered exceptionally high temperatures and unexpect
WASHINGTON (Reuters) –In a potential landmark discovery, scientists using the James Webb Space Telescope have obtained what they call the strongest signs y
The demonstrator raised his hands in the air to show how the message to the French president was sent with mental and physiological commands.
Patients with ALS often lose their ability to speak making it harder to communicate with their family. This AI-powered device wants to change that.
The liver is the body’s control tower for metabolism, powering vital functions like converting nutrients to glucose, storing fat and breaking down toxins. Over a third of the world, however, is thought to be affected by conditions including metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), which jeopardize key liver functions as the condition progresses. Hepatocyte organoids—the miniature, 3D models of the organ—hold immense promise for accelerating drug development and advancing regenerative therapies.
In a study published in Nature, Keio University researchers unveiled a method to proliferate these hard-to-grow organoids by a million-fold in just 3–4 weeks while maintaining key liver functions. “These organoids are potentially the closest laboratory representations of the liver and its multifunctionality,” says senior author Professor Toshiro Sato of the Keio University School of Medicine.
While organoids aim to mimic human organs, the liver’s repertoire of complex functions—and thus the energy it needs to operate—have made it challenging for researchers to grow organoids that proliferate and fully function, says Sato. When prioritizing growth and survival in laboratory settings, hepatocytes, the liver’s main cells, eventually transform into cells resembling cholangiocytes, which line the bile duct. Hepatocyte functions only last 1–2 weeks at most.
Exercise for a long period of time forces the human body to resort to its energy reserves. When running a marathon, for example, the body mainly consumes carbohydrates, such as glycogen, as a source of energy, but it resorts to fats when the glycogen in the muscles is used up. Myelin, which surrounds neurons in the brain and acts as an electrical insulator, mainly comprises lipids, and previous research in rodents suggests that these lipids can act as an energy reserve in extreme metabolic conditions.
A study conducted by researchers shows that people who run a marathon experience a decrease in the amount of myelin in certain regions of the brain. According to the study published by Nature Metabolism, this effect is completely reversed two months after the marathon.
The researchers used magnetic resonance imaging to obtain images of the brains of ten marathon runners (eight men and two women) before and 48 hours after the 42-kilometre race. Likewise, the researchers took images of the brains of two of the runners two weeks after the race, and of six runners two months after the race as a follow-up.
Proteins are the building blocks of life. They consist of folded peptide chains, which in turn are made up of a series of amino acids. From stabilising cell structure to catalysing chemical reactions, proteins have many functions. Their diversity is further increased by modifications that take place after the peptide chains have been synthesised. One form of modification is protein splicing. The protein initially contains a so-called ‘intein’, which removes itself from the peptide chain to ensure the correct folding and function of the final protein.
A research team has now answered a long-standing research question: Why does a special variant of the inteins, the ‘split inteins’, often encounter problems in the laboratory that significantly lower the efficiency of the reaction? The researchers were able to identify protein misfolding as one cause and have developed a method to prevent it.
The splicing of proteins rarely occurs in nature but is very interesting for research. The solution found by the team opens up possibilities for using split inteins to produce proteins that are useful in basic research or for applications in biotechnology and biomedicine.
