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Category: biotech/medical – Page 1,439

MIT Chemists Discover Structure of Protein That Pumps Toxic Molecules Out of Bacterial Cells

MIT chemists have discovered how the structure of the EmrE transporter changes as a compound moves through it. At left is the transporter structure at high pH. As the pH drops (right), the helices begin to tilt so that the channel is more open toward the outside of the cell, guiding the compound out. Credit: Courtesy of the researchers.

A new study sheds light on how a protein pumps toxic molecules out of bacterial cells.

MIT chemists have discovered the structure of a protein that can pump toxic molecules out of bacterial cells. Proteins similar to this one, which is found in E. coli, are believed to help bacteria become resistant to multiple antibiotics.

Depression and Alzheimer’s Disease Share Common Genetic Roots

Epidemiological data have long linked depression with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), a neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive dementia that affects nearly 6 million Americans. Now, a new study identifies common genetic factors in both depression and AD. Importantly, the researchers found that depression played a causal role in AD development, and those with worse depression experienced a faster decline in memory. The study appears in Biological Psychiatry, published by Elsevier.

Co-senior author Aliza Wingo, MD, of Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, USA, said of the work, “It raises the possibility that there are genes that contribute to both illnesses. While the shared genetic basis is small, the findings suggest a potential causal role of depression on dementia.”

The authors performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS), a technique that scans the entire genome for areas of commonality associated with particular conditions. The GWAS identified 28 brain proteins and 75 transcripts – the messages that encode proteins – that were associated with depression. Among those, 46 transcripts and 7 proteins were also associated with symptoms of AD. The data suggest a shared genetic basis for the two diseases, which may drive the increased risk for AD associated with depression.

3D micromesh-based hybrid printing for microtissue engineering

Bioprinting is widely applicable to develop tissue engineering scaffolds and form tissue models in the lab. Materials scientists use this method to construct complex 3D structures based on different polymers and hydrogels; however, relatively low resolution and long fabrication times can result in limited procedures for cell-based applications.

In a new report now available in Nature Asia Materials, Byungjun Lee and a team of scientists in mechanical engineering at Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, presented a 3D hybrid-micromesh assisted bioprinting method (Hy-MAP) to combine digital light projection, 3D printed micromesh scaffold sutures, together with sequential hydrogel patterning. The new method of bioprinting offered rapid cell co-culture via several methods including injection, dipping and draining. The work can promote the construction of mesoscale complex 3D hydrogel structures across 2D microfluidic channels to 3D channel networks.

Lee et al. established the design rules for Hy-MAP printing via analytical and experimental investigations. The new method can provide an alternative technique to develop mesoscale implantable tissue engineering constructs for organ-on-a-chip applications.

The first controlled study of caloric restriction in humans

Decades of research has shown that limits on calorie intake by flies, worms, and mice can enhance lifespan in laboratory conditions. But whether such calorie restriction can do the same for humans has remained unclear. Now a new study led by researchers at Yale University, Connecticut, confirms the health benefits of moderate calorie restrictions in humans – and identifies a key protein that could be harnessed to extend health in humans.

The researchers used data from the Comprehensive Assessment of Long-term Effects of Reducing Intake of Energy (CALERIE) clinical trial, the first controlled study of calorie restriction in healthy humans. For the trial, they established a baseline calorie intake among more than 200 study participants. They then asked a share of those participants to reduce their calorie intake by 14% while the rest continued to eat as usual, and analysed the long-term health effects of calorie restriction over the next two years.

Vishwa Dixit, Professor of Pathology, Immunobiology, and Comparative Medicine, and senior author of the study, said that his team wanted to better understand what calorie restriction does to the body specifically that leads to improved health. Building on previous studies in mice, he and his colleagues set out to determine how it might be linked to inflammation and the immune response.

A Spinal Cord Implant Allowed Paralyzed People to Walk in Just One Day

After five months “performance improved dramatically,” the authors said. All three people were able to sustain their own weight, standing independently in their daily lives. With the help of a walker, they could easily stroll for six minutes without any other assistance. Michel was even able to climb up stairs with minimum support.

The trio celebrated their newfound freedom. With the stimulator helping with their trunk position—aka “core strength” and posture—they were able to enjoy everyday life. Standing while sipping a drink at a bar. Paddling a kayak on a lake. Taking a lap in the pool.

The stimulation further helped with muscle recovery. All three men found a boost in their leg and trunk muscle mass, and two were eventually able to control some muscle function even without stimulation.

Lab-Grown Pancreas Reverse Diabetes In Mice

Circa 2017

AsianScientist (Feb. 8, 2017) – Mouse pancreases grown in rats generate functional, insulin-producing cells that can reverse diabetes when transplanted into mice with the disease, according to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Tokyo.

These findings, published in Nature, suggest that a similar technique could one day be used to generate matched, transplantable human organs in large animals like pigs or sheep.

About 76,000 people in the United States are currently waiting for an organ transplant, but organs are in short supply. Generating genetically matched human organs in large animals could relieve the shortage and release transplant recipients from the need for lifelong immunosuppression, the researchers say.

Researchers make regenerative medicine breakthrough with volumetric 3D bioprinted livers

A research team from Utrecht University has successfully fabricated working livers using a newly developed ultrafast volumetric 3D bioprinting method.

By means of visible light tomography, the volumetric bioprinting method enabled the successful printing of miniature stem cell units by making the cells “transparent”, which meant they retained their resolution and ability to perform biological processes.

Printed in less than 20 seconds, the liver units were able to perform key toxin elimination processes mimicking those that natural livers perform in our bodies, and could open new opportunities for regenerative medicine and personalized drug testing.

World’s smallest battery can power dust-sized computers

The new microbattery is roughly the size of a gain of dust – less than one square millimeter – and has a minimum energy density of 100 microwatt hours per square centimeter. To achieve this, the team winded up current collectors and electrode strips made of polymeric, metallic, and dielectric materials at the microscale. The researchers used Swiss-roll or micro-origami process.

The layered system with inherent tension is created by consecutively coating thin layers of polymeric, metallic, and dielectric materials onto a wafer surface. The mechanical tension is released by peeling off the thin layers, which then automatically snap back to roll up into a Swiss-Roll architecture to create a self-wound cylinder microbattery. The method is compatible with established chip manufacturing technologies and capable of producing high throughput microbatteries on a wafer surface.

The team behind the world’s smallest battery says it could be used in the human body, where tiny sensors and actuators require a continuous power supply. They also claim that the rechargeable microbatteries could also power the world’s smallest computer chips for about ten hours – for example, to measure the local ambient temperature continuously. In addition, it has great potential in future micro-and nanoelectronic sensorics and actuator technologies, in the Internet of Things, miniaturized medical implants, microrobotic systems, and ultra–flexible electronics.