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The silk drive is still in the proof-of-concept stage and “unlikely in the foreseeable future to match the speed and storage capacity of state-of-the-art solid-state devices at a competitive cost,” according to Chinese and US researchers, who promised “substantial improvements in the speed and storage capacity of silk drives.”


Scientists at CAS and two separate US universities have jointly developed a storage medium made from silk proteins that can be implanted in the human body.

Anacardic acid, a compound found in cashew nuts, promoted myelin regeneration and eased neuronal damage and disability in two mouse models of multiple sclerosis (MS).

These protective effects were associated with maturation of myelin-producing cells and production of IL-33, an immune-related molecule with a neuroreparative role in the central nervous system (CNS, the brain and spinal cord).

Michigan State University researchers have created for the first time a miniature human heart model in the laboratory, complete with all primary heart cell types and a functioning structure of chambers and vascular tissue.

In the United States, is the No. 1 cause of death. “These minihearts constitute incredibly powerful models in which to study all kinds of cardiac disorders with a degree of precision unseen before,” said Aitor Aguirre, the study’s senior author and assistant professor of biomedical engineering at MSU’s Institute for Quantitative Health Science and Engineering.

This study, “Generation of Heart Organoids Modeling Early Human Cardiac Development Under Defined Conditions,” appears on the bioRxiv preprint server.

“Using microfluidics, computer modeling and other techniques, they found that about half of the cells age through a gradual decline in the stability of the nucleolus, a region of nuclear DNA where key components of protein-producing “factories” are synthesized,” a press release announcing the research explains. “In contrast, the other half age due to dysfunction of their mitochondria, the energy production units of cells.”


Researchers studying aging have discovered that cells tend to follow one of two aging pathways. The way each individual cell ages is determined early on, and scientists can predict how a cell will age based on early observations.

How we adapt to aging late in life may be genetically influenced, according to a study led by a psychologist at the University of California, Riverside.

The research, published in Aging Cell, has implications for how relate to aging. Epigenesis is a process in which chemicals attached to DNA control its activity. Epigenetic changes, which can be passed on to offspring, may be critical to accelerated aging as well as declines in cognitive and physical functioning that often accompany aging. Epigenetic modifications resulting in altered may occur due to a number of biological processes, including one the researchers focused on: DNA methylation.

In DNA methylation, groups are added to the DNA molecule. DNA has four different types of nucleotides: A, T, G, and C. DNA methylation occurs at the C bases of eukaryotic DNA. Changes in DNA methylation correlate strongly with aging.