Lifeboat Foundation

Cells need energy to function. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg can now explain how energy is guided in the cell by small atomic movements to reach its destination in the protein. Imitating these structural changes of the proteins could lead to more efficient solar cells in the future.

The sun’s rays are the basis for all the energy that creates life on Earth. Photosynthesis in plants is a prime example, where solar energy is needed for the plant to grow. Special proteins absorb the sun’s rays, and the energy is transported as electrons inside the protein, in a process called charge transfer. In a new study, researchers show how proteins deform to create efficient transport routes for the charges.

“We studied a protein, photolyase, in the fruit fly, whose function is to repair damaged DNA. The DNA repair is powered by solar energy, which is transported in the form of electrons along a chain of four tryptophans (amino acids). The interesting discovery is that the surrounding protein structure was reshaped in a very specific way to guide the electrons along the chain,” explains Sebastian Westenhoff, Professor of Biophysical Chemistry.

Gold nanocrystals have shown promise in reversing neurological deficits in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and Parkinson’s disease (PD).

Gold nanocrystals show promise to reverse neurological deficits in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and Parkinson’s disease (PD).

In the clinical trials, this nanomedicine exhibited the ability to solve energy-related disorders in patients’ brains.

Continue reading “Study: Gold nanocrystals may reverse Parkinson’s neurological deficit” »

Researchers at the Nanyang Technical University (NTU) in Singapore are leading the way in the development of soft electronics and have now set up a high-tech laboratory where they can rapidly prototype new devices with ultrathin and stretchable electronics.

Conventional electronics products are hard and rigid since they rely on silicon as their primary substrate. These products work well at industrial scales or even for personal use products.

Continue reading “NTU develops thinner-than-hair stretchable tech to mind-control robots” »

The natural ends of chromosomes appear alarmingly like broken DNA, much as a snapped spaghetti strand is difficult to distinguish from its intact counterparts. Yet every cell in our bodies must have a way of differentiating between the two because the best way to protect the healthy end of a chromosome also happens to be the worst way to repair damaged DNA.

Consider the enzyme telomerase, which is responsible for maintaining protective telomeres at the natural ends of chromosomes. Were telomerase to seal off a broken strand of DNA with a telomere, it would prevent further repair of that break and delete essential genes.

Now, a new study in Science describes how cells avoid such mishaps. These findings show that telomerase can indeed run amok, adding telomeres to damaged DNA, and would do so were it not for the ATR kinase, a key enzyme that responds to DNA damage.

Remote surgery in orbit.

Earth-bound surgeons remotely controlled a small robot aboard the International Space Station over the weekend, conducting the first-ever such surgery in orbit—albeit on rubber bands.

The experiment, deemed a “huge success” by the participants, represents a new step in the development of space surgery, which could become necessary to treat medical emergencies during multi-year manned voyages, such as to Mars.

Continue reading “Space surgery: Doctors on ground operate robot on ISS for first time” »

More than 4,500 heart transplants were performed in the U.S. in 2023. While the lifesaving operation improves the quality of life and longevity for most recipients, organ rejection remains a risk, with acute rejection occurring in up to 32% of recipients within the first year.

A team of researchers from Emory University, Case Western Reserve University and the University of Pennsylvania developed artificial intelligence tools to examine cardiac biopsy images to improve the prediction of rejection, helping to ensure patients receive the best possible post-transplant treatment.

Currently, clinicians rely on histologic grading of cardiac biopsies to diagnose acute rejection. However, there are limitations to the method, which assigns International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) histologic grades corresponding to no, mild, moderate and severe rejection.

Is there a connection between cannabis use and binge eating? This is what a recent study published in Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated the medical risks associated with cannabis use and binge eating, specifically the link between the two. This research marks only the third study conducted to make a connection between cannabis use and binge eating disorder and holds the potential for scientists, medical practitioners, and patients make better informed clinical decisions for treating binge eating.

“Distinguishing the relationship between cannabis use, eating disorder severity and other psychiatric symptoms in binge eating patients is necessary for informing screening and clinical recommendations,” said Megan Wilkinson, who is a PhD student in Drexel University’s College of Arts and Sciences and lead author of the study.

For the study, the researchers enlisted 165 participants who were pursuing medical treatment for binge eating and were asked to report both their cannabis and alcohol use as part of the survey. In the end, the researchers found that 23 percent of the participants had used cannabis within the prior three months. Additionally, the participants were also found to have increased alcohol consumption, as well. In terms of the connection between cannabis use and binge eating, while the researcher concluded that cannabis use did not result in increased binge eating, they found the opposite in that binge eating could result in increased cannabis use, as noted by the 23 percent participants who reported using cannabis.

A head injury serious enough to affect brain function, such as that caused by a car accident or sudden fall, leads to changes in the brain beyond the site of impact, Tufts University School of Medicine scientists report in the journal Cerebral Cortex. In an animal model of traumatic brain injury, the researchers found that both hemispheres work together to forge new neural pathways in an attempt to replicate those that were lost.

“Even areas far away from the injury behaved differently immediately afterward,” says first author Samantha Bottom-Tanzer, an MD/Ph. D. student in neuroscience at the School of Medicine. “Traumatic brain injury research tends to focus on the region of injury, but this study makes a good case that the entire brain can be affected, and imaging in distal regions can provide valuable information.”

Bottom-Tanzer and colleagues are the first to use an imaging technique combining fluorescent sensors of neuronal activity and electrodes to record how many parts of the brain talk to each other after a brain injury. The team tracked neural activity in mice for up to three weeks post-injury during periods of exercise and rest.

Previous research has suggested that false-positive mammogram results are associated with higher risk for subsequently developing breast cancer. To further examine this issue, researchers in Sweden used national mammography data to follow 500,000 women (median age, 52) during 30 years (1991–2020). About 45,000 women had false-positive results (i.e., they were recalled for further evaluation but didn’t receive diagnoses of breast cancer at that time). Women with false-positive results were matched with controls to compare rates of subsequent breast cancer diagnosis.

The results include: