Lifeboat Foundation

We all know the feeling of a mobile phone vibrating in our hands when announcing an incoming call. If we perceive these vibrations so clearly, it is due to specialized receptors that transduce them into neural signals sent to our brain. But how does the latter encode their physical characteristics? To understand this, neuroscientists from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) have observed what happens in the brains of mice whose forepaws perceive vibrations. They discovered that neurons in the somatosensory cortex are activated in a manner similar to those in the sound-reactive auditory cortex. These results, published in the journal Nature, suggest that feeling a phone vibrate or hearing it ring is ultimately based on the same brain codes.

If you place a glass of water on your desk, you can probably see on its surface the concentric oscillatory motions created by the small movements that occur nearby. These oscillations are caused by vibrations that propagate through the floor, desk, glass and all other solid surfaces. These vibrations are also important sensory stimuli that we use to detect, for example, an approaching train or to identify the familiar step of our office neighbor. «We live surrounded by vibrations that are extremely important in how we perceive the world,» explains Daniel Huber at the Department of Basic Neurosciences at the UNIGE Faculty of Medicine, who led this work. «So we wanted to know how the brain perceives and represents them.».

People left blind by retinal degeneration have one option: electronic eye implants. Neuroscientists have now developed an alternative: gene therapy that, in tests, restored vision in blind mice. A gene for green opsin delivered via virus gave blind mice enough sight to discern patterns on an iPad at a resolution sufficient for humans to read. Given existing AAV eye therapies already approved, this new therapy could be ready for clinical trials in three years.

Researchers are hijacking the cell’s protein-disposal system in the fight against Alzheimer’s and intractable cancers.

Just so long as people making the food don’t leave any foreign DNA in it.

After years of development, a powerful and speedy full-body scanner is ready for action.

A team of researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology invented a “toilet seat-based cardiovascular monitoring system” that could help hospitals monitor patients for risk of congestive heart failure — a toilet, in other words, that detects whether your heart is about to give out.

“This system will be uniquely positioned to capture trend data in the home that has been previously unattainable,” reads the paper, published in the journal JMIR Mhealth Uhealth.

Integrated into the seat is a device that measures heart rate, blood pressure, and blood oxygenation levels. Algorithms will take in all that data and notify health practitioners if the patient’s condition deteriorates.

A new study identifies a single molecule as a key entry point used by two types of dangerous bacteria to break through cellular barriers and cause disease. The findings, published March 19 in the journal mBio, suggest that blocking the interaction between the molecule, known as CD40, and bacteria may represent a universal strategy for preventing life-threatening illnesses, including toxic shock syndrome.

The two bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus (staph) and Streptococcus pyogenes, cause many serious illnesses. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, staph causes 70,000 cases of highly fatal pneumonia, 40,000 cases of severe heart infections, and over 500,000 post-surgical infections each year. Streptococcus pyogenes causes 10 million cases of sore throat and 30,000 cases of severe invasive diseases annually.

“Many of the infections caused by these two bacteria start on the skin or on the mucosal surfaces that line body cavities like the nose, mouth and throat, the gut, and the vagina. The ability of these bacteria to cause disease depends on production of a family of toxins known as superantigens, which cause exceptionally harmful inflammation,” explains Patrick Schlievert, Ph.D., professor and head of microbiology and immunology at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine and lead author of the new study.

Continue reading “Study identifies molecule that allows bacteria to breach cellular barriers” »

Simplified molecular computing with DNA. Just mix test tubes.

Researchers have designed self-assembling DNA molecules with unprecedented reprogrammability.