Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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NEW ORLEANS, March 18, 2024 — Doctors have long prescribed exercise to improve and protect health. In the future, a pill may offer some of the same benefits as exercise. Now, researchers report on new compounds that appear capable of mimicking the physical boost of working out — at least within rodent cells. This discovery could lead to a new way to treat muscle atrophy and other medical conditions in people, including heart failure and neurodegenerative disease.

The researchers will present their results today at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS Spring 2024 is a hybrid meeting being held virtually and in person March 17–21; it features nearly 12,000 presentations on a range of science topics.

“We cannot replace exercise; exercise is important on all levels,” says Bahaa Elgendy, the project’s principal investigator who is presenting the work at the meeting. “If I can exercise, I should go ahead and get the physical activity. But there are so many cases in which a substitute is needed.”

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The company’s long-lasting products may even help cut down on discarded food, around a third of which is tossed globally every year.

That waste then releases methane, a powerful heat-trapping gas, as it goes through the process of breaking down in landfills, contributing to rising global temperatures linked to extreme weather events that frequently cause displacement or damage vital food crops.

According to Packaging Digest, even though foodberries are perishable, they are safe and tasty to eat for anywhere from 60 to 90 days, though frozen items can last for more than a year.

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In a recent study published in The New England Journal of Medicine, a team of scientists from the United States (U.S.) and Canada evaluated the performance of a blood-based testing method that uses cell-free deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) to screen for colorectal cancer.

Study: A Cell-free DNA Blood-Based Test for Colorectal Cancer Screening. Image Credit: Connect world/Shutterstock.com.

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Until recently, researchers were unsure of the minimum thickness of a transparent substance required to take in a given quantity of light.

Konstantin N. Rozanov of the Institute for Theoretical and Applied Electrodynamics in Russia discovered more than two decades ago the amount of light that a gadget might absorb at various wavelengths if one side of it was coated in metal. This metal establishes a barrier where light is absorbed or bounced back, simplifying the mathematical solution.

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Researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine have discovered that unique bacteria colonize the gut shortly after birth and make the neurotransmitter serotonin to educate gut immune cells that help in preventing allergic reactions to food and the bacteria themselves during early development.

The study published in the journal Science Immunology on March 15, 2024, revealed that bacteria abundant in the guts of newborns produce serotonin, which promotes the development of immune cells called T-regulatory cells or Tregs. These cells suppress inappropriate immune responses to help prevent autoimmune diseases and dangerous allergic reactions to harmless food items or beneficial gut microbes.

“The gut is now known as the second human brain as it makes over 90 percent of the neurotransmitters in the human body. While neurotransmitters such as serotonin are best known for their roles in brain health, receptors for neurotransmitters are located throughout the human body,” explained the study’s senior author, Dr. Melody Zeng, an assistant professor of immunology in the Gale and Ira Drukier Institute for Children’s Research and the Department of Pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine.

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Scientists are embarking on a £1.1 million project aimed at revolutionising drug production by using food by-products to develop new antimicrobial drugs.

Led by the University of Strathclyde in collaboration with the University of Surrey and GSK, the research endeavours to make antimicrobial production more cost-effective and sustainable, thereby addressing the pressing global challenge of antimicrobial resistance.

The project seeks to leverage bacteria, particularly Streptomyces, known for their potential to produce various drugs including antimicrobials. By harnessing food by-products, the team is aiming to device a less carbon-intensive process for biomanufacturing, which could pave the way for a range of medications including anti-parasitic, anti-cancer, anti-fungal, and immunosuppressant drugs.

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