Newly-developed nanovalves allow the flow of individual nanoparticles in liquids to be controlled in tiny channels. This is of interest for lab-on-a-chip applications such as in materials science and biomedicine.
John Martinis brought a long record of quantum computing breakthroughs when he joined Google in 2014. He quit after being reassigned to an advisory role.
In a study published in Nature, a UCLA-led team of researchers describe how the nanomachine recognizes and kills bacteria, and report that they have imaged it at atomic resolution. The scientists also engineered their own versions of the nanomachine, which enabled them to produce variations that behaved differently from the naturally occurring version.
Their efforts could eventually lead to the development of new types of antibiotics that are capable of homing in on specific species of microbes. Drugs tailored to kill only a certain species or strain of bacteria could offer numerous advantages over conventional antibiotics, including lowering the likelihood that bacteria will develop resistance. In addition, the tailored drugs could destroy harmful cells without wiping out beneficial bugs in the gut microbiome, and they could eventually offer the possibilities of being deployed to prevent bacterial infections, to kill pathogens in food and to engineer human microbiomes so that favorable bacteria thrive.
The particle in the study, an R-type pyocin, is a protein complex released by the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa as a way of sabotaging microbes that compete with it for resources. When a pyocin identifies a rival bacterium, it kills the bacterium by punching a hole in the cell’s membrane. P. aeruginosa, frequently a cause of hospital-acquired illness, is found in soil, in water and on fresh produce. The germ is commonly studied and its biology is well understood.
“Scientists have discovered an earlier origin to the human language pathway in the brain, pushing back its evolutionary origin by at least 20 million years.”
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#COVID19 #photonics
SANTA BARBARA, Calif., April 20, 2020 — Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara) are developing ultraviolet (UV) LEDs for decontaminating surfaces and potentially air and water that have come in contact with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Klotho has been called the “king of anti-aging proteins.” It is an important biomarker and promising gene therapy treatment for Chronic Kidney Disease. It is more strongly correlated with IQ than any single gene, making it a potential nootropic and intelligence enhancing gene therapy.
https://biovivascience.myshopify.com/blogs/news/klotho-queen…g-proteins
Nature spoke to the world’s major research funders to find out how they are adapting their funding policies in response to the pandemic.
As lockdowns force scientists worldwide to put their research on hold, funders are introducing measures to minimize stress.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers have developed a series of soluble, stabilized cytokine receptors that could feasibly be injected into COVID-19 patients to help reduce the effects of cytokine storm by binding to excess cytokines.
#COVID19 #Coronavirus #Therapeutics
Independent research teams describe soluble cytokine receptors that might tackle cytokine storm, and suggest that a little known function of neutrophils may be involved in severe COVID-19 disease.
Tesla Cybertruck is going to be “able to float for a while,” says CEO Elon Musk, who apparently can’t wait to bring the electric pickup truck to production.
For a while now, Elon Musk has cautiously boasted about the ability of Tesla vehicles to float, or even “act as a boat” for short periods of time.
A few years ago, we posted about a Tesla Model S driving (or swimming) through a flooded tunnel. Musk commented: