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UCLA researchers have discovered a new way to activate the stem cells in the hair follicle to make hair grow. The research, led by scientists Heather Christofk and William Lowry, may lead to new drugs that could promote hair growth for people with baldness or alopecia, which is hair loss associated with such factors as hormonal imbalance, stress, aging or chemotherapy treatment.

The research was published in the journal Nature Cell Biology.

Hair follicle stem cells are long-lived cells in the hair follicle; they are present in the skin and produce hair throughout a person’s lifetime. They are “quiescent,” meaning they are normally inactive, but they quickly activate during a new hair cycle, which is when new hair growth occurs. The quiescence of hair follicle stem cells is regulated by many factors. In certain cases they fail to activate, which is what causes hair loss.

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Choriocapillary loss is a major cause of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (NV-AMD). Although vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) blockade for NV-AMD has shown beneficial outcomes, unmet medical needs for patients refractory or tachyphylactic to anti-VEGF therapy exist. In addition, the treatment could exacerbate choriocapillary rarefaction, necessitating advanced treatment for fundamental recovery from NV-AMD. In this study, Tie2 activation by angiopoietin-2–binding and Tie2-activating antibody (ABTAA) presents a therapeutic strategy for NV-AMD. Conditional Tie2 deletion impeded choriocapillary maintenance, rendering eyes susceptible to NV-AMD development. Moreover, in a NV-AMD mouse model, ABTAA not only suppressed choroidal neovascularization (CNV) and vascular leakage but also regenerated the choriocapillaris and relieved hypoxia. Conversely, VEGF blockade degenerated the choriocapillaris and exacerbated hypoxia, although it suppressed CNV and vascular leakage. Together, we establish that angiopoietin-Tie2 signaling is critical for choriocapillary maintenance and that ABTAA represents an alternative, combinative therapeutic strategy for NV-AMD by alleviating anti-VEGF adverse effects.

Neovascular age-related macular degeneration (NV-AMD) is a leading cause of irreversible vision loss among elderly persons in developed countries. NV-AMD is characterized by the formation of choroidal neovascularization (CNV), an ingrowth of abnormal blood vessels from the choroid through Bruch’s membrane into the sub-retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) or subretinal space. Throughout this ingrowth, abnormal leakages of fluids and bloods occur into the retina, causing vision distortion and loss of central vision (2, 3). To treat neovascular eye diseases including NV-AMD, anti–vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF) therapy has largely been used based on the fact that an excessive production of VEGF from hypoxic cells in the retino-choroidal complex is critical in the pathogenesis and features of neovascular eye diseases (3, 4).

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It’s been exactly one year since US scientists reported a mysterious surge in ozone-destroying chemicals, known as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).

Banned in 1987 under the globally signed Montreal Protocol, there was only one explanation: somewhere out there, in an unknown location, someone must have gone rogue, setting back progress on the ozone hole by a decade or more.

After much speculation, the whereabouts and magnitude of these harmful emissions has been confirmed in scientific research. As earlier reporting in The New York Times had already suggested, they seem to be coming from the northeast coast of mainland China.

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As living organisms eat, grow, and self-regenerate, all the while they are slowly dying. Chemically speaking, this is because life is thermodynamically unstable, while its ultimate waste products are in a state of thermal equilibrium. It’s somewhat of a morbid thought, but it’s also one of the characteristics that is common to all forms of life.

Now in a new study, have created a self-replicator that self-assembles while simultaneously being destroyed. The synthetic system may help researchers better understand what separates biological matter from simpler chemical matter, and also how to create synthetic life in the lab.

The researchers, Ignacio Colomer, Sarah Morrow, and Stephen P. Fletcher, at the University of Oxford, have published a paper on the self-replicator in a recent issue of Nature Communications.

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Rick and Morty is getting its own Dungeons & Dragons tabletop adventure! The news comes from Wizards of the Coast and it will be called, Dungeons & Dragons vs Rick and Morty: Tabletop Roleplaying Game Adventure.

The game will feature an adventure for characters of the series as you take one of the most dysfunctional families in all of the parallel worlds through the realms in their own story. The campaign is set up for a five-player game for levels 1–3. They are basically building an introductory campaign for people who are just starting out and those who might only be interested in the game because it’s Rick and Morty.

The press release says that the game “[blends] the world of Dungeons & Dragons with the mad narcissistic genius of Rick Sanchez’s power-gaming sensibilities, and it includes everything a Dungeon Master needs to channel their inner mad scientist and run a rickrolling adventure.”

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In November last year, geologists announced they’d picked up something really weird: a huge seismic event originating in the island of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean, felt all across the globe, source unknown. A few months later, scientists used modelling to produce an answer — hypothesising a giant underwater volcanic eruption.

And now it seems that is pretty likely to be the case. Scientists travelled out to where they think the swarm’s epicentre is located, and they found a large active volcano, rising 800 metres (2,624 feet) from the seafloor, and sprawling up to 5 kilometres (3.1 miles) across.

A large active volcano that wasn’t there six months prior.

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Researchers from NYU Abu Dhabi’s (NYUAD) chemistry program and colleagues from the University’s biology program have developed and studied the biological activity of five new, metal-organic hybrid knotted molecules, termed metal-organic trefoil knots (M-TKs). These molecules can effectively deliver metals to cancer cells, demonstrating the potential to act as a new category of anti-cancer agents.

In a study published in the journal Chemical Science, NYUAD Research Scientists Farah Benyettou and Thirumurugan Prakasam from the Trabolsi Research Group, led by NYUAD Associate Professor of Chemistry Ali Trabolsi, report that these nanoscale, water-soluble M-TKs showed high potency in vitro against six cancer cell lines and in vivo in zebrafish embryos. Zebrafish-related studies were performed by NYUAD Postdoctoral Associate Anjana Ramdas Nair from the Sadler Lab.

The M-TKs, generated by metal-templated self-assembly of a simple pair of chelating ligands, were well tolerated in vitro by non-cancer cells but were significantly more potent than cisplatin, a common chemotherapy medication, in both human cancer cells—including those that were cisplatin-resistant—and in zebrafish embryos. In cultured cells, M-TKs introduce reactive oxygen species (ROS) that damage the mitochondria of cancer cells, but not the nuclear DNA or the plasma membrane.

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