Posts Under Tech News Category

[TECH NEWS] One of the big mysteries in biology is why cells age. Now scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies report that they have discovered a weakness in a component of brain cells that may explain how the aging process occurs in the brain. The scientists discovered that certain proteins, called extremely long-lived proteins (ELLPs), which are found… Read more »

[TECH NEWS] A new study led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, provides even more reason for people to read a book or do a puzzle, and to make such activities a lifetime habit. Brain scans revealed that people with no symptoms of Alzheimer’s who engaged in cognitively stimulating activities throughout their lives had fewer deposits of beta-amyloid,… Read more »

[TECH NEWS] A group of researchers led by the Institute of Biotechnology and Biomedicine (IBB) and Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) have managed to quantify with precision the effect of protein aggregation (the aggregation of mis-folded proteins) on cell aging processes. They used as models the Escherichia coli bacteria and the molecule which triggers Alzheimer’s disease. The scientists demonstrated that… Read more »

[TECH NEWS] After the pioneering stem cell company Geron, which launched the first-ever clinical trial for a human embryonic stem cell (hESC) therapy in 2010, shuttered its stem cell program last November for financial reasons, a shadow fell over the field of stem cell medicine. But optimism rose Jan. 23 as the stem cell research company Advanced Cell Technology (ACT)… Read more »

[TECH NEWS] New data spotlights key molecular mechanisms that enable human neural stem cells to assist in recovery from traumatic axonal injury, according to researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), headquartered in Galveston, Texas. UTMB professor Ping Wu, MD, PhD, led the study. Wu explains that, “In this study, we found that our stem cell transplantation both… Read more »

[TECH NEWS] Obsessive gamers’ hours at the computer have now topped scientists’ efforts to improve a model enzyme, in what researchers say is the first crowdsourced redesign of a protein. The online game Foldit, developed by teams led by Zoran Popovic, director of the Center for Game Science, and biochemist David Baker, both at the University of Washington in Seattle,… Read more »

[TECH NEWS] Researchers of VIB (Flanders Institute of Biotechnology, Belgium) and UGent have discovered a new approach to preventing septic shock, an often fatal extreme inflammatory reaction of the body. It is the most frequent cause of death at intensive care departments in hospitals. In sepsis, acute inflammation is attended by low blood pressure and blood clots, causing the organs… Read more »

[TECH NEWS] The first changes in the brain of a person with Alzheimer’s disease can be observed as much as ten years in advance—ten years before the person in question has become so ill that he or she can be diagnosed with the disease. This is what a new study from Lund University in Sweden has found. Physician Oskar Hansson… Read more »

[TECH NEWS] Oxidative stress is the cause of many serious diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, arteriosclerosis and diabetes. It occurs when the body is exposed to excessive amounts of electrically charged, aggressive oxygen compounds. These are normally produced during breathing and other metabolic processes, but also in the case of ongoing stress, exposure to UV light or X-rays. If the… Read more »

[TECH NEWS] Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University (NYC) have discovered the first known mechanism by which cells control the survival of messenger RNA (mRNA)—arguably biology’s most important molecule. The findings pertain to mRNAs that help regulate cell division and could therefore have implications for reversing cancer’s out-of-control cell division. The research is described in today’s… Read more »