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Category: biotech/medical – Page 34

Why Some 80-Year-Olds Have the Memory of 50-Year-Olds

For 25 years, scientists have studied “SuperAgers”—people aged 80 and above whose memory rivals those decades younger. Research reveals that their brains either resist Alzheimer’s-related plaques and tangles or remain resilient despite having them.

These individuals maintain a youthful brain structure, with a thicker cortex and unique neurons linked to memory and social skills. Insights from their biology and behavior could inspire new strategies to protect cognitive health into late life.

For the past 25 years, researchers at Northwestern Medicine have been examining people aged 80 and older, known as “SuperAgers,” to uncover why their minds stay so sharp.

Fruit flies offer new insights into how Alzheimer’s disease risk genes affect the brain

Scientists have identified hundreds of genes that may increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease but the roles these genes play in the brain are poorly understood. This lack of understanding poses a barrier to developing new therapies, but in a study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute (Duncan NRI) at Texas Children’s Hospital offer new insights into how Alzheimer’s disease risk genes affect the brain.

“We studied fruit fly versions of 100 human Alzheimer’s disease risk genes,” said first author Dr. Jennifer Deger, a neuroscience graduate in Baylor’s Medical Scientist Training Program (M.D./Ph. D.), mentored by Drs. Joshua Shulman and Hugo Bellen.

“We developed fruit flies with mutations that ‘turned off’ each gene and determined how this affected the fly’s structure, function and stress resilience as the flies aged.”

Diffusion markers of dendritic density and arborization in gray matter predict differences in intelligence

Previous studies suggest that individual differences in intelligence correlate with circuit complexity and dendritic arborization in the brain. Here the authors use NODDI, a diffusion MRI technique, to confirm that neurite density and arborization are inversely related to measures of intelligence.

3D DNA looping discovery in rice paves the way for higher yields with less fertilizer

A team of Chinese scientists has uncovered a hidden 3D structure in rice DNA that allows the crop to grow more grain while using less nitrogen fertilizer. The finding, published in Nature Genetics by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), could guide the next “green revolution” toward higher yields and more sustainable farming.

The study reveals that a looping section of DNA—a “chromatin loop”—controls the activity of a gene called RCN2, which governs how rice plants form their grain-bearing branches. Adjusting this loop boosted both yield and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), two traits that normally conflict with each other.

According to Prof. Fu Xiangdong from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of CAS, who led the team, boosting depends on strengthening both the “source” and the “sink” within a plant. The source refers to tissues such as leaves that produce and release sugars through photosynthesis, while the sink includes the growing parts—grains, panicles, young leaves, stems, roots, and fruits—that store or consume those sugars. Improving both sides of this system simultaneously is essential for increasing yield and NUE.

Researcher improves century-old equation to predict movement of dangerous air pollutants

A new method developed at the University of Warwick offers the first simple and predictive way to calculate how irregularly shaped nanoparticles—a dangerous class of airborne pollutant—move through the air.

Every day, we breathe in millions of , including soot, dust, pollen, microplastics, viruses, and synthetic nanoparticles. Some are small enough to slip deep into the lungs and even enter the bloodstream, contributing to conditions such as heart disease, stroke, and cancer.

Most of these are irregularly shaped. Yet the mathematical models used to predict how these particles behave typically assume they are perfect spheres, simply because the equations are easier to solve. This makes it difficult to monitor or predict the movement of real-world, non-spherical—and often more hazardous—particles.

Skin-inspired organic biosensors can reliably track health-related signals in real-time

The rapid advancement of sensing and artificial intelligence (AI) systems has paved the way for the introduction of increasingly sophisticated wearable devices, such as fitness trackers and technologies that closely monitor signals associated with specific diseases or medical conditions. Many of these wearable electronics rely on so-called biosensors, devices that can convert biological responses into measurable electrical signals in real-time.

While and other are now widely used, the signals that many existing devices pick up are sometimes inaccurate or distorted. This is because the bending of sensors, moisture and temperature fluctuations sometimes produce inaccurate readings and drifts (i.e., gradual changes that are unrelated to a measured signal).

Researchers at Stanford University have developed new skin-inspired biosensors based on organic field effect transistors (OFETs), devices based on organic semiconductors that control the flow of current in electronics.

RNA modifications control how stem cells develop into retinal cells, research demonstrates

Cells contain a blueprint in the form of DNA that dictates what they can make. This blueprint is converted into a message (mRNA), which is then converted into a protein. Although DNA remains the same in all cells, how it is read depends on specific signals that can change the DNA itself, mRNA or proteins. These signals are often in the form of chemical modifications.

AI-powered supercomputer decodes proteins to speed up drug discovery

Deeper insight into PPIs is essential for advancing the development of new treatments and vaccines.

PLM-Interact offers a powerful new lens into these critical mechanisms.

The key to PLM-Interact’s success lies in its training. Leveraging the supercomputer, the researchers trained the model on as many as 421,000 human protein pairs.

Drugs approved for treating pain may also reduce bone cancer growth

Peripheral afferent neurons—nerves that send signals from all areas of the body to the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord)—are known to infiltrate and grow within malignant bone tumors called osteosarcomas, often accompanied by severe pain.

In a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a multicenter research team led by Johns Hopkins Medicine reports that two analgesic drugs, bupivacaine and rimegepant, which are used to inhibit the formation and functioning of these neurons, not only relieve -associated pain in , but also slow the unchecked growth of the cancer.

“Our findings suggest that these two medications—already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration [FDA] for relieving [bupivacaine] and migraines [rimegepant]—might one day be repurposed as anti-tumor therapies,” says study lead author Sowmya Ramesh, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher in pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

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