New insights on how bird flu crosses the species barrier

How a key avian influenza virus enzyme can mutate to allow the virus to replicate in mammals

21-Aug-2024 - In recent years, public health measures, surveillance, and vaccination have helped bring about significant progress in reducing the impact of seasonal flu epidemics, caused by human influenza viruses A and B. However, a possible outbreak of avian influenza A (commonly known as ‘bird flu’) in ...

Interaction between metabolic health and healthy aging supported

“It was very exciting for us to discover a longevity intervention that is effective in late life"

15-Mar-2024 - New findings on the role of RNA Polymerase I in longevity and metabolic health - excessive protein synthesis shortens lifespan - connection between energy metabolism and cancer risk. Ribosomes, the "translation factories" of the cell, are cellular organelles that play a central role in protein ...

Researchers design a pulsing nanomotor

Machine measures just one ten-thousandth of a millimeter: An alphabet soup serves as fuel

23-Oct-2023 - An international team of scientists headed by the University of Bonn has developed a novel type of nanomotor. It is driven by a clever mechanism and can perform pulsing movements. The researchers are now planning to fit it with a coupling and install it as a drive in complex machines. Their ...

How cells age: genes are read faster but less accurately with age

Slowing down RNA polymerase II extends lifespan and improves health

25-Jul-2023 - The genome of all living organisms contains information for the production of cell components, i.e. the proteins, which are necessary for the maintenance of cell function. An important step in the process of protein production is the reading and copying of this information from the genes, ...

Synthetic Genes for Flu Test

Electrochemical biosensor for antibody detection

17-Jan-2023 - The quantitative detection of specific antibodies in complex samples such as blood can inform on many different diseases but usually requires a complicated laboratory procedure. A new method for the rapid, inexpensive, yet quantitative and specific point-of-care detection of antibodies has now ...

The surprising Swiss-Army-knife-like functions of a powerful enzyme

It acts as both a cleaver and a linking tool

07-Oct-2022 - Blue-green algae (AKA cyanobacteria) have a superpower which likely helps them be highly successful as invaders of waterways. They have an extraordinary ability tostore energy and nitrogen in their cellsfor times of need. But how exactly they do so remains only partly understood. Now ...

A building block for liver fitness in old age

Researchers discover cellular protection against epigenetic changes

14-Sep-2022 - The liver can regenerate even in old age and remains surprisingly fit, even though the chromatin in its cells undergoes major remodeling due to epigenetic changes, as researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne have now discovered. One possible reason why the ...

Resistance to mosaic disease explained

22-Jul-2022 - Researchers from ETH Zurich, the United States and Uganda have identified the gene responsible for resistance in certain cassava cultivars against the devastating cassava mosaic disease. This is an important step for breeding virus-​resistant cassava varieties. Cassava, also known as manioc, is a ...

Crystal study may resolve DNA mystery

Rice lab captures unseen details of replication, clues to how mutations can happen

12-May-2022 - When cells reproduce, the internal mechanisms that copy DNA get it right nearly every time. Rice University bioscientists have uncovered a tiny detail that helps understand how the process could go wrong. Their study of enzymes revealed the presence of a central metal ion critical toDNA ...

An indispensable pitstop for the gene copy machine

How a protein helps making clean working copies of genes

12-Oct-2021 - The enzyme complex that reads genes carries other factors “piggyback” along the DNA to their destination. The protein BRD4 is essential for this process: the factors dock onto the protein during a pause from reading. The interaction also allows the cell to intervene in the process. It is a long ...