Cycling between a healthy and unhealthy diet has significant health effect

Diet cycling impacts spatial memory: rat study

16-May-2023 - We all know this scenario. You’ve been sticking to a healthy diet, then the weekend rolls around. Pub meals, greasy fry-ups, takeaway dinners… None of that matters as long as you ate healthily during the week, right? A UNSW Sydney study in rats, published in Molecular Nutrition and Food Research, ...

The mystery gene which helps mice survive virus infections

17-Aug-2022 - Researchers from UNSW Sydney have discovered that a particular transposable element, or jumping gene, in the genome has a profound effect on the immune response to virus infection. The findings in mice, published in Nature, provide new information about how the immune system is regulated, and ...

Demystifying DNA hybridization kinetics

29-Jul-2022 - Nanoscientists and theoretical physicists at UNSW Medicine & Health’s EMBL Australia Node in Single Molecule Science joined forces to demystify the complicated mechanisms governing how quickly two matching strands of DNA can fully come together – or hybridise – to form double stranded DNA. Their ...

Scientists use novel ink to 3D-print ‘bone’ with living cells

3D printers may one day become a permanent fixture of the operating theatre

27-Jan-2021 - Scientists from UNSW Sydney have developed a ceramic-based ink that may allow surgeons in the future to 3D-print bone parts complete with living cells that could be used to repair damaged bone tissue. Using a 3D-printer that deploys a special ink made up of calcium phosphate, the scientists ...

New research shows how complex chemistry may be relevant to origins of life on Earth

09-Jun-2020 - Chemists have long sought to understand the origins of life, with one popular model suggesting life began when simple RNA molecules capable of copying themselves formed spontaneously in the primitive environment. How this happened exactly is fraught with difficulties. New research by a team of ...

Using nature's weaving formula to engineer advanced functional materials

12-Jan-2017 - For the first time, UNSW biomedical engineers have woven a 'smart' fabric that mimics the sophisticated and complex properties of one nature's ingenious materials, the bone tissue periosteum. Having achieved proof of concept, the researchers are now ready to produce fabric prototypes for a range ...

Investigating plasma levels as a biomarker for Alzheimer's disease

20-Apr-2016 - A Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA) paper presents the first detailed study of the relationship between plasma levels of two amyloid beta peptides (Aβ1-40 and Aβ1-42), brain volumetrics (measures studying the size of brain, which shrinks with Alzheimer's disease) and cognitive performance ...

Synapse discovery could lead to new treatments for Alzheimer's disease

30-Nov-2015 - A team of researchers led by UNSW Australia scientists has discovered how connections between brain cells are destroyed in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease - work that opens up a new avenue for research on possible treatments for the degenerative brain condition. "One of the first signs of ...

Persistence pays off in solving hemophilia mystery, showing curiosity drives discovery

11-Mar-2013 - An Australian researcher has found the third and final missing piece in the genetic puzzle of an unusual form of hemophilia, more than 20 year after he discovered the first two pieces. Professor Merlin Crossley, of the University of New South Wales, and his international team studied the ...

New bio-adhesive polymer demonstrated

30-Oct-2012 - An article in JoVE, Journal of Visualized Experiments, details the use of a new laser-activated bio-adhesive polymer. The chitosan-based polymer, SurgiLux, was developed by scientists at the University of New South Wales. Chitosan is a polymer derived from chitin, which is found in fungal cell ...