Researchers found the protein, IRK, while looking for clues to the ways plant cells divide or expand. They discovered IRK in the root cells of a plant related to mustard. “When this protein is present, the root perceives a signal that tells cells not to divide,” said Jaimie Van Norman, who led the study and is an assistant professor of plant sciences at UCR. “If we can get the plant to ignore those signals, we may be able to get it to grow in conditions where it might not otherwise....

Smart virus outfoxed: Russian researchers have found MicroRNA molecules potentially capable of repressing the replication of human coronaviruses. HSE University researchers have found microRNA molecules that are potentially capable of repressing the replication of human coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. It turns out that the virus uses miRNA hsa-miR-21-3p to inhibit growth in the first stages of infection in order to delay the active immune response. The results of the research will be published today (September 14, 2020) in the journal PeerJ....

The carbon-neutral device sets a new benchmark in the field of solar fuels, after researchers at the University of Cambridge demonstrated that it can directly produce the gas — called syngas — in a sustainable and simple way. Rather than running on fossil fuels, the artificial leaf is powered by sunlight, although it still works efficiently on cloudy and overcast days. And unlike the current industrial processes for producing syngas, the leaf does not release any additional carbon dioxide into the atmosphere....

Researchers from the University of Nottingham have discovered a novel antiviral property of a drug that could have major implications in how future epidemics / pandemics — including COVID-19 — are managed. The study, published in Viruses, shows that thapsigargin is a promising broad spectrum antiviral, highly effective against COVID-19 virus (SARS-CoV-2), a common cold coronavirus, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and the influenza A virus. Given that acute respiratory virus infections caused by different viruses are clinically indistinguishable on presentation, an effective broad-spectrum that can target different virus types at the same time could significantly improve clinical management....

In their quest to treat cardiovascular disease, researchers and pharmaceutical companies have long been interested in developing new medicines that activate a heart protein called APJ. But researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute and the Stanford University School of Medicine have now uncovered a second, previously unknown, function for APJ—it senses mechanical changes when the heart is in danger and sets the body on a course toward heart failure. This means that activating APJ could actually be harmful in some cases—potentially eye-opening information for some heart drug makers....

Larger reductions in time spent outside in daylight were linked to deteriorations in wellbeing and delayed sleep. “Our findings suggest that strategies to improve wellbeing under social restrictions should foster more daylight exposure and good sleep,” said lead author Maria Korman, PhD, MSc, of Ariel University, in Israel. Reference: “Outdoor daylight exposure and longer sleep promote wellbeing under COVID-19 mandated restrictions” by Maria Korman, Vadim Tkachev, Cátia Reis, Yoko Komada, Shingo Kitamura, Denis Gubin, Vinod Kumar and Till Roenneberg, 21 September 2021, Journal of Sleep Research....

An international team of researchers, led by the University of Leeds and in cooperation with the Institute of Science and Technology Austria and the University of Geneva, has provided a theoretical explanation for the particular behavior of individual atoms that were trapped and manipulated in a recent experiment by Harvard University and MIT. The experiment used a system of finely tuned lasers to act as “optical tweezers” to assemble a remarkably long chain of 51 atoms....

An international team led by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy has succeeded in observing the heart of a distant quasar with unprecedented sharpness, or angular resolution. The observations, made by connecting radio telescopes on different continents, are a crucial step towards a dramatic scientific goal: to depict the supermassive black hole at the center of our own galaxy and also the central black holes in other nearby galaxies....

A new high-pressure ventilator developed by NASA engineers and tailored to treat coronavirus (COVID-19) patients today was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use under the FDA’s March 24 ventilator Emergency Use Authorization. Called VITAL (Ventilator Intervention Technology Accessible Locally), the device was developed by engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California to free up the nation’s limited supply of traditional ventilators so they may be used on patients with the most severe COVID-19 symptoms....

Until now, most scientists could visualize only one or two of these intracellular signals at a time, says Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator Ed Boyden of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His team’s new approach could make it possible to see as many signals as you want — in real time, at once, Boyden says — giving researchers a more detailed view of cells’ internal discussions than ever before. In tests with neurons, the researchers examined five signals involved in processes such as learning and memory, Boyden and his colleagues report today (November 23, 2020) in the journal Cell....

Beachgoers in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro contended in late 2021 with unwelcome ocean-dwelling visitors. Starting in November, countless microscopic phytoplankton amassed along the coast, coloring the clear, blue waters a dark, reddish-brown. The bloom—known as a red tide or harmful algal bloom (HAB) event—was unusually widespread and long-lived. Phytoplankton blooms are common this time of year in Rio, but they typically contain species that are beneficial to the ecosystem....

A team of researchers from the University of Cincinnati analyzed the post-treatment journals of participants in a 2014 study on smoking cessation, which concluded that psychedelics were successful in assisting some individuals in quitting smoking for years. In a new paper published in the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, researchers analyzed the participants’ own words and found that psychedelics combined with talk therapy often helped longtime smokers see themselves as nonsmokers....

The study was published in Aging Cell and conducted by Dorota Skowronska-Krawczyk, Ph.D., and her colleagues. The research delves into the epigenetic and transcriptional changes that occur in the aging retina and how stress, such as increased intraocular pressure, can cause the retina to undergo similar changes to natural aging. Furthermore, the study shows that repetitive stress in young retinal tissue can lead to accelerated aging. Aging is a universal process that affects all cells in an organism....

The surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa exposes material churned up from inside the moon and also material resulting from matter and energy coming from above. If you want to learn about the deep saltwater ocean beneath this unusual world’s icy shell — as many people do who are interested in possible extraterrestrial life — you might target your investigation of the surface somewhere that has more of the up-from-below stuff and less of the down-from-above stuff....

Now MIT researchers are showcasing a container-less electrochemical method to study the thermodynamic properties of these hot melts in a paper published in the Journal of The Electrochemical Society. “We have a new technique which demonstrates that the rules of electrochemistry are followed for these refractory melts,” says senior author Antoine Allanore, an associate professor of metallurgy. “We have now evidence that these melts are very stable at high temperature, they have high conductivity....

HIV is adept at eluding immune system responses because the protein it uses to infect cells is constantly changing. Now a team of researchers including scientists from Yale have stripped the cloak from this master of disguise, providing a high resolution image of this surface spike protein and monitoring how it constantly changes its shape, information that suggests new ways to attack the virus through drugs and vaccines. In two papers published simultaneously online October 8 in the journals Science and Nature, a team of researchers led by scientists from the labs of Walther Mothes at Yale University, Peter Kwong at Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Scott Blanchard at Weill Cornell Medical College describe the structure and dynamics of the HIV spike protein, which the virus uses to fuse with and enter cells....

Researchers at Uppsala University and Uppsala University Hospital have developed a new method to measure levels of the medication hydroxychloroquine in patients with the rheumatic disease systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The analysis method may also be useful in other areas, such as in the treatment of COVID-19. The study is being published in Arthritis Research and Therapy. Hydroxychloroquine was originally used to treat malaria but has also proven effective with SLE and rheumatoid arthritis (RA)....

A new study is the first to report evidence that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like aspirin may lessen the adverse effects of air pollution exposure on lung function. The team of researchers from the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, Harvard Chan School of Public Health, and Boston University School of Medicine published their findings in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. The researchers analyzed a subset of data collected from a cohort of 2,280 male veterans from the greater Boston area who were given tests to determine their lung function....

Having genetic risk variants in the ABO gene might significantly increase the chances of developing COVID-19, and other genes may also increase COVID-19 risk, according to research presented at the ATS 2021 International Conference. Much about COVID-19 remains a medical mystery, including whether certain genes place individuals at greater risk of contracting the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19. Ana Hernandez Cordero, PhD, postdoctoral fellow with the Centre for Heart Lung Innovation, University of British Columbia, and colleagues used integrative genomics combined with proteomics to identify these genes....

Wine grapes are particularly finicky when it comes to their environment. For instance, heatwaves and droughts lead to earlier berry ripening and lackluster wine. And these types of episodes are expected to intensify as Earth’s climate changes. Now, researchers reporting in ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry have tweaked growing conditions for Cabernet Sauvignon grapes to slow down their ripening, which increased the levels of compounds associated with wine’s characteristic floral and fruity notes....