Bioinspired protein creates stretchable 2D layered materials

27-Jul-2022 - Nature creates layered materials like bone and mother-of-pearl that become less sensitive to defects as they grow. Now researchers have created, using biomimetic proteins patterned on squid ring teeth, composite layered 2D materials that are resistant to breaking and extremely ...

Muscle's smallest building blocks disappear after stroke

First study to observe this phenomenon in humans

01-Jul-2021 - After suffering a stroke, patients often are unable to use the arm on their affected side. Sometimes, they end up holding it close to their body, with the elbow flexed. In a new study, Northwestern University and Shirley Ryan AbilityLab researchers have discovered that, in an attempt to adapt to ...

Theory unlocks the secret behind protein-membrane interactions

Understanding cell behavior better by elucidating how proteins work with cell membranes

28-Jan-2019 - Trillions of cells -- all different shapes and sizes -- form a human body's structure. Surrounding each cell is a membrane, jointly acting as hostess and security -- welcoming certain information into the cell while making sure its components don't spill out into the body's void. Much is known ...

In the fight against Alzheimer's, Down syndrome may hold vital clues

18-Oct-2018 - At first glance, Down syndrome (DS) and Alzheimer's disease (AD), two severe brain abnormalities, may seem to have little in common. Down syndrome is a hereditary disease, the source of which has long been recognized--a triplication of chromosome 21. By contrast, the overwhelming majority of ...

Why some people with brain markers of Alzheimer’s have no dementia

22-Aug-2018 - A new study from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston has uncovered why some people that have brain markers of Alzheimer’s never develop the classic dementia that others do. Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, affects more than 5 million Americans. People ...

A new way to stimulate cellular recycling process

18-May-2018 - Brown University researchers studying the biology of aging have demonstrated a new strategy for stimulating autophagy, the process by which cells rebuild themselves by recycling their own worn-out parts. In a study the researchers show that the approach increased the lifespans of worms and flies, ...

New tool analyzes disease and drug effects with unprecedented accuracy and consistency

14-May-2018 - A new protein analysis tool developed at the University at Buffalo could vastly increase the speed and precision with which disease and drug effects are analyzed. The groundbreaking tool, called IonStar, is the first to provide near-perfect accuracy when quantifying and comparing the abundance of ...

Tracking protein’s role in stem cell function

26-Mar-2018 - MCL-1 is a member of the BCL-2 family of proteins important for blocking apoptosis, or programmed cell death. Many types of cancer cells escape the body’s effort to kill them by overexpressing MCL-1. However, new evidence from Vanderbilt University researchers indicates that MCL-1 also helps ...

New device for low-cost single-cell analysis identifies fibroblast subtypes in RA patients

26-Feb-2018 - Single-cell analysis holds enormous potential to study how individual cells influence disease and respond to treatment, but the lack of cost-effective and user-friendly instrumentation remains challenging. As described in a study researchers at the New York Genome Center (NYGC) and New York ...

Glowing mud worm contains fastest catalyst

18-Dec-2017 - Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego have made a discovery with potential human health impacts in a parchment tubeworm, the marine invertebrate Chaetopterus sp., that resides in muddy coastal seafloors. A new study finds that the tubeworm, ...