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Researchers are at work to find effective treatments to help young patients with brain tumors. Hundreds of brain organoids have been developed in the laboratories of the University of Trento to understand the genetic mechanisms responsible for these hard to treat diseases. In this way, the research team coordinated by Luca Tiberi of the Armenise-Harvard Laboratory of Brain Disorders and Cancer of Cibio Department of the University of Trento developed a new strategy to study brain tumors of childhood....

“Every new virus we find could be a cause of illnesses that was previously unknown, both in humans and in livestock,” explains Prof. Dr. Christian Drosten, Director of the Institute of Virology on Campus Charité Mitte. The scientist is a specialist for virus discovery and diagnostics at the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF). For example, his team has defined the international standard approach for diagnosing MERS. He is currently focusing on rare virus diagnoses using new sequencing techniques....

When a virus makes its way into a person’s body, one of the immune system’s first responders is a set of pathogen-removal cells called macrophages. But macrophages are diverse; they don’t all target viruses in the same way. Scientists at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering have discovered that the type of macrophages present in a person’s body might determine how likely they are to develop severe inflammation in response to COVID-19....

From left to right, the sequence of images taken on September 1, 2017 from 3:03 p.m. to 3:11 p.m. PDT (6:03 p.m. to 6:11 p.m. EDT). At the times the images were taken, the spacecraft ranged from 7,545 to 14,234 miles (12,143 to 22,908 kilometers) from the tops of the clouds of the planet at a latitude range of -28.5406 to -44.4912 degrees. Points of Interest include “Dalmatian Zone/Eye of Odin,” “Dark Eye/STB Ghost East End,” “Coolest Place on Jupiter,” and “Renslow/Hurricane Rachel....

Rhinovirus is the most common respiratory virus, the main cause of the common cold and is responsible for exacerbations of chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In a study recently published in the European Respiratory Journal, the drug, known as INNA-X, is shown to be effective in a pre-clinical infection model and in human airway cells. Treatment with INNA-X prior to infection with rhinovirus significantly reduced viral load and inhibited harmful inflammation....

A new study from Queen Mary University of London has demonstrated that immune cells can be stimulated to assemble into special structures within pancreatic cancer. A new study from Queen Mary University of London has demonstrated that immune cells can be stimulated to assemble into special structures within pancreatic cancer such that, at least in a pre-clinical model, researchers can demonstrate an improvement in the efficacy of chemotherapy. The body’s immune system is a critical defense against illness such as infections, as has been highlighted by the recent COVID-19 pandemic....

According to the findings, there is also a higher risk of events in patients with underlying conditions (comorbidities), patients with more severe COVID-19, and during the first pandemic wave compared with the second and third waves. These results support measures to prevent thrombotic events (thromboprophylaxis), especially for high-risk patients, and strengthen the importance of vaccination against COVID-19, according to the researchers. It is already well established that COVID-19 increases the risk of serious blood clots (known as venous thromboembolism or VTE), but less evidence exists on the length of time this risk is increased, if risk changed during the various pandemic waves, and whether COVID-19 also increases the risk of major bleeding....

The scientists published their findings in the journal Nature. This could yield tremendous opportunities to improve the crop. Wheat is the world’s most widely grown crop and feeds a substantial part of the population. Yet scientists have struggled with its complex genetics as there are two kinds of wheat, bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) and pasta wheat (durum), which have different DNA sequences. Pasta wheat is a hybrid of two wild grasses and has two genomes, one from each of its ancestors....

The string of cays — stretching 14.24 kilometers (8.9 miles) in this image — extends west from Great Exuma Island (just outside the image to the right). Exuma is known for being remote from the bigger islands of The Bahamas, and it is rich with privately owned cays and with real pirate history (including Captain Kidd). Small tidal changes on the banks cause great quantities of water to flow daily through the narrow channels between the cays, first in one direction and then the other....

More information about this image is available at the Earth Observatory and Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth.

Since 2016, biology Assistant Professor Charissa de Bekker has been studying zombie ants in the University of Central Florida’s Parasitic Behavior Manipulation Lab and the phenomenon that occurs when a fungal infection takes over the ants’ brains, kills the insects and uses their bodies to grow more parasites. In a 2018 study, de Bekker and three co-authors from Pennsylvania State University found uninfected ants are unable to detect zombie ants within their nest since the fungus remains dormant at this time....

Packed within the squishy, football-sized organ are somewhere around 100 billion neurons. At any given moment, a single neuron can relay instructions to thousands of other neurons via synapses — the spaces between neurons, across which neurotransmitters are exchanged. There are more than 100 trillion synapses that mediate neuron signaling in the brain, strengthening some connections while pruning others, in a process that enables the brain to recognize patterns, remember facts, and carry out other learning tasks, at lightning speeds....

Ask any space explorer, and they’ll have a favorite image or two from their mission. For Apollo 8’s Bill Anders, it was a picture looking back at the Earth from near the Moon. Astronaut Randy Bresnik prizes a photo of an aurora he took while aboard the International Space Station. And for Vivian Sun, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, it’s an image NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover took of one of Jezero Crater’s escarpments (long, steep slopes at the edge of a plateau) – so far away but yet so tantalizingly close....

In a study published in the journal Oncotarget, Gregory Riggins, M.D., Ph.D., professor of neurosurgery and oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and his team used two different mouse models to determine that the anti-parasitic drug mebendazole could slow or stop the growth and spread of both early and late-stage pancreatic cancer. “We think that mebendazole could have a role in all stages,” Riggins says. “It was particularly effective for pancreatic cancer that was detected early....

“With Juno only about a third of the way through its primary mission, we are being presented with a whole new Jupiter that is shaking up our basic understanding of giant planets throughout the universe,” said Bolton, principal investigator of the mission and a co-author of the Nature papers. “Surprisingly, the Jupiter we grew up knowing and loving, dressed in gorgeous colorful bands across its midsection, is now known to be beautiful down deep as well....

Professor Yoshizumi Miyoshi of the Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research at Nagoya University and colleagues compared data from two satellites situated on opposite sides of the Earth: the Arase satellite, developed by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and NASA’s Van Allen Probes. Both satellites gather data from the Van Allen radiation belts, zones of energetic particles originating largely from solar wind. Energetic particles in the belts are trapped by Earth’s magnetic field....

The scientists published their findings in the journal Food and Environmental Virology. These findings could help food safety investigators pinpoint the source of foodborne illnesses and develop new methods to prevent future outbreaks. The researchers set up a test kitchen and developed techniques to strip viruses off knives and graters. They measured the amount of hepatitis A virus or norovirus transferred from contaminated honeydew melons, cantaloupes, tomatoes, strawberries and cucumbers....

Low-carb diet may help patients with diabetes achieve better weight loss and glucose control compared to a low-fat diet. Patients achieved better weight loss and glucose control over a 6-month intervention with a low-carbohydrate, high-fat, calorie unrestricted diet compared to a high-carb, low-fat diet. This is according to a randomized controlled trial of more than 100 people with type 2 diabetes. The changes were not sustained 3 months after the intervention, suggesting a need for long-term dietary changes to maintain meaningful health benefits....

An agreement signed today between satellite company Inmarsat and the European Satellite Services Provider, which represents air traffic controllers from seven European countries, will enable final tests of the space-based system to be conducted and evaluated. It is expected to be introduced across Europe by 2023. ESA has worked with Inmarsat to develop a space-enabled digital alternative to traditional air traffic control that enables pilots to take more efficient trajectories, saving fuel and cutting carbon emissions....

The researchers will present their results today at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS Spring 2021 is being held online April 5-30. Live sessions will be hosted April 5-16, and on-demand and networking content will continue through April 30. The meeting features nearly 9,000 presentations on a wide range of science topics. If developed successfully, a fish-oil based polyurethane could help meet the immense need for more sustainable plastics, says Francesca Kerton, Ph....