Subverting Plasmids To Combat Antibiotic Resistance

Two types of plasmids, colored red and blue, form intricate patterns as they compete for dominance in a bacterial colony.
Image Credit: Fernando Rossine

Researchers in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School have just opened a new window into understanding the development of antibiotic resistance in bacteria.

The work not only reveals principles of evolutionary biology but also suggests a new strategy to combat the antibiotic resistance crisis, which kills an estimated 1.3 million people per year worldwide.

Members of the labs of Michael Baym, associate professor of biomedical informatics, and Johan Paulsson, professor of systems biology, devised a way to track the evolution and spread of antibiotic resistance in individual bacteria by measuring competition among plasmids.

Environmental Science: In-Depth Description

Photo Credit: Esa Kaifa

Environmental science is an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates physical, biological, and information sciences to study the environment and identify solutions to environmental problems. By combining disciplines such as ecology, biology, physics, chemistry, plant science, zoology, mineralogy, oceanography, limnology, soil science, geology and physical geography, and atmospheric science, it seeks to understand the complex interactions between the natural world and human societies.

The primary goal of environmental science is to learn how the natural world works, to understand how we interact with the environment, and to determine how we can live sustainably without degrading our life-support system.

Focused Ultrasound Passes First Test in Treatment of Brain Cancer in Children

Pediatric oncologist Stergios Zacharoulis and biomedical engineer Elisa Konofagou are pioneering the use of focused ultrasound to treat brain cancer in children and dozens of other brain diseases
Photo Credit: Rudy Diaz / Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Columbia University researchers are the first to show that focused ultrasound—a non-invasive technique that uses sound waves to enhance the delivery of drugs into the brain—can be safely used in children being treated for brain cancer.

The focused ultrasound technique, developed by Columbia engineers, was tested in combination with chemotherapy in three children with diffuse midline glioma, a rare and aggressive brain cancer that is universally fatal.

The study found that focused ultrasound successfully opened the blood-brain barrier in all three patients, allowing the chemotherapy drug to reach the tumors and leading to some improvement in patient mobility, though all three patients eventually died from their disease or complications of COVID.

5,500 toxic sites in U.S. at risk of flooding because of sea level rise

U.S. face rising flood risks due to sea-level rise.
Photo Credit: Wes Warren

More than 5,500 hazardous sites across the U.S. are projected to be at risk of coastal flooding by 2100, according to newly published research led by University of California scientists.

The researchers found that if heat-trapping pollution grows unchecked, rising sea levels will flood a wide range of sites, including facilities that handle sewage, toxic waste, oil and gas, and other industrial pollutants, posing serious threats to public health and neighboring communities. The peer-reviewed study — Sea level rise and flooding of hazardous sites in marginalized communities across the United States – was just published in the London-based scientific journal Nature Communications. 

Innovation turns building vents into carbon-capture devices

A carbon nanofiber-based direct air capture filter developed by the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering could turn existing building ventilation systems into carbon-capture devices while cutting homeowners’ energy costs. Through life cycle assessment, the air filter shows a carbon removal efficiency of 92.1% from cradle to grave.
Photo Credit: Elaina Eichorn

With a newly developed nanofiber filter, air conditioners, heaters and other HVAC systems could remove airborne carbon dioxide while cutting energy costs

A nanofiber air filter developed at the University of Chicago could turn existing building ventilation into carbon-capture devices while cutting homeowners’ energy costs.

In a paper recently published in Science Advances, researchers from the lab of Asst. Prof. Po-Chun Hsu in the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (UChicago PME) developed a distributed carbon nanofiber direct air capture filter that could potentially turn every home, office, school or other building into a small system working toward the global problem of airborne carbon dioxide.

A life-cycle analysis shows that—even after factoring this extra CO2 released by everything from manufacture and transportation to maintenance and disposal—the new filter is more than 92% efficient in removing the gas from the air.

Customised cells to fight brain cancer

Visualisation of cell death induced by CAR-T cells. A real-time imaging experiment (images taken at 0, 5 and 10 minutes) shows a CAR-T cell in contact with a glioblastoma cell (artificially marked in green). This contact causes the CAR-T cell to concentrate granules (lytic granules, shown in pink) containing the proteins necessary for the death of the target cell. These proteins penetrate the cancer cell and induce its death. After 10 minutes, the cancer cell begins to die, as indicated by the loss of its structure (evidenced by the appearance of "bubbles").
Image Credit: © Denis Migliorini

With a five-year survival rate of less than 5%, glioblastoma is one of the most aggressive types of brain cancer. Until now, all available treatments, including immunotherapy — which involves strengthening the immune system to fight cancer— have proved disappointing. CAR-T cells are genetically modified immune cells manufactured in the laboratory and designed to identify and destroy cancer cells. By targeting a protein present in the tumor environment, a team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the Geneva University Hospital (HUG) has developed CAR-T cells capable of destroying glioblastoma cells. Their efficacy in an animal model of the disease paves the way for clinical trials in humans. These results are published in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer. 

New type of DNA damage found in our cells’ powerhouses

Linlin Zhao (left) and Yu Hsuan Chen
Photo Credit: Courtesy of University of California, Riverside

A previously unknown type of DNA damage in the mitochondria, the tiny power plants inside our cells, could shed light on how our bodies sense and respond to stress. The findings of the UC Riverside-led study are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and have potential implications for a range of mitochondrial dysfunction-associated diseases, including cancer and diabetes. 

Mitochondria have their own genetic material, known as mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is essential for producing the energy that powers our bodies and sending signals within and outside cells. While it has long been known that mtDNA is prone to damage, scientists didn't fully understand the biological processes. The new research identifies a culprit: glutathionylated DNA (GSH-DNA) adducts.

An adduct is bulky chemical tag formed when a chemical, such as a carcinogen, attaches directly to DNA. If the damage isn’t repaired, it can lead to DNA mutations and increase the risk of disease.

‘Worms in space’ experiment aims to investigate the biological effects of spaceflight

Petri Pod
Photo Credit: University of Exeter

A crew of tiny worms will be heading on a mission to the International Space Station in 2026 that will help scientists understand how humans can travel through space safely, using a Leicester-built space pod. The experiment is based upon a concept and early development by the University of Exeter over more than 8 years 

A team of scientists and engineers at Space Park Leicester, the University of Leicester’s pioneering £100 million science and innovation park, have designed and built a miniature space laboratory called a Petri Pod, based around the principle of the biological culture petri dish invented in 1887 and based upon earlier development work by the University of Exeter and Leicester, that will allow scientists on Earth to study biological organisms in space. 

There is a burgeoning global drive for humans to colonize space, the Moon, and other planets of our Solar System, but one of the challenges is the harmful effects of extended exposure to the effects of the space environment on human physiology. This includes microgravity which can lead to bone and muscle loss, fluid shift, and vision problems in humans as well as radiation-induced effects of genetic damage, increased cancer risk, etc. 

Rocks on Faults Can Heal Following Seismic Movement

At the Cascadia subduction zone in the Pacific Northwest, one tectonic plate is moving underneath another. New experimental work at UC Davis shows how rocks on faults deep in the Earth can cement themselves back together after a seismic movement, adding to our knowledge of how these faults behave.
Photo Credit: of Otter Rock, Oregon by USGS

Earthquake faults deep in the Earth can glue themselves back together following a seismic event, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of California, Davis. The work, published in Science Advances and supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, adds a new factor to our understanding of the behavior of faults that can give rise to major earthquakes. 

“We discovered that deep faults can heal themselves within hours,” said Amanda Thomas, professor of earth and planetary sciences at UC Davis and corresponding author on the paper. “This prompts us to reevaluate fault rheological behavior, and if we have been neglecting something very important.” 

How plants search for nutrients

In the case of nutrient deficiency, efficient plants are able to grow long, lateral roots to broaden the radius from which they can take nutrients.
Photo Credit: Andreas Heddergott / Technische Universität München

What makes plants tolerant to nutrient fluctuations? An international research team led by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and involving the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) has investigated this question on the micronutrient boron. The researchers analyzed 185 gene data sets from the model plant Arabidopsis. Their goal is to then be able to transfer the findings to the important crop plant rapeseed. 

Boron is one of the key micronutrients for the growth and fertility of many plants. However, extreme weather events reduce the availability of this nutrient: drought reduces boron uptake, while flooding washes the nutrient out of the soil – less boron reaches the plants. In the context of climate change, this deficiency represents an additional stressor for plants. Their tolerance to these fluctuations is a decisive factor in determining their yields.