Funding for catalyst research

The teams of Stefan Huber (left) and Dirk Tischler receive funding from the Mercator Research Center Ruhr.
Credit: RUB, Marquard

With a total of around 240,000 euros, the Mercator Research Center Ruhr supports two RUB cooperation projects with its partners of the Ruhr University Alliance.

In order to develop new tools for catalysis, the Mercator Research Center Ruhr (MERCUR) is funding two projects with Bochum participation with a total of around 240,000 euros. The team around Prof. Dr. Dirk Tischler from the Microbial Biotechnology Working Group at the Ruhr University Bochum (RUB) is developing new bio-building blocks in cooperation with a team from the Technical University (TU) Dortmund, which can be reliably and easily assembled into bio-catalysts. Prof. Dr. Stefan Huber and his working group at the Chair of Organic Chemistry I at RUB are developing new methods for catalysis using halogen bridges together with the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE).

Biocatalysts from the tool case

These catalysts are complex proteins; Genes contain the building instructions for this. Different gene sections contain the building instructions for different protein components. In synthetic biology, researchers produce gene building blocks that can be used for different biocatalysts. These so-called biobricks form a kind of kit from which a catalyst can be put together for a specific purpose. The appropriate gene building blocks are put together and introduced into an organism such as the bacterium E. coli. This translates the gene into proteins with catalytic function.

Optical Fibers with Unusual Properties Created in Russia

Monocrystal.
Credit: Vladimir Petrov

Researchers of the Science Lab of Fiber Technology and Photonics at Ural Federal University have developed and produced infrared optical fibers with unique properties. The fibers are nontoxic and, as studies have shown, retain their outstanding properties when treated with ionizing beta radiation by doses up to 1 MGy. The team of scientists published an article describing the research, properties and areas of application of the obtained fibers in the scientific journal Optical Materials.

"This opens up the prospect of application of light guides made of the obtained fibers in conditions of intense ionizing radiation. That is, not only in the traditional field of optoelectronics, but also in laser surgery, endoscopic and diagnostic medicine, in determining the composition of hazardous waste from the nuclear industry, and in space," lists Liya Zhukova, Chief Scientist of the Laboratory, Professor of the Department of Physical Chemistry and Chemistry of Colloids at UrFU.

Because the fibers are capable of receiving and transmitting radiation from space objects, they can be embedded in infrared space telescopes, replacing massive mirrors and lenses. The lifespan of the fibers will be longer than the life cycle of the telescopes themselves, the developers claim.

Fibers are also highly productive in the non-hazardous for humans terahertz radiation region (between the region of mid- and far-infrared radiation, on the one hand, and microwave radiation, on the other hand). This means that fiber optic cables are suitable for creating equipment that could become a safe substitute for magnetic resonance imaging and x-rays - in medicine or in the process of pre-boarding scanning of passengers and their luggage. It would not require the use of cumbersome and expensive metal detectors, and passengers would not even feel that they are being screened.

Tracking Nitrogen Pollution

Mesoamerican Reef
Source: University of California, Santa Barbara

Tropical coastal ecosystems are among the most biodiverse areas on Earth. And they’re also on the front lines of effects caused by human activity. That’s why it’s becoming increasingly important, especially as human populations increase, to manage the impacts of runoff and wastewater that flow into the sea.

“Tropical coastal ecosystems, such as coral reefs, are oligotrophic, meaning they are located in nutrient-poor waters and have therefore adapted to these conditions,” said Madeline Berger, a researcher at UC Santa Barbara’s National Center for Ecological Analysis & Synthesis (NCEAS). “An increased influx of nutrients can therefore disrupt ecosystem functioning.”

In a paper that appears in the journal Ocean and Coastal Management, lead author Berger and her colleagues tackle the issue of nutrient pollution through a case study in coastal Central America. The result? Agricultural operations are responsible for the vast majority of nitrogen pollution that flows into the Mesoamerican Reef Region. Knowing where the pollution comes from, the researchers say, will help managers tailor solutions for mitigation.

“Our study highlights that different management strategies will need to be employed in different watersheds to help reduce nutrient input that can have detrimental impacts on coral reef and seagrass health in this area,” Berger said.

Menthol in e-cigs could hurt lungs

Source: University of Hawaiʻi

Menthol in e-cigarettes may be harmful to respiratory health, according to new research by a team of University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa experts. The findings come as e-cigarette use is on the rise among Hawaiʻi’s youth.

Yi Zuo, UH Mānoa professor of mechanical engineering and adjunct professor of pediatrics, has invented a groundbreaking method that allows the study of the health impact of e-cigarette aerosols. This breakthrough research was published in the American Journal of Physiology—Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology, “Menthol in Electronic Cigarettes Causes Biophysical Inhibition of Pulmonary Surfactant.”

Zuo’s research found that flavorings used in e-cigarettes, especially menthol, impaired a lipid-protein film at the air-water surface of the lung. This film is called the lung surfactant. It plays a central role in maintaining the normal respiratory mechanics of the lung. Therefore, Zuo’s research indicated that menthol in e-cigarette aerosols may cause an adverse impact on the respiratory health of the user.

“E-cigarettes were initially advertised as a healthier and safer alternative to conventional tobacco smoking when they first appeared in the mid-2000s,” Zuo said. “However, increasing research evidence, especially long-term (more than 10 years) toxicological data that emerged only in recent years, has suggested that e-cigarettes are not as safe as originally promised.”

When a task adds more steps, this circuit helps you notice

In their study, researchers traced neurons projecting from the anterior cingulate cortex (right, red) to the motor cortex (left, green). Note the images are at different scales.
Source: Picower Institute for Learning and Memory

Life is full of processes to learn and then relearn when they become more elaborate. One day you log in to an app with just a password, then the next day you also need a code texted to you. One day you can just pop your favorite microwavable lunch into the oven for six straight minutes, but then the packaging changes and you have to cook it for three minutes, stir, and then heat it for three more. Our brains need a way to keep up. A new study by neuroscientists at The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT reveals some of the circuitry that helps a mammalian brain learn to add steps.

In Nature Communications the scientists report that when they changed the rules of a task, requiring rats to adjust from performing just one step to performing two, a pair of regions on the brain’s surface, or cortex, collaborated to update that understanding and change the rats’ behavior to fit the new regime. The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) appeared to recognize when the rats weren’t doing enough and updated cells in the motor cortex (M2) to adjust the task behavior.

“I started this project about 7 or 8 years ago when I wanted to study decision making.” said Daigo Takeuchi, a researcher at the University of Tokyo who led the work as a postdoc at the RIKEN-MIT Laboratory for Neural Circuit Genetics at The Picower Institute directed by senior author and Picower Professor Susumu Tonegawa. “New studies were finding a role for M2. I wanted to study what upstream circuits were influencing this.”

University Scientists Work on Advanced Nanomaterials

Under the leadership of Vladimir Shur, several scientific groups are conducting research.
Credit: Ilya Safarov

Synthesis of new materials with unique characteristics for practical applications is the goal of the project "Experimental and Theoretical Investigation of Physical Properties of Advanced Nanomaterials," which was launched at Ural Federal University. The state program for supporting universities, Priority 2030, in which the Ural Federal University is a participant, is also focused on this very goal. The project will last until 2025 inclusive.

The project is implemented by six groups consisting of 40 scientists. Researchers are united by general objectives: to study and describe the formation processes and physical features of micro- and nanoscale structures to create promising solid-state materials based on segmentelectrics, dielectrics, semiconductors, and superconductors.

The project is led by the world-renowned scientist Vladimir Shur, Professor at the Department of Condensed Matter Physics and Nanoscale Systems, Chief Researcher at the Section of Optoelectronics and Semiconductor Technology, and Head of the Ural Multiple Access Center "Modern Nanotechnologies". One of the experimental-theoretical groups under his leadership studies the evolution of domain structures in ferroelectric crystals.

"Segnetoelectrics have a domain structure that can be changed by applying an external electric field. The creation of stable domain structures with a given geometry is a rapidly developing field of science and technology - domain engineering. Targeted design of micro- and nanoscale domain structures makes it possible to significantly improve a variety of important application-specific characteristics of segmentelectrics," says Vladimir Shur.

‘Green’ poultry farming heats up with geothermal innovation

Professor Guillermo Narsilio in a geothermal plant.
Credit: Peter Casamento

A new hybrid geothermal and solar energy system is set to dramatically reduce emissions and energy costs for many Australian poultry farms.

The University of Melbourne has teamed up with geothermal companies Ground Source Systems and Fourth Element Energy to create a hybrid geothermal and solar heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system specifically for the poultry industry.

The project is funded through a $318,000 grant from the Federal Government’s Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), which supports the global transition to net zero emissions by accelerating pre-commercial innovation.

The project will demonstrate how the energy demands of sheds can be coordinated with on-site renewable energy production, showing both economic and environmental benefits to farmers to further support the uptake of the technology across the industry.

The system includes a ground-source (geothermal) heat pump system and full-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) system with gas back-up, which can supply the HVAC needs of poultry farms.

The first stage of the project will see a demonstration, full-scale hybrid system installed and optimized for efficiency at the commercial poultry farm Bargo in Yanderra, NSW, this year.

No trace of dark matter halos

The dwarf galaxy NGC1427A flies through the Fornax galaxy cluster and undergoes disturbances which would not be possible if this galaxy were surrounded by a heavy and extended dark matter halo, as required by standard cosmology.
Credit: ESO

According to the standard model of cosmology, the vast majority of galaxies are surrounded by a halo of dark matter particles. This halo is invisible, but its mass exerts a strong gravitational pull-on galaxies in the vicinity. A new study led by the University of Bonn and the University of Saint Andrews (Scotland) challenges this view of the Universe. The results suggest that the dwarf galaxies of Earth’s second closest galaxy cluster – known as the Fornax Cluster – are free of such dark matter halos. The study appeared in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Dwarf galaxies are small, faint galaxies that can usually be found in galaxy clusters or near larger galaxies. Because of this, they might be affected by the gravitational effects of their larger companions. “We introduce an innovative way of testing the standard model based on how much dwarf galaxies are disturbed by gravitational, tides’ from nearby larger galaxies”, said Elena Asencio, a PhD student at the University of Bonn and the lead author of the story. Tides arise when gravity from one body pulls differently on different parts of another body. These are similar to tides on Earth, which arise because the moon pulls more strongly on the side of Earth which faces the moon.

The Fornax Cluster has a rich population of dwarf galaxies. Recent observations show that some of these dwarfs appear distorted, as if they have been perturbed by the cluster environment. "Such perturbations in the Fornax dwarfs are not expected according to the Standard Model,” said Pavel Kroupa, Professor at the University of Bonn and Charles University in Prague. “This is because, according to the standard model, the dark matter halos of these dwarfs should partly shield them from tides raised by the cluster."

Fishnet Shell Formed by Jumbo Phages Offers Protection Against Bacterial Host Defenses

The chimallin protein assembles as a cube in vitro, consisting of 24 individual chimallin proteins. In the cell, thousands of chimallin protomers assemble into the phage nucleus shell as a sheet made of square tiles.
Credit: Corbett & Villa Labs, UC San Diego

The large viruses known as jumbo phages employ a curious counter-defense strategy to protect their DNA while attacking bacteria. Now, scientists have identified the key protein involved and solved its structure.

It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there, even for those that live on a microscopic scale. Bacteria, battling to survive against invaders, have devised various defense mechanisms over billions of years. In turn, phages — viruses that attack bacteria — have craftily come up with a few evasive maneuvers of their own.

“It’s an arms race,” says biophysicist Elizabeth Villa, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator at the University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego). “There’s very complex biology in the fight between bacteria and phages.”

In 2017, Villa and her collaborator Joe Pogliano discovered one of the more curious counter-defense strategies, employed by a group of viruses called jumbo phages. When the phages enter bacterial cells, they assemble a special ‘nucleus-like’ shell around their viral DNA, thus preserving their ability to replicate and eventually take over the host bacterium.

“We saw a closed compartment made from a single layer of protein,” says Villa. However, the images obtained at that time were too fuzzy to determine the protein’s exact identity and overall shape.

But now, new research from Villa’s team, published August 3, 2022, in Nature, fills in those missing gaps. The nuclear shell, they discovered, consists primarily of a previously undescribed protein called chimallin, which forms a quadrangular mesh around the phage DNA.

Sniffing out cancer with locust brains

With their antennae and neural circuitry, locusts can differentiate myriad odors, including those released by cancer cells. Spartan researchers are tapping into the insects’ brains to take advantage of that for early detection.
Resized Image using AI by SFLORG
Credit: Derrick L. Turner

Researchers at Michigan State University have shown that locusts can not only “smell” the difference between cancer cells and healthy cells, but they can also distinguish between different cancer cell lines.

However, patients need not worry about locusts swarming their doctors’ offices. Rather, the researchers say this work could provide the basis for devices that use insect sensory neurons to enable the early detection of cancer using only a patient’s breath.

Although such devices aren’t on the immediate horizon, they’re not as far-fetched as they might sound, said the authors of the new research shared May 25 on the website BioRxiv.

Part of that is because people have grown accustomed to technology that augments or outperforms our natural senses. For example, telescopes and microscopes reveal otherwise invisible worlds. The success of engineered devices can make it easy to overlook the performance of our natural tools, especially the sense organ right in front of our eyes.