Researchers build long-sought nanoparticle structure, opening door to special properties

Theoretical physicist Alex Travesset uses computer models, equations and scientific figures to explain how nanostructures assemble.
Photo Credit: Christopher Gannon/Iowa State University.

Alex Travesset doesn’t have a shiny research lab filled with the latest instruments that probe new nanomaterials and measure their special properties.

No, his theoretical work explaining what’s happening inside those new nanomaterials is all about computer models, equations and figures. And so, when he joins a project, the Iowa State University professor of physics and astronomy who’s also affiliated with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames National Laboratory might contribute many dense pages showing how nanoparticles assemble.

Case in point: Travesset’s “Chiral Tetrahedra” calculations and illustrations that are part of a research paper just published by the journal Nature. Those calculations show how controlled evaporation of a solution containing tetrahedron-shaped gold nanoparticles on a solid silicon substrate can assemble into a pinwheel-shaped, two-layered structure.

It turns out the nanostructure is chiral, meaning it’s not identical to its mirror image. (The classic example is a hand and its reflection. The thumbs end up on opposite sides and so one hand can’t be superimposed on the other. That’s chirality.)

Positive media coverage of cannabis studies regardless of therapeutic effect

Photo Credit: Julia Teichmann

In cannabis trials against pain, people who take placebos report feeling largely the same level of pain relief as those who consume the active cannabinoid substance. Still, these studies receive significant media coverage regardless of the clinical outcome, report researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden in a study published in JAMA Network Open.

“We see that cannabis studies are often described in positive terms in the media regardless of their results,” says the study’s first author Filip Gedin, postdoc researcher at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet. “This is problematic and can influence expectations when it comes to the effects of cannabis therapy on pain. The greater the benefit a treatment is assumed to have, the more potential harms can be tolerated.”

The study is based on an analysis of published clinical studies in which cannabis has been compared with placebo for the treatment of clinical pain. The change in pain intensity before and after treatment were the study’s primary outcome measurement.

The analysis drew on 20 studies published up to September 2021 involving almost 1,500 individuals.

Discovery of antibody structure could lead to treatment for Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic Fever virus

Scott D. Pegan, a professor of biomedical sciences
Photo Source: University of California, Riverside

A research team led by the University of California, Riverside, has discovered important details about how therapeutically relevant human monoclonal antibodies can protect against Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic Fever virus, or CCHFV. Their work, which appears online in the journal Nature Communications, could lead to the development of targeted therapeutics for infected patients.

An emerging zoonotic disease with a propensity to spread, CCHF is considered a priority pathogen by the World Health Organization, or WHO. CCHF outbreaks have a mortality rate of up to 40%. Originally described in Crimea in 1944–1945, and decades later in the Congo, the virus has recently spread to Western Europe through ticks carried by migratory birds. The disease is already endemic in Africa, the Balkans, the Middle East, and some Asian countries. CCHFV is designated as a biosafety level 4 pathogen (the highest level of biocontainment) and is a Category A bioterrorism/biological warfare agent. There is no vaccine to help prevent infection and therapeutics are lacking.

Scott D. Pegan, a professor of biomedical sciences in the UCR School of Medicine, collaborated on this study with the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, or USAMRIID, which studies CCHFV because of the threat it poses to military personnel around the world. They examined monoclonal antibodies, or mAbs, which are proteins that bind to antigens — foreign substances that enter the body and cause the immune system to mount a protective response.

In a previous publication, USAMRIID scientists Joseph W. Golden and Aura R. Garrison reported that an antibody called 13G8 protected mice from lethal CCHFV when administered post-infection. They provided Pegan with the sequence information for that antibody, clearing the way for UCR to “humanize” it and conduct further research.

Squirrel sperm and feet tell a different climate change story

Cape ground squirrels are ecosystem engineers
Photo Credit: Gary Simons

Perhaps it’s time to replace the canary in a coal mine metaphor with a squirrel in the ground. Because two University of Manitoba studies found that climate change is altering ground squirrels’ sperm and feet, and this warns of big consequences potentially coming to endangered ecosystems.

These subtle squirrel changes concern UM researchers Jane Waterman and Miya Warrington, who tuned into them only recently and published their latest findings in the latest Journal of Mammalogy.

It began last year when they found that some male Richardson’s ground squirrels, a species found throughout the Canadian prairies, emerged from hibernation during a particularly warm winter with non-motile sperm. This non-lethal effect of climate change fortunately did not result in fewer young that year, although other negative consequences of males “shooting blanks” may emerge in other species or situations.

Intrigued by this finding, they then looked at what non-lethal affects climate change was having on African ground squirrels in the grasslands of South Africa.

Researchers take first step towards controlling photosynthesis using mirrors

The researchers used ultrafast laser spectroscopy
Photo Credit: Pavel Chabera

With the help of mirrors, placed only a few hundred nanometers apart, a research team has managed to use light more efficiently. The finding could eventually be useful for controlling solar energy conversion during photosynthesis, or other reactions driven by light. For example, one application could be converting carbon dioxide into fuel.

The sunlight that hits Earth for one hour is almost equivalent to the total energy consumption of mankind for an entire year. At the same time, our global emissions of carbon dioxide are increasing. Harnessing the sun's energy to capture greenhouse gas and then convert it into fuel is a hot research field.

A research team at Lund University in Sweden was previously able to show that with ultrafast laser spectroscopy, and the help of advanced materials, it would be possible to reduce the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere in the long term. In their latest study in Nature Communications, the team has made new progress when it comes to taking advantage of light.

Why steamed hay can lead to protein deficiency in horses

Photo Credit: Manfred Richter

Hay treated with hot steam is safer for horses but provides them with less protein. The horse forage is treated with steam to rid it of potentially harmful microorganisms and to bind particles that could otherwise be inhaled. However, a team of scientists from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) has discovered that this also causes a chemical reaction which damages the proteins in the hay and makes them harder for horses to digest. This can lead to signs of nutrient deficiency in the animals and, for example, impair growth or muscle development. The team reports on their scientific work in the journal Animals.

Hot steam is used to heat hay up to 100 degrees Celsius, which kills harmful microorganisms and binds fungal spores and dust to the hay. "Many horses suffer from lung problems such as equine asthma. The steaming process virtually eliminates all of the living microorganisms and particles in the hay that could be inhaled during feeding and damage the lungs. In theory, the end result is a very good forage," explains Professor Annette Zeyner from the Institute of Agricultural and Nutritional Sciences at MLU.

Mussel survey reveals alarming degradation of River Thames ecosystem since the 1960s

Photo Credit: Gil Ndjouwou

The detailed study measured the change in size and number of all species of mussel in a stretch of the River Thames near Reading between 1964 and 2020.

The results were striking: not only had native populations severely declined, but the mussels that remained were much smaller for their age – reflecting slower growth.

Mussels are important in freshwater ecosystems because they filter the water and remove algae. As filter feeders they’re exposed to everything in the water, and this makes them a valuable indicator of ecosystem health. Mussel shells also provide places for other aquatic species to live.

“Mussels are a great indicator of the health of the river ecosystem. Such a massive decline in mussel biomass in the river is also likely to have a knock-on effect for other species, reducing the overall biodiversity,” said Isobel Ollard, a PhD student in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology and first author of the report.

She added: “The depressed river mussel used to be quite widespread in the Thames, but this survey didn’t find a single one - which also raises concerns for the survival of this species.”

Research shows ‘danger zones’ for wandering albatrosses

A pair of wandering albatrosses (Diomedea exulans) courting at Bird Island, South Georgia.
Source/Credit: British Antarctic Survey | NERC

Over half of wandering albatrosses breeding on Bird Island, in the sub-Antarctic, encounter fishing vessels when feeding, putting them at risk of being accidentally caught or killed in fishing gear, according to new research led by British Antarctic Survey and Birdlife International. The results will help conservation efforts for a species that is in decline.

In the study funded by the Darwin Plus scheme and published this month (November 2022) in Biological Conservation, researchers tracked the movements of wandering albatrosses using radar-GPS devices to study their interactions with fishing vessels. By cross-referencing the birds’ movements with the locations of fishing vessels, they found that, of the 251 birds that were tracked, 55% went within 30km of a fishing vessel, and 43% within 5km. Birds traveling to the Patagonian Shelf break were particularly at risk of an interaction.

This study is one of the most comprehensive studies of bycatch risk for any seabird species to date, and combines precise locations of fishing vessels from Global Fishing Watch, another collaborator of the study, with those of wandering albatrosses of different ages and breeding stages.

Localizing BRCA gene mutations to better treat ovarian cancer

Dr. Intidhar Labidi-Galy
Researcher at the Translational Research Centre in Onco-hematology at the UNIGE Faculty of Medicine and a physician at the HUG.
Credit: University of Geneva /  Intidhar Labidi-Galy

Mutations of BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which are inherited by 1 in 400 and 1 in 800 people respectively, significantly increase the risk of certain cancers such as ovarian, breast, pancreatic and prostate cancer. In 2016, a new class of drugs, the PARP inhibitors, was found to be highly effective against BRCA mutation-related tumors. However, almost half of women with ovarian cancer experience a recurrence of the disease within 5 years. An international team led by the University of Geneva (UNIGE), the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG), the Centre Léon Bérard in Lyon, the Curie Institute, the French collaborative group ARCAGY- GINECO and the European consortium ENGOT, examined the genetic data of 233 patients enrolled in the pre-marketing phase III clinical trial of olaparib, a PARP inhibitor added to bevacizumab, a drug already used to treat ovarian cancer. The researchers found that the success of PARP inhibitors depends on the precise location of the mutation on the gene. These results, that can be read in the journal Annals of Oncology, demonstrate that a very high precision medicine is possible in oncology.

The BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes code for proteins involved in the repair of DNA double-strand breaks, a particularly severe form of DNA damage, and thus play an essential role in maintaining the genomic stability of cells. When they are mutated, cells are less able to repair damaged DNA, a phenomenon that promotes the development of cancers.

Blood group can predict risk of contracting viral disease

People with blood type Rh(D) have a higher risk of being infected by parvovirus
Photo Credit: Bartek Kopała

The risk of being infected by parvovirus is elevated in those people who have blood group Rh(D), according to a study published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases by researchers from Karolinska Institutet in collaboration with Octapharma.  

Fifth disease is a viral disease caused by parvovirus. Most often, school-age children are affected with common symptoms such as red blotches on the cheeks that can also spread to the arms and legs. Even adults can become infected, but many do not show any symptoms.  

In a new study, researchers can now demonstrate that the risk of contracting the disease is elevated if the person belongs to the blood group Rhesus D antigen or what is called Rh(D). In addition to the blood typing in the AB0 system, the Rh system is the most common.