Learning How Cells Dispose of Unwanted Materials is Key to Potential New Therapeutics

Gary Kleiger, UNLV professor and chair of the department of chemistry and biochemistry in the College of Sciences.
Photo Credit: Lonnie Timmons III / University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Are you sick and tired of getting sick and tired? A UNLV-led research team is exploring whether the reason we sometimes feel ill in the first place is because our body’s cells suffer from trash that accumulates within them.

Gary Kleiger, professor and chair of the department of chemistry and biochemistry at UNLV, along with Brenda Schulman, director of the Munich-based Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, and their teams are working on ways to help our bodies hunt down and destroy disease-causing proteins. They’re the authors of a groundbreaking new study published Feb. 20 in the journal Molecular Cell that furthers our understanding of how enzymes called cullin-RING ligases (or CRLs) help cells get rid of proteins that are no longer needed. The results also point to a potential Achilles heel for proteins that make us ill. 

“Cullin-RING-ligases (CRLs) are complex nanomachines that are crucial for the cell’s intricate disposal and recycling systems,” said Schulman. “CRLs tag defective, toxic, or superfluous proteins with a small protein called ubiquitin, and mutations or malfunctions impairing CRLs are often associated with diseases, like developmental disorders or cancers.” 

Physically impaired primates find ways to modify their behaviors to compensate for their disabilities

Infant macaque at the Awajishima Monkey Center.
Photo Credit: Sarah Turner

Primates show a remarkable ability to modify their behaviors to accommodate their physical disabilities and impairments according to a new literature review by Concordia researchers.

Whether the disabilities are the result of congenital malformations or injuries, many primate species exhibited behavioral flexibility and innovation to compensate for their disabilities. They also benefitted from flexible and innovative behavior by their mothers early in life and from their peers within their population group as they aged.

Researchers at the Primatology and Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies (PIES) Lab looked at 114 studies and published their findings in the American Journal of Primatology.

The survey also revealed something the researchers had not anticipated.

“Brogan Stewart, a PhD candidate and the paper’s lead author, noticed that a high proportion of the papers mentioned a connection to human activity as a potential or actual cause of impairment,” says co-corresponding author Sarah Turner, an associate professor in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment in the Faculty of Arts and Science.

“The disabilities may be the result of primates being caught in snares intended for other animals, or farmers trying to deter crop foraging. Perhaps they are the result of vehicle collision, or sometimes there are links between a small population’s genetics and the impairments, or diseases transmitted from people or contaminants in the environment.”

Could Ultra-Processed Foods Be the New ‘Silent’ Killer?

Hundreds of novel ingredients never encountered by human physiology are now found in nearly 60 percent of the average adult’s diet and nearly 70 percent of children’s diets in the U.S.
Photo Credit: Nico Smit

From fizzy drinks to cereals and packaged snacks to processed meat, ultra-processed foods are packed with additives. Oil, fat, sugar, starch and sodium, as well as emulsifiers such as carrageenan, mono- and diglycerides, carboxymethylcellulose, polysorbate and soy lecithin continue to strip food of healthy nutrients while introducing other ingredients that could also be detrimental to human health.

Hundreds of novel ingredients never encountered by human physiology are now found in nearly 60 percent of the average adult’s diet and nearly 70 percent of children’s diets in the United States.

While obesity and lack of physical activity are well recognized contributors to avoidable morbidity and mortality in the U.S., another emerging hazard is the unprecedented consumption of these ultra-processed foods in the standard American diet. This may be the new “silent” killer, as was unrecognized high blood pressure in previous decades.

Physicians from Florida Atlantic University’s Schmidt College of Medicine explored this hypothesis and provide important insights to health care providers in a battle where the entertainment industry, the food industry and public policy do not align with their patients’ needs. Their findings are published in a commentary in The American Journal of Medicine.

The Radcliffe Wave is Waving

How the Radcliffe Wave moves through the backyard of our Sun (yellow dot). Blue dots are clusters of baby stars. The white line is a theoretical model by Ralf Konietzka and collaborators that explains the current shape and motion of the Wave. The magenta and green lines at the beginning show how and to what extent the Radcliffe Wave will move in the future. Background is a cartoon model of the Milky Way. 
Illustration Credit: Ralf Konietzka, Alyssa Goodman & WorldWide Telescope

CfA astronomers report oscillation of our giant, gaseous neighbor.

A few years ago, astronomers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) uncovered one of the Milky Way's greatest secrets: an enormous, wave-shaped chain of gaseous clouds in our sun’s backyard, giving birth to clusters of stars along the spiral arm of the galaxy we call home.

Naming this astonishing new structure the Radcliffe Wave, in honor of the Harvard Radcliffe Institute where the undulation was originally discovered, astronomers at CfA now report in Nature that the Radcliffe Wave not only looks like a wave, but also moves like one – oscillating through space much like "the wave" moving through a stadium full of fans.

"By using the motion of baby stars born in the gaseous clouds along the Radcliffe Wave," said Ralf Konietzka, the paper's lead author and a Ph.D. student at Harvard’s Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and CfA, "we can trace the motion of their natal gas to show that the Radcliffe Wave is actually waving."

Scientists use Summit supercomputer to explore exotic stellar phenomena

Astrophysicists at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, and University of California, Berkeley created 3D simulations of X-ray bursts on the surfaces of neutron stars. Two views of these X-ray bursts are shown: the left column is viewed from above while the right column shows it from a shallow angle above the surface. The panels (from top to bottom) show the X-ray burst structure at 10 milliseconds, 20 milliseconds and 40 milliseconds of simulation time.
Image Credit: Michael Zingale/Department of Physics and Astronomy at SUNY Stony Brook.

Understanding how a thermonuclear flame spreads across the surface of a neutron star — and what that spreading can tell us about the relationship between the neutron star’s mass and its radius — can also reveal much about the star’s composition. 

Neutron stars — the compact remnants of supernova explosions — are found throughout the universe. Because most stars are in binary systems, it is possible for a neutron star to have a stellar companion. X-ray bursts occur when matter accretes on the surface of the neutron star from its companion and is compressed by the intense gravity of the neutron star, resulting in a thermonuclear explosion. 

Astrophysicists at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, and University of California, Berkeley, used the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility’s Summit supercomputer, located at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, to compare models of X-ray bursts in 2D and 3D. 

“We can see these events happen in finer detail with a simulation. One of the things we want to do is understand the properties of the neutron star because we want to understand how matter behaves at the extreme densities you would find in a neutron star,” said Michael Zingale, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at SUNY Stony Brook who led the project.

Magnetic effects at the origin of life?

Biomolecules such as our genetic material, DNA, basically exist in two mirror-image forms; however, all living organisms only ever use one of them. Why this is the case is still unclear.
Image Credit: Gemini Advance

It's the spin that makes the difference

Biomolecules such as amino acids and sugars occur in two mirror-image forms – in all living organisms, however, only one is ever found. Why this is the case is still unclear. Researchers at Empa and Forschungszentrum Jülich in Germany have now found evidence that the interplay between electric and magnetic fields could be at the origin of this phenomenon.

The so-called homochirality of life – the fact that all biomolecules in living organisms only ever occur in one of two mirror-image forms – has puzzled a number of scientific luminaries, from the discoverer of molecular chirality, Louis Pasteur, to William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) and Nobel Prize winner Pierre Curie. A conclusive explanation is still lacking, as both forms have, for instance, the same chemical stability and do not differ from each other in their physico-chemical properties. The hypothesis, however, that the interplay between electric and magnetic fields could explain the preference for one or the other mirror-image form of a molecule – so-called enantiomers – emerged early on.

It was only a few years ago, though, that the first indirect evidence emerged that the various combinations of these force fields can indeed "distinguish" between the two mirror images of a molecule. This was achieved by studying the interaction of chiral molecules with metallic surfaces that exhibit a strong electric field over short distances. The surfaces of magnetic metals such as iron, cobalt or nickel thus allow electric and magnetic fields to be combined in various ways – the direction of magnetization is simply reversed, from "North up – South down" to "South up – North down". If the interplay between magnetism and electric fields actually triggers "enantioselective" effects, then the strength of the interaction between chiral molecules and magnetic surfaces should also differ, for example – depending on whether a right-handed or left-handed molecule "settles" on the surface.

Where Neural Stem Cells Feel at Home

In the laboratory, the Bochum researchers are investigating which environment offers neural stem cells the best chances of survival.
Photo Credit: © RUB, Marquard

Injuries in the central nervous system heal poorly because cavities scar. Researchers hope to remedy this problem by filling the cavities in such a way that stem cells feel comfortable in them.

Researchers from Bochum and Dortmund have created an artificial cell environment that could promote the regeneration of nerves. Usually, injuries to the brain or spinal cord don’t heal easily due to the formation of fluid-filled cavities and scars that prevent tissue regeneration. One starting point for medical research is therefore to fill the cavities with a substance that offers neural stem cells optimal conditions for proliferation and differentiation. The team from Ruhr University Bochum and TU Dortmund University, both in Germany, showed that positively charged hydrogels can promote the survival and growth of stem cells.

Dr. Kristin Glotzbach and Professor Andreas Faissner from the Department of Cell Morphology and Molecular Neurobiology in Bochum cooperated with Professor Ralf Weberskirch and Dr. Nils Stamm from the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at TU Dortmund University. The team describes the findings in the American Chemical Society Journal Biomaterials Science and Engineering.

Invasive weed could be turned into a viable economic crop

Prof Rahman and Dr Karim collecting paddy melons for urease enzyme extraction.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of University of South Australia

One of the most invasive Australian weeds is being touted as a potential economic crop, with benefits for the construction, mining and forestry industries, and potentially many First Nations communities.

The prickly paddy melon weed, which costs the agricultural industry around $100 million a year in lost grain yields, cattle deaths, and control measures, could turn into an unlikely money spinner as a source of urease enzymes to create bio cement and prevent soil erosion.

In a world-first study, researchers at the University of South Australia (UniSA) screened 50 native plants and weeds to find a cheaper and more environmentally friendly source for bulk producing of urease enzymes to strengthen soil.

Among the weeds tested, paddy melon ticked all the boxes and was almost as effective as soybean enzymes, which are more expensive and used primarily for food.

UniSA geotechnical engineer Professor Mizanur Rahman and his students collected the paddy melon weed from roadsides in Port Pirie in South Australia. After crushing the seeds and extracting enzymes in a liquid form, they freeze-dried them to create a powdered, high-concentration cementation agent.

Researcher receives Naval Research Laboratory grant to develop more sophisticated sensor array

From left to right, engineering faculty researchers Dongfang Liu, Xudong Zheng, and Qian Xue display the seal whisker specimen they are modeling their advanced sensor array on for improving underwater detection and recognition.
Photo Credit: Travis Lacoss/RIT

Researchers at Rochester Institute of Technology are creating a novel sensor system based on the superior design and detection range found on harbor seal whiskers.

Xudong Zheng, an associate professor in RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering, received a three-year, $746,000 award from the Naval Research Laboratory to build an autonomous underwater detection and tracking system with biological-level sensitivity, accuracy, and intelligence.

With demands for new sensor capabilities, increased sensitivity and accuracy could significantly advance underwater scientific explorations, such as tracking anomalies and seismic events in areas currently inaccessible or in improvements to robotic functions and military stealth missions.

“This is the next stage of development of stronger sensors,” said Zheng, whose team published findings in Frontiers in Robotics and AI. “Some early results of our computer simulations show that the sensor array combined with ‘smart’ algorithms could provide more smart perceptions and better reasoning regarding the signal pattern and how it corresponds to flow patterns.”

Methane Mystery

Maggie Capooci stands at the St. Jones Reserve where the team conducted its research.
Photo Credits: Evan Krape and Andrew Hill

Tidal salt marshes are fairly common across the Mid-Atlantic. These coastal ecosystems provide habitat for plants, birds and fish. Existing at the intersection of land and sea, tidal salt marshes act as armor against hurricanes and shoreline erosion.

Tidal salt marshes are also a powerful tool to combat climate change, said Rodrigo Vargas, an ecosystem ecology and environmental change professor in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences at the University of Delaware. These ecosystems absorb the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and their soils act as a carbon vault. 

“These ecosystems are threatened across the world. They are disappearing because of different problems, such as land use change and sea level rise,” Vargas said. “But they store a lot of carbon. So, there is a big concern about what will happen to salt marshes now under climate change and what is going to happen with the carbon stored in these ecosystems.” 

If tidal salt marshes shrink or disappear because of climate change or how human activities have transformed natural landscapes, could all the carbon they have stored go back into the atmosphere and further contribute to the warming of the Earth? Vargas said this is an important question that scientists are working on.

Tidal salt marsh soils are great at storing carbon because they're often flooded and have salty water. These conditions lower oxygen levels and make it difficult for most microorganisms to consume the carbon in the soil. However, some microorganisms called methyl-methanogens can eat some of the carbon in the soil and produce methane under these conditions. That’s a far more powerful greenhouse gas with the ability to heat up the Earth more intensely than carbon dioxide. In some marshes, the amount of methane produced and emitted can offset the amount of carbon captured by the ecosystem in the growing season.