Oregon State University researchers are first to see at-risk bat flying over open ocean

Hoary bat at sea.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Will Kennerley / the MOSAIC Project.

On a research cruise focused on marine mammals and seabirds, Oregon State University scientists earned an unexpected bonus: The first-ever documented sighting of a hoary bat flying over the open ocean.

The bat was seen in the Humboldt Wind Energy Area about 30 miles off the northern California coast; the Humboldt area has been leased for potential offshore energy development, and the hoary bat is the species of bat most frequently found dead at wind power facilities on land.

OSU faculty research assistant Will Kennerley, the first to see the bat, and colleagues documented the sighting with a paper in the Journal of North American Bat Research. The bat was spotted just after 1 p.m. on Oct. 3, 2022, in observing conditions rated as excellent.

“I have spent a lot of time at sea in all oceans of the world, and I’ve seen a lot of amazing things,” said Lisa Ballance, director of OSU’s Marine Mammal Institute. “A hoary bat was a first for all of us. It’s a reminder of the wonder of nature, and of its vulnerability.”

Scientists develop novel RNA- or DNA-based substances to protect plants from viruses

The new active ingredients can be used to protect plants against viruses.
Photo Credit: Uni Halle / Markus Scholz

Individually tailored RNA or DNA-based molecules are able to reliably fight off viral infections in plants, according to a new study by the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU), which was published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences. The researchers were able to fend off a common virus using the new active substances in up to 90 per cent of cases. They also developed a method for finding substances tailored specifically to the virus. The team has now patented the method.

During a viral infection, the plant’s cells are hijacked by the virus to multiply itself. Key products of this process are viral RNA molecules that serve as blueprints for the production of proteins. "A virus cannot reproduce without producing its proteins," explains Professor Sven-Erik Behrens from the Institute of Biochemistry and Biotechnology at MLU. For years, his team has been working on ways to disrupt this process and degrade the viral RNA molecules inside the cells. 

In the new study, the researchers describe how this can be achieved using the so-called "antisense" method. It relies on short, synthetically produced DNA molecules known as antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs). In the plant cells, the ASOs direct cellular enzymes acting as scissors towards the foreign RNA so they can degrade it. "For this process to work, it is crucial to identify a suitable target structure in the viral RNA which the enzyme scissors can attach to," explains Behrens. However, finding those accessible sites is really tricky: most potential target RNA molecules have a very complex structure, and they are also masked by other cell components. "This makes it even more difficult to attack them directly," says Behrens. 

Study finds drought fuels invasive species after wildfires

Parry’s Phacelia, native to Southern California, grows beneath burnt brush, at the Loma Ridge site where UCI’s Sarah Kimball conducted the research.
Photo Credit: Jessica Rath / UCI

In a study recently published in the journal Ecology, University of California, Irvine scientists uncover the intricate dance between drought, wildfires and invasive species in Southern California’s coastal sage scrub ecosystems.

Titled “Long-term drought promotes invasive species by reducing wildfire severity,” the research, led by Sarah Kimball, Ph.D., director of the Center for Environmental Biology at UCI, sheds light on the critical interplay of these factors and its profound implications for ecosystem health.

The research, conducted at the Loma Ridge Global Change Experiment, showcases how prolonged drought acts as a catalyst, influencing not only the severity of wildfires but also paving the way for invasive species to take center stage. By simulating drought conditions, the study clarifies connections between climate change, wildfire dynamics, and shifts in plant communities.

Reduced fire severity associated with drought creates an environment conducive to invasive species. Non-native grasses, in particular, thrive in these conditions, potentially leading to a transformation of the landscape and abundance and diversity of native species.

A step toward personalized immunotherapy for all

This immunofluorescence image shows CD4+ (green) and CD8+ (yellow) T cells in the microenvironment of a head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.
Image Credit: Allen Lab, NCI/NIH.

Most cancers are thought to evade the immune system. These cancers don’t carry very many mutations, and they aren’t infiltrated by cancer-fighting immune cells. Scientists call these cancers immunologically “cold.”

Now new research suggests such cancers aren’t as “cold” as once thought. Researchers from the La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI), UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, and UC San Diego, have found that patients with “cold” tumors actually do make cancer-fighting T cells.

This discovery opens the door to developing vaccines or therapies to increase T cell numbers and treat many more types of cancer than currently thought possible.

“In virtually every patient we’ve looked at, with every kind of cancer we’ve analyzed, we can detect pre-existing natural immunity against their tumor’s immunogenic subset of mutations known as neoantigens,” says LJI Professor Stephen Schoenberger, Ph.D., who co-led the new study with LJI Professor Bjoern Peters, Ph.D. “Therefore, we think these patients may actually benefit from empowering this response through personalized immunotherapy.”

“Every cancer patient is different,” adds Peters. “But this research is an important step toward finding immune cell targets relevant for individual patient tumors.”

Aerial surveys reveal ample populations of rays in southeast Florida

The giant manta ray is designated as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and is protected in Florida waters.
Photo Credit: Steve Kajiura, Florida Atlantic University

The whitespotted eagle ray (Aetobatus narinari) and the giant manta ray (Mobula birostris) are rapidly declining globally. Both species are classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as endangered worldwide and the giant manta ray is designated as threatened under the United States Endangered Species Act.

In Florida waters, giant manta rays and whitespotted eagle rays are protected species. To provide effective management for these species, it is necessary to gather information on their distribution and abundance.

Using aerial surveys, Florida Atlantic University researchers conducted a unique long-term (2014 to 2021) study to quantify the spatial (latitude) and temporal (month, year) abundance of the whitespotted eagle rays and giant manta rays in Southeast Florida. The researchers conducted 120 survey flights between January 2014 and December 2021 along the Atlantic Coast from Miami north to the Jupiter Inlet. They reviewed the video footage from the flights to quantify the number of rays of each species.

80 mph speed record for glacier fracture helps reveal the physics of ice sheet collapse

In this illustration, seawater flows deep below the surface into an actively opening ice shelf rift in Antarctica. New research shows that such rifts can open very quickly, and that the seawater rushing in helps control the speed of ice shelf breakage.
Illustration Credit: Rob Soto

There’s enough water frozen in Greenland and Antarctic glaciers that if they melted, global seas would rise by many feet. What will happen to these glaciers over the coming decades is the biggest unknown in the future of rising seas, partly because glacier fracture physics is not yet fully understood.

A critical question is how warmer oceans might cause glaciers to break apart more quickly. University of Washington researchers have demonstrated the fastest-known large-scale breakage along an Antarctic ice shelf. The study, recently published in AGU Advances, shows that a 6.5-mile (10.5 kilometer) crack formed in 2012 on Pine Island Glacier — a retreating ice shelf that holds back the larger West Antarctic ice sheet — in about 5 and a half minutes. That means the rift opened at about 115 feet (35 meters) per second, or about 80 miles per hour.

“This is to our knowledge the fastest rift-opening event that’s ever been observed,” said lead author Stephanie Olinger, who did the work as part of her doctoral research at the UW and Harvard University and is now a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University. “This shows that under certain circumstances, an ice shelf can shatter. It tells us we need to look out for this type of behavior in the future, and it informs how we might go about describing these fractures in large-scale ice sheet models.”

Neurons help flush waste out of brain during sleep

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that brain cell activity during sleep is responsible for propelling fluid into, through and out of the brain, cleaning it of debris.
Image Credit: Scientific Frontline stock image.

There lies a paradox in sleep. Its apparent tranquility juxtaposes with the brain’s bustling activity. The night is still, but the brain is far from dormant. During sleep, brain cells produce bursts of electrical pulses that cumulate into rhythmic waves — a sign of heightened brain cell function.

But why is the brain active when we are resting?

Slow brain waves are associated with restful, refreshing sleep. And now, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has found that brain waves help flush waste out of the brain during sleep. Individual nerve cells coordinate to produce rhythmic waves that propel fluid through dense brain tissue, washing the tissue in the process.

“These neurons are miniature pumps. Synchronized neural activity powers fluid flow and removal of debris from the brain,” explained first author Li-Feng Jiang-Xie, a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Pathology & Immunology. “If we can build on this process, there is the possibility of delaying or even preventing neurological diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, in which excess waste — such as metabolic waste and junk proteins — accumulate in the brain and lead to neurodegeneration.”

Pancreatic cancer lives on mucus

A cross-section of a mouse’s early-stage pancreatic tumor. CSHL scientists discovered that early pancreatic cancer cells depend on the regulators of mucus production to survive and grow. Green, purple, yellow, cyan, and white denote areas where mucus production is high.
Image Credit: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Knowing exactly what’s inside a tumor can maximize our ability to fight cancer. But that knowledge doesn’t come easy. Tumors are clusters of constantly changing cancer cells. Some become common cancer variants. Others morph into deadlier, drug-resistant varieties. No one truly understands what governs this chaotic behavior.

Now, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Professor David Tuveson and his team have uncovered a mechanism involved in pancreatic cancer transformation—mucus. During the disease’s early stage, pancreatic cancer cells produce mucus. Additionally, these cells depend on the body’s regulators of mucus production. This new knowledge could help set the stage for future diagnostic or therapeutic strategies.

The unpredictable, shifting nature of tumors makes it challenging to pinpoint the right treatments for patients. “We need to better understand this concept of cell plasticity and design therapy that takes this into consideration,” says Claudia Tonelli, a research investigator in the Tuveson lab, who led the study.

Light stimulates a new twist for synthetic chemistry

The molecules synthesized in this study form different isomers when irradiated with blue light.
Photo Credit: Akira Katsuyama

Molecules that are induced by light to rotate bulky groups around central bonds could be developed into photo-activated bioactive systems, molecular switches, and more.

Researchers at Hokkaido University, led by Assistant Professor Akira Katsuyama and Professor Satoshi Ichikawa at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, have extended the toolkit of synthetic chemistry by making a new category of molecules that can be induced to undergo an internal rotation on interaction with light. Similar processes are believed to be important in some natural biological systems. Synthetic versions might be exploited to perform photochemical switching functions in molecular computing and sensing technologies, or in bioactive molecules including drugs. They report their findings in Nature Chemistry.

“Achieving a system like ours has been a significant challenge in photochemistry,” says Katsuyama. “The work makes an important contribution to an emerging field in molecular manipulation.”

Insights into the possibilities for light to significantly alter molecular conformations have come from examining some natural proteins. These include the rhodopsin molecules in the retina of the eye, which play a crucial role in converting light into the electrical signals that create our sense of vision in the brain. Details are emerging of how the absorption of light energy can induce a twisting rearrangement of part of the rhodopsin molecule, required for it to perform its biological function.

“Mimicking this in synthetic systems might create molecular-level switches with a variety of potential applications,” Katsuyama explains.

Study unlocks nanoscale secrets for designing next-generation solar cells

A team of MIT researchers and several other institutions has revealed ways to optimize efficiency and better control degradation, by engineering the nanoscale structure of perovskite devices. Team members include Madeleine Laitz, left, and lead author Dane deQuilettes.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the researchers
(CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED)

Perovskites, a broad class of compounds with a particular kind of crystal structure, have long been seen as a promising alternative or supplement to today’s silicon or cadmium telluride solar panels. They could be far more lightweight and inexpensive, and could be coated onto virtually any substrate, including paper or flexible plastic that could be rolled up for easy transport.

In their efficiency at converting sunlight to electricity, perovskites are becoming comparable to silicon, whose manufacture still requires long, complex, and energy-intensive processes. One big remaining drawback is longevity: They tend to break down in a matter of months to years, while silicon solar panels can last more than two decades. And their efficiency over large module areas still lags behind silicon. Now, a team of researchers at MIT and several other institutions has revealed ways to optimize efficiency and better control degradation, by engineering the nanoscale structure of perovskite devices.

The study reveals new insights on how to make high-efficiency perovskite solar cells, and also provides new directions for engineers working to bring these solar cells to the commercial marketplace. The work is described today in the journal Nature Energy, in a paper by Dane deQuilettes, a recent MIT postdoc who is now co-founder and chief science officer of the MIT spinout Optigon, along with MIT professors Vladimir Bulovic and Moungi Bawendi, and 10 others at MIT and in Washington state, the U.K., and Korea.

“Ten years ago, if you had asked us what would be the ultimate solution to the rapid development of solar technologies, the answer would have been something that works as well as silicon but whose manufacturing is much simpler,” Bulovic says. “And before we knew it, the field of perovskite photovoltaics appeared. They were as efficient as silicon, and they were as easy to paint on as it is to paint on a piece of paper. The result was tremendous excitement in the field.”