New analysis yields clearer picture of toxin-producing blue-green algae blooms

2024 cyanobacterial bloom at Detroit Reservoir
Photo Credit: Elijah Welch, city of Salem.

A long-term analysis shows that a major Oregon reservoir abruptly swapped one type of toxic algae for another midway through the 12-year study period, absent from any obvious cause. 

The project provides a novel look at harmful algal blooms, or HABs which pose multiple health risks to people and animals worldwide. 

Harmful algal blooms in lakes and reservoirs are explosions of cyanobacteria, often referred to as blue-green algae. Microscopic organisms ubiquitous in all types of water around the globe, cyanobacteria use sunlight to make their own food and in warm, nutrient-rich environments can quickly multiply, resulting in blooms that spread across the water’s surface. 

These blooms can form at any time of the year but most often occur between spring and fall. Some types of cyanobacteria produce liver toxins and neurotoxins, while others make toxins that can cause gastrointestinal illness if swallowed and acute rashes upon contact with skin. 

Biochemistry: In-Depth Description

Image Credit: Scientific Frontline

Biochemistry is a branch of biology and chemistry that explores the chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. Its primary goal is to understand the chemical basis of life by studying the structure, function, and interactions of biological macromolecules.

This field seeks to answer fundamental questions about how collections of inanimate molecules interact to constitute, maintain, and perpetuate living organisms.

Nonsurgical treatment shows promise for targeted seizure control

Jerzy Szablowski
Photo Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University

Rice University bioengineers have demonstrated a nonsurgical way to quiet a seizure-relevant brain circuit in an animal model. The team used low-intensity focused ultrasound to briefly open the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in the hippocampus, delivered an engineered gene therapy only to that region and later flipped an on-demand “dimmer switch” with an oral drug. The research shows that a one-time, targeted procedure can modulate a specific brain region without impacting off-target areas of the brain.

“Many neurological diseases are driven by hyperactive cells at a particular location in the brain,” said study lead Jerzy Szablowski, assistant professor of bioengineering and a member of the Rice Neuroengineering Initiative. “Our approach aims the therapy where it is needed and lets you control it when you need it, without surgery and without a permanent implant.”

UC Irvine team track massive ice loss from Berry Glacier in West Antarctica

UC Irvine researchers analyzed decades worth of satellite data to better understand the causes of the rapid retreat of Berry Glacier, a tributary of the Getz Ice Shelf (pictured) in West Antarctica.
Photo Credit: NASA

Berry Glacier, a tributary of the Getz Ice Shelf in West Antarctica, has deteriorated dramatically in the past three decades, according to researchers in the Department of Earth System Science at the University of California, Irvine. In a study published recently in Nature Communications, the scientists documented that in the period spanning 1996 to 2023, the glacier retreated seven-tenths of a kilometer per year for a total of 18 kilometers, about 11 miles. 

Berry Glacier thinned by 11 meters per year during the study period, and its retreat velocity increased by 64 percent, resulting in a loss of 130 gigatons of ice mass. The team derived these results by analyzing synthetic-aperture radar interferometry data from several missions, including ERS-1/2, ALOS-1/2 PALSAR, Sentinel-1, COSMO-SkyMed and the RADARSAT Constellation Mission. 

Thyroid gland new possible target for prostate cancer treatment

Lukas Kenner, visiting professor at the Department of Molecular Biology.
Photo Credit: Medizinische Universität Wien

A hormone produced in the thyroid gland can play a key role in the development of prostate cancer. This is shown in a new study by an international research group led by Umeå University, Sweden, and the Medical University of Vienna, Austria. By blocking a receptor for the hormone, the growth of tumor cells in the prostate was inhibited. In the long term, the discovery may open up a new way of attacking certain types of aggressive prostate cancer.

"The results indicate that the receptor in question is a driving force in the growth of cancer. Substances that block it could thus be a target for future drugs against prostate cancer," says Lukas Kenner, visiting professor at Umeå University and the one who has led the study that is published in Molecular Cancer.

The receptor in question is called thyroid hormone receptor Beta, TRβ. It binds the thyroid hormone triiodothyronine, T3. In laboratory experiments, the activation of T3 has led to a sharp increase in the number of prostate cancer cells. However, when the receptor TRβ was inhibited with the help of an active substance, NH-3, significantly reduced the growth of cancer cells. NH-3 is a substance that is only used in research to block TRβ.

New study reveals devastating impact of cane toads approaching the Pilbara

Photo Credit: Dr Judy Dunlop

New Curtin University research has found invasive cane toads are on track to reach Western Australia’s Pilbara region within the next 10 to 20 years, threatening to cause widespread losses among native species and significant cultural and economic harm.

The study, published in Scientific Reports, predicts that without containment efforts, the toxic amphibians will colonise up to 75 per cent of the Pilbara within three decades, putting 25 native species at risk of serious population declines. These include several species of native marsupial predators like northern quolls, ghost bat and kaluta, as well as frog-eating snakes, blue-tongue skinks and goannas.

Of these, nine native mammals and reptiles are expected to become newly listed as threatened species and push the already vulnerable ghost bat to a higher threat category if the toads are not properly managed.

How do plants know how large to grow?

Arabidopsis thaliana is a popular model organism in plant biology and genetics.
Photo Credit: Abhishek Kumar

What makes plants grow to a certain size? From the tiniest cells to whole leaves, roots, and stems, growth has to be carefully coordinated – but until now, it has been hard to compare findings from different studies.

In a new study, researchers at Université de Montréal combined results from 176 experiments on Arabidopsis thaliana, a popular model organism in plant biology and genetics, to build the first ever atlas of plant growth.

The barred owl’s westward migration threatens other species and a whole ecosystem

Barred owls, native to the eastern United States and Canada but invasive to the west, prey on a wide range of species with special conservation status.
Photo Credit: Lane Wintermute/USFWS

A new study of nearly 800 barred owls on the West Coast shows the invasive predator feeds on 29 species given special conservation status by federal and state governments.

The list includes mammals, birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles, according to an analysis led by researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, who describe the wide-ranging pressure the owl’s advance into new territory is putting on native prey and predator species alike.

In 2024, the federal Fish and Wildlife Service adopted plans to reduce the number of barred owls in California, Oregon and Washington to protect a pair of threatened owls, the northern spotted owl and California spotted owl.

The new findings, published before peer review as a preprint on bioRxiv, suggest that the barred owl — which arrived recently in the western United States — is a danger to the survival of more than just competing owls, according to Daniela Arenas-Viveros, a lead author of the study.

Nanorobots transform stem cells into bone cells

Prof. Berna Özkale Edelmann, together with researchers at her Microrobotic Bioengineering Lab at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), developed a system in which stem cells can be transformed into bone cells through mechanical stimulation.
Photo Credit: Astrid Eckert / Technische Universität München

For the first time, researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have succeeded in using nanorobots to stimulate stem cells with such precision that they are reliably transformed into bone cells. To achieve this, the robots exert external pressure on specific points in the cell wall. The new method offers opportunities for faster treatments in the future.

Prof. Berna Özkale Edelmann’s nanorobots consist of tiny gold rods and plastic chains. Several million of them are contained in a gel cushion measuring just 60 micrometers, together with a few human stem cells. Powered and controlled by laser light, the robots, which look like tiny balls, mechanically stimulate the cells by exerting pressure. “We heat the gel locally and use our system to precisely determine the forces with which the nanorobots press on the cell – thereby stimulating it,” explains the professor of nano- and microrobotics at TUM. This mechanical stimulation triggers biochemical processes in the cell. Ion channels change their properties, and proteins are activated, including one that is particularly important for bone formation.

Behavioral Science: In-Depth Description

Image Credit: Scientific Frontline / stock image

Behavioral Science is the systematic, interdisciplinary study of human and animal behavior, examining the cognitive, emotional, social, and biological drivers of action. Its primary goals are to empirically understand, explain, predict, and, in applied contexts, influence behavior at the individual, group, and societal levels.