Category: Guest Posts

Researchers compared the whole genome sequence of two genetically distinct lineages of bed bug, and their findings indicate bed bugs may well be the first true urban pest.

A new study reveals the biological secret to the Zika virus’s infectious success: Zika uses host cells’ own ‘self-care’ system of clearing away useless molecules to suppress the host proteins that the virus has employed to get into those cells in the first place.

In biology, enzymes have evolved over millions of years to drive chemical reactions. Scientists have now derived universal rules to enable the de novo design of optimal enzymes. As an example, they considered the enzymatic reaction of breaking a dimer into two monomer molecules. Considering the geometry of such an enzyme-substrate-complex, they identified three golden rules that should be considered to build a functional enzyme.

Scientists create a floss pick that samples cortisol within saliva as a marker of stress and quantifies it with a built-in electrode. The system uses a polymer casting technology that can be adapted to capture a wide a range of markers, such as estrogen for tracking fertility, or glucose for tracking diabetes. Ease of use allows monitoring to be incorporated into many areas of treatment.

Researchers have developed a vascularized organoid model of hormone secreting cells in the pancreas. The advance promises to improve diabetes research and cell-based therapies.

For the nearly 30 percent of major depressive disorder patients who are resistant to treatment, ketamine provides some amount of normalcy, but it requires frequent treatment and can have side effects. Researchers now show in proof-of-concept experiments that it may be possible to extend ketamine’s antidepressant effect from about a week to up to two months.

As the US national debate intensifies around immigration, a new study is challenging conventional wisdom about ‘brain drain’–the idea that when skilled workers emigrate from developing countries, their home economies suffer.

In 2022 a team discovered that high levels of OH radicals can be generated indoors, simply due to the presence of people and ozone. This means: People generate their own oxidation field and change the indoor air chemistry around them within their own personal space. Now, in a follow-up study again in cooperation with an international research team, they found that commonly applied personal care products substantially suppress a human’s production of OH radicals. These findings have implications for the indoor chemistry, the air quality of occupied spaces, and human health, since many of the chemicals in our immediate vicinity are transformed by this field.

Poor mental health, rising obesity rates, exposure to violence and climate change are among the key challenges facing our adolescents today, according to a global report.

Historically, most human mpox infections have resulted from zoonotic transmission –m eaning from animals to humans — and these spillovers have rarely led to human-to-human transmission. But during the 2022 global outbreak, mpox began spreading readily between people. A new study now shows the virus was circulating long before then.