Researchers world-wide are focused on clearing the toxic mutant Huntingtin protein that leads to neuronal cell death and systemic dysfunction in Huntington's disease (HD), a devastating, incurable, progressive neurodegenerative genetic disorder. Scientists in the lab of Buck Institute Professor Linda Ellerby (https://www.buckinstitute.org/lab/ellerby-lab/), PhD, lab have found that the targeting the protein called FK506-binding protein 51 (FKBP51) promotes the clearing of those toxic proteins via autophagy, a natural process whereby cells recycle damaged proteins and mitochondria and use them ..read more

An international consortium has reported the largest-ever global metagenomic study of urban microbiomes, spanning both the air and the surfaces of multiple cities. The international project, which sequenced and analyzed samples collected from public transit systems and hospitals in 60 cities around the world, features comprehensive analysis and annotation for all the microbial species identified--including thousands of viruses and bacteria and two archaea not found in reference databases. The study was published online on May 26, 2021 in Cell. The open-access article is titled “A Global Metage ..read more

Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide. Neuroscientists from Synapsy--the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research into Mental Illness--based at Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) and Lausanne University (UNIL) in Swizerland have recently demonstrated that lactate, a molecule produced by the body during exercise, has an antidepressant effect in mice. Lactate is best known for the pivotal role it plays in the nutrition of neurons inside the brain. Yet it can also counter the inhibition of the survival and proliferation of new neurons, a loss seen in patients suffering f ..read more

Dr. Gerald Zon’s latest “Zone in with Zon” blog post, dated May 25, 2021, and published by TriLink BioTechnologies of San Diego (https://www.trilinkbiotech.com), discusses the key component for the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines, namely the chemically modified mRNA (modRNA) synthesized by in vitro transcription (IVT) reactions, wherein one of the natural (aka wild-type) A, G, C, and U nucleotide 5’-triphosphates is replaced by a base-modified analog. Dr. Zon notes that interest in chemically modified mRNA (modRNA) can be traced back to a 2005 report by Karikó et al. (https://pubmed ..read more

On May 25, 2021, GenSight Biologics (Euronext: SIGHT, ISIN: FR0013183985, PEA-PME eligible) (https://www.gensight-biologics.com/), a biopharma company focused on developing and commercializing innovative gene therapies for retinal neurodegenerative diseases and central nervous system disorders, announced that the highly-regarded journal Nature Medicine has published the first case report of partial recovery of visual function in a blind patient with late-stage retinitis pigmentosa (RP). The subject is a participant in the ongoing PIONEER Phase I/II clinical trial of GenSight Biologics’ GS030 o ..read more

While many might consider a walk in the woods to be a quiet, peaceful escape from their noisy urban life, we often don't consider just how incredibly noisy some natural environments can be. Although we use soothing natural sounds in our daily lives--to relax or for meditation--the thunder of a mountain river or the crash of pounding surf have likely been changing how animals communicate and where they live for eons. A new experimental study published in the journal Nature Communications finds that birds and bats often avoid habitat swamped with loud whitewater river noise. The open-access arti ..read more

There have been more than 130 million cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections to date worldwide, yet another global pathogen--the Aedes mosquito-borne dengue virus--saw a record number of over 400 million cases in 2019. But vaccine development has been challenging due to the need to protect equally against all four dengue strains. The discovery of new possible biomarkers to predict clinical and immune responses to dengue virus infection, published on May 24, 2021 in Nature Communications, could be critical to informing future vaccines. The open-access article is titled “Immunotranscriptomic Profiling t ..read more

Professor Lorraine O’Driscoll (nee McElroy) (photo), Chair of Pharmacology and Biomedicine at Trinity College Dublin, from Annamartin, Smithborough, Ireland was inducted into the Royal Irish Academy, Ireland’s leading body of experts in the sciences and humanities, on Friday, May 21, 2021. Membership is by election and is considered to be the highest academic honor in Ireland. The Royal Irish Academy has been honoring Ireland’s leading contributors to the world of learning since its establishment in 1785. Admittance to the Academy is a prestigious honor, and those elected are entitled to use t ..read more

One member of a large protein family that is known to stop the spread of bacterial infections by prompting infected human cells to self-destruct appears to kill the infectious bacteria instead, a new study led by University of Texas Southwestern (UTSW) scientists shows. However, some bacteria have their own mechanism to thwart this attack, nullifying the deadly protein by tagging it for destruction. The findings, published online on May 21, 2021 in Cell, could lead to new antibiotics to fight bacterial infections. And insight into this cellular conflict could shed light on a number of other co ..read more

For the first time, researchers have successfully sequenced the entire genome from the skull of Peştera Muierii 1, a woman who lived in today's Romania ~35,000 years ago. Her high genetic diversity shows that the out-of-Africa migration was not the great bottleneck in human development, but rather this occurred during and after the most recent Ice Age. This is the finding of a new study led by Mattias Jakobsson, PhD, at Sweden’s Uppsala University and published online on May 18, 2021 in Current Biology. The open-access article is titled “Genome of Peştera Muierii Skull Shows High Diversity and ..read more