How do female whale sharks meet their perfect mates and go on to create offspring? While little is known about the reproductive behavior of those ocean-roaming giants, a newly published analysis led by University of Illinois at Chicago biologist Jennifer Schmidt reveals new information about the mating habits of this elusive, difficult-to-study fish.
The pregnant shark carried a amazingly many embryos — 304 — still in the uterus and representing a spectrum of age and development phases ranging from being still egg-encased to developed, near-term animals. Continue Reading »
Human pluripotent stem cells, which can become any other kind of body cell, hold great potential to treat a wide range of ailments, including Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injuries. However, scientists who work with such cells have had trouble growing large enough quantities to perform experiments — in particular, for use in human studies. Furthermore, most materials now used to grow human stem cells include cells or proteins that come from mice embryos, which help stimulate stem-cell growth but would likely cause an immune reaction if injected into a human patient.
To overcome those issues, MIT chemical engineers, materials scientists and biologists have devised a synthetic surface that includes no foreign animal material and allows stem cells to stay alive and continue reproducing themselves for at least three months. It’s also the first synthetic material that allows single cells to form colonies of identical cells, which is necessary to identify cells with desired traits and has been difficult to achieve with existing materials. Continue Reading »
For those with high blood pressure, chili peppers might be just what the doctor ordered, according to a study reported in the August issue of Cell Metabolism, a Cell Press publication. While the active ingredient that gives the peppers their heat — a compound known as capsaicin — might set your mouth on fire, it also leads blood vessels to relax, the research in hypertensive rats shows.
“We found that long-term dietary consumption of capsaicin, one of the most abundant components in chili peppers, could reduce blood pressure in genetically hypertensive rats,” said Zhiming Zhu of Third Military Medical University in Chongqing, China. Continue Reading »
Scientists hoping to understand how cells work may get a boost from a new technique to tag and image proteins within living mammalian cells.
The new technique, developed by a research team led by University of Illinois at Chicago assistant professor of chemistry Lawrence Miller, provides the clearest, most dynamic view yet of protein-protein interactions in cells when viewed through a specially modified microscope. Continue Reading »
Throughout embryonic development, proteins known as Polycomb group complexes turn genes off when and where their activity should not be present, preventing specialised tissues and organs from forming within the wrong places. They also play a huge role in processes like stem cell differentiation and cancer. Continue Reading »
Spanish and French researchers have evaluated the spread of the invasive mosquitofish Gambusia holbrooki, which is native to the us and lives in Mediterranean rivers in Spain and France. The scientists warn that climate change will extend the current distribution area of this and other invasive species to the north. Continue Reading »
A study published in the diary Science offers a long-awaited explanation for that link between HIV infection and susceptibility to life-threatening nontyphoidal strains of Salmonella. The research, funded by the Wellcome Trust and GlaxoSmithKline, procedes determine targets that could be pursued for vaccine improvement. Continue Reading »
Could natural labels lead you to overeat? These types of labeling certainly appear to make individuals believe their own organic snack has a lot fewer energy compared to it will.
These bits of information had been presented at this week’s Experimental Biology conference in Anaheim, Calif. These people demonstrated which people who consumed natural cookies called “organic” thought which their snack included 40% less energy than the exact same cookies that got no label, according to Jenny Wan-Chen Lee, a graduate student with the Cornell Food and Brand Lab. Continue Reading »
Grass buffer strips are commonly used in crop production to reduce herbicide runoff. These practices are encouraged through incentives, regulations or laws, and are effective at lowering herbicide concentration in runoff. However, subsurface filtration (under the buffer strips) is not as well documented, and neither are the effects of trees integrated into buffer strips with grasses. Understanding these effects is crucial as agriculture producers continue to adopt these strategies. Continue Reading »
Landscape trees are increasingly being produced using container nursery systems rather than traditional field production practices. In contrast to field production techniques, successful container production requires a series of transplanting events in which trees are sequentially transferred to larger containers, a practice known as “potting-up” or “up-canning.” Continue Reading »
