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Category: health – Page 13

People with breathing problems during sleep may have a larger hippocampus, the area of the brain responsible for memory and thinking, according to a study published in the December 18, 2024, online issue of Neurology.

The study, which included mostly Latino people, also found that those with lower during sleep had changes in the deep parts of the brain, the , a common finding of decreased that develops with age.

Sleep disordered breathing is a range of conditions that cause abnormal breathing during sleep, including snoring and . Obstructive sleep apnea is when a person stops breathing five or more times per hour. When breathing stops, it can lower oxygen levels, affecting the brain.

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A NASA-led study reveals that the pattern of rainfall throughout the year—specifically the frequency and intensity of rain events—is nearly as significant to global vegetation health as the total amount of annual rainfall.

The research indicates that less frequent but heavier rainfalls can benefit plants in arid regions like the U.S. Southwest, while potentially harming those in wetter ecosystems such as the Central American rainforests due to longer intervals of dryness.

Impact of rainfall patterns on global vegetation.

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DDW Editor Reece Armstrong speaks to Ellie Mahjubi, Vice President, Protein and cell analysis at Thermo Fisher Scientific, about how spatial biology is impacting drug discovery and development research.

RA: What’s the future and potential for spatial biology?

EM: Technological advancements in spatial biology are providing unprecedented insights into single cells within their spatial context, facilitating the analysis of cell types, functional states, cell interaction networks, as well as tissue microenvironments and architecture. These innovations promise to significantly advance basic research and enhance our understanding of human health and disease.

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Nearly a quarter of Portuguese adults have allergies that cause a runny nose. This respiratory disease, formally called allergic rhinitis and frequently associated with asthma, is a common problem around the world, and the upper airway is a key target for research into the underlying disease processes.

Now a global team of researchers has discovered that patients with allergy-induced sniffles and asthma have different fungal colonies or mycobiomes in their noses, suggesting potential lines of inquiry for future treatments.

“We showed that samples displayed a significantly higher fungal diversity and a different fungal community structure compared to those of healthy controls,” said Dr. Luís Delgado of the University of Porto, Portugal, one of the authors of the article in Frontiers in Microbiology. “This may suggest that allergic rhinitis increases the diversity and changes the composition of the upper airway’s microbiome.”

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IVF technology matures eggs in a culture of iPSC (induced stem cell)-derived ovarian cells.

A baby was born in their trial, marking “first ever human birth using using iPSC technology” company claims.

Gameto useds iPSCs, or induced pluripotent stem cells. Same as embryonic stem cell, except made by inducing (forcing) a skin cell or white blood from a donor cell to become a stem cell using a protein cocktail. Dont need embryo to start.

This is also the first demonstration of an end-to-end process by which a therapy developed from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) has the potential to improve IVF outcomes and advance women’s health. Co-culturing immature eggs with Gameto’s proprietary OSCs has shown promising results to date, with the potential for higher rates of egg maturation and embryo formation.

Continue reading “Gameto Announces World’s First Live Birth Using Fertilo Procedure that Matures Eggs Outside the Body” | >

The findings suggest that biochemical and physical effects of exercise could help heal nerves. There’s no doubt that exercise does a body good. Regular activity not only strengthens muscles but can bolster our bones, blood vessels, and immune system.

Now, MIT engineers have found that exercise can also have benefits at the level of individual neurons. They observed that when muscles contract during exercise, they release a soup of biochemical signals called myokines. In the presence of these muscle-generated signals, neurons grew 4X farther compared to neurons that were not exposed to myokines. These cellular-level experiments suggest that exercise can have a significant biochemical effect on nerve growth.

Surprisingly, the researchers also found that neurons respond not only to the biochemical signals of exercise but also to its physical impacts. The team observed that when neurons are repeatedly pulled back and forth, similarly to how muscles contract and expand during exercise, the neurons grow just as much as when they are exposed to a muscle’s myokines.

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Scientists from the Kavli Institute of Delft University of Technology and the IMP Vienna Biocenter have discovered a new property of the molecular motors that shape our chromosomes. While six years ago they found that these so-called SMC motor proteins make long loops in our DNA, they have now discovered that these motors also put significant twists into the loops that they form.

These findings help us better understand the structure and function of our chromosomes. They also provide insight into how disruption of twisted DNA looping can affect health—for instance, in developmental diseases like “cohesinopathies.” The scientists published their findings in Science Advances.

Imagine trying to fit two meters of rope into a space much smaller than the tip of a needle—that’s the challenge every cell in your body faces when packing its DNA into its tiny nucleus. To achieve this, nature employs ingenious strategies, like twisting the DNA into coils of coils, so-called “supercoils” and wrapping it around special proteins for compact storage.

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A study published in the journal Optica demonstrates live plant imaging of several representative plant samples, including the biofuel crop sorghum. By employing a novel detector, researchers obtained clear images of living sorghum plants with a light far dimmer than starlight. This advance enables imaging of delicate, light-sensitive samples, such as biofuel crops, without disturbing or damaging the plants.

A method called quantum ghost imaging (QGI) allows scientists to capture images at extremely low light levels. QGI also enables the use of one low intensity color, best matched to the sample and a different color at higher intensity, sufficient to form the image of the sample. This approach improves imaging in regions of light where traditional cameras struggle.

By using label-free infrared imaging, researchers can gather critical information about important plant processes, such as and photosynthesis, even in low-light conditions. This is particularly beneficial for studying , where researchers want to optimize plant growth and health to maximize yield and sustainability.

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