Generation

LUCA technologies confirms real-time methane generation

Luca Technologies LLC today announced that its researchers have confirmed the presence of a resident, methane-generating community of microorganisms ("microbial consortium") in substrate samples taken from the 110,000 acre Monument Butte oilfield located in North Eastern Utah. This site represents the latest in a series of active "GeobioreactorsTM" that Luca Technologies has identified since its...

New component of the 'brakes' on nerve regeneration found

Among the principal obstacles to regenerating spinal cord and brain cells after injury is the "braking" machinery in neurons that prevents regeneration. While peripheral nerves have no such machinery and can readily regenerate, central nervous system (CNS) neurons have their brakes firmly in place and locked. Now, two groups of scientists have independently found a new component of that b...

Next Generation Body Scanner Launched By The University Of Manchester

The first `next generation' MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) body scanner in the world will be officially launched at Hope Hospital later this week (Friday 18 th February). The state-of-the-art technology involved...

15 generations of untrained jocks, couch potatoes show big physiological adaptations

So, you don't like to exercise? Maybe you could blame it on your great-great-grandparents. Similarly, if you're a practiced and proud couch potato who suddenly woke up to the fact that you're a "natural" athlete, the credit could also belong to your genes. Exercise research traditionally has focused on the effects of training, rather than underlying genetic mechanisms. But physiologists wo...

Researchers feed tiny pills of RNA to planarians to identify genes essential for regeneration

University of Utah researchers-feeding microscopic pills of RNA to quarter-inch long worms called planarians-have identified many genes essential to understanding a biological mystery that has captivated scientists for hundreds of years: regeneration. In pinpointing the genes, the U School of Medicine researchers have established the planarian as a genetically sound model for human biolog...

Tissue regeneration operates differently than expected

Max Planck researchers in Bad Nauheim discover the mechanism by which adult stem cells are integrated into skeletal or heart muscle tissue. There is disagreement, however, about the mechanism on which repair processes are based. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research in Bad Nauheim, Germany, in co-operation with colleagues from Martin Luther University in Halle...

New understanding of regeneration gained by Forsyth scientists

Forsyth Institute research with the flatworm, planaria, offers new clues for understanding restoration of body structures. Researchers at The Forsyth Institute have discovered how the worm's cells communicate to correctly repair and regenerate tissue. Forsyth scientists have found that gap-junction (microscopic tunnels directly linking neighboring cells) communication contributes to this signali...

GROWing the next generation of water recycling plants

A vegetated rooftop recycling system has been developed that allows water to be used twice before it is flushed into the communal waste water system. GROW is the brainchild of Chris Shirley-Smith, whose company Wat...

New compound stops brain cell degeneration in Alzheimer's disease

Drug discovery researchers at Northwestern University have developed a novel orally administered compound specifically targeted to suppress brain cell inflammation and neuron loss associated with Alzheimer's disease. The compound is also rapidly absorbed by the brain and is non-toxic ?important considerations for a central nervous system drug that might need to be taken for extended period...

New gene reduces retinal degeneration in fruit flies

Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered a gene in fruit flies that helps certain specialized neurons respond more quickly to bright light. The study, published in the April 4 issue of Current Biology, also has implications for understanding sensory perception in mammals. In teasing apart the molecular interactions and physiology underlying light perception, the researchers studied a gene...

Chimpanzees can transmit cultural behavior to multiple 'generations'

Transferring knowledge through a chain of generations is a behavior not exclusive to humans, according to new findings by researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University and the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. For the first time, researchers have shown chimpanzees exhibit generational learning behavior similar to that in humans. Unlike previous findings that in...

Protein-coated dental implants could improve bone regeneration

Titanium dental implants coated with proteins that induce bone formation may be a key advancement in treating tooth loss due to gum disease, researchers say. In laboratory tests, MCG researchers applied a protein onto implants that directs endogenous stem cells to become bone-forming cells. The result was a nearly complete regeneration of lost tissue, says Dr. Ulf Wikesjö, a professor of...

Salk and Stanford teams join forces to reveal two paths of neurodegeneration

Wiring the developing brain is like creating a topiary garden. Shrubs don't automatically assume the shape of ornamental elephants, and neither do immature nerve cells immediately recognize the "right" target cell. Abundant foliage, either vegetal or neuronal, must first sprout and then be sculpted into an ordered structure. Neurons extend fibers called axons to target cells in an exuberan...

Light-sensitive photoswitches could restore sight to those with macular degeneration

A research center newly created by the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) aims to put light-sensitive switches in the body's cells that can be flipped on and off as easily as a remote control operates a TV. Optical switches like these could trigger a chemical reaction, initiate a muscle contraction, activate a drug or stimulate a nerve cell...

Columbia University licenses next-generation DNA sequencing technology

Columbia University announces today that it recently executed an exclusive license agreement for a next generation DNA sequencing technology to Intelligent Bio-Systems (IBS), Inc. This innovative DNA-sequencing technology was invented by Dr. Jingyue Ju, professor of Chemical Engineering and head of DNA Sequencing and Chemical Biology at the Judith P. Sulzberger, M.D. Columbia Genome Center at Col...

Rescuing injured hearts by enhancing regeneration

Using a two-drug approach, researchers at Children's Hospital Boston have demonstrated that it may be possible to rescue heart function after a heart attack and protect the heart from scarring. Working with rats, they combined an agent that overcomes a natural inhibitor of cell division with a naturally occurring growth factor that encourages blood vessel growth (angiogenesis). Together, these tw...

Transplanted photoreceptor precursor cells restore visual function in mice with retinal degeneration

Scientists have successfully transplanted light-sensing cells called photoreceptors directly into the eyes of mice and restored their visual function. The achievement is based on a novel technology in which the cells are introduced at a particular stage in their development. It was carried out at the London Institute of Ophthalmology using a novel approach developed at the University of...

Key to zebrafish heart regeneration uncovered

When a portion of a zebrafish's heart is removed, the dynamic interplay between a mass of stem cells that forms in the wound and the protective cell layer that covers the wound spurs the regeneration of functional new heart tissue, Duke University Medical Center scientists have found. The scientists further discovered that key growth factors facilitate the interaction between the cell mass...

Low levels of neurotransmitter serotonin may perpetuate child abuse across generations

Infant abuse may be perpetuated between generations by changes in the brain induced by early experience, research shows at the University of Chicago shows. A research team found that when baby rhesus monkeys endured high rates of maternal rejection and mild abuse in their first month of life, their brains often produced less serotonin, a chemical that transmits impulses in the brain. Low...

Research project tackles 'regeneration' gap

Researchers at the McKnight Brain Institute of the University of Florida have initiated a project to treat human brain and other diseases by plundering the secrets of regeneration from creatures with remarkable powers of self-renewal, such as salamanders, newts, starfish and flatworms. Fueled by about $6 million in private donations, university support and state matching funds, "The Regene...

Researchers hot on the trail of brain cell degeneration

A research team headed by Academy Research Fellow Michael Courtney has identified a new molecular pathway in neurons. The pathway is a factor in the degeneration of brain cells, which in turn plays an important role in neurological conditions and diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy and stroke. Courtney and his team, based at the A. I. Virtanen Institute of the University of Kuopio, jo...

Liver regeneration may be simpler than previously thought

The way the liver renews itself may be simpler than what scientists had been assuming. A new study, appearing in the April 13 issue of The Journal of Biological Chemistry, provides new information on the inner workings of cells from regenerating livers that could significantly affect the way physicians make livers regrow in patients with liver diseases such as cirrhosis, hepatitis, or cancer. </p...

First demonstration of new hair follicle generation in an animal model

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have found that hair follicles in adult mice regenerate by re-awakening genes once active only in developing embryos. These findings provide unequivocal evidence for the first time that, like other animals such as newts and salamanders, mammals have the power to regenerate. These findings are published in the May 17 issue of Nature....