International Research Awards on New Science Inventions

Greying apparitions scurry silently down hirsute paths, nestled amongst the cloying warmth of flaking skin. Their crude cement seeps across the contours of our ancient scalps, fixing oval shells between seams of folded flesh and swaying stalks. In search of lives once lived we comb through fraying manes, our past preserved in bonds more fierce than bone or tooth or claw. Tenderly we run fingers through hair, tracing histories to the withered stem of every root. A mummified adult man of the Ansilta culture, from the Andes of San Juan, Argentina, dating back approximately 2,000 years (Image Credit: Universidad Nacional de San Juan). This poem is inspired by recent research , which has found that head lice can help us to analyse the remains of our ancestors. When examining the DNA of our ancestors, scientists have tended to extract samples from the dense bone of the skull or from inside teeth. However, these are not always available, and it can be unethic...

The secret to producing large batches of stem cells more efficiently may lie in the near-zero gravity conditions of space. Scientists at Cedars-Sinai have found that microgravity has the potential to contribute to life-saving advances on Earth by facilitating the rapid mass production of stem cells. A  new paper , led by Cedars Sinai and published in the peer-review journal  Stem Cell Reports , highlights key opportunities discussed during the 2020 Biomanufacturing in Space Symposium to expand the manufacture of stem cells in space. Biomanufacturing—a type of stem cell production that uses biological materials such as microbes to produce substances and biomaterials suitable for use in preclinical, clinical, and therapeutic applications—can be more productive in microgravity conditions. “We are finding that spaceflight and microgravity is a desirable place for biomanufacturing because it confers a number of very special properties to biological tissues and biological ...

A new study shows how cell membranes curve to create the “mouths” that allow the cells to consume things that surround them. “Just like our eating habits basically shape anything in our body, the way cells ‘eat’ matters for the health of the cells,” said  Comert Kural , associate professor of physics at The Ohio State University and lead author of the study. “And scientists did not, until now, understand the mechanics of how that happened.” The study, published recently in the journal  Developmental Cell , found that the intercellular machinery of a cell assembles into a highly curved basket-like structure that eventually grows into a closed cage. Scientists had previously believed that structure began as a flat lattice. Membrane curvature is important, Kural said: It controls the formation of the pockets that carry substances into and out of a cell. The pockets capture substances around the cell, forming around the extracellular substances, before turning into vesi...

War veterans have helped scientists of  South Ural State University  identify biological indicators which signal whether people have a post-traumatic stress disorder or a susceptibility to it. The research results are  published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, a top-rated scientific journal. In their research works on studying post-traumatic stress disorder, the representatives of the SUSU  School of Medical Biology  have reached a new level. Earlier, they used an experimental method of  stimulating post-traumatic stress disorder in rats  and tracking changes in their bodies. Now, the world scientific community has been presented the results of the clinical study. The work began back in 2016. More than a hundred people became participants: patients of the Chelyabinsk Regional Clinical Therapeutic Hospital for War Veterans and combat action participants who had not been diagnosed with the disorder. The scientists conducted clinical intervie...

Infection with the virus that causes   COVID-19 can trigger an immune response that lasts well beyond the initial infection and recovery—even among people who had mild symptoms or no symptoms at all, according to Cedars-Sinai investigators.  The findings  are published in the  Journal of Translational Medicine . When people are infected with a virus or other pathogen, their bodies unleash proteins called antibodies that detect foreign substances and keep them from invading cells. In some cases, however, people produce autoantibodies that can attack the body’s own organs and tissues over time. The Cedars-Sinai investigators found that people with prior infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, have a wide variety of autoantibodies up to six months after they have fully recovered. Prior to this study, researchers knew that severe cases of COVID-19 can stress the immune system so much that autoantibodies are produced. This study is the first to repo...

Natural evolution is a slow process that relies on the gradual accumulation of genetic mutations. In recent years, scientists have found ways to speed up the process on a small scale, allowing them to rapidly create new proteins and other molecules in their lab. This widely-used technique, known as directed evolution, has yielded new antibodies to treat cancer and other diseases, enzymes used in biofuel production, and imaging agents for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Researchers at MIT have now developed a robotic platform that can perform 100 times as many directed-evolution experiments in parallel, giving many more populations the chance to come up with a solution, while monitoring their progress in real-time. In addition to helping researchers develop new molecules more rapidly, the technique could also be used to simulate natural evolution and answer fundamental questions about how it works. “Traditionally, directed evolution has been much more of an art than a science, ...

A once-a-day antiretroviral medicine that is low-cost and easy for children to take is also more effective at suppressing HIV than standard treatments, according to a global trial led by researchers at UCL. The study, published today in  The New England Journal of Medicine , found that dolutegravir-based regimens, which are already widely used to treat adults, reduced the chances of treatment failure among young people aged three to 18 by around 40% compared to standard treatments. The findings were based on a randomised controlled trial called ODYSSEY involving more than 700 children from 29 clinical centres in Africa, Europe and Asia, who were randomly given either dolutegravir or standard anti-HIV drugs, and who were followed up for at least two years. The findings from the trial, which was sponsored by the Penta Foundation and funded by ViiV Healthcare, informed new guidance by the World Health Organisation, recommending the use of dolutegravir-based treatment for children...

Children and staff who repeatedly test negative for COVID-19 after contact with someone who has the illness can safely remain in school if universal masking programs are in place, according to a  new “test-to-stay” study report  from the ABC Science Collaborative. The finding provides a safe alternative to quarantining people who have been exposed to COVID-19 and enables schools to remain open without interruptions. This research will be used by the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services to consider revising its guidelines on quarantine for schools across North Carolina.Du The research, coming as the country faces the omicron variant, provides a more practical and focused approach to the “test-to-stay” protocols that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently endorsed, which require testing of anyone within three feet of an infected person at school despite both parties being masked. Watch Dr. Danny Benjamin discuss the findings  on  YouTu...

In a study of nearly three million births over 13 years, Oregon State University researchers found that pregnant women living in close proximity to oil or gas drilling sites in Texas were more likely to have hypertension compared to those who lived farther away. After accounting for other factors that influence high blood pressure, the results showed that pregnant women who lived within 1 kilometer of an active drilling site were 5% more likely to develop hypertension and 26% more likely to develop eclampsia, a more severe form of high blood pressure that can cause seizures and pose a serious risk to both mothers and infants. These findings, published earlier this month in the  International Journal of Epidemiology , align with a 2019 National Toxicology Program  statement  that air pollution is associated with an increased risk in hypertensive disorders. “Oil and gas drilling produces air pollutions, so it made sense that we would find a similar increased risk near ...

The earliest signs of alkaptonuria are often subtle and harmless, like a diaper stained black. However, over the years, this rare genetic disease can lead to a lifetime of surgery. Now, after 20 years of research, a not-so-new drug can offer relief for thousands of patients worldwide. The disease, also known as AKU, prevents the breakdown of a chemical called homogentisic acid in the body. The kidneys help to clear this chemical and get rid of it through urine. When exposed to the air, it turns black and this is how parents usually spot the first sign of the condition in children. However, some of the homogentisic acid remains in the body and builds up slowly over time. This starts to cause damage in the areas that it accumulates, such as the cartilage and heart valves. ‘Similar symptoms appear in most patients, with spinal problems in their 20s or 30s, then severe joint deterioration during their 30s, 40s and 50s, and then heart problems in their 50s and later,’ said Nick S...

Only rarely does dust ever completely break down or go away. However – and like with nearly all types of air pollution – it can be controlled. Indoors we usually go to great lengths to try to corral dust, relying on everything from cloths, filters, vacuum cleaners and wipes to dust pans and brooms and even dust-particle obliterators to do the so-called “dirty work.” Outdoors, the story isn’t all that different in the ways dust is handled. A key difference being blowing. Dust blowing isn’t typically done inside. So, what is dust exactly? Webster’s (the “Random House Webster’s College Dictionary,” in this case, the 1991 edition) offers multiple definitions. Among them are “fine dry particles” of “earth or other matter;” the same suspended in air; any substance that’s “finely powdered,” et al. Being that presented here are some of dust’s more common definitions, now let’s take a closer look at the presence of dust in different situations. Hollywood Count the number of times where on...

Oceanographers have great difficulty conducting investigations by ship in Antarctic continental shelf areas where ice is attached to the shore, so a team of researchers have replaced these boat-based studies with sensors attached to seals, which have far less trouble navigating such waters. A study describing the animal-born investigation technique and the researchers’  findings  appeared in the journal  Limnology and Oceanography  on October 9. The continental shelves of Antarctica are one of the most biologically productive regions in the world’s oceans as a result of the large amount of nutrients generated by interactions between ocean, sea ice and ice shelf. In East Antarctica, strong katabatic wind enhances sea ice production in the coastal polynyas, areas of open, unfrozen seawater surrounded by sea ice. Outside the polynyas, sometime extensive sea ice attached to the shore (known as landfast ice) exists where a lot of predators such as Weddell seals and em...

Via drug repositioning, Osaka City University creates combination of rifampicin and resveratrol and have shown in mouse models that the nasal administration improves cognitive function without the negative liver side effects of rifampicin alone. Dementia is thought to occur when proteins called amyloid-β, tau, and α-synuclein accumulate in the brain and form oligomers. A research group from the Department of Translational Neuroscience, Osaka City University Graduate School of Medicine, had previously shown in a study using mice that the antibiotic rifampicin removes oligomers from the brain and improves cognitive function. However, the drug has been associated with side effects such as liver damage. Resveratrol, a naturally occurring antioxidant in plants, is used as a supplement in Europe and the United States. “To combat the negative side effects of the existing drug rifampicin, we thought of combining it with the hepatoprotective effects of resveratrol,” illustrates Professor Ta...

The Alpha variant of SARS-CoV-2 – the first variant of concern – evolved mutations that allowed it to more efficiently suppress the immune system’s early response to infection, according to a new study led by scientists at the UC San Francisco’s  Quantitative Biosciences Institute (QBI)  and University College London. The researchers have discovered that the variant has ramped up production of a protein that it uses to stifle infected cells’ immune-stimulating signals. The mutations responsible for this change likely help the Alpha variant evade immune detection and accelerates its transmission, and importantly similar mutations exist in Omicron. The findings are reported in the Dec. 23 issue of  Nature . The team, led by senior authors  Nevan Krogan , PhD, of UCSF and Claire Jolly and Greg Towers, PhD, of University College, London, found that Alpha’s enhanced infectivity arose from mutations outside of “spike,” the proteins that have attracted much of scientis...

Emily Setton removes the lid from a small, plastic dish on her lab bench. Within the clear, rectangular plate are half-circle wells containing hundreds of round beads about the color and size of couscous — the large kind. Setton, a graduate student in the lab of  Integrative Biology  Professor Prashant Sharma, is just back from a field trip to desert-like southeastern Colorado, where she stealthily collected these eggs from the grips of the female Texas brown taran­tulas guarding them within their burrows in the sand. She needed the embryos for her research into spiders’ unique forms and abilities. “I really wanted to understand how spiders make spinnerets, and how their legs may have been modified over time to make them. What’s the genetic architecture of the web-weaving appendages?” says Setton. “I am interested in how you make novel structures — how do they evolve and how does nature create novelty at the genetic level?” Setton tried to use the eggs of common house s...

In  the summer of  2014 a strange building began to take shape just outside MoMA PS1, a contemporary art centre in New York City. It looked like someone had started building an igloo and then got carried away, so that the ice-white bricks rose into  huge towers . It was a  captivating sight, but  the truly impressive thing about this building was not so much its looks but the fact that it had been grown.   The installation, called Hy-Fi, was designed and created by  The Living , an architectural design studio in New York. Each of the 10,000 bricks had been made by packing agricultural waste and  mycelium, the fungus that makes mushrooms,  into a mould and letting them grow into a solid mass.   This mushroom monument gave architectural researcher Phil Ayres an idea.  ‘ It was impressive, ’   said   Ayres, who is based at the Centre for Information Technology and Architecture in Copenhagen , Denmark . But this proj...