Science Market Update

Nerves play a vital role in the well-being of our body. Nerve damage is among the most crippling physical damage we can sustain, which is why it is in our best interest to protect them when at all possible. So when new bioresearch from Washington University in St. Louis lays out a method to prevent the body from destroying axons, which transmit nerve signals throughout the body, it’s a sure signal of improvement in the field of nervous studies.

As humans, we like to think of ourselves as superbly evolved, which is a completely valid standpoint if you place emphasis on things like consciousness and inventiveness. But our cohabitants of Earth have developed some impressive abilities of their own, many of which we can only barely understand. Take for example the bacteria that are shocking several researchers at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities lab with their unique ability to change the electrical state of metals.

Bioresearchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have invented an ingenious method for shining light on one of the most mysterious organs we have: the brain. Their tool of choice is a thin, flat LED that can be seamlessly and innocuously injected, causing minimum invasiveness and disturbance. The LEDs will help advance our understandings of bodily organs like the brain through the field of optogenetics.

For all the excitement there’s been over stem cells in biotechnology (including in our Science Market Update posts- for example  Mayo Clinic Spearheads Regenerative Medicine and California to Spend $32M on Stem Cell Research Biobank), one very exciting application for the technology that has been heretofore unannounced is stem cell transplants in the brain. Here to remedy this fact is the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where it was just recently discovered that stem cells can form nerve cells which can actually increase learning and memory capability.

The University of Cincinnati is making great progress in the field of cancer immunotherapy, developing both an oral vaccine for breast cancer and a vaccine for lung cancer in quick succession. Using unique approaches in both solutions, research teams have overcome some previous obstacles in the field to move forward and fight cancer on multiple fronts.

By this point, most Americans are familiar with the gelatinous yellow pill harked by many as a critically necessary supplement. Fish oil pills, packed with omega-3 fatty acids, are sold in many grocery stores and can be found in even more households nationwide. At Michigan State University, bioresearchers are delving deeper into the effects of fish oil on the body. What they have found may sound a little surprising at first: fish oil can increase immunity in people with certain health conditions.

When it comes to developing drugs for disease prevention and treatment, sometimes it is best not to reinvent the wheel- especially when nature holds so many solutions to those enterprising (or fortunate) individuals who know where to look.  One such researcher, Professor Brian Murphy of the University of Illinois, Chicago, collects hundreds of possibly curative species of bacteria from one of nature’s least explored resources: the floors of lakes and oceans.

Researchers from Ohio State University have pinpointed a tiny piece of RNA that plays a large role in embryonic tissue formation. Understanding such small, often overlooked pieces can help illuminate the biological processes of the earliest stages of life.

In a potentially dangerous situation, many animals release stress hormones into the body to prepare the animal for raw survival. Sometimes these evoke defense mechanisms and sometimes they assist in fleeing from danger, hence the idea of a “fight or flight” response. Now, research at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor shows that tadpoles instead choose a third option: physical transformation.

In an effort to better combat the infamous human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have developed a solution that carries quite a sting. Utilizing a toxin found in bee venom, they have developed a nanoparticle that is quite effective at destroying the virus.