Science Market Update

Biotech scientists at the University of California, Berkeley received $12.3 million from the Department of Energy's Biological and Environmental Research Program. The researchers aim to develop an in-depth understanding of drought tolerance in field-grown sorghum.

Life science researchers interested in learning about how barley is able to withstand such unpredictable weather recently conducted research at Washington State University, Pullman that explains how genes in the barley plant are able to defend against risks like aging, drought, heat and disease. Barley is able to live longer because a specific gene in the plant acts as a switch that allows it to defend against aging and tolerate stress and attacks from diseases.

Debilitating and fatal motor neuron diseases are a type of progressive neurological disorder that causes patients to lose voluntary muscle activity when motor neurons are destroyed. Patients with motor neuron diseases lose the ability to speak, breathe, swallow and walk, and as such, much research into these diseases is needed to improve patients’ quality of life. Accordingly, life science researchers at the University of Utah are making motor neuron disease research a priority. Their latest study has led to the discovery of the role of mitochondria in these diseases as well as a new mouse model for future studies.

In the analytical lab's study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Janet Shaw and her team of life science researchers found that when healthy mitochondria were stopped from moving along axons (electricity-conducting nerve fibers), mice developed neurodegenerative diseases. Their research showed that motor neuron diseases might be caused by abnormal distribution of mitochondria along the spinal cord and axons.

Have you ever lay in bed tossing and turning, wishing you could fall asleep? While most people have trouble falling asleep some nights because of a late evening coffee or a stressful day, those who suffer from chronic insomnia are at a serious health risk if they don’t get an adequate amount of sleep. Approximately 15 percent of older adults in the United States suffer chronic insomnia, which can lead the way to cardiovascular disease, hypertension, weight gain, type 2 diabetes and even an earlier death.

Life science researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles have discovered the answer to two questions whose answers have eluded insomnia and sleep researchers in the past: Can treating insomnia reduce inflammation, and what is the most effective therapy for treating insomnia? The study, published in the journal Sleep¸ shows that treating insomnia led to decreases in a known marker of inflammation called C-reactive protein (CRP). 

The National Institutes of Health have recently been making a push for life science researchers across the country to address gender biases in their studies. In conjunction with these efforts, the NIH announced this September that it will give out $10.1 million in grants to more than 80 scientists studying a range of subjects, as long as the researchers agree to include females in their studies.

The human body is specially designed to defend against infectious microbes, viruses and potential threats that are able to make their way to the intestines after eating even the most harmless types of foods. Dedicated immune cells work within the thin layer of tissue between the gut and the rest of the body to keep watch for potential hazards. 

To learn more, life science researchers at Rockefeller University conducted a study on the development of a special class of immune cells known as intraepithelial lymphocytes (IELs) that live in this zone. Their findings could play an important role in our understanding of inflammatory diseases of the gut, such as Inflammatory Bowel Disorder and celiac disease, as well as cancer.

Leukemia is a cancer that’s unusual in that it begins in the bone marrow and invades the blood. The most prominent treatment options – drugs called tyrosine kinase inhibitors – have allowed for a 95 percent survival rate over the past five years and also allow leukemia patients to lead relatively normal lives.

"Fortunately, the problems we are studying affect a minority of chronic myeloid leukemia patients, but still, this leaves some patients with no good treatment option at all," said lead author and University of Utah life science researcher Dr. Thomas O'Hare. "Our goal is to have a tyrosine kinase inhibitor option for every patient."

When most people think of collagen, they think of beauty-conscious women who receive injections to appear more youthful. When life science researchers think of collagen, however, they conceive it as an abundant protein in the human body and associate it with connective tissues, tendons, ligaments, skin, corneas, cartilage, bones, blood vessels and teeth. Texas A & M University researchers are conducting analytical lab investigations to discover how collagen fibrils assemble into well-organized networks on surfaces.