Curated News: PNAS

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A research team has developed a non-invasive method for detecting bladder cancer that might make screening easier and more accurate than current invasive clinical tests involving visual inspection of bladder. In the first successful use of atomic force microscopy (AFM) for clinical diagnostic purposes, the researchers have been able to identify signature features of cancerous cells found in patients’ urine by developing a nanoscale resolution map of the cells’ surface.

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In a recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Lin Mei, MD, PhD, asked, does all the tinkering in young mice hamper their brain development, causing schizophrenia-like symptoms? Or, do their brain cells develop normally, but in adulthood struggle to communicate? Researchers need to know whether to focus their efforts on brain cell development or communication, or both, because the answer to these questions implies different therapeutic approaches.

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A promising catalyst may enable creating fuel from sunlight, but we first need to understand how it splits water. When Daniel Nocera and his team shed light on a key step in the complex process, they got more than they expected.

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A new ancient DNA study shows that 14th century plague outbreaks might have resulted from repeated introductions of Yersinia pestis to Europe. Commercial trade routes, including the fur trade routes, would have contributed to the rapid spread of plague in whole Europe during the Middle Ages.

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A material based on a natural product of bones and citrus fruits, called citrate, provides the extra energy stem cells need to form new bone tissue, according to a team of Penn State bioengineers.

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In the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of physicians, geneticists and biologists describes a previously unknown genetic factor— a common non-coding sequence of DNA—that can either raise or reduce the risk of coronary artery disease or ischemic stroke.

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New design coats molecular components and dramatically improves stability under tough, oxidizing conditions.

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What if we could observe genes firing off signals to cause some behaviors? We're getting closer. Researchers were able to directly match gene regulation with ritual mating behavior in fish. Their research field may also give some insight into autism spectrum disorder.

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Measuring the physical properties of water at previously unexplored temperatures offers insights into one of the world’s essential liquids.

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A new study is a step forward in understanding why perovskite materials work so well in energy devices and potentially leads the way toward a theorized “hot” technology that would significantly improve the efficiency of today’s solar cells.

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A Stony Brook University study published in PNAS, could help scientists to better determine how temperature changes affect genes in various cell types, The research may also help scientists to control genes when seeking answers to diseases caused by or associated with certain genes.

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When homeowners make landscaping choices, they may be inadvertently turning their yards into food deserts for birds, especially if they rely on non-native plants that don't support the insect life needed to provide feed for birds.

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Scientists studying a valuable, but vulnerable, species of poplar have identified the genetic mechanism responsible for the species’ inability to resist a pervasive and deadly disease. Their finding could lead to more successful hybrid poplar varieties for increased biofuels and forestry production and protect native trees against infection.

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While temperatures in the tropical forests of northeastern Puerto Rico have climbed two degrees Celsius since the mid-1970s, the biomass of arthropods – invertebrate animals such as insects, millipedes, and sowbugs – has declined by as much as 60-fold, according to new findings published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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An estimated three-quarters of the water used by farms, ranches and dairies in California originates as snow in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, but the future viability of that resource is projected to be at heightened risk due to global climate change.

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Mayo Clinic researchers have identified the drug estradiol as a potential new treatment for a subset of women with triple-negative breast cancer. Their findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

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A new study makes it clear that the constant threat of crop parasites repeatedly pushed evolution in strikingly similar directions in ants, creating structures that helped the ants reinforce their partnership with bacteria.

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A joint effort between the University of Georgia and the University of Texas at Austin has discovered how ETEC works to cause disease. They are using this information in an effort to develop a preventive vaccine for travelers.

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People who include a little yoga or tai chi in their day may be more likely to remember where they put their keys. Researchers at the University of California, Irvine and Japan’s University of Tsukuba found that even very light workouts can increase the connectivity between parts of the brain responsible for memory formation and storage.

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Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) have developed new single-cell approaches wedded to machine learning. This has revealed thousands of previously unknown DNA changes arising during prenatal life in the developing mouse brain. The study published today in PNAS.

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A six-minute MRI scan gives enough data for researchers to study how the brain develops, or to detect the loss of brain cells due to injury or illness.

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A new study explores the mystery of what drives eating past the point of fullness, at the most basic level in the brain. It shows that two tiny clusters of cells battle for control of feeding behavior -- and the one that drives eating overpowers the one that says to stop. It also shows that the brain’s own natural opioid system gets involved – and that blocking it with the drug naloxone can stop over-eating.

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Using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, Columbia Engineers are first to observe how CO2 is activated at the electrode-electrolyte interface; their finding shifts the catalyst design from trial-and-error paradigm to a rational approach and could lead to alternative, cheaper, and safer renewable energy storage.

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Macrophages are immune cells that are supposed to protect the body from infection by viruses and bacteria. Yet Zika virus preferentially infects these cells. Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have now unraveled how the virus shuts down the genes that make macrophages function as immune cells.

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A team of researchers has uncovered the distinct computations that occur when we switch between different languages, a finding that provides new insights into the nature of bilingualism.

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For couples hoping for a baby via in vitro fertilization, chances have improved. A process that once took hours now takes minutes: Cornell University scientists have created a microfluidic device that quickly corrals strong and speedy sperm viable for fertilization.

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The effects of island remoteness from the mainland on the number of species found on islands differs strongly for non-native compared to native species. Numbers of native species on islands decrease with greater remoteness, while numbers of non-native species increase. This surprising finding has been uncovered by an international research team led by Dietmar Moser, Bernd Lenzner and Franz Essl from the Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research of the University of Vienna.

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If you’ve ever experienced jet lag, you are familiar with your circadian rhythm, which manages nearly all aspects of metabolism. Every cell in the body has a circadian clock, but until now, t researchers were unclear about how networks of cells connect with each other over time and how those connections impact network functions.

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In a paper published this week in the journal PNAS, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, with colleagues in Spain and Finland, describe for the first time how one type of RNA polymerase gets stalled by DNA lesions caused by exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light.

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To draft environmental laws and regulations, policymakers often rely on studies produced by researchers who examine human impact on nature. However, the methods behind many such studies are flawed and thus ill serve the makers of environmental policy.

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Scientists funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI) report a novel gene therapy that halts vision loss in a canine model of a blinding condition called autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa (adRP). The strategy could one day be used to slow or prevent vision loss in people with the disease.

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A groundbreaking study has found the earliest and largest monumental cemetery in eastern Africa built 5,000 years ago by early pastoralists living around Lake Turkana, Kenya. This group is believed to have lived without major inequalities and hierarchies, contradicting long-standing narratives about the origins of early civilizations. The study, led by Elisabeth Hildebrand, PhD, Department of Anthropology at Stony Brook University, will be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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An international research group, which included an ISU scientist, has proven that three proteins that can help prevent the spread of HIV can be expressed in transgenic rice plants. Using plants as a production platform could provide a cost-effective means of producing prophylactics, particularly in the developing world.

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In the first comprehensive study of the forefoot joints of ancient hominins, to be published online in PNAS, an international team of researchers conclude that adaptations for bipedal walking in primates occurred as early as 4.4 million years ago

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A study led by researchers at Indiana University has found that human changes to rivers and streams in the United States and Canada do not isolate these natural resources from the effects of climate change.

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Scientists have now observed for the first time how diamonds grow from seed at an atomic level, and discovered just how big the seeds need to be to kick the crystal growing process into overdrive.

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A research team including Matthew Sanger, assistant professor of anthropology at Binghamton University, State University at New York, has found a copper band that indicates ancient Native Americans engaged in extensive trade networks spanning far greater distances than what has been previously thought.

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Continuing his groundbreaking p53 studies, the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Prof. Moshe Oren has shown how cancer cells within the tumor microenvironment – in particular, within the fibroblasts – can “brainwash” the p53 gene into helping cancer spread, rather than fighting it.

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Under warming conditions, arctic wolf spiders’ tastes in prey might be changing, according to new research from Washington University in St. Louis, initiating a new cascade of food web interactions that could potentially alleviate some impacts of global warming.

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Research led by Professor G.V. Shivashankar of the Mechanobiology Institute, Singapore and Italy’s IFOM has revealed that mature cells can be reprogrammed into redeployable stem cells without direct genetic modification – by confining them to a defined geometric space for an extended period of time.

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Earth’s oxygen levels rose and fell more than once hundreds of millions of years before the planetwide success of the Great Oxidation Event about 2.4 billion years ago, new research from the University of Washington shows.

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McMaster University researchers have developed a new theory on Huntington’s disease which is being welcomed for showing promise to open new avenues of drug development for the condition.

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In new research, Cornell University psychologists find that study participants, on average, were more than twice as likely to call male professionals – even fictional ones – by their last name only, compared to equivalent female professionals. This example of gender bias, say researchers, may be contributing to gender inequality.

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Areas of the Arctic seas are becoming ice-free in late summer and early fall. A new study considers impacts on all the marine mammals that use this region and finds narwhals will be the most vulnerable.

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PET plastic, short for polyethylene terephthalate, is the fourth most-produced plastic, used to make things such as beverage bottles and carpets, most of which are not being recycled. Some scientists are hoping to change that, using supercomputers to engineer an enzyme that breaks down PET. They say it's a step on a long road toward recycling PET and other plastics into commercially valuable materials at industrial scale.

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A study by a team that includes Amrita Banerjee, assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences at North Dakota State University, Fargo, shows promise in administering insulin in pill form. Banerjee is listed as first author in the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Cornell University chemical engineering professor Lynden Archer believes there needs to be a battery technology “revolution” – and thinks that his lab has fired one of the first shots.

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Human activities have impacted the Earth’s atmosphere over time. To better understand the impact of the human biogeochemical footprint on Earth, scientists at the University of California San Diego are literally climbing mountains to study the planet’s sulfur cycle—an agent in cardiovascular fitness and other human health benefits and resources.

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A new study co-led by University of Iowa researchers helps clarify how ammonia is present in Earth’s upper atmosphere. Using computer modeling, the researchers found ammonia molecules trapped in liquid cloud droplets are released during convection where these particles freeze and subsequently collide in the upper atmosphere.