Imagine blasting off on a multiyear voyage to Mars, fueled by a diet of bland, prepackaged meals. As space agencies plan for longer missions, they're grappling with the challenge of how to best feed people. Now, researchers have designed the optimal 'space meal': a tasty vegetarian salad. They chose fresh ingredients that meet male astronauts' specialized nutritional needs and can be grown in space.
Aptamers, nucleic acids capable of selectively binding to viruses, proteins, ions, small molecules, and various other targets, are garnering attention in drug development as potential antibody substitutes for their thermal and chemical stability as well as ability to inhibit specific enzymes or target proteins through three-dimensional binding. They also hold promise for swift diagnoses of colon cancer and other challenging diseases by targeting elusive biomarkers. Despite their utility, these aptamers are susceptible to easy degradation by multiple enzymes, presenting a significant challenge.
The African Matabele ants are often injured in fights with termites. Their conspecifics recognize when the wounds become infected and initiate antibiotic treatment.
Promoting climate-friendly behaviors will be more successful in societies where everyone has the capacity: financially, physically, and time-wise, to make changes.
Just like a doctor adjusts the dose of a medication to the patient's needs, the expression of therapeutic genes, those modified in a person to treat or cure a disease via gene therapy, also needs to be maintained within a therapeutic window. Staying within the therapeutic window is important as too much of the protein could be toxic, and too little could result in a small or no therapeutic effect. Researchers now report on a technology to effectively regulate gene expression, a promising solution to fill this gap in gene therapy clinical applications.
Three modules forming a new-to-nature CO2 fixation cycle have been successfully implemented in E.coli.
Farmers in sub-Saharan Africa need to diversify away from growing maize and switch to crops that are resilient to climate change and supply enough key micronutrients for the population, according to a major research study. Maize is a staple crop across the region -- where it is grown and consumed in vast quantities.
Higher levels of omega-3, the healthy fat found in fish and nuts, were associated with better lung function and longer transplant-free survival.
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