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Category: biotech/medical – Page 26

New robotic skin lets humanoid robots sense pain and react instantly

If you accidentally put your hand on a hot object, you’ll naturally pull it away fast, before you have to think about it. This happens thanks to sensory nerves in your skin that send a lightning-fast signal to your spinal cord, which immediately activates your muscles. The speed at which this happens helps prevent serious burns. Your brain is only informed once the movement has already started.

If something similar happens to a humanoid robot, it typically has to send sensor data to a central processing unit (CPU), wait for the system to process it, and then send a command to the arm’s actuators to move. Even a brief delay can increase the risk of serious damage.

But as humanoid robots move out of labs and factories and into our homes, hospitals and workplaces, they will need to be more than just pre-programmed machines if they are to live up to their potential. Ideally, they should be able to interact with the environment instinctively. To help make that happen, scientists in China have developed a neuromorphic robotic e-skin (NRE-skin) that gives robots a sense of touch and even an ability to feel pain.

Ethylene and oxygen found to drive periderm regeneration after plant injury

Plants have an extraordinary ability to sense tissue damage and quickly rebuild their protective outer layers, a process vital for survival amid environmental stresses. The periderm—a specialized protective tissue found in many woody plants—serves as a crucial barrier against water loss, pathogens, and mechanical injury. However, understanding how gaseous molecules enable plants to rapidly detect surface disruptions has long remained elusive.

In a new study published in Plant Communications on December 8, a research team led by Prof. Chen Yaning from the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography (XIEG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences reported new insights into gas-regulated wound signaling in plants. By examining recent advances in the field, the researchers showed that changes in the diffusion dynamics of ethylene and oxygen within plant tissues provide an efficient and rapid means of sensing breaches in surface defenses.

“When the plant’s outer barrier is damaged, endogenous ethylene gas escapes more readily into the atmosphere (efflux), while oxygen from the environment infiltrates the tissue (influx),” said Dr. Hassan Iqbal, first author of the study.

COVID-19 Leaves Lasting Changes in the Brain, Even After Full Recovery

Summary: Advanced imaging reveals that COVID-19 may cause lasting brain changes, even in people without ongoing symptoms, pointing to hidden neurological effects that could persist long after recovery.

COVID-19 affects more than the lungs. Research shows that even after people have fully recovered from the infection, the virus can cause significant changes in the brain, underscoring its lasting effects on neurological health.

COVID-19 is widely recognized for its impact on the lungs, but growing evidence shows that the virus can also cause lasting changes in the brain, even in people who have fully recovered. These findings point to potential long-term neurological consequences that extend beyond the acute phase of the illness.

A Disrupted Brain Rhythm May Explain Anxiety, Insomnia, and Worse in Cancer Patients

Scientists have discovered that breast cancer can disturb the brain’s daily stress hormone rhythms early in disease development. “The brain is an exquisite sensor of what’s going on in your body,” says Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Assistant Professor Jeremy Borniger. “But it requires balance. Ne

Pathogenic Variants in Hypertrophic and Dilated Cardiomyopathies

Polygenic scores for hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathies independently and oppositely modified disease risk and penetrance of pathogenic variants, supporting bidirectional genetic influences on Cardiomyopathy.

Question How is risk of hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathy modified by polygenic background?

Findings In this cross-sectional study including 49 434 individuals in the Penn Medicine BioBank, polygenic scores for hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathies were associated with clinical and echocardiographic measures relevant to both diseases and inversely modified the penetrance of pathogenic variants.

Meaning The findings indicate that polygenic background exists on an overlapping, opposing spectrum and may contribute to hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathy susceptibility.

Study Explores Cancer-Like Traits in Endometriosis Including Abnormal Cell Growth and Tissue Invasion

Recent studies have examined the connection between endometriosis and cancer, revealing that the condition may exhibit several traits commonly associated with malignant tumors. Researchers have identified specific characteristics of endometriosis that align with established hallmarks of cancer, prompting a reevaluation of how this chronic gynecological disorder is understood and approached in medical research.

The investigation highlights parallels between endometriosis and cancer, including features such as abnormal cell growth, resistance to cell death, and the ability to invade surrounding tissues. These findings suggest that while endometriosis is not classified as a form of cancer, it shares biological behaviors typically observed in malignancies. The study underscores the complexity of endometriosis and its potential implications for treatment strategies and further research into its underlying mechanisms.

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Deneddylation of ribosomal proteins promotes synergy between MLN4924 and chemotherapy to elicit complete therapeutic responses

(Cell Reports 42, 112925; August 29, 2023)

The authors were made aware of an image duplication in their published paper. The representative photo in Figure 5B is the same as the image in Fig. 4g of Aubry et al., 2020, Oncogene 39, p. 5338–5357. The assays involved treating xenografts of the RB1021-luc retinoblastoma line, using either MLN4924 (MLN) and topotecan (TPT; Cell Reports) or the RAD51 inhibitor B02 and TPT (Oncogene). These assays were run and analyzed concurrently in 2018. For the Xenogen measurements of tumor growth, we first quantified the signal and recorded the values in tables. After all the mice were assessed, appropriate mice were placed together for representative images. Thus, the quantification, which was performed correctly, and acquisition/storage of the representative image, which was not, were performed separately. Our review of image files revealed that the representative image of the B02 + TPT series of mice was accidentally duplicated using the file name for the MLN + TPT series of mice.

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