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‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Season 13 Sneak Peek: Maggie Learns the Truth … – Wetpaint

Credit: Mithcell Haaseth/ABC 2017 Disney | ABC Television Group. All rights reserved.

In this sneak peek for the April 27 episode, Bailey leads Meredith and Nathan into a press conference at the hospital to talk about their heroics, and reporters pepper them with questions how they felt about the commendation they got from the governor, if its true they got a call from the President, etc.

I was we were on our way to a medical conference, Meredith begins. Pretty routine stuff, really. Certainly didnt expect to be sitting here in front of all of you.

The reporters hone in on Nathan, asking how the experience compares to his time working as a field surgeon in war-torn regions.

Less dust, less wind, less legroom, he jokes, but hes quick to deflect the attention.

Look, I was there. I pitched in. So was a pediatric dentist, flight attendants even some of the passengers helped out.

But Dr. Grey was working on a mans brain in conditions under which Ive never seen, he continues.

She didnt fail or falter, not once. She was incredible. And so she is your story, not me.

And thats when he rubs Mers shoulder, a moment of intimacy Maggie definitely notices, and Mer even seems to notice Maggie noticing.

In a #TGIT promo, we see Mer in the bathroom, seemingly regretting that PDA as Alex listens.

Shes gonna hate me, she says.

Youre right, Alex says. She might hate you.

But sibling rivalry may be the least of Meredith and Nathans concerns. Check out this scoop about the Season 13 finale from Entertainment Weekly:

Meredith has some news for Riggs (Martin Henderson) that brings their relationship to a turning point.

Whats the first thing you think when you hear that news is bringing a relationship to a turning point? If youre like us, you think pregnancy.

Perhaps a mid-air walk of shame isnt the only consequence of their induction into the Mile High Club in that April 13 episode!

A pregnancy would certainly fuel Mer and Nathans storyline well into Season 14. Would she add a fourth baby to her brood? Or would she get an abortion on Greys for the first time?

Even though these docs are back on terra firma, were still braced for impact!

Greys Anatomy Season 13 Episode 21 Dont Stop Me Now airs Thursday, April 27 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

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'Grey's Anatomy' Season 13 Sneak Peek: Maggie Learns the Truth ... - Wetpaint

These Grey's Anatomy Season Finale Spoilers Prove Something HUGE Is About To Happen – Refinery29

"There's actually two events going on at the same time that are pretty big that affect the entire hospital community," she said, specifically hinting that these "events" will affect relationships. First, Alex (played by Justin Chambers) has to make a tough decision regarding Jo (played by Camilla Luddington). Then, Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) shares news with Riggs (Martin Henderson) that changes their relationship as they know it.

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These Grey's Anatomy Season Finale Spoilers Prove Something HUGE Is About To Happen - Refinery29

The Future of Genetics – Synapse

A couple sits close, intently studying a dossier. On the dossier is a list starting with Embryo #1.

According to the description, Embryo #1 is female, has a high risk of Type II Diabetes, will have blue eyes and blond hair, and has a 20% chance of being in the 90th percentile for math ability.

Alternatively, Embryo #100 is male, will have blue eyes and dark hair, has a 60% chance of being in the top 10% for musical ability, and is at a high risk for depression.

Between Embryo #1 and #100 lie similarly detailed descriptions.

While this may sound like science fiction, according to Hank Greely, Dean F. and Kate Edelman Johnson Professor of Law at Stanford University, this scenario is the soon-to-be future of human reproduction.

I predict in [my] book [The End of Sex and the Future of Human Reproduction] that in 20 to 40 years the majority of babies born to people with good health coverage anywhere in the world will not be conceived in a bed or in the back of a car or under a keep off grass sign, but will be conceived in a lab so that parents can then do whole genome sequencing and pick the embryo that they want, Greely said during his Gladstone GO Graduate Student Organization sponsored bioethics seminar on April 14.

Greely went on to share several stories about advances in human reproduction that will make this future he envisions possible, starting with preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD).

A three day embryo is like eight grapes inside a water balloon thats filled with jello, Greely explained. The grapes really arent attached to each other, so what you [do is] make a little hole in the water balloon--the membrane holding the embryo together and suck out one of those cells. And the other seven cells [do] fine, they [do] not fail at any higher rate than embryos regularly fail, and you take that cell and do genetic testing on it.

According to Greely, PGD has been clinically available for 25 years, but recently scientists have been using five- or six-day-old embryos from which they can take five, 10, or even 15 cells, thus allowing for more confidence in the genetic testing results.

This procedure, however, is currently limited by the expense of sequencing, the short time frame between taking cells from the embryo for genetic testing and implanting the embryo, and our understanding of genetics.

As sequencing becomes cheaper and allows our knowledge of genetics to grow, Greely predicts that PGD will advance to what he calls enhanced PGD, in which cells taken from embryos will have their entire genome sequenced.

Another huge limitation to PGD is that before you can run genetic tests you first must harvest eggs from the female.

Normally women ripen one or at most two eggs a month, Greely said. If youre going to go in [for] this invasive procedure you want as many ripe eggs as possible. Very expensive hormones [are used] in order to convince more eggs to ripen than normal. This causes cramping, bloating, mood swings, unpleasantness as well as the fact that [the woman] has to give herself a shot every day for 30 days in a row which people, understandingly, find a little bit disconcerting.

Furthermore, although a small percentage, some women who go through egg harvesting end up hospitalized or may even die.

Nobody goes through IVF [in vitro fertilization] just for the heck of it, Greely said. They do it because they have to.

Importantly, Greely also stresses that this unpleasantness and risk all falls on the female.

So what can we do to move away from current methods of egg retrieval? Greely believes the answer is induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).

iPSCs are generated by reprogramming adult cells in a way which induces a loss of their defined cellular identity. In this state the cell now has the the potential to differentiate into any cell type, whether it be an epithelial cell, a cardiomyocyte, or an oocyte.

Greely thus envisions a world in which an individual would give a skin biopsy that would be reprogrammed to become iPSCs which would then be used to make oocyte precursors and finally an oocyte that could be fertilized.

This method, known as in vitro gametogenesis (IVG), could also be used on skin biopsies from males to generate oocytes or skin biopsies from females to generate sperm, thus making it possible for same sex couples to have children who are biologically related to both parents.

Additionally, instead of harvesting only a few eggs, IVG could potentially generate hundreds of eggs non-invasively.

Taking it a step further, whole genome sequencing (WGS) could be performed on all fertilized eggs to generate genetic profiles of each embryo. Parents could know whether the embryo is at high risk for early onset disease or other diseases and medical conditions. They could also learn about the cosmetic make up, behaviors, and sex, and use all this information to help them choose the embryo they want implanted.

One important caveat to this scenario, however, is that rarely do traits adhere to simple Mendelian genetics with one gene coding for one trait.

Its all going to be really complicated, Greely stated. Probably involving hundreds or thousands of different genetic loci and with a big dollop of environment and chance.

Another issue is how parents will parse through all this information.

Even if youre only looking at 20 different things of significance how do you weigh 50% higher risk of Type II Diabetes versus 50% lower risk of schizophrenia versus 50% chance of being in the top 10% for music ability versus [being] very, very tall? Greely asks. Its going to be a real hard decision.

Thus, an important aspect of this future Greely envisions will be educating parents to help them make informed decisions that they will ultimately feel comfortable with.

Despite this being a bioethics seminar, Greely only discussed a few ethical quandaries.

For instance, if you can take anyone's cells and make them into eggs and sperm, then anyone can be a genetic parent. A 50-year-old woman could become a mother, but an eight-month old baby or a woman who died and whose cells were frozen could both also become genetic parents.

While Greelys point seemed to be that this would change family structures, I think the real issue at the crux of this is legal regulation, which Greely didnt touch too much on in his talk.

One of the most challenging moral dilemmas associated with this future of human reproduction was, surprisingly, not brought up until the question was posed by an audience member.

As technology like PGD becomes more available and more powerful, will we lose populations of people?

For example, if you knew that an embryo would give rise to a child who was deaf, autistic, or achondroplastic would you chose against that embryo? And if you and others choose against that embryo how will that impact our society?

For one, it will decrease the number of individuals who make up that community thus decreasing research, social, and political support for this community.

Additionally, if parents tend to select against these traits it may send the message that these traits are bad and that individuals who do have these traits are leading lives that arent worth living.

But how does one determine what is and isnt a life worth living?

While society as a whole might label certain traits like those listed above as disabilities, members of these communities dont all hold that view, instead seeing it as a different way of being. For example, autism is sometimes thought of as neurodiversity.

How will beliefs like this affect a parents choice? Will an individual who is deaf select to have a deaf child?

This leads to a whole new set of issues Greely also did not cover.

In the future, will parents be discriminated against for choosing certain traits for their children or for choosing to procreate the old fashion way instead of selecting their child based on traits that society sees as favorable? What new power dynamics will these technologies create?

Greely also failed to talk about issues surrounding availability of this technology.

While he hypothesizes that health care programs will fully pay for IVG and WGS--as in the long run it will ultimately reduce healthcare spending--this coverage isnt going to happen instantly. In the beginning, these processes will still be expensive and likely only available to those with enough money.

If wealthy individuals are screening their embryos to ensure the healthiest embryo is implanted, what will this mean for populations who cant afford this service? It seems very possible that the burden of health care expenses could fall entirely on them.

Additionally, this could impact the amount of money funneled into biomedical research whether it be because individuals feel they no longer need to donate to a cause that doesnt affect them or because research in that field no longer seems like a priority due to a shrinking community of affected individuals.

All of this, however, is dependent on how much information we will actually be able to glean from an embryos genetics alone.

Greely believes that cheap sequencing changes everything and while it will definitely lead to advancements, it may not be as comprehensive as Greely predicts.

Despite what I believe to be Greelys slightly over-optimistic vision, his last point rings true.

If we understand the issues better in advance we are less likely to screw up.

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The Future of Genetics - Synapse

Chesley lecture looks at Antibiotic Resistance: What is it, where does it come from and what can we do about it? – Carleton College News

Dr. Gerry Wright, Director of the renowned Michael G. DeGroot Institute for Infectious Disease Research at McMaster University in Ontario, will present Antibiotic Resistance: What is it, where does it come from and what can we do about it? on Thursday, April 27 at 7 p.m. in the Boliou Hall Auditorium at Carleton College.

Wright is a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, and an associate member in the Departments of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and of Pathology and Molecular Medicine at McMaster University. Founded in 2007, the DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research (IIDR) is a world-leading center for transdisciplinary infectious disease research, focused on life-altering work in the fields of virology, immunology, bacterial pathogenesis, and population biology and epidemiology. More at http://www.mcmasteriidr.ca.

Dr. Wright received his BSc in Biochemistry (1986) and his PhD in Chemistry (1990) from the University of Waterloo working in the area of antifungal drugs, later completing postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School where he worked on the molecular mechanism of resistance to the antibiotic vancomycin in enterococci. He joined the Department of Biochemistry at McMaster in 1993.

Wright was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (2012) and a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology (2013). He is the recipient of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Scientist (2000-2005), Medical Research Council of Canada Scholar (1995-2000), Killam Research Fellowship (2011-1012), R.G.E. Murray Award for Career Achievement of the Canadian Society of Microbiologists (2013), NRC Research Press Senior Investigator Award from the Canadian Society for Molecular Biosciences (2016), Premiers Research Excellence (1999) and the Polanyi Prize (1993). In 2016 he was named a McMaster Distinguished University Professor.

Wright has served on grant panel advisory boards and chaired grant panels for a number of funding agencies in Canada, the US, and Europe and consults widely for the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors.

He is the author of over 240 manuscripts and is a member of the editorial boards of several peer-reviewed journals including mBio, Antimicrobial Agents Chemotherapy, Cell Chemistry and Biology and the Journal of Antibiotics. He is an Associated Editor of ACS Infectious Diseases and Editor of Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Antimicrobial Therapeutics Reviews.More at http://www.thewrightlab.com.

This event is sponsored by the Carleton College Department of Chemistry, with support from The Frank G. and Jean M. Chesley Lectureship Fund. For more information, including disability accommodations, call (507) 222-5769. Boliou Hall is accessible via Highway 19 in Northfield.

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Chesley lecture looks at Antibiotic Resistance: What is it, where does it come from and what can we do about it? - Carleton College News

Film focuses on how war warps human behavior – Jewish Journal

Igo on the assumption that everyone is guilty.

This sentiment of a guilt that is assumed automatically through membership in the human race is expressed by Jewish master violinist Yehudi Menuhin at the beginning of The Memory of Justice, and its an assessment that is largely borne out over the course of the 4 1/2-hour HBO documentary that airs April 24.

Although publicists for the film make a point that the screening date was set intentionally for Holocaust Remembrance Day, the production deals with three examples of mans inhumanity during the 20th century.

The first and longest segment does focus on the Holocaust, but the second part covers Frances attempted suppression of the Algerian bid for independence, and the third on Americas role in the Vietnam War.

The Memory of Justice is a massive and masterful restoration of a film of the same title released in 1976 that was produced, written and directed by Marcel Ophuls. He and his father, Max Ophuls (nee Oppenheimer), were German-born Jews, who resumed their brilliant film careers after fleeing to France and then the United States.

The main part of the films Holocaust-themed segment deals with the postwar Nuremberg war crimes trials that began in 1945 and in which an international tribunal tried 22 top political and military leaders of the Nazi regime. (Hitler had cheated the gallows by shooting himself as Soviet forces closed in on his Berlin bunker.)

Interviews with 40 people, perpetrators and victims, form the backbone of this segment. The two main figures are Telford Taylor, chief American prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials, and Albert Speer, an architect who served as Hitlers minister of armaments.

Taylor went on to cover the Vietnam War (1955-75) and his views on war crimes, as well as similarities between Nazi and American conduct during the war in Southeast Asia, were expressed clearly in the title of his 1970 book, Nuremberg and Vietnam: An American Tragedy. A considerable part of the film is based on Taylors book.

After a 20-minute intermission, both in the press screening and the TV presentation, Ophuls documentary moves on to the Algerian war (1954-62), in which France tried to squelch its colonys independence movement, and in which both sides systematically tortured their enemies. In French history, the conflict is known as the dirty war.

The final segment focuses on the Vietnam War. The centerpiece is the 1968 My Lai Massacre, in which U.S. soldiers killed, mutilated and raped up to 500 unresisting men, women and children.

The Memory of Justice has been widely acclaimed as a masterpiece of documentary filmmaking, which it is, but the mass of material can at times overload the attentive viewer, who also may have difficulties in quickly adjusting to the films shifts in tone from gruesome depictions of death camp atrocities to merry songs of the era.

Ophuls, now 89, did not take an active part in the films restoration. Instead, the living link between the 1976 original and the current version is Hamilton Fish, a personality worth his own biographical film.

He is the descendant of an old American family of Anglo-Saxon and Scottish extraction. Formally named Hamilton Fish V, during a phone interview he invited a reporter to address him as Ham.

The Fish dynasty produced a series of rock-ribbed Republican politicians, including a former governor of New York. Another member of the clan, Hamilton Fish III, was a congressman from New Yorks Hudson Valley for 25 years and the nemesis of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Ham, 64, however, has flipped in the opposite direction, and as publisher of The Nation, is credited with preserving and upgrading Americas premier liberal magazine.

In 1975, he partnered with Ophuls to produce the original version of Memory of Justice and, in 2011, embarked on the excruciatingly difficult six-year project to restore and revive the documentary.

Some of the challenges called for scanning 50 reels of the 16 mm original negatives, frame by frame, eliminating dirt and scratches, restoring the soundtrack and adding new subtitles in English, French and German.

What I take away from the film are the continuing questions of justice and accountability, of a system of international law to counter rogue behavior by government leaders, Fish said.

However, looking at the present state of the world in general, and in Washington, D.C., in particular, Fish sounded a pessimistic note: We see a renewed emphasis on military power at the expense of meeting human needs at home.

The Memory of Justice will air at 5 p.m. April 24 on HBO2, HBO Now, HBO Go and HBO on Demand.

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Film focuses on how war warps human behavior - Jewish Journal

Scientists reveal a new mechanism mediating environment-microbe-host interactions – Phys.Org

April 24, 2017 Dr. Meng Wang is an associate professor of the Huffington Center On Aging at Baylor College of Medicine. Credit: Baylor College of Medicine

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have uncovered a new mechanism showing how microbes can alter the physiology of the organisms in which they live. In a paper published in Nature Cell Biology, the researchers reveal how microbes living inside the laboratory worm C. elegans respond to environmental changes and generate signals to the worm that alter the way it stores lipids.

"Microbe-host interactions have been known for a long time, but the actual molecular mechanisms that mediate the interactions were largely unknown," said senior author Dr. Meng Wang, associate professor of molecular and human genetics at Baylor and the Huffington Center On Aging. "Microbes living inside another organism, the host, can respond to changes in the environment, change the molecules they produce and consequently influence the normal workings of the host's body, including disease susceptibility."

In this study, Wang and first author Dr. Chih-Chun Lin working in the Wang Lab have dissected for the first time a molecular mechanism by which E. coli bacteria can regulate C. elegans' lipid storage.

How E. coli changes lipid storage in C. elegans

C. elegans is a laboratory worm model scientists use to study basic biological mechanisms in health and disease.

"This worm naturally consumes and lives with bacteria in its gut and interacts with them in ways that are similar to those between humans and microbes. In the laboratory, we can study basic biological mechanisms by controlling the type of bacteria living inside this worm as well as other variables and then determining the effect on the worm's physiology," Wang said.

In this study, Wang and Lin compared two groups of worms. One group received bacteria that had been grown in a nutritionally rich environment. The other group of worms received the same type of bacteria, but it had grown in nutritionally poor conditions. Both groups of worms received the same amount and type of nutrients, the only difference was the type of environment in which the bacteria had grown before they were administered to the worms.

Interestingly, the worms carrying bacteria that came from a nutritionally poor environment had in their bodies twice the amount of fat present in the worms living with the bacteria coming from the nutritionally rich environment.

The researchers then carried out more experiments and determined that it was the lack of the amino acid methionine in the nutritionally poor environment that had triggered the bacteria to adapt by producing different compounds that then initiated a cascade of events in the worm that led to extra fat accumulation. In addition, the researchers observed that the tissues showing extra fat accumulation also had their mitochondria fragmented. The activities of the mitochondria, the balance between their fusion and breaking apart, are known to be tightly coupled with metabolic activities.

A mechanism that reveals unsuspected connections

The researchers found that the bacteria were able to trigger mitochondrial fragmentation and then extra lipid accumulation because the molecular intermediates the bacteria had triggered allowed them to 'establish communication' with the mitochondria.

"We have found evidence for the first time that bacteria and mitochondria can 'talk to each other' at the metabolic level," Wang said.

Bacteria and mitochondria are like distant relatives. Evolutionary evidence strongly suggests that mitochondria descend from bacteria that entered other cell types and became incorporated into their structure. Mitochondria play essential roles in many aspects of the cell's metabolism, but also maintain genes very similar to those of their bacterial ancestors.

"It's interesting that the molecules bacteria generate can chime in the communication between mitochondria and regulate their fusion-fission balance," Wang said. "Our findings reveal this kind of common language between bacteria and mitochondria, despite them being evolutionary distant from each other."

Some components of this common language involve proteins such as NR5A, Patched and Sonic Hedgehog. The latter is of particular interest to the researchers because it has not been involved in regulating lipid metabolism and mitochondrial dynamics before.

"Microbes in the microbiome can affect many aspects of their host's functions, and here we present a new molecular mechanism mediating microbe-host communication," Wang said. "Having discovered one mechanism encourages us to investigate others that may be related to other physiological aspects, such as the stress response and aging, among others."

Explore further: How gut bacteria change cancer drug activity

More information: Microbial metabolites regulate host lipid metabolism through NR5AHedgehog signalling, Nature Cell Biology (2017). nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/ncb3515

The activity of cancer drugs changes depending on the types of microbes living in the gut, according to a UCL-led study into how nematode worms and their microbes process drugs and nutrients.

The billions of microorganisms living within the human digestive tract appear to play a significant role in health and disease, notably metabolic syndrome, autoimmune disorders and diabetes but how these organisms do ...

Filarial nematodesmicroscopic, thread-like roundwormscurrently infect up to 54 million people worldwide and are the leading cause of disability in the developing world. Now, researchers reporting in PLOS Neglected Tropical ...

Within the human digestive tract, there are trillions of bacteria, and these communities contain hundreds or even thousands of species. The makeup of those populations can vary greatly from one person to another, depending ...

A common roundworm widely studied for its developmental biology and neuroscience, also might be one of the most surprising examples of the eat-local movement. Princeton University researchers have found that the organisms ...

To survive in human cells, chlamydiae have a lot of tricks in store. Researchers of the University of Wrzburg have now discovered that the bacterial pathogens also manipulate the cells' energy suppliers in the process.

The function of a plant's roots go well beyond simply serving as an anchor in the ground. The roots act as the plant's mouth, absorbing, storing and channeling water and nutrients essential for survival.

Fossils accidentally discovered in South Africa are probably the oldest fungi ever found by a margin of 1.2 billion years, rewriting the evolutionary story of these organisms which are neither flora nor fauna, researchers ...

The bacteria residing in your digestive tract, or your gut microbiota, may play an important role in your ability to respond to chemotherapy drugs in the clinic, according to a new study by scientists at the University of ...

Two years ago, the Zika virus drew attention to microcephaly, a developmental disorder in which the brain and skull display inhibited growth. But there are other causes of microcephaly, such as congenital genetic diseases. ...

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have uncovered a new mechanism showing how microbes can alter the physiology of the organisms in which they live. In a paper published in Nature Cell Biology, the researchers reveal ...

The ants of the genus Sericomyrmex - literally translated as 'silky ants' - belong to the fungus-farming ants, a group of ants that have figured out how to farm their own food. The silky ants are the less well-known relatives ...

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Scientists reveal a new mechanism mediating environment-microbe-host interactions - Phys.Org

Scientists step closer to finding cause of multiple sclerosis – Medical News Today

As they find out more about the cell biology of multiple sclerosis, scientists are gradually unraveling the mysteries of the disease, although the exact causes are still unclear. Now, a new study continues this progress with a significant discovery about a new cellular mechanism. It suggests that high levels of the protein Rab32 disrupt key communications involving mitochondria. The disruption causes these "cellular batteries" to misbehave, leading to the toxic effects seen in the brain cells of people with multiple sclerosis.

The new study is the work of researchers from the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom and the University of Alberta in Canada. They report their findings in the Journal of Neuroinflammation.

Co-author Paul Eggleton, an immunologist and professor at the University of Exeter Medical School, says that multiple sclerosis can have a "devastating impact on people's lives," and yet, unfortunately, the present situation is that "all medicine can offer is treatment and therapy for the symptoms."

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease in which the immune system mistakenly attacks tissue of the central nervous system - which comprises the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerve.

As the disease progresses, it destroys more and more of the fatty myelin sheath that insulates and protects the nerve fibers that send electrical messages in the central nervous system.

This destruction can lead to brain damage, vision impairment, pain, altered sensation, extreme fatigue, problems with movement, and other symptoms.

As research into the cause of MS progresses, scientists are becoming increasingly interested in the role of mitochondria - the tiny components inside cells that produce units of energy for powering the cell.

Fast facts about MS

Learn more about MS

In earlier work, the team behind the new study was the first to provide an explanation for the role of defective mitochondria in MS through clinical and laboratory experiments.

In their new investigation, the researchers study a protein called Rab32, which is known to be involved in certain mitochondrial processes.

They found that levels of Rab32 are much higher in the brains of people with MS and hardly detectable in brains of people without the disease.

They also discovered that the presence of Rab32 coincides with disruption to a communication system that causes mitochondria to malfunction, causing toxic effects in the brain cells of people with MS.

The disruption is caused by a cell compartment called the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) being too close to the mitochondria.

The ER produces, processes, and transports many compounds that are used inside and outside the cell.

The researchers note that one of the functions of the ER is to store calcium, and if the distance between the ER and mitochondria is too short, it disrupts the communication between the mitochondria and the calcium supply.

Calcium uptake into mitochondria is already known to be critical to cell functioning.

Although they did not discover what causes Rab32 levels to increase, the team believes that the problem may lie in a defect in the base of the ER.

The study could help scientists to find ways to use Rab32 as a treatment target, as well as look for other proteins that may cause similar disruptions, note the authors.

"Our exciting new findings have uncovered a new avenue for researchers to explore. It is a critical step, and in time, we hope it might lead to effective new treatments for MS."

Prof. Paul Eggleton

Learn how a new immunotherapy reversed paralysis in mouse models of MS.

Read more:
Scientists step closer to finding cause of multiple sclerosis - Medical News Today

New insight into brain development disorder – Phys.Org

April 24, 2017 During cell division, DNA must be copied and distributed between daughter cells. A cellular structure called the mitotic spindle pulls apart the DNA-containing structures, the chromosomes. The photo shows a microscopic image of DNA (blue) in a spindle. The protein ASPM appears to play a key role in this process, as it is located at the 'poles' (yellow) in the spindle. Credit: Cell Biology Utrecht University

Two years ago, the Zika virus drew attention to microcephaly, a developmental disorder in which the brain and skull display inhibited growth. But there are other causes of microcephaly, such as congenital genetic diseases. Much is still unknown about brain development, but researchers at Utrecht University, in collaboration with their colleagues in Switzerland, have now new shed light on the molecules involved. The results of their research will be published in Nature Cell Biology.

"Biological processes are determined by molecules in our cells. We can only understand the factors that determine health and disease and find medicines to control these factors by zooming into this molecular world", explains research leader Prof. Anna Akhmanova.

Surprising discovery

The researchers began their studies by focusing on the protein ASPM. "We knew that the genetic form of microcephaly is most often caused by defects in this protein. But a surprising discovery was that ASPM appears to work closely together with another protein, called katanin", tells Akhmanova.

Essential for healthy development

It appears that precisely this collaboration is important for cell division, and therefore for the normal development of brain cells. "The interaction between ASPM and katanin is required for the proper balance between cell division and their specialisation into nerve cells. When the balance sways too much in one direction or the other, too few brain cells are produced", Akhmanova adds.

Crucial balance

For developing brain cells, this balance is especially crucial, because once they become nerve cells, they cannot divide. If new cells develop into nerve cells too quickly, not enough cells are formed, and the brain remains small.

Key position

During cell division, DNA must be copied and distributed between daughter cells. A cellular structure called the mitotic spindle pulls apart the DNA-containing structures, the chromosomes. The photo shows a microscopic image of DNA (blue) in a spindle. The protein ASPM appears to play a key role in this process, as it is located at the 'poles' (yellow) in the spindle.

Spindle position

The study shows how ASPM does its work at the molecular level, and why it is so important. In cooperation with the protein katanin, ASPM is responsible for the regulation of the organisation and positioning of the spindle. "It is this positioning that helps to determine how the daughter cells develop: will they become copies of new cells, or will they develop into nerve cells", Akhmanova explains.

Much broader insight

The fact that a deviation in the protein ASPM leads to microcephaly can now be better understood at the molecular level. However, the results of this study provide a much broader insight, which may make it possible to explain or find other causes of the disorder.

Evolutionarily unique

Akhmanova's fascination for brain development is not limited to disease, however. "Even apes, our closest relatives, have much less brain capacity than we do. Our brain makes us what we are. This means the development of our brain is evolutionarily very special."

Explore further: Scientists uncover how Zika virus causes microcephaly

More information: Microtubule minus-end regulation at spindle poles by an ASPMkatanin complex, Nature Cell Biology (2017). nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/ncb3511

A multidisciplinary team from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston has uncovered the mechanisms that the Zika virus uses to alter brain development. These findings are detailed in Stem Cell Reports.

Researchers at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology in Vienna have unravelled how a tiny microRNA molecule controls growth and differentiation of brain cells.

A new method could push research into developmental brain disorders an important step forward. This is shown by a recent study at the University of Bonn in which the researchers investigated the development of a rare congenital ...

Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's, but also strokes or other types of traumatic brain damage, result in the death of nerve cells in the brain. Since the mammalian brain is capable of replacing ...

In a very severe, genetic form of microcephaly, stem cells in the brain fail to divide, according to a new Columbia University Medical Center study that may provide important clues to understanding how the Zika virus affects ...

Duke University researchers have figured out how a developmental disease called microcephaly produces a much smaller brain than normal: Some cells are simply too slow as they proceed through the neuron production process.

The function of a plant's roots go well beyond simply serving as an anchor in the ground. The roots act as the plant's mouth, absorbing, storing and channeling water and nutrients essential for survival.

Fossils accidentally discovered in South Africa are probably the oldest fungi ever found by a margin of 1.2 billion years, rewriting the evolutionary story of these organisms which are neither flora nor fauna, researchers ...

The bacteria residing in your digestive tract, or your gut microbiota, may play an important role in your ability to respond to chemotherapy drugs in the clinic, according to a new study by scientists at the University of ...

Two years ago, the Zika virus drew attention to microcephaly, a developmental disorder in which the brain and skull display inhibited growth. But there are other causes of microcephaly, such as congenital genetic diseases. ...

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have uncovered a new mechanism showing how microbes can alter the physiology of the organisms in which they live. In a paper published in Nature Cell Biology, the researchers reveal ...

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New insight into brain development disorder - Phys.Org

Molecular genetics and biosystems design research improves water-use efficiency of plants – Nevada Today

Some of the most water-efficient plants do an unexpected thing at night. They take up carbon dioxide at night instead of during the warmer daytime, which improves efficiency of water use and adaption to semi-arid and arid climates.

John Cushman is one of the world's leading researchers on the molecular genetics of this specialized type of photosynthesis, which is known as crassulacean acid metabolism or CAM photosynthesis. His research and plant molecular-genetics program at the University of Nevada, Reno are nationally and internationally recognized, and have made important contributions to understanding and developing more water-efficient plants. In recognition of this, the foundation professor of biochemistry and molecular biology within the College of Agriculture, Biotechnology and Natural Resources will receive the 2017 Nevada Regents' Researcher Award.

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"CAM used to be thought of as a curiosity: a weird, esoteric thing that a few desert plants do," Cushman said. "It was a biological curiosity, but wouldn't you want to have this biological application apply to more plants to improve water-use efficiency?

"There was no inkling early on that this would have the impact it is having. Now, people are realizing the importance of this," he said.

After completing his master's and doctoral degrees in microbiology at Rutgers University, Cushman was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship in plant biology by the National Science Foundation. Through that fellowship, 30 years ago he began working at the University of Arizona, Tucson on what would become the focus of his career - plant stress and CAM plants such as agave and cactus.

Cushman has served as principal or co-principal investigator on research projects totaling more than $28 million in grant funding, has published more than 150 peer-reviewed papers and non-peer reviewed book chapters and lay publications. He currently serves as principal investigator on a multi-institutional, $14.3 million grant-funded project supported by the U.S. Department of Energy to explore the genetic mechanisms of CAM. The five-year project, now in its final year, is innovating understanding of drought tolerance in desert-adapted plants and application of this knowledge to biofuel crops. The project includes a $7.6 million grant award to the University of Nevada, Reno, with sub-awards to researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the University of Newcastle, and the University of Liverpool.

Through this and other grant-supported projects, the Cushman laboratory team is sequencing the genomes of several CAM plants and applying genome-editing technology to further improve their water-use efficiency. In one discovery through the DOE project, the leaf anatomy of the plant was changed, which increased its drought and salt tolerance.

In their nomination of Cushman for the award, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Chair Claus Tittiger and Professor Gary Blomquist note the increasing relevance of Cushman's research program for sustainable agriculture and water use, especially in the face of global climate change.

"Currently, approximately 40 percent of the world's land area is considered arid, semi-arid or dry sub-humid, with precipitation amounts that are inadequate for most conventional agriculturally important C3 or C4 (photosynthesis) crops," they wrote. "Prolonged drought and over-reliance on groundwater for crop irrigation has led to the depletion of aquifers in the US and across the globe. The development of more drought tolerant or water-use efficient crops should positively impact the future of agriculture in the state while promoting the wise use of limited water resources in Nevada and in arid states throughout the western U.S."

For the past dozen years, Cushman has served as director of the University's biochemistry graduate program, which is an interdisciplinary collaboration in the Molecular Biosciences among the Cell and Molecular Biology Program and the Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology Program within the College of Agriculture, Biotechnology and Natural Resources, the College of Science and the School of Medicine. The directorship exemplifies two aspects of higher education that Cushman values: the overlap between research and education and the increasing importance of multidisciplinary collaboration.

Cushman has witnessed and appreciates the evolution of research from single-investigator programs to larger, comprehensive programs.

"Large genome sequencing and bioinformatics projects need large teams," he said. "The technology is such that you can't be an expert in all of the research methodologies involved. We need and rely upon good collaborators."

As for his commitment to education and students, Tittiger and Blomquist wrote, "Dr. Cushman has made significant contributions to graduate education. He has not only mentored an impressive number of doctoral students and postdoctoral scholars over his career, many of whom have gone on to realize successful careers as independent scientists, but also he has been integral to maintaining the high quality of the biochemistry graduate program throughout his tenure as Graduate Program Director."

Cushman remains excited about the future and sees the field of synthetic biology as the next frontier. He also is enthusiastic about contributing to the University's expanding research and teaching presence in dryland, sustainable agriculture.

"With Nevada being the driest state, we'd like to become known for our growing expertise," Cushman said.

The Nevada Regents' Research Award is presented annually to one faculty member across the institutions of the Nevada System of Higher Education. An NSHE selection committee reviews nominations from the institutions and recommends an honoree to the Nevada Board of Regents' Academic and Student Affairs Committee for approval. The recipient receives an award amount of $5,000.

So, what does this honor mean to Cushman? Always humble, he said, "The more we can show we are having impact, the better for our students, college, University, state, country and science."

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Molecular genetics and biosystems design research improves water-use efficiency of plants - Nevada Today

‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Star Jesse Williams and Wife Divorce – TMZ.com

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Jesse Williamsis headed for splitsville -- he and his wife, Aryn Drake-Lee, are divorcing ... TMZ has learned.

Sources close to the couple tell us the "Grey's Anatomy" star and wife of almost 5 years filed for divorce last week ... it's unclear who filed, but we're told the split is amicable.

They have 2 young kids together -- son, Maceo and daughter, Sadie.

Jesse and Aryn got married on September 1, 2012.

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'Grey's Anatomy' Star Jesse Williams and Wife Divorce - TMZ.com