Category Archives: Biochemistry

Biochemistry

Marion scientists awarded grant to identify molecular mechanisms that drive cancer – Marion Star

MARION -A group of Ohio State University Marion faculty researchers were recently awarded a $156,000 federal grant from the National Institutes of Healths National Cancer Institute for research in the role of chromatin remodeling factors in DNA double strand break repair.

Assistant Professor of Molecular GeneticsDr. Ruben Petreaca, Associate Professor of Chemistry and BiochemistryDr Ryan Yoder, and Assistant Professor of Chemistry and BiochemistryDr. Renee Bouley are collaborating toward the goal of identifying molecular mechanisms that drive cancer, which if successful would make significant impact in the field of cancer research. The funds from the grant cover primarily undergraduate research salaries and materials between May 1, 2021, and April 30, 2023.

When considering the groups research, Petreaca shared that one challenge to understanding the genetic change in cancer cells is the complexity of the different processes that participate in DNA damage repair.

Errors in some of these repair processes cause accumulation of various forms of DNA damage that eventually leads to cellular transformation and cancer, said Petreaca.

Here we propose novel protein modeling and genetic analysis to understand the interactions between various repair complexes and determine the roles they play in promoting accurate repair, he added.

As a scientist and researcher, Petreaca boiled it down to two basic conceptsthe importance of grants to the discovery process and involving students in research.

It means we can keep doing science, said Petreaca. More importantly, this grant will be used exclusively to fund undergraduate research at Marion.

Yoder echoed Petreacas sentiment about the funding directly benefitting undergraduate research and added his thoughts on the unique aspect of collaboration between different departments and majors working toward a unified goal.

I think its important to stress the interdisciplinary nature of this work, said Yoder.We have faculty with three very different backgrounds (molecular genetics, biochemistry, molecular modeling) who are all bringing our own strengths to this effort.

That means our students who work on this project will be exposed to many different research methods and techniques, he added, which can only benefit them as they move forward in their educational journey.

Having the resources and backing of a tier 1 research university, while having the advantages of a small campus setting to enhance such a collaborative project is at the core of what Ohio State Marion is all about, Yoder shared.

The intimate setting of Ohio State Marion, along with (the resources available at) our Science & Engineering Building, Yoder said, allows for such interdisciplinary research to thrive and provide our students such opportunities to participate in cancer research.

According to Bouley, even before she officially began her tenure on campus, she began working on a project with Dr. Petreaca and got advice on purchasing start-up equipment.

I love how collaborative the science faculty are at Ohio State Marion, said Bouley.

It has been so helpful to team up with other faculty in different fields of expertise to tackle challenging problems such as understanding what causes cancer to develop, she said.

Much like Petreaca and Yoder, for Bouley the grant is about supplying their research materials and hiring bright and energetic young minds who will greatly benefit their future education and career by being involved in research on the undergraduate level.

This grant is currently supporting several undergraduate students and most importantly for my lab, Bouley said, research supplies to be able to conduct biochemistry experiments.

The recent Pelotonia fellow Lauren Frank is currently working on purifying proteins and modeling protein-protein interactions as part of this grant, she explained.

Lauren Frank is the campuss third Pelotonia Undergraduate Fellowship recipient in the past four years, demonstrating the campuss strong science programs and the level of faculty engagement with students in interdisciplinary research.

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Marion scientists awarded grant to identify molecular mechanisms that drive cancer - Marion Star

Biochemistry

Fact Check-Fruit juices and coffee cannot produce a positive test result for COVID-19 – Reuters

Updated to correct paragraph formatting

Social media users claiming that fruit juices and coffee have tested positive for COVID-19 have misunderstood how lateral flow devices (LFDs) work. Videos allegedly showing a positive test result actually reveal what happens when devices are degraded by using substances other than those intended.

Examples of the claim can be found here, here here.

Imagine just how many hundreds of thousands of fake positives have been reported as actual covid, one individual said in a Facebook post (here).

Many of the users have tested LFDs with substances other than saliva to prove they are ineffective. They include examples of the devices showing two pink lines, indicative of a positive COVID-19 result.

However, this is misleading.

The beverages and other solutions used do not contain the COVID virus, Professor Mark Lorch, professor of public engagement and science communication and interim head of department for chemistry, biochemistry and chemical engineering at the University of Hull, told Reuters by email.

He said that while results might appear to be positive, they reveal something else. Instead, the acidity of the juices, soft drinks, coffee etc. disrupt the delicate antibodies on the test devices and so corrupt the test results.

Inside a lateral flow test, there is a strip known as the conjugation pad where antibodies are attached to gold nanoparticles. Those antibodies bind with virus particles should the test encounter the coronavirus (Lateral Flow Test Teardown). After taking a swab from the throat and nose, the sample is mixed with a buffer to ensure optimum pH before dripping it onto the strip (here , here , here and here).

These tests rely on molecular components such as the antibodies and functionalised nanoparticles being able to bind and this is determined by electrostatic interactions between the components, Andrea Sella, a professor of chemistry at University College London (UCL), told Reuters.

When it comes to biological components, most of them have components that are very pH sensitive. For example, if you change the pH, you can completely change the charge of a protein from, say, positive to negative and the result is that it will not stick correctly.

Sella added that it was therefore unsurprising that LFDs were disrupted when testing substances such as Coca-Cola and orange juice, considering the pH is significantly more acidic than biological fluids.

The two resulting red lines on an LFD do not have any meaning in these circumstances, he said, because youve wrecked the underlying chemistry that allows you to do the delicate detection you want.

Moreover, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned that there is potential for false positive results with antigen tests, including when users do not follow the instructions (here).

A clinical evaluation into lateral flow antigen tests by the University of Oxford and Public Health England (PHE) found that the tests detect the most infectious COVID cases (here, here, here).

Reuters previously fact-checked the claim that Coca-Cola produces a positive COVID-19 test (here).

False. Fruit juices and coffee do not test positive for COVID-19. The acidity in such substances corrupts lateral flow devices.

This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here .

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Fact Check-Fruit juices and coffee cannot produce a positive test result for COVID-19 - Reuters

Biochemistry

Virginia Tech researchers receive $2.7 million grant to study mosquito’s biological timing – News-Medical.Net

Mosquitoes may be small, but they are a formidable foe. Not only can they smell over 400 chemicals that we emit and detect the carbon dioxide we breathe out, but they can even adapt their daily behavior in response to our own.

With the help of a $2.7 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), researchers at Virginia Tech are now investigating how mosquitoes adjust their olfactory, or smelling, rhythms in response to changes in our own daily activity.

Mosquitoes are sometimes described as the deadliest animal on Earth. What we are seeing is an increase in the rate of mosquitoes that become resistant to insecticides and have some other level of behavioral resistance. We need another tool or other tools to control mosquito populations."

Clment Vinauger, Principal Investigator on the Project and Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Vinauger alongside assistant professor Chlo Lahondre and university distinguished professor Jake Tu, both from the Department of Biochemistry in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and affiliated faculty members of the Center for Emerging, Zoonotic, and Arthropod-borne Pathogens, an arm of the Fralin Life Sciences Institute, received the grant to support a five-year project to study mosquito's biological timing, or chronobiology.

The research will look at the molecular and cellular levels of the mosquito brain to find what allows mosquitoes to adapt and finetune their biological rhythms.

"Mosquitoes have rhythms, exactly like us," said Lahondre, who is also an affiliated faculty member of Fralin's Global Change Center. "We are very active during the day and then we go to sleep. For mosquitoes, we don't know a lot about their biological rhythm, so we are trying to understand how they process information at different times of the day and what is going on in their brain."

The specific mosquito species being studied is Aedes aegypti, a primary vector for Zika, dengue, and yellow fever. These invasive mosquitoes prefer to feed on people and live throughout the Southern United States, including Virgina.

With a more urbanized environment and a changing climate, the ranges of these mosquitoes and other mosquito species could expand over the coming years. Adding to that, large populations of mosquitoes are becoming both physiologically resistant to insecticides and behaviorally resistant to other control methods like bed nets.

"With climate change, there is a potential impact on mosquitoes' geographic distribution," Lahondre said. "As temperatures are rising, mosquitoes can move north, and that exposes people to the potential diseases that they can transmit."

Understanding Mosquito Behavior to Prevent Disease SpreadPlay

Video Credit: Virginia Tech

Mosquitoes are resilient beings. No matter how many showers we may take, mosquitoes can still smell and find us. As found by Vinauger and Lahondre's past research, mosquitoes can remember host smells and effectively track their victims.

To be the most efficient bloodsuckers on earth, mosquitoes also need to be active most when they can find a meal the easiest. That time is usually when we are most vulnerable and easy to access, which often aligns with our daily activities and circadian rhythms.

Mosquitoes also experience biological rhythms with their sense of smell. At one stage of the day, they reach a low point in odor sensitivity that eventually rises to a smelling peak. Their ability to detect and process host odors then declines, just as our senses decline late at night.

The more in tune their rhythm is with our availability as hosts, the more mosquitoes can feed and the more disease is spread.

Understanding what molecular and cellular processes underpin these rhythms could prove crucial in the fight against mosquitoes that cause disease outbreaks.

"What we are proposing here is to try to understand how mosquitoes keep out-smarting our control strategies," said Vinauger, who is also an affiliated faculty member of the Fralin Life Sciences Institute and Center for Emerging, Zoonotic, and Arthropod-borne Pathogens. "How do they synchronize to a new human environment or the fact that their host is available only at certain times compared to others?"

Using miniature mosquito-helmets that track brain activity in a virtual reality setting, the team of researchers will be able to determine how mosquitoes modulate their olfactory rhythms and their behavioral rhythms in response to host cues.

The research will also investigate how circadian clocks control mosquitoes' brain and antenna activity by "knocking out" the gene that controls a mosquito's sense of time, effectively creating an arrhythmic, mutant mosquito.

Put together with single-cell sequencing of the mosquito brain, the researchers will be able to identify where and what molecules or cells control how mosquitoes synchronize their rhythms with ours.

"If we can better understand how they work, we can have a better set of tools to use for their control," Lahondre said. "Understanding why they bite and how they process information at a specific time of the day can lead to finding key information for mosquito control."

As mosquitoes become more resistant to insecticides and spread at a rapid rate, finding new targets to disrupt their feeding habits is all the more important.

Through this NIH's NIAID grant, Vinauger and his team are hoping to find any rhythmic targets that mosquito control professionals can exploit. All it takes is finding out just what makes a mosquito tick.

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Virginia Tech researchers receive $2.7 million grant to study mosquito's biological timing - News-Medical.Net

Biochemistry

New Approach Could Boost the Search for Life in Otherworldly Oceans – Scientific American

The hottest spots in the search for alien life are a few frigid moons in the outer solar system, each known to harbor a liquid-water ocean beneath its icy exterior. There is Saturns moon Titan, which hides a thick layer of briny water beneath a frozen surface dotted with lakes of liquid hydrocarbon. Titans sister Saturnian moon Enceladus has revealed its subsurface sea with geyserlike plumes venting from cracks near its south pole. Plumes also emanate from a moon that is one planet closer to the sun: Jupiters Europa, which boasts a watery deep so vast that, by volume, it dwarfs all of Earths oceans combined. Each of these aquatic extraterrestrial locales might be the site of a second genesis, an emergence of life of the same sort that occurred on Earth billions of years ago.

Astrobiologists are now pursuing multiple interplanetary missions to learn whether any of these ocean-bearing moons actually possess more than mere waternamely, habitability, or the nuanced geochemical conditions required for life to arise and flourish. NASAs instrument-packed Europa Clipper spacecraft, for example, could begin its orbital investigations of Jupiters enigmatic moon by 2030. And another mission, a nuclear-fueled flying drone called Dragonfly, is scheduled to touch down on Titan as early as 2036. As impressive as these missions are, however, they are only preludes to future efforts that could more directly hunt for alien life itself. But in those strange sunless places so unlike our own world, how will astrobiologists know life when they see it?

More often than not, the biosignatures scientists look for in such searches are subtle chemical tracers of lifes past or current presence on a planet rather than anything so obvious as a fossilized form protruding from a rock or a little green humanoid waving hello. The instruments on NASAs Perseverance Mars rover, for instance, can detect organic compounds and salts in and around its landing site: Jezero Crater, a dry lakebed that may contain evidence of past life. And in the fall of 2020 some astronomers telescopically studying Venus may have teased out the presence of phosphine gas there, a possible by-product of putative microbes floating in temperate regions of the planets atmosphere.

The trouble is that many simple biosignatures can be produced both by living things and through abiotic geochemical processes. Much of the phosphine on Earth comes from microbes, but Venuss phosphine, if it exists at all, could potentially be linked to erupting volcanoes rather than some alien ecosystem in its clouds. Such ambiguities can lead to false positives, cases in which scientists think they see life where none exists. At the same time, if organisms possess radically different biochemistry and physiology from that of terrestrial creatures, scientists could instead encounter false negatives, cases in which they do not recognize life despite having evidence for its presence. Especially when contemplating prospects for life on distinctly alien worlds such as the ocean moons of the outer solar system, researchers must carefully navigate between these two interlinked hazardsthe Scylla and Charybdis of astrobiology.

Now, however, a study recently published in the Bulletin of Mathematical Biology offers a novel approach. By shifting attention from specific chemical tracerssuch as phosphineto the broader question of how biological processes reorganize materials across entire ecosystems, the papers authors say, astrobiologists could illuminate new types of less ambiguous biosignatures. These clues would be suitable for discovering life in its myriad possible formseven if that life employed profoundly unearthly biochemistry.

The study relies on stoichiometry, which measures the elemental ratios that appear in the chemistry of cells and ecosystems. The researchers began with the observation that within groups of cells, chemical ratios vary with striking regularity. The classic example of this regularity is the Redfield ratioa 16:1 average proportion of nitrogen to phosphorus displayed with remarkable consistency by phytoplankton blooms throughout Earths oceans. Other kinds of cells, such as certain types of bacteria, also exhibit their own characteristically consistent ratios. If the regularity of chemical ratios within cells is a universal property of biological systems, here or anywhere else in the cosmos, then careful stoichiometry could be the key to eventually discovering life on an alien world.

Importantly, however, these elemental proportions change in accordance with cell size, allowing for an additional check on any curiously consistent but possibly abiotic chemical ratios on another world. In bacteria, for instance, as cells get larger, concentrations of protein molecules decrease, whereas concentrations of nucleic acids increase. In contrast to groups of nonliving particles, biological particles will display ratios that systematically change with cell size, explains Santa Fe Institute researcher Chris Kempes, who led the new study, which expanded on prior work by co-author Simon Levin, also at the Santa Fe Institute. The trick is to devise a general theory of how, exactly, the various sizes of cells affect elemental abundanceswhich is precisely what Kempes, Levin and their colleagues did.

They focused on the fact that, at least for Earth life, as cell sizes increase in a fluid, their abundance decreases in a mathematically patterned wayspecifically, as a power law, the rate of which can be expressed by a negative exponent. This suggests that, if astrobiologists know the size distribution of cells (or cell-like particles) in a fluid, they can predict the elemental abundances within those materials. In essence, this could be a potent recipe for determining whether a group of unknown particles, say within a sample of Europan seawater, harbors anything alive. If we observe a system where we have particles with systematic relationships between elemental ratios and size, and the surrounding fluid does not contain these ratios, Kempes explains, we have a strong signal that the ecosystem may contain life.

The studys emphasis on such ecological biosignatures is the latest in a slow-simmering, decades-long quest to link life not only to the fundamental limitations of physics and chemistry but also to the specific environments in which it appears. It would, after all, be somewhat naive to assume organisms on the sunbathed surface of a warm, rocky planet would have the very same chemical biosignatures as those dwelling within the lightless depths of an oceanic moon. There has been a constant evolution in ideas, in approaches, and thats really important, explains Jim Green, NASAs chief scientist, who was not involved in the new study. Now we are entering an era where we can go after what we know about how life has evolved and apply that as a general principle.

So what does it take to bring this more holistic approach to biosignatures to our studies of worlds such as Europa, Titan and Enceladus? At the moment, Green explains, it will take more than the space agencys Europa Clipper orbiterperhaps a follow-up mission to the surface would suffice. Through Clipper, we want to take much more detailed measurements, fly through the plume, study the evolution of Europa over a period of time and capture high-resolution images, he says. This would take us to the next step, which would be to get down to the ground. Thats where the next generation of ideas and instruments need to come in.

Looking for the ecological biosignatures described by Kempes and his colleagues would require instrumentation that measures the size distribution and chemical composition of cells within their native fluid. On Earth, the technique that scientists use to sort cells by size is called flow cytometry, and it is used frequently in marine environments. But performing cytometry in an alien moons subsurface ocean would be far more challenging than merely sending instrumentation there: Because of the paucity of available energy in those sunlight-starved abysses, scientists expect any life there to be single-celled, extremely small and relatively sparse. To capture such organisms in the first place would require careful filtering and then a refined flow cytometer that would measure particles of this size range.

Our current flow cytometers are not up to that task, explains Sarah Maurer, a biochemist and astrobiologist at Central Connecticut University, who was not involved with the study. Many kinds of cells simply do not get picked up, and there are cell types that require extensive preparation or they wont go through a cytometer, she says. To work in space, instruments to filter and sort cells would need both refinement on Earth and miniaturization for spaceflight.

Progress is already being made on both fronts, according to study co-author Heather Graham of the NASA-funded Laboratory for Agnostic Biosignatures and the agencys Goddard Space Flight Center. The next steps, she says, will be to deploy new tools at marginally habitable field sites around the globe that play host to some of Earths most extreme and impoverished ecosystems. Once astrobiologists begin routinely discerning the distinctive chemical ratios associated with living ecosystems in our own planets quiescent waters, they can fine-tune the specifications for spaceflight-capable devicesand, just maybe, at last reveal a second genesis, written within the mathematics of a subsurface oceans chemistry.

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New Approach Could Boost the Search for Life in Otherworldly Oceans - Scientific American

Biochemistry

One Major Side Effect of Eating Plant-Based Meat, Says New Study | Eat This Not That – Eat This, Not That

Every year brings a fresh wave of food trends, and 2021 seems to be shaping up as the year plant-based meats finally caught hold. Despite veggie burgers being on the market for decades, the wave of fast-food choices is highlighting these alternativesfrom Burger King's Impossible Whopper to Panda Express trying out a plant-based orange chicken with Beyond Meat products.

But a new study in Scientific Reports suggests that when it comes to nutrition, they're not exactly an even swap.

Researchers at Duke University noted that when you look at nutrition labels, the amount of vitamins, fats, and protein are very similar to real beef. However, using an approach known as "metabolomics," they were able to examine the biochemistry for 18 plant-based meat products and assess their metabolites.

RELATED:Delicious Foods You Can Eat on a Plant-Based Diet

Metabolites are essential for signaling between cells and converting food into energy, and about half of them come from our diet. When the researchers compared samples of plant-based meat with grass-fed ground beef, they found significant differences between the two in terms of metabolite contentup to 90% in some cases.

The beef contained 22 metabolites that were lacking in the plant substitute, including several amino acids and vitamins. Several of these are known to have important anti-inflammatory roles in the body, the researchers noted, such as omega-3 fatty acids, glucosamine, and creatine, which were all found in larger quantities in the real beef samples.

They aren't suggesting avoiding plant-based meat altogetherin fact, the plant-based products contained 31 metabolites that were missing in the meat. These included vitamin C and phytosterols, which are naturally occurring compounds found in plant cell membranes. These compounds are particularly important for lowering cholesterol, which is why plant-based eating is regularly touted for heart health.

In general, that means adding in these alternative meat options could be helpful for getting a full range of beneficial metabolites.

Unless you prefer to eat only plant-based foods, including both plant and animal meats in your diet could yield more nutritional advantages, says lead researcher Stephan van Vliet, Ph.D., a researcher at Duke Molecular Physiology Institute.

"The takeaway is that there are large differences between meat and a plant-based meat alternative," he states. "However, plant and animal foods can be complementary, because they provide different nutrients."

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One Major Side Effect of Eating Plant-Based Meat, Says New Study | Eat This Not That - Eat This, Not That

Biochemistry

Edward Westhead Obituary (1930 – 2021) – Amherst, MA – Daily Hampshire Gazette – Legacy.com

Edward Westhead

Amherst, MA Edward W. Westhead passed away from cancer at Cooley-Dickenson Hospital on Tuesday, June 1 at age 90, three weeks shy of his 91 st birthday.

A distinguished biochemist, with a passion for learning and broad interests, Ed enjoyed life to its fullest both in the lab and outside his chosen field. He was born in Philadelphia, PA on June 19, 1930 to Edward and Eleanore Westhead, the oldest of five children. He graduated high school from Archmere Academy in Delaware, received his Bachelor of Science (1951) and Masters of Science (1953) from Haverford College, and his PhD in Chemistry from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (1956).

Ed established his own lab at Dartmouth Medical School in the Department of Biochemistry after post-doctoral work at the University of Uppsala and at the University of Minnesota. He was subsequently recruited by the University of Massachusetts, Amherst to form a new Department of Biochemistry (1966) and, later, became the first director of the UMass PhD program in molecular and cellular biology. He held visiting professorship positions at the California Institute of Technology (1971); Oxford University (1972-73); University of Innsbruck (1979-80); and the University of Milan (1987; 1993). His research concentrated on topics in enzyme biochemistry and neurobiology; his work was well-published and he served in numerous professional organizations. He followed developments in his field and kept in touch with former students his entire life.

Beyond his work, Ed read broadly, enjoyed concerts and museum shows, and delighted in the interests and achievements of his family and many friends. He loved to travel, seizing any opportunity whether work-related or a personal invitation to visit, and consequently knew people almost everywhere he went. Italy held a special place in his heart; the year he spent with his wife Evelyn in Lucca was one of his fondest times, allowing him to explore his love of history and culture and savor a favorite cuisine. He had an astonishing memory for exceptional food and wine and would travel miles out of his way for a delicious loaf of bread or a dish of homemade ice cream. In his later years he began chronicling his adventures, including a solo trip he made down the Mekong river in Thailand in a foldable kayak in the mid-1950's.

Ed was an avid outdoorsman and enjoyed hiking, biking, tennis and skiing up until the last months of his life. A lifelong member of the Appalachian Mountain Club, he volunteered into his eighties on their trail crews, clearing brush and repairing bridges for the upcoming season. He started skiing in the western US at Alta in the 1950's and one of his life's greatest pleasures was qualifying for a free season ski pass there when he turned 80.

Ed is survived by his beloved wife of 24 years, Evelyn A. Villa, MD, his daughter Victoria Westhead (John), his son Edward G. Westhead, grandchildren Abby and Nat Levy-Westhead, two sisters, Barbara Lawler (Dan) and Eileen Hall (Bob), and numerous nieces and nephews. He is also survived by six stepchildren: Liz Diton (Jeff), Janet Vanoni (Pete), Karen Shailor (Chris), Mariella Villa (Ryan), Arthur Villa (Jess), and Jason Villa, their children and grandchildren.

A celebration of Ed's life will be planned for 2022. Please contact [emailprotected] or [emailprotected] if you wish to be notified of the date.

Published by Daily Hampshire Gazette on Jul. 14, 2021.

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Edward Westhead Obituary (1930 - 2021) - Amherst, MA - Daily Hampshire Gazette - Legacy.com

Biochemistry

UW-Stevens Point is among first to offer new science education major – University of Wisconsin System

A new natural science education major will give students likeChristina Mitchell, Wausau, an opportunity to add a science topicemphasis in addition to a major and minor.

UW-Stevens Point will offer a newscience education degree this fall, one of the first in the University of Wisconsin System.

The natural science forscience teaching certificationis a collaborative bachelors degree program. Students will take core science courses and select a minor in one of those disciplines and a certificate in an additional field of science.The collaboration is among the School of Education, Departments ofBiology, Chemistry, Physics and Astronomy, Geography and Geology,and the College of Natural Resources.

This program better prepares students to effectively teach to the interdisciplinary nature of science, said Krista Slemmons, associate professor of biology and coordinator of the new program. Of critical importance, it also addresses the need for qualified science teachers in school districts across the state.

The most recent Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction(DPI) report on school staffing cited chronic staffing shortages across many disciplines, including science. Teacher shortages were most pronounced in northern Wisconsin school districts and in science, technology, math (STEM) fields. Fifty percent of school districtsdescribedtheirteachershortage as extreme.

Christina Mitchell, Wausau, is one of the students who will help meet this teacher need soon. She is majoring in natural science life education, has a minor in biology with licensure in chemistry and environmental studies.

I have always wanted to be a teacher. I loved school from the very beginning and enjoyed helping others answer their questions and curiosities, she said. The junior at UW-Stevens Point has been inspired by many teachers on her educational journey.

The new natural science major will help future science teachers choose an additional area of expertise, Mitchell said. By having a certificate along with your major and minor, you are that much more prepared in another area of science. Diversifying your knowledge in different subfields will only benefit your students.

UW-Stevens Point will be able to support students even better by helping them become comfortable with various topics as the world of science continually develops, she said.

The broad array of science coursework natural science majors will take provides ampleknowledge to teach any science discipline in grades 4-12 and also allows students to focus on an area of emphasis.

Were one of the first institutions in the UW System to offer this program, and it will help fill the void of much-needed science educators in our state, said Jason DAcchioli, assistant dean, School of Biology, Chemistry and Biochemistry.

For more information, see the Science Educationwebsite.

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UW-Stevens Point is among first to offer new science education major - University of Wisconsin System

Biochemistry

Researchers discover new set of signals that control production of goblet cells in the lung – News-Medical.Net

Proper lung function relies on the precise balance of specialized epithelial cells (cells that line the surfaces of the body) that coordinate functions to maintain homeostasis. One important lung cell type is the goblet cell, which secretes mucus that helps protect the lining of the bronchus (major air passages of the lung) and trap microorganisms. Goblet cells are often increased in lung diseases, but signals that lead to their dysregulation are not well understood.

Researchers have now discovered a new set of signals that control the production of goblet cells in the lung.

By altering the proteins that control these signals we are able to either increase or decrease the production of goblet cells which offers potential new avenues for therapeutically targeting goblet cells in lung disease."

Bob (Xaralabos) Varelas, PhD, corresponding author, associate professor of biochemistry at Boston University School of Medicine

The researchers used an experimental model carrying a genetic deletion of Yap and Taz, which are genes that encode proteins that control an important signaling network in the lung. They compared the genetic deletion model with a "control" model and found that the Yap/Taz deletion model had severe lung damage and elevated goblet cell number that was associated with increased mucin production.

In order to understand how loss of Yap/Taz led to increased goblet cell numbers, the researchers isolated cells from the experimental model and human lungs and cultured them in the lab. They then used gene expression and chromatin binding analyses to discover how these proteins control a network of genes important for mucus production. Finally, they used these cells in the lab to test inhibitors of goblet cell differentiation and mucus production.

According to the researchers, several lung diseases exhibit an expansion of goblet cells including asthma, COPD, Cystic Fibrosis and chronic bronchitis. "By identifying new regulators of goblet cell production, we offer insight into mechanisms that may contribute to these diseases. By targeting these signals we can repress the production and maintenance of goblet cells and therefore may offer therapeutic directions for limiting the expansion of these cells in lung disease," said Varelas.

These findings appear online in the journal Cell Reports.

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Researchers discover new set of signals that control production of goblet cells in the lung - News-Medical.Net

Biochemistry

Global Electrolyte and Biochemistry Analyzers Market 2021 Segmentation, Strategy, Share, Growth Factors, Analysis and Forecast to 2026 The Manomet…

Global Electrolyte and Biochemistry Analyzers Market 2021 by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast to 2026 introduced by MarketQuest.biz contains a carefully investigated comprehensive and professional market research study that begins with a market overview and moves on to cover the growth prospects of the market during the 2021 to 2026 time period. The report focuses on top players and their business strategies, geographical extension, market segments, competitive landscape, assembling, and evaluating and cost structures. The report offers the current state of the market around the world. The report starts with the market outline and key components of the global Electrolyte and Biochemistry Analyzers market.

The report offers the key focuses to upgrade the development in the market. Some fundamental ideas are likewise presented by reports, for example, item definition, its application, industry esteem chain structure. The report covers data relevant to new market entrants or established players. Furthermore, details of well-established contenders functioning in the global Electrolyte and Biochemistry Analyzers market along with their product/service contributions, manufacturing process, income details, capacity, new product launches, acquisitions, partnership, and business synopsis are given in this report.

NOTE: Consumer behaviour has changed within all sectors of the society amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Industries on the other hand will have to restructure their strategies in order to adjust with the changing market requirements. This report offers you an analysis of the COVID-19 impact on the Electrolyte and Biochemistry Analyzers market and will help you in strategising your business as per the new industry norms.

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The report also presents the market competitive landscape and a corresponding detailed analysis of the major vendor/key players in the market:

Roche, Danaher, Siemens, Abbott, Hitachi, Horiba Medical, Mindray, ThermoFisher, Shanghai Kehua Bio-Engineering Co., Ltd, Senlo, Sunostik, ELITec Group, Sysmex, Jiangxi TECom, URIT Medical Electronic, Randox Laboratories, Dirui, Shenzhen Rayto, Convergent Technologies, Meizhou Cornley, Diestro, Caretium, Erba Mannheim, Hycel Medical, Idexx Laboratories, Nova Biomedical, SFRI, Medica, Shenzhen Genius Biotech Inc, Sensa Core

Each part of the analysis study is extraordinarily set up to investigate key aspects of the worldwide Electrolyte and Biochemistry Analyzers market. The market elements segment dives profound into the drivers, restraints, trends, and opportunities of the market. The study comprises primary information about the products. It also includes raw materials used and the manufacturing process of the market. The business chain structure records significant players, cost structure, material analysis, work costs, promoting channels, and downstream investigations.

On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share, and growth rate of each type, primarily split into:

Electrolyte Analyzers, Biochemistry Analyzers

On the basis of the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share, and growth rate for each application, including :

Hospital, Clinic, Labs, Others

Geographically, the following regions together with the listed:

North America (United States, Canada and Mexico), Europe (Germany, France, United Kingdom, Russia, Italy, and Rest of Europe), Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia, and Australia), South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and Rest of South America), Middle East & Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, South Africa, and Rest of Middle East & Africa)

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Global Electrolyte and Biochemistry Analyzers Market 2021 Segmentation, Strategy, Share, Growth Factors, Analysis and Forecast to 2026 The Manomet...

Biochemistry

Structural basis of ribosomal frameshifting during translation of the SARS-CoV-2 RNA genome – Science Magazine

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 critically depends on the ribosomal frameshifting that occurs between two large open reading frames in its genomic RNA for expression of viral replicase. Programmed frameshifting occurs during translation, when the ribosome encounters a stimulatory pseudoknot RNA fold. Using a combination of cryoelectron microscopy and biochemistry, Bhatt et al. revealed that the pseudoknot resists unfolding as it lodges at the entry of the ribosomal messenger RNA channel. This causes back slippage of the viral RNA, resulting in a minus-1 shift of the reading frame of translation. A partially folded nascent viral polyprotein forms specific interactions inside the ribosomal tunnel that can influence the efficiency of frameshifting.

Science, abf3546, this issue p. 1306

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Structural basis of ribosomal frameshifting during translation of the SARS-CoV-2 RNA genome - Science Magazine