Category Archives: Physiology

Physiology

How 20th-century ‘rejuvenation’ techniques gave rise to the modern anti-ageing industry – The Conversation UK

Our obsession with looking and feeling younger isnt unique to the 21st century. In fact, weve been searching for ways to turn back the clock for centuries.

Cleopatra reportedly bathed in milk to preserve her youth, women in the Elizabethan era wore thin slices of meat on their faces to get rid of wrinkles, and Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Lon was rumoured to have been searching for the mythical fountain of youth when he discovered Florida.

Although humans had long been trying to cheat ageing, the period immediately after the First World War saw new strategies to rejuvenate the body and mind gain popularity, as I write in my recent book. These included everything from surgical procedures that aimed to manipulate sex hormones, to everyday beauty products, like skin foods and moisturising creams.

All of these methods promised wildly different results. In the case of male hormone treatments, a patient might expect to regain lost fertility as well as energy. Everyday cosmetic products, marketed almost exclusively to women, promised a restored youthful appearance.

Different types of rejuvenation were considered appropriate for men and women. In men, renewed sexual function and economic productivity was the goal. For women, a return to youthful beauty was deemed to be of greatest value. Prolonging life was a goal for eugenicists and medicine, but it was not a universal concern for would-be rejuvenators. Most instead concentrated on extending their youth.

Electrical therapies, which anyone could use in their home, were also popular. One of the most widely used electrotherapy devices during the late 1920s through to the 1940s was the Overbeck Rejuvenator, which was claimed to be able to restore lost vitality by restocking the bodys supply of electrical energy. Depending on which ailment the user wanted to treat, electrodes were applied to the body on a daily basis, and a small electric current was administered.

The inventor of the Rejuvenator was Otto Overbeck, an enterprising chemist who worked in the brewing industry. He wrote two books on the subject, the first of which was published in 1925, and used these to claim that his machine would have positive results in all conditions apart from infectious diseases and deformities.

Despite a study concluding that the devices current was not strong enough to have any effect, electrotherapy continued to be popular.

In 1912, Austrian physiologist Eugen Steinach devised a series of experiments designed to manipulate the levels of sex hormone (testosterone) in guinea pigs. He concluded that the secretions of the testes governed sexuality and sexual activity and behaviour.

Based on these findings, Steinach then began performing partial vasectomies on men in an effort to increase the production of testosterone and rejuvenate his patients. But an article published in 1923 was sceptical about his work, which had an apparently irresistible appeal to elderly persons whose waning virility renders them disconsolate and fretful.

Steinach generated great public interest in his work and inspired a loyal group of supporters within the medical profession. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physiology on several separate occasions between 1921 and 1938 for his pioneering work in the fields of endocrinology, urology, and sexual health. He was also a key figure in the development of endocrinology. But he was also subject to fierce accusations of quackery and deception.

Public audiences were fascinated by press reports of successful rejuvenations using his procedure. The so-called Steinach operation was a fairly expensive treatment, and it became fashionable among the higher levels of society, as well as many artists. These included the Irish poet W. B. Yeats, who claimed that the procedure inspired him to new artistic heights.

For those unable to afford a personal treatment by Steinach, a huge range of rejuvenating options gradually became available. New diets, exercise regimes, and cosmetic products found receptive audiences who were anxious about ageing. Many of these were advertised as essential parts of a healthy life, which also promoted youthfulness.

For example, in his 1923 book Rejuvenation, the French self-styled anti-ageing specialist Jean Frumusan identified a series of domestic habits designed for staying healthier for longer.

These included instructions like drinking a large glass of water after waking up, and jumping out of bed immediately. Frumusman also advised people to eat slowly and moderately and to be carnivorous at one meal, vegetarian at the next. Frumusan also advocated periodic fasting for 24 or 48 hours at a time to restore the vitality of the body.

Read more: Fitness gurus and 'muscular Christianity': how Victorian Britain anticipated today's keep fit craze

Anti-ageing cosmetic products were also popular, marketed primarily to women. Cosmetic magnates like Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden sold youthfulness to women of all ages. They and their contemporaries created a mass market for new anti-ageing products and services that has become embedded within 21st-century culture.

Rubinstein launched her Hormone Twin Youthifiers in the United States in 1931. These were two creams - day and night - which included oestrogen to replace the vital glandular secretions of youth.

Arden shunned the use of hormones in her products but did introduce her famed Vienna Youth Mask in 1927. This device used diathery (small electrical currents) to warm a persons facial tissues and with the goal of preserving preserve a youthful complexion.

Popular rejuvenation methods in the early 20th century were remarkably different from one another showing the rich range of ideas and theories about ageing. Rejuvenation was one of the most prominent and fascinating topics of public interest in the 1920s and 1930s, and gave rise to societys enduring obsession with looking and feeling young.

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How 20th-century 'rejuvenation' techniques gave rise to the modern anti-ageing industry - The Conversation UK

Physiology

Researchers Investigate How COVID-19 Impacts the Brain – UANews

The coronavirus is well known for attacking the lungs and causing coughing fits, difficulty breathing, fever and even deadly pneumonia. But what does it do to the brain?

A University of Arizona-led study aims to find out.

Lee Ryan, professor and head of the Department of Psychology in the College of Science, is the study's principal investigator.

Earlier coronaviruses, Ryan said, have been shown to make their way from the lungs and nose where the viruses live and breed and into the brain through nerves that connect to the brainstem or directly to the brain.

But scientists are "still guessing" at whether the new coronavirus has the same effects, she said. Some COVID-19 patients have shown neurological symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, headache and a loss of taste and smell. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently added the latter two to its list of symptoms of the coronavirus.

"This is kind of, in a way, an opportunity for us to actually follow people from the time we know they've had exposure to the coronavirus and follow them to see how they do cognitively," said Ryan, who studies the aging brain and risk factors for Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia.

The study involves finding 2,000 people who have had COVID-19 or have recently shown symptoms of the virus. Luckily, Ryan and her team already have a mechanism to do this a pool of about 50,000 people participating in an existing research project.

In 2014, Ryan and Matthew Huentelman, a research associate professor at the College of Medicine Phoenix and a professor in the neurogenomics division of the Translational Genomics Research Institute, launched the MindCrowd research project in an effort to better understand the risk factors for Alzheimer's disease.

About 140,000 people have participated in an online memory test on the MindCrowd website. Of those, roughly 50,000 have completed a battery of cognitive tests related to memory and processing speed and have agreed to remain in contact with the researchers for additional studies.

Those 50,000 participants will now receive surveys asking whether they've had COVID-19 symptoms over the past several months, been diagnosed with the virus or tested negative for it. Researchers expect to send the surveys sometime this month, Ryan said.

"That was part of the idea behind MindCrowd, was that not only would we get the one-time testing, but we would really make a relationship with a really large group of people who we could go back to and ask new questions of," she said.

The 2,000 participants with the highest likelihood of having had the virus will be asked to complete cognitive tests that check aspects of their memory, executive functions, processing speed and more. They will also receive a test kit to obtain a blood sample from a finger prick, which will then be mailed back to the researchers. That collection process, scientists hope, could be completed in four to six months.

Once the blood samples have been sent back to the researchers, scientists with the Translational Genomics Research Institute, or TGen, will test them for antibodies at the company's lab at Northern Arizona University. The presence of antibodies in blood samples will tell researchers who has been exposed to the coronavirus.

Researchers expect that of the 2,000 participants, about 500 will test positive for previous exposure to the coronavirus. The others will serve as controls, or subjects to which they can make comparisons.

The UArizona Center for Innovation in Brain Science is funding the project with a $60,000 grant.

"Drs. Ryan and Huentelman's innovative MindCrowd platform is perfectly positioned for rapid global deployment to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on brain function and risk of Alzheimer's disease. The Center for Innovation in Brain Science is proud to support this critical endeavor," said Roberta Diaz Brinton, the center's director.

Though MindCrowd came about long before the age of physical distancing, it's conveniently compatible with today's circumstances.

"The great thing about doing this in MindCrowd is that we can do this right now without doing any face-to-face," Ryan said. "We've done this for other studies, and so we know that people will participate in these things by mail."

In addition to Ryan and Huentelman, the study also involves researchers Meredith Hay, a professor of physiology and member of the university's BIO5 Institute and John Altin, an assistant professor in TGen's pathogen and microbiome division.

"This is really fundamental research that will apply precision medicine to our understanding of cognitive aging," Hay said. "With enough data from the participants involved in the MindCrowd study, now also including COVID-19 diagnoses, we hope to be able to create individualized tools that can intervene where needed and preserve high cognitive function across the lifespan."

The researchers hope to be able to provide the test results to participants, and TGen is working through a certification process to be able to do that, Ryan said.

The study, researchers hope, would be the start of a more comprehensive investigation of the effects of coronavirus on the brain, which requires following subjects over several years to study changes as they age, Ryan said. There's growing federal interest in that type of work, she added.

"This would be an amazing cohort that would be well-characterized, would have baseline testing and that we could put in that pipeline to start following over a longer timeframe," Ryan said.

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Researchers Investigate How COVID-19 Impacts the Brain - UANews

Physiology

Two new Corresponding Members admitted to the Academy – Australian Academy of Science

May 14, 2020

Professor Jane Langdale, of the Plant Sciences Department at the University of Oxford, and Professor Erwin Neher, of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Germany, have been admitted as Corresponding Members ofthe Australian Academy of Science for their outstanding contributions to science.

Corresponding Members of the Academy are eminent scientists not resident in Australia. They are elected based on scientific excellence, with consideration given to their connection to Australian science. The Academy will announce the election of 24 distinguished Australian scientists as New Fellows later this month.

Professor Jane Langdales research has transformed our understanding of how plants initiate leaves, how leaves adapted to major evolutionary transitions and how those changes affect photosynthesis in land plants.

She has explained various plant mechanisms, including organ inception and specification at the tip of shoots, patterning of distinct cell-typesand the development of chloroplasts.

Importantly, Professor Langdalehas carried outresearch in a comparative framework, advancing our understanding of leaf development not just in model flowering plant species but in species from all of the major land plant lineages.

What are you most proud of in your research?

The peopleI have worked with over the years. Any recognition of my research is recognition of the wonderful people who have contributed to the discoveries that we have madefrom the technicians who wash the lab glassware to the postdocs who challenge my ideas and prove me wrong.

What does your election to the Academy mean to you?

I have family, friends and many colleagues in Australia, and to be recognised by the national Academy is an incredible honour. I hope that I am able to contribute to the Academys mission in a meaningful way.

"Science should never be a single nation endeavour. Interactions and collaboration between people from different cultures, with a broad range of views and experiences, are essential for the synergy that fuels truly original and creative scientific advances.

Professor Erwin Neher is a world-renowned biophysicist specialising in the field of cell physiology. He is internationally known for his ground-breaking development of the patch clamp technique and further discoveries concerning the function of single ion channels in living cells, which allow cells to communicate with their surroundings.

Using this technique, Professor Neher was able to take ion channels from a physiological concept to the reality of biological macromolecules, revolutionising modern biology, facilitating research, and contributing to the understanding of the cellular mechanisms underlying several diseasesincluding diabetes and cystic fibrosis.

For his outstanding contributions, in 1991 he was awarded, along with Bert Sakmann, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

What are you most proud of in your research?

Following the development of the patch clamp, researchers worldwide adopted this technique for the study of diseases and drug action. Although I never did clinical work myself, this indirectly led to novel medications and improved therapies, which I am proud of.

What does your election to the Academy mean to you?

I first visited Australia in 1985 and since then kept contact with many of my colleagues. I consider election to the Academy as a major recognition of my work and as a unique chance to maintain contacts.

The laws of nature do not distinguish between countries and continents. The goal of science is to decipher these laws and scientists share their insights in this respect in a remarkable way. Most of us see our task as a joint effort, which is substantially enhanced by international cooperation.

Professor Langdale and Professor Neher join just 33 Corresponding Members of the Academy, including Nobel Laureates Professor Elizabeth Blackburn andProfessorRolf Zinkernageland Fields Medal recipient Professor Akshay Venkatesh.

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Two new Corresponding Members admitted to the Academy - Australian Academy of Science

Physiology

Assistant/Associate Professor in Exercise Physiology job with UNITED ARAB EMIRATES UNIVERSITY | 206355 – Times Higher Education (THE)

Job Description

The United Arab Emirates University invites applications for a faculty position. Qualified candidates at all levels will be considered at a rank commensurate with academic accomplishments. Candidates are expected to have a strong commitment to teaching excellence and student advising at the undergraduate and graduate levels, a demonstrable research capability that will enable the candidate to develop and sustain an internally and/or externally funded research program in his/her area of expertise, publish his/her research findings in refereed journals, and actively engage in promoting the growth of the UAE University. The application package should include a cover letter, a detailed resume, a brief description of current/future research activities, teaching philosophy, and courses taught. English is the language of instruction and communication. Screening of applications will continue until the position is filled. The responsibilities of an exercise physiologist who will work in the Physical Education Department include: Conduct stress tests, using electrocardiograph (EKG) machines. Demonstrate correct use of exercise equipment or performance of exercise routines. Develop exercise programs to improve participant strength, flexibility, endurance, or circulatory functioning, in accordance with exercise science standards, regulatory requirements, and credentialing requirements. Explain exercise program or physiological testing procedures to participants. Interpret exercise program participant data to evaluate progress or identify needed program changes. Measure amount of body fat, using such equipment as hydrostatic scale, skinfold calipers, or tape measures. Measure oxygen consumption or lung functioning, using spirometers. Perform routine laboratory tests of blood samples for cholesterol level or glucose tolerance. Prescribe individualized exercise programs, specifying equipment such as treadmill, exercise bicycle, ergometers, or perceptual goggles. Provide clinical oversight of exercise for participants at all risk levels. Recommend methods to increase lifestyle physical activity. Teach courses or seminars related to exercise or diet for patients, athletes, or community groups. Assess physical performance requirements to aid in the development of individualized recovery or rehabilitation exercise programs. Calibrate exercise or testing equipment. Educate athletes or coaches on techniques to improve athletic performance, such as heart rate monitoring, recovery techniques, hydration strategies, or training limits. Evaluate staff performance in leading group exercise or conducting diagnostic tests. Interview participants to obtain medical history or assess participant goals. Mentor or train staff to lead group exercise. Order or recommend diagnostic procedures, such as stress tests, drug screenings, or urinary tests. Plan or conduct exercise physiology research projects. Present exercise knowledge, program information, or research study findings at professional meetings or conferences. Provide emergency or other appropriate medical care to participants with symptoms or signs of physical distress. Supervise maintenance of exercise or exercise testing equipment. Teach behavior modification classes related to topics such as stress management or weight control. Teach group exercise for low, medium, or high-risk clients to improve participant strength, flexibility, endurance, or circulatory functioning.

Minimum Qualification

Applicants must have an earned doctorate in the applicable field. The ability to teach undergraduate courses is a must. Industrial and professional experience is a plus.

Preferred Qualification

Ph.D. in exercise physiology

Expected Skills/Rank/Experience

Assistant or Associate Professor in Exercise Physiology

Special Instructions to Applicant

Division College of Education - (CEDU)

Department Foundations of Education - (CEDU)

Job Close Date open until filled

Job Category Academic - Faculty

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Assistant/Associate Professor in Exercise Physiology job with UNITED ARAB EMIRATES UNIVERSITY | 206355 - Times Higher Education (THE)

Physiology

Staying hydrated is important in sickness and in health – stopthefud

Whether sick or healthy, the body needs water to function properly.

BY DARCY DiBIASE

Your body relies on water to work properly, and its your responsibility to make sure it has the hydration it needs to work its best.

Up to 60% of your body is water. Your skin, organs, muscles and even your bones have water in them. Water regulates your internal body temperature, dissolves and transports nutrients in the bloodstream, assists in flushing out waste and lubricates your joints.

How much water you need in a day is determined by your activity level, the weather and your physiology. You might be at higher risk of dehydration if you exercise at a high intensity, have medical conditions (such as kidney stones or diabetes), are sick with a fever or diarrhea, are pregnant or are breastfeeding.

You may be dehydrated if you are thirsty, have a dry mouth, feel sleepy or are light-headed.

The best way to tell if you are well hydrated is by checking your urine. It should be colorless or light yellow. If your urine is dark yellow or amber, up your fluids. If it persists more than a few days even with increased fluids, call your primary care physician, says Susan Levinsohn, MD, of Upstate Family Medicine and Preventative Care.

Another indicator of dehydration can be a mild headache. Before you reach for the pain reliever, drink a large glass of water and wait 20 minutes, Levinsohn says.

Dehydration is most threatening to the young, the elderly and the sick. These are the groups of people who may not be in tune with whether they are getting enough fluids.

Living in Upstate New York, were lucky to have, for the most part, excellent tap water. You can be a good steward of the environment and leave the bottled water on the store shelves and out of the landfills, Levinsohn said. If your tap water isnt to your liking, you can try using a filtration pitcher to improve the taste and odor of your water.

Invest in a good-quality refillable water bottle made of BPA-free plastic, glass or stainless steel. Carrying it with you throughout the day makes it even easier to get in enough water. You can also experiment with making your water more flavorful by adding fresh fruit, cucumbers or herbs to a large pitcher and letting it steep overnight.

Water is the best source of hydration for the human body, but remember hydration can come from many places including other types of beverages, fruits, vegetables and even soup, Levinsohn says.

While you can hydrate with many beverages, pay attention to added artificial colors, sweeteners, salt, caffeine and fat in packaged drinks. Some drinks can be filled with empty calories that can throw off your daily nutrition balance.

Sugary sports drinks are not necessary to hydrate, even if you arent well, Levinsohn says. Artificial sweeteners can also make you crave more sweets, which isnt necessarily good for your health.

Bottom line: Staying hydrated is part of staying healthy and adding more water to your daily routine is an easy way to achieve that.

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Staying hydrated is important in sickness and in health - stopthefud

Physiology

Scientists generate millions of nave human pluripotent stem cells, far more than have ever been produced – UB News Center

BUFFALO, N.Y. For decades, the enormous disease-curing potential of human stem cells has been thwarted by the inability to produce sufficient quantities of mature human cells in vivo in a living organism.

Now, a team led by University at Buffalo scientists has developed a method that dramatically ramps up production of mature human cells in mouse embryos. Producing human cells in vivo is critical because cells made in a petri dish often do not behave the same way that cells do in the body.

The research was published on May 13 in Science Advances.

This is fundamental research that allows us to use the mouse embryo to help us better understand human development, said Jian Feng, PhD, corresponding author and professor of physiology and biophysics in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB.

Further development of our technology could enable the generation of even larger quantities of specific types of mature human cells to allow us to create more effective mouse models to study diseases that gravely affect humans, such as malaria or COVID-19, said Feng.

And because this method produces so many mature human cells, it could potentially generate materials to treat chronic diseases, such as diabetes or kidney failure, by replacing a patients damaged cells with healthy human cells or tissues.

Infectious disease applications

Feng explained that it might be possible to create a much better mouse model of the human immune system or components of the human respiratory system in order to study COVID-19, a disease that wreaks havoc in humans, but barely affects mice.

It could also be possible to use the new method to produce mice with even more mature human red blood cells. Such mice would be very effective in the study of malaria, a disease which affects only humans by destroying our red blood cells.

We have a lot of questions to answer before the technology can be useful, but this is the first time that anyone has generated so many mature human cells in a mouse embryo, said Feng.

Millions of mature human cells in 17 days

Previous efforts to produce human cells in mouse embryos have generated small amounts of immature cells that are hard to quantify. In contrast, the UB method resulted in millions of mature human cells in a mouse embryo in 17 days.

In this study, the researchers injected 10-12 nave human stem cells into a mouse blastocyst when it was 3.5 days old. The mouse embryo then generated millions of mature human cells, including red blood cells, eye cells and liver cells, as it developed.

We know that up to four percent of the total number of cells in the mouse embryo were human cells, Feng. This is a low estimate because we cannot quantify the large amount of human red blood cells generated in the mouse embryo.

He said that because these mature human red blood cells do not have a nucleus, they are not counted by the method that the scientists use to quantify the total number of cells.

The teams technique involved overcoming an important challenge: Converting human pluripotent stem cells, which can differentiate into all types of cells in the body, into a form that is compatible with the inner cell mass inside a mouse blastocyst a three-day old mouse embryo. The human stem cells are in a primed state, whereas the inner cell mass inside the mouse blastocyst is in a nave state.

When the primed human cells are put into the mouse blastocyst, they fail to develop, said Feng, noting that the mismatch between the cells different developmental stages seems to be responsible.

We wanted to see if it was possible for the human primed cells to go back to the nave state, just like the pluripotent stem cells inside a mouse blastocyst, said Feng. This is what we have done.

Our method is to transiently inhibit the mTOR kinase for three hours to shock the human primed cells to the nave state, said Feng. Blocking the mTOR kinase triggers a series of events that rewire gene expression and cellular metabolism so that the primed cells become nave.

Converting the later stage human primed stem cells back to an earlier, less developed nave state allowed the human stem cells to co-develop with the inner cell mass in a mouse blastocyst.

The injected human stem cells now develop at the much more rapid pace of the mouse embryo, supporting the generation of millions of mature human cells in 17 days, said Feng.

In addition to Feng, UB co-authors are Zhixing Hu, Hanqin Li, Houbo Jiang, Yong Ren, and Boyang Zhang of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, and Xinyang Yu and Michael J. Buck of the Department of Biochemistry, all of the Jacobs School. Other co-authors are Jingxin Qiu and Aimee B. Stablewski of the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Funding for this research was provided by NYSTEM and the Buffalo Blue Sky Initiative.

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Scientists generate millions of nave human pluripotent stem cells, far more than have ever been produced - UB News Center

Physiology

Children Can Catch Their Mothers Stress Particularly If She Tries To Hide It – The British Psychological Society

ByEmily Reynolds

The way parents feel and behave often rubs off on their children. Kids own life paths can be influenced by the strength of their parents romantic relationship, for example, or how often their parents lie to them.

We may also pick things up as our parents try to hide them, as new research published in the Journal of Family Psychology suggests. Even when parents try to hide their stress, the team finds, they can still pass on those feelings to their children anyway.

To examine how stress is passed on from parent to child, Sara Waters from Washington State University Vancouver and colleagues looked at the physiological responses that occur when parents suppressed their anxiety. A total of 107 parents and their children aged between 7 and 11 were first fitted with ECG sensors to measure the hearts pre-ejection period (PEP), a measure of sympathetic nervous system activation, before spending five minutes listening to soothing music through headphones.

Parents were then separated from their children and completed a stress test, in which they were asked to give a five minute speech about themselves and then answer five minutes of questions in front of two evaluators. During the test, evaluators provided negative, non-verbal feedback, shaking their heads, crossing their arms and frowning.

The stressed-out parents were then assigned to either a suppression or control condition, before being reunited with their children. Those in the suppression condition were asked to mask their emotion, behaving in such a way that their child would not be able to know they were feeling anything at all, while those in the control condition were told to act naturally, as they would at home. Parent and child were then asked to engage in a six minute conversation about a source of conflict in their relationship, a six minute cooperation task in which they built with blocks, and six minutes of free play.

Trained observers who rated these interactions found that parents and children were less warm and engaged with each other in the suppression condition. There was also a significant link between a mothers physiological stress and that of her child: mothers PEP reactivity at one time point was related to childrens reactivity shortly thereafter. In the control group, however, stress was not transmitted from mother to child.

Interestingly enough, stress wasnt transmitted from fathers to their children, which the team believes is down to how men deal with stress outside of laboratory conditions. Because men are more likely to say theyre fine when theyre not, while women are more likely to show how theyre feeling, the team argues that children were more used to emotional suppression in their male caretakers and were therefore less affected. However, fathers in the suppression condition did become linked to their childrens physiology in the opposite direction: they picked up stress from their children, not the other way around.

As the study focused purely on pairings between a single child and parent, future research could focus on emotional suppression and stress in larger groups or family systems, exploring how a second parent, sibling or other family member affects this physiological link, for instance. Researchers could also examine the techniques that parents use in the control condition: their warm and engaging interactions may stem from specific, positive emotion regulation strategies rather than simply being the result of not suppressing their emotions.

Hiding stress from your children is entirely understandable you may wish to protect them from negative feelings and see emotional suppression as the best way to do that. But, as Waters says, it may be more comforting for children to have their feelings honoured listening to them honestly, rather than brushing over them altogether.

Keep It to Yourself? Parent Emotion Suppression Influences Physiological Linkage and Interaction Behavior

Emily Reynoldsis a staff writer atBPS Research Digest

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Physiology

New Online BME Courses Offered in Summer 2020 – IIT Today

The Department of Biomedical Engineering is offering the following new online courses in Summer 2020 Session B (June 1-July 25).

Check with your faculty academic advisor for how you can apply this to your degree, and view the course schedule in MyIIT to register.

BME402/502Introduction to Regulatory Science for Engineers

Instructor: Diana M. Easton, Ph.D.

Engineers must be equipped to answer the growing demands for new medical technologies.Introduction to Regulatory Science for Engineers teaches engineers how the regulated environment impacts the design, testing, and delivery of medical devices.It will equip students with the essential skills and tools critical to the practice of engineering in the medical device industry.In this course, students will be exposed to the core concepts, processes, and tools surrounding the global medical device regulatory framework, and will gain foundational knowledge for the practical application of regulations throughout the product development lifecycle. From knowledge gained in the class, students will be expected to work in teams and use critical thinking, data analysis, and interpretation skills to research, evaluate, and present a scientific, technical, and legally justifiable approach for the global introduction of a new medical device.

BME427Extracellular Matrix Structure and Function

Instructor: Rama S. Madhurapantula, Ph.D.

Extracellular Matrix (ECM) is a highly complex system in mammalian biology responsible for structural support and functional (biochemical) signals for physiology. Specific amino acid sequences on the various ECM elements are responsible to trigger intra- and extracellular cascades leading to cell division, proliferation, tissue regeneration, wound healing, and inflammation.This course will focus on the following key concepts:(a) Gene expression, structure and function of various ECM proteins and complexes and the physiological processes; (b) Etiology and the molecular progression of diseases caused by abnormalities to ECM proteins; (c) Mechanobiology of various ECM proteins; (d) Structure function and mechanical function of ECM interfaces with other tissues (muscle, bone, skin, etc.); and (e) Implications for tissue engineering and the development of novel biomimetic and biological ECM implants.

BME 437/537Intro to Molecular Imaging

Instructor: Ken Tichauer, Ph.D.

This course provides an overview of molecular imaging, a subcategory of medical imaging that focuses on noninvasively imaging molecular pathways in living organisms. Topics include imaging systems, contrast agents, reporter genes and proteins, tracer kinetic modeling. Preclinical and clinical applications will also be discussed with an emphasis on cancer and the central nervous system. (Prerequisite: Math 252 or equivalent)

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New Online BME Courses Offered in Summer 2020 - IIT Today

Physiology

UI research entity distributes antibodies to those studying COVID-19 – UI The Daily Iowan

The Developmental Studies Hybridoma Bank housed at the University of Iowa distributes and stores antibodies for biological research.

The Developmental Studies Hybridoma Bank, housed at the University of Iowa, stores and distributes antibodies that now are being distributed to help researchers study the novel coronavirus.

Originally created by the National Institutes of Health 34 years ago, the Developmental Studies Hybridoma Bank is a self-funded entity that keeps antibodies, proteins produced by the immune system to fight viruses and diseases, for companies worldwide for basic research.

David Soll, the banks director, brought the entity to the UI from Johns Hopkins University. The entity sends about 60,000 samples a year worldwide for biological and cancer research, he said.

The bank sells its antibodies to researchers for $40, Soll said. None of the antibodies can be used for commercial purposes, however, as the bank doesnt own the antibodies, it just stores them for researchers, he said.

Although it did not have antibodies specifically for COVID-19, the bank did have a large number of antibodies that react similarly to the coronavirus and could allow researchers to study the interaction between the virus and human cells, Soll said.

The antibodies the bank has can help researchers study the cytokines proteins that are important to cell signaling which sometimes cause the body to react violently to a virus, he said.

We have a very large footprint inside the research community, and the way we do it is we dont own any of the antibodies, people from all over the world bank their antibodies with us, Soll said.

The bank also makes antibodies, Soll said. Its currently producing plasmids and then inserting a piece of DNA into them that codes them for targeted viruses, he added.

The plasmids are injected into mice, Soll said, and then the mouse will make the proteins of the virus and then make antibodies against it.

RELATED: University of Iowa molecular genetics researcher studying COVID-19 testing methods to alleviate test shortages

Diane Slusarski, UI biology department head, is a member of the Developmental Studies Hybridoma Banks advisory board, which meets with Soll to discuss the entitys inventory and work.

The bank provides antibodies for biomedical research and basic research at a good price, Slusarski said. This allows basic research to move forward, she said, because often the budgets arent very large.

The bank has accumulated a lot of antibodies over its years of operations, which makes it so they have the immune response for viruses as well as the antibodies, she said.

The immune responses can be used to understand how the body reacts to other viruses even though the bank doesnt have coronavirus specific antibodies, Slusarski said.

Because the bank is housed at the UI, the biology department is able to give graduate students an opportunity to learn what it takes to make an antibody, Slusarski said.

Now youre going to have people interested in these immune [antibodies] that they have, Slusarski said. So theyre very strategic in looking at how we can help.

Kevin Campbell, UI professor of molecular physiology and biophysics, keeps some of the antibodies his lab has created in the bank.

When he first started teaching at the UI, Campbell said his lab made proteins to study muscles and have been helpful in the productivity of his work, which focuses on muscle physiology and muscular dystrophy.

Campbell said the bank functions as a storage facility to prevent researchers from losing their antibodies if a freezer fails them, and the bank grows the supply of the antibody.

The biggest [benefit] is that now you can make [the antibodies] available to everybody in the world doing research, he said. So that really frees you up from having to send the antibodies out to laboratories.

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UI research entity distributes antibodies to those studying COVID-19 - UI The Daily Iowan

Physiology

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Nutritional Therapy with Glen Tobias, MS, RDN, CSSD - Across Connecticut, CT Patch - Patch.com