Transfusing blood from an old mouse to a younger mouse causes ageing

drawing of serums in petri dish

New research from the Conboy Lab, highlighted in New Scientist magazine, has demonstrated that transfusing young mice with blood from older rodents quickly triggers ageing in the young, suggesting that cellular ageing isn’t just a case of wear and tear. This is one step closer to potential anti-ageing treatments and builds on years of aging research from Professor Irina Conboy.

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Human lung proteins can advance or thwart SARS-CoV-2 infections

CDC image of coronavirus

A study led by Prof Patrick Hsu has identified specific proteins within our bodies that can promote or protect us from SARS-CoV-2 infections, potentially opening the door to new antiviral therapies. Notably, they showed that mucins — the main component of mucus found in the lungs — seem to help block the SARS-CoV-2 virus from entering cells.

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Researchers resolve riddle of mammalian brain’s navigation system

flying bat Photo by Yuval Barkai @bats.tlv

In a study published in Nature, a team of researchers in the lab of Professor Michael Yartsev studied neural activity in the hippocampus of freely flying bats and found that the neural codes remained unchanged over days and weeks. The discovery that these GPS-like neural codes remain stable over time has upended previous research and may further our understanding of diseases like Alzheimer’s.

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Rempel leads study on electric vehicle charging stations

A study led by Professor Emeritus David Rempel and the environmental non-profit group Cool the Earth tested the functionality of 657 EVSE (electric vehicle service equipment) connectors at all 181 open public, non-Tesla charging stations in the Bay area. The study found that 27% were nonfunctional, a concerning issue for the widespread adoption of electric vehicles.

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Solar beats nuclear at many potential settlement sites on Mars

artists impression of nuclear power on Mars

Research by BioE PhD student Aaron Berliner and Prof Adam Arkin shows that photovoltaics could provide all the power needed for an extended mission to Mars, or even a permanent settlement there. The authors are members of the Center for the Utilization of Biological Engineering in Space (CUBES), led by Adam Arkin.

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Kumar and Schaffer discover how biomaterials regulate stem cell neurogenesis in 3D

drawing of cell stiffness mechanism

Engineered biomaterials are increasingly used to expand and differentiate stem cells for technological and therapeutic applications. A major open question in the field is how the mechanical properties of material scaffolds regulate stem cell differentiation, especially in complex 3D geometries like those found in tissue. In a collaborative study published in Science Advances, the labs of Sanjay Kumar and David Schaffer have discovered a 3D-specific molecular mechanism through which mechanical inputs act through the transcription factor Egr1 to determine how efficiently neural stem cells turn into neurons.

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Now fully complete, human genome reveals new secrets

Nearly 20 years after the sequencing of the human genome, a large team of researchers has finally filled in the remaining few percent of unsequenced DNA, providing the first complete, gapless human genome. First author of many of the suite of papers is Nicolas Altemose, 2021 bioengineering PhD and current postdoc with co-author Professor Aaron Streets.

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Undergraduate Alexandra Potter first author on lung cancer screening paper

Lung cancer screening logo

Undergraduate bioengineering student Alexandra Potter has been a long-term collaborator with Dr. CJ Yang of Harvard University on the effectiveness of lung cancer screening. Today she is first author on a paper published in the British Medical Journal, “Association of computed tomography screening with lung cancer stage shift and survival in the United States.” Potter is also CEO of the American Lung Cancer Screening Initiative.

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