Latest News Releases 13 May

The International Vaccine Institute (IVI), in collaboration with LG Electronics, the Ethiopian government led by Armauer Hansen Research Institute (AHRI), and the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI), will vaccinate 40,000 people against cholera in May to support prevention of the disease in Ethiopia. In a separate but coordinated project funded by other Korean donors, IVI and Ethiopian partners will immunize an additional 60,000 people against the diarrheal disease in Ethiopia.

Join the experts this October during 13th World Congress of the World Mitochondria Society on Targeting Mitochondria. Many hot topics will be addressed. such as the Mitochondrial Transplantation and Transfer, Extracellular Vesicles & Mitochondria, Translational Therapies, and many more.

The image is a long-anticipated look at the massive object that sits at the very centre of our galaxy. Scientists had previously seen stars orbiting around something invisible, compact, and very massive at the centre of the Milky Way. This strongly suggested that this object — known as Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*, pronounced "sadge-ay-star") — is a black hole, and today’s image provides the first direct visual evidence of it.

Organisms adjust their cell walls according to environmental conditions such as temperature. Some adaptations involve changes in lipids which may still be preserved long after the rest of the organisms has been degraded. Researchers at the University of Göttingen studied a specific group of lipids called long chain diols which are found in sea sediments all over the world, and which can be preserved for millions of years. The researchers discovered that these lipids are produced by an, until now, unknown group of marine eustigmatophyte algae which evolved before the currently known species originated. This finding changes our understanding of the composition and evolution of these algae, as previously they were considered to consist of a relatively small group of mainly soil and freshwater species. In addition, the researchers show that a ratio of these distinctive lipids, known as the Long chain Diol Index, can be used to reconstruct summer sea surface temperatures from the past. The research was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Human cell division involves hundreds of proteins at its core. Knowing the 3D structure of these proteins is pivotal to understand how our genetic material is duplicated and passed through generations. The groups of Andrea Musacchio and Stefan Raunser at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology in Dortmund are now able to reveal the first detailed structure of a key protein complex for human cell division known as CCAN. By using cryo-electron microscopy, the researchers show important features of the complex’s 16 components and challenge previous assumptions about how the complex is able to recognize the centromere, a crucial region of chromosomes in cell division.

Transistors, which are devices that control or amplify electrical signals and power, are one of the most ubiquitous components of modern electronics. The most widely used transistor is known as the MOSFET, which stands for metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor. MOSFETs have been in use since the 1960s and have typically relied on silicon to act as a semiconductor. The latest iteration of the MOSFET uses silicon carbide as a semiconductor, known as SiC MOSFET. This has many advantages, but it has not been widely adopted for medium-voltage power conversion. This is because of several challenges associated with SiC MOSFETs that researchers hope to solve by combining novel technologies.