Alcohol consumption leads to the formation of a toxic compound called acetaldehyde, which damages DNA. A research team from IOCB Prague has now described in detail how cells repair this damaged genetic information. Their study provides new insight into the link between alcohol consumption and the development of cancer. The findings were published in the Nature Portfolio journal Communications Biology.

An experimental pain-relieving drug delivery method for farm animals using biodegradable microneedle patches was conducted by researchers with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station to alleviate some pain after procedures like castrations and tail docking and decrease labor for farmers. While the drugs administered through the experimental microneedle pain patches on pigs did show up in the animals’ system, the drug concentrations were not sufficient.

Despite the limited performance, the project remains a proof of concept that pig skin can absorb medication delivered through a dissolvable microneedle patch. The research team also found that the patches work better on the neck than the ear. No adverse responses were observed at application sites, highlighting the safety and tolerability of the patches. Additionally, a new approach is being developed using the microneedle patch technology as a way to incorporate tattoos for animal tagging.

A University of Houston computational chemist has received a $1.96 million federal grant to study how light transforms small molecules, work that could open new avenues for storing and using chemical energy, and for designing materials that change when exposed to light.

The Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) inaugurated today its Scientific Computing Center (C3), a new state-of-the-art supercomputing facility designed to support R&D&I projects with high demands in computation, storage and data processing. This supercomputer, ranked 81st worldwide according to the IO500 ranking, reinforces the University’s commitment to scientific and technological excellence and will be available to the UC3M research community, other research centers, and interested companies. The C3 will represent a major advance in socially impactful research in fields such as aeronautics, biology, and health sciences, among others.

A University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) study, published in Nature Communications, uncovers how enteroviruses—including those causing polio, myocarditis, encephalitis, and the common cold—hijack host cell machinery to replicate. Researchers determined the structure of a cloverleaf-shaped RNA element in the viral genome bound to the viral protein 3CD, which recruits host factors to form the viral replication complex. 3CD also acts as a switch between genome copying and protein synthesis. This highly conserved mechanism across all seven enteroviruses in the study presents a stable target for developing broad-spectrum antiviral drugs that could disrupt this essential interaction and prevent replication.

 

Mutations in the ASPM gene are the most common cause of primary hereditary microcephaly in humans, a condition characterized by a severely reduced brain size. While ASPM has been studied in rodents and ferrets, these models only partially recapitulate the human condition due to significant differences in brain structure and complexity, particularly the lack of a folded cerebral cortex (gyrification). To better model human brain development, this study investigated the consequences of ASPM knockout in a non-human primate, the cynomolgus monkey.