Researchers from the Laboratory of Systems Biology, Department of Cybernetics at Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech), Estonia, recently found that the extent of AMPK activation is not the same in all muscles. The muscles in our body are different, as they are adapted to the work they perform. Muscles performing continuous work, such as the heart and postural muscles that keep us upright all day, have more mitochondria that make ATP to fuel the work.

High-starch algae are important in biofuel production, as a feed supplement in agriculture and as an efficient way to bind carbon dioxide. Researchers have now found a new method to control starch storage in algae - a finding with potential applications in areas such reducing greenhouse gases. “Modifying a blue light-activated signalling pathway makes it possible to regulate storage. This offers a significantly higher yield than traditional methods that rely on nutrient deprivation,” says Dimitris Petroutsos, Associate Professor at Uppsala University, who led the study recently published in Nature Communications.

Recently, the team of Prof. Nishuang Liu and Prof. Yihua Gao from Huazhong University of Science and Technology has reviewed the recent advances in self-powered sensors based on ionic hydrogels. The review was published in Research as “Recent Advances in Self-Powered Sensors Based on Ionic Hydrogels”. This review systematically summarizes the self-powered mechanism of ionic hydrogel self-powered sensors, structural engineering related to device and material properties, and related applications, and discusses the challenges and future development of ionic hydrogel self-powered sensors.

A Kobe University team was able to edit the DNA of Lactobacillus strains directly without a template from other organisms. This technique is indistinguishable from natural variation and enabled the researchers to create a strain that doesn’t produce diabetes-aggravating chemicals.