How we age, as told by spit

Researchers are hoping that saliva could be used to provide early indications of frailty, dementia, and other health problems

22-Sep-2021 - Researchers in Japan have conducted a comprehensive analysis of the metabolites that make up human saliva using samples given voluntarily from a group of 27-to-33-year-old individuals and a group of 72-to-80-year-old individuals. Metabolites are the intermediate or end products from the chemical ...

Signs of dementia are written in the blood

33 metabolic compounds linked to dementia could be key to new methods of diagnosis and treatment

14-Sep-2021 - Scientists in Japan have identified metabolic compounds within the blood that are associated with dementia. The study revealed that the levels of 33 metabolites differed in patients with dementia, compared to elderly people with no existing health conditions. Their findings, published in PNAS, ...

Cellular 'tuning mechanism' builds elegant eyes

A molecular 'brake' that helps control eye lens development in zebrafish

17-Oct-2018 - How different cells in a multicellular organism acquire their identities remains a fundamental mystery of development. In the eye, for example, the lens contains two cell types - lens epithelial cells and lens fiber cells -- the first of which differentiates into the second as an animal matures. ...

Study demonstrates impact of temperature on mitochondrial DNA evolution

19-Jul-2018 - In multicellular organisms, including humans, most DNA is coiled up within the cell's nucleus. A small part, however, is tucked away within the mitochondria-- organelles that produce energy and regulate many metabolic processes within the cell. Unlike nuclear DNA, which is inherited from both ...

Nanomushroom sensors: One material, many applications

27-Feb-2018 - A small rectangle of pink glass, about the size of a postage stamp, sits on Professor Amy Shen's desk. Despite its outwardly modest appearance, this little glass slide has the potential to revolutionize a wide range of processes, from monitoring food quality to diagnosing diseases. The slide is ...

Understanding your bacteria

01-Jun-2016 - Escherichia coli (E. coli) are bacteria that live all around and inside of us. Most E. coli are harmless, but some strains can cause illness, and can even, in extreme cases, be deadly. With recent outbreaks of E. coli around the world, there is a fear of acquiring an infection from these ...

Decoding DNA's phonebook

06-May-2015 - New clues about diseases like inflammatory bowel disorder may be found thanks to a new genomic interactions catalogue by a group of researchers in Japan and the United Kingdom. This research is published in Nature Genetics.Biologists have compiled the most comprehensive catalogue of promoter ...

Largest neuronal network simulation to date achieved using Japanese supercomputer

05-Aug-2013 - By exploiting the full computational power of the Japanese supercomputer, K Computer, researchers from the RIKEN HPCI Program for Computational Life Sciences, the Okinawa Institute of Technology Graduate University (OIST) in Japan and the Forschungszentrum Jülich in Germany have carried out the ...