Science and Health News

LA JOLLA-Agricultural grafting dates back nearly 3,000 years. By trial and error, people from ancient China to ancient Greece realized that joining a cut branch from one plant onto the stalk of another could improve the quality of crops. Now, researchers at the Salk Institute and Cambridge University have used this ancient practice, combined with modern genetic research, to show that grafted plants can share epigenetic traits, according to a new paper published the week of January 18, 2016 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Have you ever imagined storing a computer program, music or your party picture from early 20`s into a plant. Imagine resting in a near park, taking a leaf from a flower and listening to the Rolling Stones directly from it? This sort of «green» information hosting could become a reality.

Sperm that don’t swim well rank high among the main causes of infertility. To give these cells a boost, women trying to conceive can turn to artificial insemination or other assisted reproduction techniques, but success can be elusive. In an attempt to improve these odds, scientists have developed motorized «spermbots» that can deliver poor swimmers — that are otherwise healthy — to an egg. Their report appears in ACS’ journal Nano Letters.

DALLAS — Jan. 14, 2016 — Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have identified a previously unrecognized small protein in cells of the human heart that plays a key role in heart muscle contraction. The protein is made from an RNA that was previously believed to be a blank or non-coding RNA, suggesting there may be many other small «non-coding» segments that play important biological roles.

A team of scientists from Germany, USA, and Russia, including Dr. Mark Borodovsky, a Chair of the Department of Bioinformatics at MIPT, have proposed an algorithm to automate the process of searching for genes, making it more efficient. The new development combines the advantages of the most advanced tools for working with genomic data. The new method will enable scientists to analyse DNA sequences faster and more accurately and identify the full set of genes in a genome

A quick screening method has been used for the first time in a standard open laboratory to identify and test promising anti-Ebola drugs. This approach increases the possibility of finding new therapies faster.

A new technique that has the potential to treat inherited diseases by removing genetic defects has been shown for the first time to hinder retinal degeneration in rats with a type of inherited blindness, according to a Cedars-Sinai study.

A study by Simon Fraser University researchers shows that the number of children born to a group of Mayan women was associated with the rate at which their bodies' cells age.