Green Light Stops Sea Turtle Deaths

LED lights used at sea. Source: University of Exeter

Illuminating fishing nets is a cost-effective means of dramatically reducing the number of sea turtles getting caught and dying unnecessarily, conservation biologists at the University of Exeter have found.

Dr Jeffrey Mangel, a Darwin Initiative research fellow based in Peru, and Professor Brendan Godley, from the Centre for Ecology and Conservation at the University's Penryn Campus, were part of a team of researchers who found that attaching green battery powered light-emitting diodes (LED) to gillnets used by a small-scale fishery reduced the number of green turtle deaths by 64 per cent, without reducing the intended catch of fish.

The innovative study, carried out in Sechura Bay in northern Peru was supported by ProDelphinus, the UK Government's Darwin Initiative, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and published in Marine Ecology Progress Series. It is the first time that lighting technology has been trialled in a working fishery. At a cost of £1.40 ($2) for each LED light, the research showed that the cost of saving one turtle was £24 ($34) -- a sum which would be reduced if the method was rolled out at larger scale.

Bacteria Found to Thrive Better in Space than on Earth

This attractive specimen, collected from a doorknob in New York, loved being in space. (Credit: Alex Alexiev/UC Davis, CC BY)

Some species of bacteria have made themselves right at home in space, with one species, Bacillus safensis, found to thrive more in the microgravity of the International Space Station than here on Earth.

The study was a product of Project MECCURI, a citizen science project where members of the public and microbiologists collected environmental microbial samples and sent them to the ISS to see how they’d grow.

Published this week in PeerJ, the findings not only raise discussion about the impact of microbe communities in human constructed environments in space, but also the how life could possibly be transported between planets during space travel.

Space Bicrobes

The remarkable resilience of bacteria in space has been demonstrated before, when microbes survived after being placed on the exterior of the space station.

Project MECCURI focused on how bacteria sampled would survive inside the space station itself.

Promising New Method Inhibits TB–Causing Bacteria

Scientists at the The University of Queenslandand the University of California San Francisco have found a new way to inhibit the growth of the bacterium that causes tuberculosis (TB).

UQ School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences Deputy Head Professor James De Voss said the discovery held promise for the development of treatments.

The research team, led by Professor Paul Ortiz de Montellano in the US, investigated the impact of compounds related to cholesterol on the tuberculosis-causing bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Cholesterol is known to affect the virulence and infectivity of TB.

"What Paul's team and our team have shown is that if you give this bacterium modified cholesterol instead, then it can't use it as its energy source and so it stops growing, "Professor De Voss said. 

"Interestingly, we don't quite understand why this happens.

"Our discovery suggests a new way in which we can robustly inhibit growth of the TB bacterium."

TB is a highly infectious lung disease that kills one person every 21 seconds.

There were 9.6 million new cases of TB in 2014, resulting in 1.5 million deaths.

One in three people globally is infected with TB, with the bulk of the disease burden falling on developing countries.

Professor De Voss said the scale of the threat, compounded by the emergence of increasingly drug-resistant strains of bacteria, meant it was vital to  find new ways to combat tuberculosis.

The team at UQ, including postdoctoral research fellow Dr Siew Hoon Wong, was responsible for synthesising inhibitors of the enzymes used to modify the cholesterol by M. tuberculosis. 

source:  www.rdmag.com

Scientists Create Revolutionary Synthetic Life Form

A team of geneticists made a biological breakthrough last week.

Researchers led by the renowned Craig Venter, Ph.D. created a synthetic organism named syn3.0. It is a microbe capable of surviving and replicating with only 473 genes,reported The Guardian, establishing that this genetic number is the minimum needed for life whereas humans have a rough estimate of 20,000 genes.

Qanta explained Venter and his team made this discovery after analyzing the genome of a cattle-based bacterium called Mycoplasma mycoides through a process that took years.

GI Tract Bacteria Help Decrease Stroke Risk

Immune cells (green) assemble in the outer coverings of a mouse's brain, called the meninges, protecting it from a stroke's full force. Gut bacteria modified the immune' cells behavior to elicit that protective response. Source: Corinne Benakis

Certain types of bacteria in the gut can leverage the immune system to decrease the severity of stroke, according to new research from Weill Cornell Medicine. This finding can help mitigate stroke -- which is the second leading cause of death worldwide.

In the study, published March 28 in Nature Medicine, mice received a combination of antibiotics. Two weeks later, the researcher team -- which included collaborators at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center -- induced the most common type of stroke, called ischemic stroke, in which an obstructed blood vessel prevents blood from reaching the brain. Mice treated with antibiotics experienced a stroke that was about 60 percent smaller than rodents that did not receive the medication. The microbial environment in the gut directed the immune cells there to protect the brain, the investigators said, shielding it from the stroke's full force.

"Our experiment shows a new relationship between the brain and the intestine," said Dr. Josef Anrather, the Finbar and Marianne Kenny Research Scholar in Neurology and an associate professor of neuroscience in the Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute at Weill Cornell Medicine. "The intestinal microbiota shape stroke outcome, which will impact how the medical community views stroke and defines stroke risk."

Lawsuit Claims Medical Device Caused Brain Damage

A software designer is suing a California company, claiming its medical device used to treat aneurysms malfunctioned and caused him to suffer brain damage.

The Penumbra Coil 400 was used to treat an aneurysm Dennis Montgomery suffered in 2013, according to his lawyer, Peter Mullenix. He said during the surgery at Overlake Hospital in Bellevue, the doctor placed 90 percent of the coil into the aneurysm, but the last 10 percent got stuck in the intracranial artery

If the device had worked properly, the doctor should have been able to remove the coil and try a different approach, Mullenix said. Instead, the coil detached prematurely, he said. The coil and a stints used during the procedure remain in Montgomery's brain and caused him to suffer a stroke, he said.

New Osteoporosis Drug Reduces Fracture Risk

Over the 18-month trial period, abaloparatide decreased new vertebral fractures by 86 percent, compared to teriparatide’s 80 percent; and reduced non-vertebral fractures by 43 percent, whereas teriparatide performed on par with the placebo.

Often referred to as a “silent disease,” osteoporosis affects approximately 9 million Americans. A further 43 million Americans suffer from low-bone density. Often, people with the disease may not know they have it until they suffer a bone break or fracture.

A disease so ubiquitous comes with a hefty price tag. According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, bone breaks related to the disease cost around $19 billion annually. By 2025, that amount could increase to $25.3 billion. 

The disease poses a substantial threat to postmenopausal women, as the lack of estrogen, a bone-protecting hormone, has a direct relationship with osteoporosis. A woman’s risk of hip fracture from osteoporosis, according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, is on par with the combined risk of breast, uterine, and ovarian cancer.

“The disability after fracture can be incredible and not just hip (fracture),” said Dr. Lorraine Fitzpatrick, the chief medical officer of biopharmaceutical company Radius Health Inc., to R&D Magazine. “I’ve had ladies who use a walker and then they fall and break both wrists.” 

“Can you imagine how disabling that is?”