Biology

By taking a quantitative approach to studying the immune system, EU-funded researchers have opened the door to a deeper understanding of T cell behaviour.

A new study supported by the EU-funded TRIFORC project has shown that by changing the genetic code for one amino acid in a plant begins a process that produces a new natural product that could be used in a variety of ways, including disease resistance.

Following the granting of a young British girl’s instructions to be cryogenically preserved so she can be revived in the future when a cure for cancer exists, there has been intense debate inside and outside the scientific community on both the viability of cryogenic freezing but also on the ethical issues thrown up by the procedure. Once again, it raises the centuries-old question that defines the conflict between modern science and ethics: Even if we could do something, should we?

EU-funded researchers have found that the body clock breaks down when light and temperature are out of sync, affecting activity levels.

US-based researchers have published a paper detailing their findings that a person’s chances of falling ill from a new strain of flu are at least partly determined by the first strain they ever encountered as a child.

Researchers from the US and Argentina have analysed fossilised leaves and presented a new theory as to why the southern hemisphere recovered faster following the asteroid strike that killed the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.

With less than a week to go before American voters are asked to choose between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in arguably the most important US presidential election in a generation, scientists and psychologists are shedding light on the underlying factors of what drives an individual’s decision to vote for one candidate or party over another.

A new theory regarding how the brain first learns basic maths could alter approaches to identifying and teaching students with maths learning disabilities.

Anyone who has seen a lake or a small pond will have witnessed the evolutionary marvel of those curious insects that run over water with no trouble whatsoever, as if it were solid ground. An EU project is allowing ENS de Lyon to investigate the genetics behind this capacity.

Japanese scientists have grown artificial eggs created from stem cells for the first time and used them to create living mice in a process that could potentially one day be extended to humans.

Studying the response of living organisms to climate change is essential in the face of what increasingly looks like an irreversible trend. However, unlike other species which have gathered much scientific attention, insects seem to have been left behind. An EU project is seeking to bridge this knowledge gap while taking insects’ specific features into account.

As the Halloween season gets into full flow, the English-speaking world is currently experiencing a wave of ‘creepy clown’ sightings that first began in the United States but has now spread to the UK, Canada and Australia. Most have been confirmed as copycat hoaxes but the distress and anxiety caused to victims is very real indeed – and consequently, there has been increased interest in the scientific and psychological reasons as to why clowns are able to instil such a feeling of terror into so many people.

New research supported by the EU-funded STILTS and NEUROFAST projects has discovered that individuals who carry variants in a particular gene have an increased preference for high fat food, but a decreased preference for sugary foods.

In a new paper, researchers from the University of Southampton, UK, and members of the EU-funded RAMP project, have demonstrated how memristors could help aid the development of more precise and affordable neuroprosthetics and bioelectric medicines.

Understanding how our brains sustain ‘internal evolution’ – and help us to adapt and learn complex skills such as language – could one day lead to smarter robots.

On 31 August, human bones were discovered in the famed Antikythera shipwreck, offering scientists the first hope to explore the DNA of a 1st century BC shipwreck victim.

Research partly supported through the EU-funded EXPEER project has found that plants are increasingly adapting to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), which could have important implications for global food security and nature conservation.

The current lack of a treatment proven effective against ‘Huntington’s disease’ (HD) is leaving one in every 10 000 people with psychiatric, movement, feeding and communication problems that are very difficult to live with. An EU consortium believes it has found the long-sought after cure and is getting very close to its first preclinical studies.

EU-funded researchers are studying how a changing climate affects hoverflies, which mimic bees and wasps, and the evolutionary consequences of these changes.

With fresh insights into navigational behavioural, the EU-funded ANT NAVIGATION project brings us a step closer to the next generation of neuroscience breakthroughs.

A new study has shown that individual mole rats perform different roles at different ages, and that age rather than caste behaviour accounts for the changes in their behaviour.

The sustainable production of pathogen-free crops is one of mankind’s most pressing concerns, given projected population growth and the threat posed by climate change to arable land. Incredibly, the study of a species of unassuming tree-dwelling beetles could hold some answers.

What can software designers and ICT specialists learn from maggots? Quite a lot, it would appear. Through understanding how complex learning processes in simple organisms work, EU-funded scientists hope to usher in an era of self-learning robots and predictive computing.

Strangely enough, cancer patients across the world seem to have come to terms with the fact that the most effective treatment against cancer - chemotherapy - actually destroys their immune system. In Latvia, however, a breakthrough virotherapy called Rigvir has been doing wonders since 2004. This new treatment, which breaks down cancer cells, simulates the immune system and promotes cancer cell suicide, will soon be brought to the rest of Europe partly thanks to EU support under Horizon 2020.

The company continues to make good progress, a little less than a month after having received Fast Track designation from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its QR-010 molecule. Co-funded under H2020, QR-010 is expected to treat cystic fibrosis (CF) patients who carry the common ∆F508 mutation — that is, 70 % of CF patients.