Category archives: Science

Model of new tuberculosis vaccine shows its potential impact and value in South Africa and India

Model of new tuberculosis vaccine shows its potential impact and value in South Africa and India

BiomedicineMedicine

By Invited Researcher

Two years of battling COVID-19 has been bad news for tuberculosis (TB) programmes. Respiratory clinicians and researchers have had their time and focus directed elsewhere. And TB has taken advantage. In 2021, the number of TB deaths rose for the first time in over a decade. The barriers caused by lockdowns and overstretched healthcare systems […]

How to regenerate a functional heart using 3D printing

How to regenerate a functional heart using 3D printing

BiomedicineMaterials

By Invited Researcher

C ardiovascular diseases currently form the most important class of non-contagious diseases and a leading cause of mortality in industrialized nations . Specifically, coronary heart disease is the first cause of death among the cardiovascular diseases . The myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a “heart attack”, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops in […]

An ancient stress-related mechanism helps worms keep their cool

An ancient stress-related mechanism helps worms keep their cool

BiomedicineMolecular biology

By Rosa García-Verdugo

How an organism can sense and cope with warming temperatures is key for survival, particularly under current global warming trends. The importance of this subject was recognized by 2021’s Nobel prize in Physiology & Medicine awarded to work on TRP channels, key mammalian peripheral heat sensors. Endotherms -such as mammals and birds – maintain their […]

Disinformation about COVID-19 vaccines in social networks

Disinformation about COVID-19 vaccines in social networks

Science

By Invited Researcher

Author: Martha R. Villabona works at Subdirección General de Cooperación Territorial e Innovación Educativa of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, where she coordinates the area of multiple literacies. Vaccination is one of the topics vulnerable to online disinformation. Although opposition to vaccines has existed since they became widespread in the 19th century […]

mTOR and rapamycin in autism spectrum disorders

mTOR and rapamycin in autism spectrum disorders

Neurobiology

By José Ramón Alonso

mTOR has nothing to do with Norse mythology, it stands for “mammalian target of rapamycin” or “target of rapamycin in mammalian cells”. mTOR is involved in important cellular processes, including growth, proliferation, motility, survival, protein synthesis, transcription and autophagy. The history of rapamycin is so suggestive that I cannot avoid mentioning it: in the 1960s […]