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Originally published by Hannah Thomasy, PhD, for the Scientist on June 14, 2024 Scientists turned a deadly virus into a crucial tool for understanding the wiring of the brain.   Rabies labeling helps scientists identify neurons in the primary visual cortex that connect to two different higher visual brain regions. Marina Garrett  In 1906 , pathologist Camillo Golgi and neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal won the Nobel Prize for their work on the structure of the nervous system . More than a century later, the puzzle of nervous system organization —the intricately tangled mess that results from each neuron’s connections to thousands of others— remains incomplete . Yet, fully developing scientific understanding of these connections is crucial , said Edward Callaway , a systems neurobiologist at the Salk Institute . “If you don’t have some knowledge about how the different parts are interacting , there’s no way to generate a hypothesis about how they’re working toget...

Originally published by Michaela Kane, Duke University, on December 5, 2023   Credit: Nature Chemical Biology (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41589-023-01481-5 A team of engineers at Duke University have developed a method to broaden the reach of CRISPR technologies . While the original CRISPR system could only target 12.5% of the human genome, the new method expands access to nearly every gene to potentially target and treat a broader range of diseases through genome engineering. The research involved collaborators at Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, University of Zurich and McMaster University. This work was published on October 4 in the journal Nature Communications . CRISPR-Cas is a bacterial immune system that allows bacteria to use RNA molecules and CRISPR-associated (Cas) proteins to target and destroy the DNA of invading viruses. Since its discovery, researchers have raced to develop an arsenal of...

  Originally published by Bob Yirka, Phys.org, on September 8, 2023 Pteropus rufus, the Malagasy Flying Fox, in flight over Madagascar. Credit: Michael McGuire (CC-BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ) A small team of biologists and evolutionists from the University of Chicago, York University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Exeter reports why bats carry viruses that cause higher fatality rates when jumping to humans than those that come from any other mammal. In their study, reported on the open-access site PLOS Biology , the group used data from past research efforts to model the growth of viruses within bat populations as well as their spread to other animals. Prior research has shown that when a virus jumps from bats to humans, the results can be deadlier for humans than when viruses jump from other mammals. The reason has been a matter of debate. In this new effort, the team used data from prior research efforts , along wi...

Originally published on Live Science by Kiley Price on August 1, 2023 Giant viruses are much more diverse in shape and size than scientists previously thought, according to a new study.   (Left to right) Scientists discovered these never-before-seen giant viruses that are known as the "turtle," "plumber" and "Christmas star" morphotypes, based on their shapes. (Image credit: Fischer et al. DOI: 10.1101/2023.06.30.546935(CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license)) What we found is a whole new diversity of shapes that we have never seen before ," study co-author Matthias Fischer , a virologist at Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Germany, told Live Science. "I would bet that many of those, if not the majority, are completely new and first sightings of viruses that we have never seen before." Giant viruses usually range from 0.2 to 1.5 micrometers in size and have complex genomes that can carry up to 2.5 million DNA base pairs, ...

Originally published by University of Bristol on June 20, 2023 Levitating droplets. Each of these droplets have a single SARS-CoV-2 viral particle. The droplets look like lines because they are rapidly moving in an electrodynamic field. Credit: University of Bristol Critical insights into why airborne viruses lose their infectivity have been uncovered by scientists at the University of Bristol . The findings, published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface today, reveal how cleaner air kills the virus significantly quicker and why opening a window may be more important than originally thought. The research could shape future mitigation strategies for new viruses. In the first study to measure differences in airborne stability of different variants of SARS-CoV-2 in inhalable particles , researchers from Bristol's School of Chemistry show that the virus has become less capable of surviving in the air as it has evolved from the original strain through to the del...