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ESA Astronaut Pesquet revealed Crew-2 has been actively training for “Mission Alpha” aboard Crew Dragon. He shared photographs via Twitter of him training on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon simulator which involves learning how to control the spacecraft’s functions via a trio of touchscreen displays. – “Here’s the posse together, training on @SpaceX crew dragon. @Aki_Hoshide looking like a boss, and all of us wishing we had as cool socks as our awesome pilot @Astro_Megan. #MissionAlpha,” he wrote. During training, all astronauts are wearing face masks to protect each other from the coronavirus respiratory illness, pictured below.

Here’s the posse together, training on @SpaceX crew dragon. @Aki_Hoshide looking like a boss, and all of us wishing we had as cool socks as our awesome pilot @Astro_Megan. #MissionAlpha pic.twitter.com/UCDJvTcRgp— Thomas Pesquet (@Thom_astro) September 23, 2020

To familiarize with the spacecraft, the astronauts train with an interactive simulator and touchscreen interface that is a replica of Dragon’s cockpit. Earlier this year, SpaceX released an online game that allows players to try to dock the Crew Dragon spacecraft to the Space Station, using similar controls the astronauts will use during their voyage in space. You can play the online game on SpaceX’s website: Crew Dragon Simulator.

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Researchers took a silica nanoparticle designated as ‘Generally Recognized As Safe’ by the US Food and Drug Administration and coated it with L-phenylalanine, and found that in lab tests with mice it killed cancer cells effectively and very specifically, by causing them to self-destruct.

Cancer cells are killed in lab experiments and tumor growth reduced in mice, using a new approach that turns a nanoparticle into a ‘Trojan horse’ that causes cancer cells to self-destruct, a research team at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has found.

The researchers created their ‘Trojan horse’ nanoparticle by coating it with a specific amino acid — L-phenylalanine — that cancer cells rely on, along with other similar amino acids, to survive and grow. L-phenylalanine is known as an ‘essential’ amino acid as it cannot be made by the body and must be absorbed from food, typically from meat and dairy products.

Studies by other research teams have shown that cancer tumor growth can be slowed or prevented by ‘starving’ cancer cells of amino acids. Scientists believe that depriving cancer cells of amino acids, for example through fasting or through special diets lacking in protein, may be viable ways to treat cancer.

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Very interesting!

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“The plan was to scan patients’ genomes—in particular, a set of 13 genes involved in interferon immunity against influenza. In healthy people, interferon molecules act as the body’s security system. They detect invading viruses and bacteria and sound the alarm, which brings other immune defenders to the scene.

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Casanova’s team has previously discovered [genetic mutations](https://medicalxpress.com/tags/genetic+mutations/) that hinder interferon production and function. People with these mutations are more vulnerable to certain pathogens, including those that cause influenza. Finding similar mutations in people with COVID-19, the team thought, could help doctors identify patients at risk of developing severe forms of the disease. It could also point to new directions for treatment, he says.”

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“As the researchers began analyzing patient samples, they started to uncover harmful mutations, in people young and old. The team found that 23 out of 659 patients studied carried errors in genes involved in producing antiviral interferons.”

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“That thought sparked a new idea. Maybe other patients with severe COVID-19 also lacked interferons—but for a different reason. Maybe some patients’ bodies were harming these molecules themselves.”

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“The team’s analysis of 987 patients with life-threatening COVID-19 revealed just that. At least 101 of the patients had auto-antibodies against an assortment of interferon proteins. “We said, ‘bingo’!” Casanova remembers. These antibodies blocked interferon action and were not present in patients with mild COVID-19 cases, the researchers discovered.”

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“. By testing for the presence of these antibodies, she says, “you can almost predict who will become severely ill.”” https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-09-severe-covid-cases-linked-genetic.html

People infected by the novel coronavirus can have symptoms that range from mild to deadly. Now, two new analyses suggest that some life-threatening cases can be traced to weak spots in patients’ immune systems.

At least 3.5 percent of study patients with severe COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, have mutations in genes involved in antiviral defense. And at least 10 percent of patients with severe disease create “auto-antibodies” that attack the immune system, instead of fighting the virus. The results, reported in two papers in the journal Science on September 24, 2020, identify some root causes of life-threatening COVID-19, says study leader Jean-Laurent Casanova, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator at The Rockefeller University.

Seeing these harmful antibodies in so many patients—101 out of 987—was “a stunning observation,” he says. “These two papers provide the first explanation for why COVID-19 can be so severe in some people, while most others infected by the same virus are okay.”

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Mitochondria are the powerhouses of our cells, generating energy that supports life. A giant molecular proton pump, called complex I, is crucial: It sets in motion a chain of reactions, creating a proton gradient that powers the generation of ATP, the cell’s fuel. Despite complex I’s central role, the mechanism by which it transports protons across the membrane has so far been unknown. Now, Leonid Sazanov and his group at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria) have solved the mystery of how complex I works: Conformational changes in the protein combined with electrostatic waves move protons into the mitochondrial matrix. This is the result of a study published today in Science.

Complex I is the first enzyme in the respiratory chain, a series of protein complexes in the inner mitochondrial membrane. The respiratory chain is responsible for most of the cell’s energy production. In this chain, three membrane proteins set up a gradient of protons, moving them from the cell’s cytoplasm into the mitochondrial inner space, called the matrix. The energy for this process comes mostly from the between NADH molecules, derived from the food we eat, and oxygen that we breathe. ATP synthase, the last protein in the chain, then uses this proton gradient to generate ATP.

Complex I is remarkable not only because of its central role in life, but also for its sheer size: with a molecular weight of 1 Megadalton, the eukaryotic complex I is one of the biggest membrane proteins. Its size also makes complex I hard to study. In 2016, Sazanov and his group were the first to solve the structure of mammalian complex I, following on their 2013 structure of a simpler bacterial enzyme. But the mechanism by which complex I moves protons across the membrane has remained controversial. “One idea was that a part of complex I works like a piston, to open and close channels through which protons travel”, explains Sazanov. “Another idea was that residues at the center of complex I act as a driver. It turns out that an even more unusual mechanism is at work.”

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As earth becomes less habitable due to the climate emergency, The Astroland Agency are working out how humans could colonize Mars by 2035. Before the pandemic, we spent time with them to learn how that would work.

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Particle accelerators generate high-energy beams of electrons, protons and ions for a wide range of applications, including particle colliders that shed light on nature’s subatomic components, X-ray lasers that film atoms and molecules during chemical reactions and medical devices for treating cancer.

As a rule of thumb, the longer the accelerator, the more powerful it is. Now, a team led by scientists at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory has invented a new type of accelerator structure that delivers a 10 times larger energy gain over a given distance than conventional ones. This could make accelerators used for a given application 10 times shorter.

The key idea behind the technology, described in a recent article in Applied Physics Letters, is to use to boost particle energies.

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The cell membrane, the wall-like boundary between the cell interior and its outside environment, is primarily made up of two kinds of biomolecules: lipids and proteins. Different lipid species closely pack together to form a double layer, or “bilayer,” the membrane’s fundamental structure, while proteins are embedded within or attached to the bilayer.

Membrane proteins are responsible for various important cellular activities, and their dysfunction can lead to serious health issues. Studying protein structures and how they behave will help scientists better understand their connection to diseases and aid in developing therapeutics.

A team of researchers led by Vanderbilt University has recently shed light on how membrane proteins could be influenced by the lipids around them. By developing a novel type of membrane model, the scientists were able to show that the shape and behavior of a protein can be altered by exposure to different compositions.

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WEDNESDAY, Sept. 23, 2020 (HealthDay News) — A common type 2 diabetes drug called metformin may have an unexpected, but positive, side effect: New research suggests that people taking the drug appear to have significantly slower declines in thinking and memory as they age.

“Our six-year study of older Australians with type 2 diabetes has uncovered a link between metformin use and slower cognitive [mental] decline and lower dementia rates,” said study author Dr. Katherine Samaras. She’s the leader of the healthy aging research theme at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in New South Wales, Australia.

“The findings provide new hope for a means of reducing the risk of dementia in individuals with type 2 diabetes, and potentially those without diabetes,” Samaras said.

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