213 articles from FRIDAY 26.2.2021

Genomic Data Commons provides unprecedented cancer data resource

The National Cancer Institute's Genomic Data Commons (GDC), launched in 2016 by then-Vice President Joseph Biden and hosted at the University of Chicago, has become one of the largest and most widely used resources in cancer genomics, with more than 3.3 petabytes of data from more than 65 projects and over 84,000 anonymized patient cases, serving more than 50,000 unique users each month.

Household transmission of SARS-CoV-2

Researchers investigated whether home addresses recorded in the electronic medical record could be used to accurately estimate transmission risk of SARS-CoV-2 and identify risk factors for transmission.

How photoblueing disturbs microscopy

An undesirable effect can occur in super-resolution fluorescence microscopy: photoblueing. A new publication in Nature Methods shows how it can be prevented or made useful for research.

Investigating dense plasmas with positron waves

A new study published in EPJ D by Garston Tiofack, Faculty of Sciences, University of Marousa, Cameroon, and colleagues, assesses the dynamics of positron acoustic waves (PAWS) in EPI plasmas whilst under the influence of magnetic fields, or magnetoplasmas.

KIMM develops all-round grippers for contact-free society

The Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials (KIMM) successfully developed all-round gripper technology, enabling robots to hold objects of various shapes and stiffnesses. With the new technology, a single gripper can be used to handle different objects such as screwdrivers, bulbs, and coffee pots, and even food with delicate surfaces such as tofu, strawberries, and raw chicken. It is expected to...

Light-emitting tattoo engineered for the first time

The technology, which uses organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), is applied in the same way as water transfer tattoos. That is, the OLEDs are fabricated on to temporary tattoo paper and transferred to a new surface by being pressed on to it and dabbed with water.

Maternal instincts lead to social life of bees

The maternal care of offspring is one of the behavioural drivers that has led some bee species to have an ever-expanding social life over the history of evolution, new research out of York University has found.By virtue of being in a social group the genome itself may respond by selecting more social, rather than non-social genes. The behaviour and social environment come first setting the stage...

New insights into an ancient protein complex

Extensive collaboration between five VIB groups resulted in a better understanding of the machinery that plants use to regulate the protein composition of their outer membrane. This discovery, published in Science Advances, enhances our basic knowledge of how the plasma membrane composition can be adapted based on external stimuli, an essential process for life on earth.

New tools find COVID patients at highest risk of mechanical ventilation and death

By inputting clinical and laboratory factors at the time of admission into a novel online calculator, physicians can determine with high accuracy which COVID-19 patients will require the most intense care.Age is not a significant predictor of whether a hospitalized patient will need mechanical ventilation, nor does it predict the duration of ventilation. Over half of all patients on mechanical...

Not all "good" cholesterol is healthy

A study led by IMIM examines whether all so-called good cholesterol (HDL) particles have a cardiovascular protective effect. Traditionally, HDL cholesterol has been associated with a reduced risk of heart disease, but there are doubts as to whether all the particles have a protective effect. The work shows that people with large HDL particles have an increased risk of myocardial infarction, while...