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Life Sciences - Health - 13.07.2021
Symbionts sans frontieres: Bacterial partners travel the world
Symbionts sans frontieres: Bacterial partners travel the world
This pandemic year has seen us confined to our homes and restricted from travelling the world. Not so for some microscopic bacteria in the ocean: Throughout the globe, they partner up with clams from the family Lucinidae, which live unseen in the sand beneath the shimmering blue waters of coastal habitats.

Life Sciences - Environment - 12.07.2021
Human environmental genome recovered in the absence of skeletal remains
Human environmental genome recovered in the absence of skeletal remains
Ancient sediments from caves have already proven to preserve DNA for thousands of years. The amount of recovered sequences from environmental sediments, however, is generally low, which difficults the analyses to be performed with these sequences. A study led by Ron Pinhasi and Pere Gelabert of the University of Vienna and published in Current Biology successfully retrieved three mammalian environmental genomes from a single soil sample of 25,000 years bp obtained from the cave of Satsurblia in the Caucasus (Georgia).

Life Sciences - Health - 06.07.2021
Bacterial survival kit to endure in soil
Bacterial survival kit to endure in soil
Soil bacteria have amazing strategies to attain energy in order to withstand stressful times Soils are one of the most diverse habitats on the planet. There are more than thousand microbial species per gram that significantly influence numerous environmental processes. However, the majority of these organisms are believed to be in a state of 'dormancy' due to environmental stress, such as nutrient-poor conditions.

Health - Life Sciences - 01.07.2021
The World's First Digital Model of a Cancer Cell
The World’s First Digital Model of a Cancer Cell
By Susanne Eigner The computer model, developed under the lead management of researchers at TU Graz, simulates the cyclical changes in the membrane potential of a cancer cell using the example of human lung adenocarcinoma and opens up completely new avenues in cancer research. Computer models have been standard tools in basic biomedical research for many years.

Life Sciences - 29.06.2021
The evolution of axial patterning
The evolution of axial patterning
Similarity in axis formation of sea anemones and sea urchins provides insight into axis formation in prehistoric animals Body axes are molecular coordinate systems along which regulatory genes are activated. These genes then activate the development of anatomical structures in correct locations in the embryo.

Life Sciences - 23.06.2021
Asian elephants do more than just trumpet- they buzz their lips to squeak
Asian elephants do more than just trumpet- they buzz their lips to squeak
The animals' sound production does not only come from the trunk Communication is crucial for elephants that live in complex multi-tiered social systems. Apart from their iconic trumpets uttered through the trunk, Asian elephants also produce species-specific squeaks by buzzing their lips. This demonstrates once again the elephant's flexibility in sound production.

Life Sciences - Environment - 14.06.2021
Making a meal of DNA in the seafloor
Making a meal of DNA in the seafloor
Specialised bacteria in the oceans seafloor consume and recycle nucleic acids from dead biomass While best known as the code for genetic information, DNA is also a nutrient for specialised microbes. An international team of researchers led by Kenneth Wasmund and Alexander Loy from the University of Vienna has discovered several bacteria in sediment samples from the Atlantic Ocean that use DNA as a food source.

Life Sciences - Health - 10.06.2021
Bacteria hijack latent phage of competitor
Bacteria hijack latent phage of competitor
Biochemists discover highly selective phage activation based on signal molecule Bacteriophages are still a relatively unknown component of the human microbiome. However, they can play a powerful role in the life cycles of bacteria. Biochemist Thomas Böttcher from the University of Vienna and PhD candidate Magdalena Jancheva were able to show for the first time how Pseudomonas bacteria use a self-produced signal molecule to selectively manipulate phages in a competing bacterial strain to defeat their enemy.

Life Sciences - Health - 08.06.2021
Meiosis: Mind the gap
Meiosis: Mind the gap
Meiosis is a specialized cell division process required to generate gametes, the reproductive cells of an organism. During meiosis, paternal and maternal chromosomes duplicate, pair, and exchange parts of their DNA in a process called meiotic recombination. In order to mediate this exchange of genetic material, cells introduce double strand breaks (DSBs) into their chromosomal DNA.

Life Sciences - 28.05.2021
DNA-based material with tunable properties
DNA-based material with tunable properties
While DNA is often idealised as the "molecule of life", it is also a highly sophisticated polymer that can be used for next-generation materials. Beyond the fact that it can store information, further fascinating aspects of DNA are its geometric and topological properties, such as knotting and super-coiling.

Life Sciences - Computer Science - 10.05.2021
Reaching your life goals as a single-celled organism
Reaching your life goals as a single-celled organism
How do simple creatures manage to move to a specific place? Artificial intelligence and a physical model from TU Wien can now explain this. How is it possible to move in the desired direction without a brain or nervous system? Single-celled organisms apparently manage this feat without any problems: for example, they can swim towards food with the help of small flagellar tails.

Life Sciences - Chemistry - 05.05.2021
Tracking down the tiniest of forces: how T cells detect invaders
Tracking down the tiniest of forces: how T cells detect invaders
T cells use their antigen receptors like sticky fingers - a team from TU Wien and MedUni Vienna was able to observe them doing so. T-cells play a central role in our immune system: by means of their so-called T-cell receptors (TCR) they make out dangerous invaders or cancer cells in the body and then trigger an immune reaction.

Life Sciences - Environment - 14.04.2021
Of Apples and Oil Pumpkins: News from Microbiome Research
Of Apples and Oil Pumpkins: News from Microbiome Research
By Barbara Gigler The extent to which the composition of the microbiome of apples and oil pumpkins depends on the geographical location and what insights can be derived from this for breeding, health and shelf life of the fruits is shown in two recent publications by researchers at TU Graz. Additional at the end in the text We refer to the microbiome as the community of microorganisms that exist in or on all organisms, including bacteria and fungi.

Life Sciences - Health - 09.04.2021
Popeye with a whiff of rotten eggs
Popeye with a whiff of rotten eggs
A sulfosugar from green vegetables promotes the growth of important gut bacteria An international team of scientists led by microbiologists Alexander Loy from the University of Vienna and David Schleheck from the University of Konstanz has uncovered new metabolic capabilities of gut bacteria. For the first time, the researchers have analyzed how microbes in the gut process the plant-based, sulfur-containing sugar sulfoquinovose.

Computer Science - Life Sciences - 11.03.2021
New Approach Found for Energy-Efficient AI Applications
New Approach Found for Energy-Efficient AI Applications
By Christoph Pelzl Researchers at TU Graz demonstrate a new design method for particularly energy-saving artificial neural networks that get by with extremely few signals and - similar to Morse code - also assign meaning to the pauses between the signals. Most new achievements in artificial intelligence (AI) require very large neural networks.

Health - Life Sciences - 05.03.2021
Promising metallodrug candidate for tumour therapy
Promising metallodrug candidate for tumour therapy
BOLD-100/KP1339 is a ruthenium-based anticancer agent that has been decisively co-developed at the University of Vienna and which has shown promising results in clinical trials in cancer patients. However, the mode of action of this metal compound has not yet been fully elucidated. Researchers from the University of Vienna and the Medical University of Vienna have now been able to demonstrate that BOLD-100 binds to ribosomal proteins in tumour cells.

Physics - Life Sciences - 04.03.2021
New EU project 'ONEM' develops a unique hybrid imaging technique
New EU project ’ONEM’ develops a unique hybrid imaging technique
The ONEM project will develop a new non-invasive microscopy technique for imaging dynamic processes at interfaces, called Optical Near-field Electron Microscopy. Led by physicist Thomas Juffmann from the University of Vienna, ONEM - which has a budget of 3,7 million Euro - is one of only two proposals that succeeded in the topic "Measuring the Unmeasurable" of the call from the European Innovation Council.

Life Sciences - Physics - 26.02.2021
05.03.: Gastvortrag: Swarming Behaviour in Confinement - How curved surfaces influence pattern formation in biology
05.03.: Gastvortrag: Swarming Behaviour in Confinement - How curved surfaces influence pattern formation in biology
Am 05. März 2021 hält Univ. Prof. John W. C. Dunlop einen Vortrag zum Thema "Swarming Behaviour in Confinement - How curved surfaces influence pattern formation in biology." Der Vortrag findet um 14 Uhr online via Webex statt. Der Fachbereich Biowissenschaften lädt herzlich dazu ein! Univ.

Life Sciences - Environment - 23.02.2021
Mutable: Graz Researchers Decode Genome of Two Cichlid Species
By Barbara Gigler Nature and man must constantly adapt to new living conditions. A research team from Graz has investigated how this is done and which genes play an important role in this process using the model system of the Great Lakes of East Africa. Global warming, environmental change, dried up food sources: nature and man must constantly adapt to new living conditions.

Social Sciences - Life Sciences - 08.02.2021
Marmoset monkeys have personalities too
Marmoset monkeys have personalities too
In humans, differences in personalities have been evident since the ancient times. Personality in animals has long been ignored, but recently this question has received increasing research interest as it has been realized that personality has evolutionary and ecological significance. An international team of behavioral biologists from Austria, Brazil and the Netherlands, with Vedrana ¦lipogor from the University of Vienna as leading author of the study, designed a set of tasks to assess personality of common marmosets.