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Featured news

12 Aug 2021

Are enteroviruses behind mysterious outbreaks of chronic fatigue syndrome?

By Prof Maureen Hanson, Cornell University Image: Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels.com Chronic fatigue syndrome is a long-term illness with a wide range of symptoms, no known treatment, and undetermined origins. However, with as many as 65m people across the world living with the illness, researchers continue to search for answers. Now, Prof Maureen Hanson of Cornell University discusses how she and graduate student Adam O’Neal searched through the research archives to see whether a genus of RNA viruses called enteroviruses are the most likely culprits and whether the findings have implications in future ‘long Covid’ research. Like SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19, viruses, enteroviruses (EVs) are RNA viruses that can lead to cause serious illness and death. One type of EV causes poliomyelitis, which is now largely conquered through near-universal vaccination. But no vaccine exists against many other types of EVs, which are free to circulate widely. Indeed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates between 10m-15m enteroviral infections occur each year in the US. EVs have long been suspected as causal agents in outbreaks of an illness that is now usually named ME/CFS (myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome). Outbreaks have been documented since the turn of the previous century and may have […]

Featured news

11 Aug 2021

Tiny ‘maniac’ robots could deliver drugs directly to central nervous system

By Conn Hastings, science writer Image credit: Life science / Shutterstock.com A new study investigates tiny tumbling soft robots that can be controlled using rotating magnetic fields. The technology could be useful for delivering drugs to the nervous system. In this latest study, researchers put the robots through their paces and showed that they can climb slopes, tumble upstream against fluid flow and deliver substances at precise locations to neural tissue.     Would you let a tiny MANiAC travel around your nervous system to treat you with drugs? You may be inclined to say no, but in the future, “magnetically aligned nanorods in alginate capsules” (MANiACs) may be part of an advanced arsenal of drug delivery technologies at doctors’ disposal. A recent study in Frontiers in Robotics and AI is the first to investigate how such tiny robots might perform as drug delivery vehicles in neural tissue. The study finds that when controlled using a magnetic field, the tiny tumbling soft robots can move against fluid flow, climb slopes and move about neural tissues, such as the spinal cord, and deposit substances at precise locations.              Diseases in the central nervous system can be difficult to treat. “Delivering drugs orally or […]

Featured news

10 Aug 2021

Tens of thousands of unique molecules detected in 467 beers from around the world

By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer Image: Hana Mara/Pexels.com Scientists from Germany have used state-of-the-art complementary mass spectrometry methods to quantify the chemical complexity in beer from around the world. In 467 commercial beer types they found at least 7,700 different chemical formulas, which translates to tens of thousands of unique molecules. Beers brewed from barley plus either wheat, rice, or corn contain molecules that reliably indicate the original cereal. The analysis takes only 10 minutes to detect thousands of metabolites per beer, making it a powerful new method for quality control. The tradition of beer brewing dates back to at least 7,000 BCE and maybe even to the invention of agriculture, considering that the starch in many cereals can spontaneously ferment to some extent if exposed to airborne yeasts. The code of the Babylonian king Hammurabi (rule 1792 to 1750 BCE), whose laws 108 through 111 regulate beer sales, shows that people have been anxious to safeguard the quality of beer through legislation for millennia. For example, the Bavarian ‘Reinheitsgebot’ (‘Purity Law’) of 1516, often considered the world’s oldest still functional – with modifications – food regulation, allows only barley, water, and hops as ingredients for brewing beer (with […]

Featured news

29 Jul 2021

IBMS to transition leading biomedical journal to Gold Open Access

Image: Tom Robertson/Shutterstock.com The Institute of Biomedical Science (IBMS) has announced the transition of the British Journal of Biomedical Science (BJBS) from hybrid access to gold open access in partnership with Frontiers. BJBS is the biomedical profession’s leading scientific journal; featuring peer-reviewed papers and reports on the latest scientific advances and laboratory techniques. The journal will transfer from the publisher Taylor & Francis to Frontiers from January 1, 2022, in coordination with the journal’s 20th anniversary of publication. For more than 100 years the IBMS has been dedicated to the promotion, development, and delivery of excellence in biomedical science within all aspects of healthcare, and to providing the highest standards of service to patients and the public. With over 21,000 members in 74 countries, the IBMS is the leading professional body for scientists, support staff, and students in the field of biomedical science. The IBMS will continue to support the community and benefit all biomedical scientists across the globe by transitioning the BJBS to gold open access with Frontiers. From 2022, all articles will be immediately, permanently, and freely available to read, download, and access for people everywhere. Authors will retain copyright on all new articles published and the journal […]

Featured news

28 Jul 2021

Machine learning and knowledge engineering uncovers significant role of elevated blood glucose in severe Covid-19

By Colm Gorey, Frontiers’ Science Communications Manager A digital reconstruction of SARS-CoV-2 primary infection in the lungs. Image: Blue Brain Project/EPFL 2005-2021. All rights reserved Why does Covid-19 present itself more severe in some patients but not in others? The question has puzzled researchers and clinicians since the start of the pandemic, but now new research from the EPFL Blue Brain Project may have found a major clue to solving the mystery thanks to machine learning. Analyzing data extracted from 240,000 open access scientific papers, the findings of a paper published in Frontiers revealed the previously undiscovered roles elevated blood glucose levels have in the severity of Covid-19. What makes one person more at risk of developing severe Covid-19 than someone else? While it is widely accepted that elderly people are the most at-risk during the current pandemic, many young, seemingly healthy people have also been hospitalized by the disease. A number of preexisting conditions are known to contribute to the severity of the disease – such as diabetes, obesity and hypertension – but a more recent finding has highlighted the impact of blood glucose levels among both diabetic and non-diabetic people. Yet the role that glucose plays in the […]

Featured news

27 Jul 2021

ESOT to transform major journal to Gold Open Access

Image: Flamingo Images/Shutterstock.com The European Society for Organ Transplantation (ESOT) has announced the transition of Transplant International from Hybrid access to Gold Open Access in partnership with Frontiers. Transplant International is the premier journal publishing the key basic science and clinical developments in organ replacement medicine and will transfer from the publisher Wiley to Frontiers’ Open Science Platform from January 1, 2022. Frontiers will work closely with ESOT’s leadership committees and stakeholders to transition the journal, including its extensive archive of articles, which dates back to 1989. All articles will be immediately, permanently, and freely available to read, download and access for people everywhere. Authors will retain copyright and published articles will be compliant with Plan S. For more than thirty years ESOT, the leading community for all transplant professionals and patients, has been committed to advancing research and clinical practice in the field of organ transplantation. They aim to improve the lives of everyone affected and optimise the outcome of organ transplantation, with a growing attention to emerging techniques of organ regeneration. The transition of Transplant International to Gold Open Access with Frontiers will continue to drive this mission, by allowing all researchers, surgeons, and clinicians across the globe […]

Featured news

27 Jul 2021

‘Talking drum’ shown to accurately mimic speech patterns of west African language

By Peter Rejcek, science writer The Ifesowapo dùndún ensemble performing in Igbo Ora, southwest Nigeria. Image: Dr Cecilia Durojaye A novel analysis into the acoustical similarities between Yorùbá vocalizations and a west African instrument called the dùndún found a high degree of correlation. The researchers discovered that the talking drum mimics the microstructure of the tonal language and can be categorized into four different modes. In addition, the study emphasizes the value of studying non-western culture to understand various phenomena in mainstream musicology and linguistics that go beyond western domains. Musicians like Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton are considered virtuosos, guitarists who could make their instruments sing. Drummers in west Africa who play hourglass-shaped percussion instruments called dùndúns can make their instrument not only sing, but talk. New research published in the journal Frontiers in Communication is one of the first to show the high degree of acoustic correlation between these talking drums and the spoken Yorùbá language. Dùndún drumming is a musical-oral tradition where skilled drummers, manipulating the intensity and pitch of the instrument, can mimic Yorùbá, a tonal language mainly spoken in southwest Nigeria. Dubbed ‘talking drums’, dùndúns can be used as purely musical instruments or what scientists […]

Featured news

15 Jul 2021

The two-thousand-year-old mystery of the havoc-wreaking worm

By Daegan Miller / University of Massachusetts Amherst Office of News and Media Relations Section of a piling attacked by shipworms in Belfast, Maine. Image credit: Barry Goodell / University of Massachusetts Amherst Humans have known for over two thousand years that shipworms, a worm-like mollusk, are responsible for damage to wooden boats, docks, dikes and piers. Yet new research from the University of Massachusetts Amherst published in Frontiers in Microbiology reveals that we still don’t know the most basic thing about them: how they eat. “It’s unbelievable,” says Reuben Shipway, adjunct assistant professor in microbiology at UMass Amherst, research fellow at the Centre for Enzyme Innovation at the University of Portsmouth, UK, and one of the paper’s authors. “The ancient Greeks wrote about them, Christopher Columbus lost his fleet due to what he called ‘the havoc which the worm had wrought,’ and, today, shipworms cause billions of dollars of damage a year.” Read original article. Download original article (pdf) Shipworms also play a key role in mangrove forest ecosystems, found throughout the world’s tropical regions, and are responsible for cycling a huge amount of carbon through the web of life. “Yet,” says Shipway, “we still don’t know how they do what […]