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  • Nanodiamond Drug Delivery for CDH Boosts Lung Growth

    Nanodiamond Drug Delivery for CDH Boosts Lung Growth

    The new research is published in the Blue Journal (American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine).


    Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH) is a devastating disease affecting one in 3,000 newborns. CDH means that the diaphragm (the muscle between the abdomen and the chest) has not fully developed. As a result, organs that are supposed to sit within the abdomen can easily move into the chest cavity and crush fragile growing lungs, meaning the baby doesn’t have space to develop fully formed lungs. In the severest form, and when left untreated, less than 25% of babies born with CDH will survive after birth.

    Current treatment can involve delicate surgery during pregnancy to insert a surgical balloon into the baby’s windpipe, to stimulate the lungs to grow (known as fetoscopic tracheal occlusion or FETO). This improves survival to 50% but a better treatment is needed urgently.

    Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a growth hormone which supports lung development in pregnancy but is significantly lower in the lungs of babies with CDH.

    To deliver more VEGF to the baby’s lungs in a safe, controlled and sustained way, the teams attached VEGF to a microscopic delivery system made from nanodiamonds – carbon nanoparticles smaller than the thickness of a human hair. The work was developed in large part at the Zayed Centre for Research and benefitted from around a quarter of a million pounds from GOSH Charity.

    To test the effectiveness of the VEGF delivery system, the team developed lab-grown human ‘mini lungs’ with key features of CDH and worked with different animal models of the condition. Through a number of comparisons, the team were able to show that giving the VEGF delivery system at the same time as FETO led to the healthiest lungs.

    Modelling congenital diaphragmatic hernia

    To mimic the disease and compression of the lungs seen in CDH for humans, the teams used 3D-printing directly around human lung tissue grown in the lab at the Zayed Centre for Research. These lab-grown mini-lungs were underdeveloped when compressed by the 3D printing, simulating the condition, and therefore good models for the condition and testing the VEGF delivery system.

    Co-lead author, Dr Stavros Loukogeorgakis a surgeon from Great Ormond Street Hospital and Associate Professor of Paediatric Surgery at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health said: “Nanodiamonds, 3D printing and growth hormones in the womb all sounds a bit ‘science fiction’ we know, but this research is really showing us what is possible. As the saying goes: ‘diamonds are forever’, so we now want to create a delivery system that would break down as the baby grows. This isn’t an insurmountable problem, and we could be in a place to offer this to the first families in as little as five years.”

    Professor Paolo De Coppi, surgeon at GOSH and NIHR Professor of Paediatric Surgery at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, said: “VEGF is a powerful mediator of growth in our bodies and can help us to create new blood vessels and muscle, but uncontrolled or in large doses it can contribute to disease. The use of a delivery system like the nanodiamonds was crucial for us to test if VEGF could do what we want it to do, where we want it, in a controlled manner. By working with multidisciplinary, international teams, we’ve been able to use various and diverse models that we wouldn’t be able to do if we worked alone – collaboration is key.”

    Professor Jan Deprest, fetal surgeon at UCLH and KU Leuven (Belgium), Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology said: “This study shows two essential things. First, this new treatment is likely to boost the effect of the surgery before birth we can offer today. Second, that we can mimic the condition with miniaturized lungs derived from the unborn baby in the laboratory, so that we can test before birth drugs that could save its life after birth. This collaboration once again shows how important international collaboration is, in particular in rare diseases.”

    Families affected by CDH

    CDH effects around 1 in 3,000 births and Great Ormond Street Hospital will treat around one child a month for this condition. Through a multidisciplinary service between GOSH and UCLH, families are currently offered appointments, counselling and the balloon procedure (FETO) when appropriate. 

    Amelia’s story

    Amelia was just a few days old when she was transferred to GOSH for lifesaving surgery for CDH. Her condition was identified on an ultrasound scan while mum Georgia was pregnant.


    Georgia Turner, 26 years old from Croydon in south London, said: “My pregnancy and birth was a complete whirlwind after Amelia was diagnosed with CDH. It wasn’t something I’d heard of before and then I realised how serious it was. I had extra scans and treatment at my local hospital, and the team hoped Amelia’s condition would only be moderate.

    “Unfortunately, after Amelia was born, the clinical team told me how serious her condition was as her bowel and stomach had moved into her chest. She was taken to GOSH and put on a machine to support her breathing and heart. The team thought she might need to be on it for a few weeks, but she was off within a couple of days. She’s such a little fighter!”

    Amelia spent four months recovering on the neonatal unit at GOSH and then a further three months at her local hospital, before returning home with mum Georgia.

    Now a cheeky 16-month-old, Amelia was making great progress until her CDH reoccurred. A rare side effect that can sometimes unfortunately happen to up to 20% children with the condition. After confirming her CDH relapse on an x-ray, Amelia was brought back to GOSH for specialist surgery.

    Georgia continued: “Now she’s a lot bigger and stronger she coped well with the second CDH surgery. She only needed support with her breathing for one night on the intensive care unit and by morning she was chatting with the staff! She’s bounced back really quickly which is great to see.

    “I didn’t have any big warning signs from Amelia that her CDH had relapsed which was really worrying. New research like this is great to see how experts are trying to make the treatment for CDH more successful for all children, and less invasive. Hopefully better treatments will also prevent relapse cases like Amelia.”

    Reference: Loukogeorgakis SP, Michielin F, Al-Juffali N, et al. Prenatal VEGF nanodelivery reverses congenital diaphragmatic hernia–associated pulmonary abnormalities. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2025;211(6):992-1006. doi: 10.1164/rccm.202401-0161OC

    This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source. Our press release publishing policy can be accessed here.

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  • Localized Translation at Mitochondria Decoded by Scientists

    Localized Translation at Mitochondria Decoded by Scientists

    Our cells produce a variety of proteins, each with a specific role that, in many cases, means that they need to be in a particular part of the cell where that role is needed. One of the ways that cells ensure certain proteins end up in the right location at the right time is through localized translation, a process that ensures that proteins are made — or translated — close to where they will be needed. MIT professor of biology and Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research member Jonathan Weissman and colleagues have studied localized translation in order to understand how it affects cell functions and allows cells to quickly respond to changing conditions.

    Now, Weissman, who is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, and postdoc in his lab Jingchuan Luo have expanded our knowledge of localized translation at mitochondria, structures that generate energy for the cell. In an open-access paper published today in Cell, they share a new tool, LOCL-TL, for studying localized translation in close detail, and describe the discoveries it enabled about two classes of proteins that are locally translated at mitochondria.

    The importance of localized translation at mitochondria relates to their unusual origin. Mitochondria were once bacteria that lived within our ancestors’ cells. Over time, the bacteria lost their autonomy and became part of the larger cells, which included migrating most of their genes into the larger cell’s genome in the nucleus. Cells evolved processes to ensure that proteins needed by mitochondria that are encoded in genes in the larger cell’s genome get transported to the mitochondria. Mitochondria retain a few genes in their own genome, so production of proteins from the mitochondrial genome and that of the larger cell’s genome must be coordinated to avoid mismatched production of mitochondrial parts. Localized translation may help cells to manage the interplay between mitochondrial and nuclear protein production — among other purposes.

    How to detect local protein production

    For a protein to be made, genetic code stored in DNA is read into RNA, and then the RNA is read or translated by a ribosome, a cellular machine that builds a protein according to the RNA code. Weissman’s lab previously developed a method to study localized translation by tagging ribosomes near a structure of interest, and then capturing the tagged ribosomes in action and observing the proteins they are making. This approach, called proximity-specific ribosome profiling, allows researchers to see what proteins are being made where in the cell. The challenge that Luo faced was how to tweak this method to capture only ribosomes at work near mitochondria.

    Ribosomes work quickly, so a ribosome that gets tagged while making a protein at the mitochondria can move on to making other proteins elsewhere in the cell in a matter of minutes. The only way researchers can guarantee that the ribosomes they capture are still working on proteins made near the mitochondria is if the experiment happens very quickly.

    Weissman and colleagues had previously solved this time sensitivity problem in yeast cells with a ribosome-tagging tool called BirA that is activated by the presence of the molecule biotin. BirA is fused to the cellular structure of interest, and tags ribosomes it can touch — but only once activated. Researchers keep the cell depleted of biotin until they are ready to capture the ribosomes, to limit the time when tagging occurs. However, this approach does not work with mitochondria in mammalian cells because they need biotin to function normally, so it cannot be depleted.

    Luo and Weissman adapted the existing tool to respond to blue light instead of biotin. The new tool, LOV-BirA, is fused to the mitochondrion’s outer membrane. Cells are kept in the dark until the researchers are ready. Then they expose the cells to blue light, activating LOV-BirA to tag ribosomes. They give it a few minutes and then quickly extract the ribosomes. This approach proved very accurate at capturing only ribosomes working at mitochondria.

    The researchers then used a method originally developed by the Weissman lab to extract the sections of RNA inside of the ribosomes. This allows them to see exactly how far along in the process of making a protein the ribosome is when captured, which can reveal whether the entire protein is made at the mitochondria, or whether it is partly produced elsewhere and only gets completed at the mitochondria.

    “One advantage of our tool is the granularity it provides,” Luo says. “Being able to see what section of the protein is locally translated helps us understand more about how localized translation is regulated, which can then allow us to understand its dysregulation in disease and to control localized translation in future studies.”

    Two protein groups are made at mitochondria

    Using these approaches, the researchers found that about 20 percent of the genes needed in mitochondria that are located in the main cellular genome are locally translated at mitochondria. These proteins can be divided into two distinct groups with different evolutionary histories and mechanisms for localized translation.

    One group consists of relatively long proteins, each containing more than 400 amino acids or protein building blocks. These proteins tend to be of bacterial origin — present in the ancestor of mitochondria — and they are locally translated in both mammalian and yeast cells, suggesting that their localized translation has been maintained through a long evolutionary history.

    Like many mitochondrial proteins encoded in the nucleus, these proteins contain a mitochondrial targeting sequence (MTS), a ZIP code that tells the cell where to bring them. The researchers discovered that most proteins containing an MTS also contain a nearby inhibitory sequence that prevents transportation until they are done being made. This group of locally translated proteins lacks the inhibitory sequence, so they are brought to the mitochondria during their production.

    Production of these longer proteins begins anywhere in the cell, and then after approximately the first 250 amino acids are made, they get transported to the mitochondria. While the rest of the protein gets made, it is simultaneously fed into a channel that brings it inside the mitochondrion. This ties up the channel for a long time, limiting import of other proteins, so cells can only afford to do this simultaneous production and import for select proteins. The researchers hypothesize that these bacterial-origin proteins are given priority as an ancient mechanism to ensure that they are accurately produced and placed within mitochondria.

    The second locally translated group consists of short proteins, each less than 200 amino acids long. These proteins are more recently evolved, and correspondingly, the researchers found that the mechanism for their localized translation is not shared by yeast. Their mitochondrial recruitment happens at the RNA level. Two sequences within regulatory sections of each RNA molecule that do not encode the final protein instead code for the cell’s machinery to recruit the RNAs to the mitochondria.

    The researchers searched for molecules that might be involved in this recruitment, and identified the RNA binding protein AKAP1, which exists at mitochondria. When they eliminated AKAP1, the short proteins were translated indiscriminately around the cell. This provided an opportunity to learn more about the effects of localized translation, by seeing what happens in its absence. When the short proteins were not locally translated, this led to the loss of various mitochondrial proteins, including those involved in oxidative phosphorylation, our cells’ main energy generation pathway.

    In future research, Weissman and Luo will delve deeper into how localized translation affects mitochondrial function and dysfunction in disease. The researchers also intend to use LOCL-TL to study localized translation in other cellular processes, including in relation to embryonic development, neural plasticity, and disease.

    “This approach should be broadly applicable to different cellular structures and cell types, providing many opportunities to understand how localized translation contributes to biological processes,” Weissman says. “We’re particularly interested in what we can learn about the roles it may play in diseases including neurodegeneration, cardiovascular diseases, and cancers.”

    Reference: Luo J, Khandwala S, Hu J, et al. Proximity-specific ribosome profiling reveals the logic of localized mitochondrial translation. Cell. 2025. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.08.002

    This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source. Our press release publishing policy can be accessed here.

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  • The Strad – A Lucerne Festival debut: Swiss violinist David Nebel on incompleteness, continuity and coming home

    The Strad – A Lucerne Festival debut: Swiss violinist David Nebel on incompleteness, continuity and coming home

    Discover more Featured Stories  like this in The Strad Playing Hub  

    Music often reveals itself by what it withholds. A sudden break, an unfinished page, a door left half open: these denials of access can be as telling as any completed cadence. 

    It is within this landscape of fragments and continuities that Swiss violinist David Nebel makes an important debut. No stranger to Lucerne, Nebel was born in nearby Zurich and lived in the city for several years; his family still calls it home.

    Now, at just 28, he returns in a new role to make his Lucerne Festival debut as part of the prestigious Debut series, with a lunchtime recital at the Lukaskirche that explores unfinished and open-ended works by Mozart, Ravel and Shostakovich, rounded out by Franck’s great Violin Sonata. His partner at the keyboard will be Julia Hamos.

    Nebel thoughtfully curated his programme to reflect this summer’s ’Open End’ theme at Lucerne. The 2025 edition of the festival embraces many meanings of openness, from works left unfinished or indeterminate in form to the creative freedom of a new generation of musicians. It acknowledges the symbolic close – and opening – of an era as Michael Haefliger bids farewell after 26 years as executive and artistic director.

    For Nebel, making his festival debut within this framework carries both personal and artistic significance. Alongside his flourishing solo career, the violinist has held the position of concertmaster with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin since 2022, a dual path that has sharpened his artistry in different ways. Here, he reflects on what this debut means, the interplay of his professional roles and the allure of musical incompleteness.

    What does making your Lucerne Festival debut mean to you at this moment in your career? 

    David Nebel: It’s a great honour to make my debut at the Lucerne Festival. Lucerne plays an important role in my life – I lived there for several years and still have family in the city – so returning and participating at the Lucerne Festival is meaningful for me.

    I also value the opportunity to perform chamber music and solo repertoire alongside my role as concertmaster of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin. Music offers such a broad spectrum that it is never possible to be satisfied with only one perspective.

    How does that dual role – as concertmaster in Berlin and soloist – shape the way you play?

    David Nebel: It is inspiring, but also challenging for me to perform in a different context as in my current professional role as concertmaster. My work as concertmaster over the past two and a half years has had a significant impact on me as a musician. In the orchestra, the focus is on making chamber music across a large structure – listening carefully to all sections, understanding textures, and ensuring clarity.

    The role requires precise musical communication, and it has been invaluable to collaborate with leading conductors and musicians on the great symphonic repertoire. These experiences have shaped my approach to solo playing as well.

    Each year, the summer edition of Lucerne Festival focuses on a specific theme. For 2025, the theme is ‘Open End’ – the unfinished-ness of music, in a sense. Did the theme guide your choices for your programme? Do you sense a narrative or thread that binds the four sonatas together?

    David Nebel: The programme includes Mozart’s Sonata in A major, K. 402, Ravel’s early posthumous Sonata, Shostakovich’s unfinished Sonata, and Franck’s Sonata. It relates closely to the Festival’s Open End theme. Mozart and Shostakovich left incomplete works; Ravel’s early sonata reads almost like a sketch toward his later voice; and Franck’s Sonata achieves openness through its cyclic form, constantly transforming themes.

    For me, the four works create a strong thread around the idea of continuity and incompleteness in music.

    Mozart’s K. 402 and Shostakovich’s unfinished sonata offer rare glimpses into compositional processes. How do you approach these fragmentary works compared to something like Franck’s Sonata?

    David Nebel: Performers always aim to understand a score and form an interpretation. With unfinished sonatas, the challenge is that they remain fragments rather than fully developed structures. That quality must be acknowledged rather than hidden. At the same time, the music itself is clear, and the abrupt endings leave space for speculation about what the composers might have intended. The absence of closure is part of their interest and creates additional tension.

    David Nebel-1

    Which of these sonatas speaks to you personally – or challenges you most as a violinist?

    David Nebel: Each sonata presents its own demands. The Mozart, Ravel, and Shostakovich were discoveries for me and required a fresh approach. Franck’s Sonata, on the other hand, has been familiar to me since childhood and remains one of the most significant works in the repertoire.

    Looking ahead, are there other ‘unfinished’ works or hidden gems you dream of exploring?

    David Nebel: There are relatively few unfinished works for violin and piano, but the theme highlights material that is often overlooked. Engaging with these pieces has been musically rewarding. I would be happy to have further opportunities to explore and present rarely performed repertoire.

     David Nebel plays his debut recital at Lucerne Festival on Tuesday 2 September 2025, with Julia Hamos at the keyboard.

    Best of Technique

    In The Best of Technique you’ll discover the top playing tips of the world’s leading string players and teachers. It’s packed full of exercises for students, plus examples from the standard repertoire to show you how to integrate the technique into your playing.

    Masterclass

    In the second volume of The Strad’s Masterclass series, soloists including James Ehnes, Jennifer Koh, Philippe Graffin, Daniel Hope and Arabella Steinbacher give their thoughts on some of the greatest works in the string repertoire. Each has annotated the sheet music with their own bowings, fingerings and comments.

    Calendars

    The Canada Council of the Arts’ Musical Instrument Bank is 40 years old in 2025. This year’s calendar celebrates some its treasures, including four instruments by Antonio Stradivari and priceless works by Montagnana, Gagliano, Pressenda and David Tecchler.

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  • French blind football captain Frederic Villeroux reflects on golden moment

    French blind football captain Frederic Villeroux reflects on golden moment

    The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games was full of French pride, and nowhere was that more evident than at the Eiffel Tower Stadium on the night of the blind football final.

    France were an outside bet for the gold from the start, but when they lined up against Argentina, who were fresh from ending six-time winners Brazil’s dominance in the semi-finals, they needed the nation behind them. Under the glow of Paris’ most famous landmark, the city came alive, out in force to roar the team on to a historic victory.

    The noise was deafening, from the moment the national anthem blared out to every break in play; 11,000 people inspired one of the home nation’s most memorable moments, deep into the Paralympic Games.

    It was down to Frederic Villeroux to score the deciding penalty in a 3-2 shootout win, after he had opened the scoring in normal time before Argentina equalised.

    “Our sport has finally been recognised in France,” Villeroux tells the IPC a year on from the Games. “The gold medal, at home, in front of my family and friends, after years of struggle and sacrifice… I simply felt a profound joy. 

    “It was the culmination of 21 years of hard work, 12 years after the silver medal in London (2012). These are unforgettable moments. When you have 11,200 fans singing, it galvanises you and gives you enormous energy to push yourself to the limit.

    “For the first match and the final, I had chills… and even a few tears.”

    France became the second team to win Paralympic blind football gold. @Andy Lyons/Getty Images

     

    Defying the odds

    Brazil had never been beaten on the biggest stage, and they met the hosts in the group stage, so France had very little expectation going into the tournament. Villeroux certainly did not foresee glory.

    “Before the competition, our coach firmly believed in the gold medal,” he says.

    “Personally, I would have considered myself lucky if we had just made it through the group stages. Our group included China, the runner-up to the world champion, and Brazil, the reigning Paralympic champion.

    “We didn’t believe it, but we promised ourselves we would give it our all so we wouldn’t have any regrets.”

     

    Blind Football Highlights | Paris 2024 ❤️💙💚

     

    Carrying the hopes of the host nation

    If anyone had to shoulder responsibility, though, it was Villeroux. He is captain and talisman; his teammates, coach and fans looked to him to inspire them.

    How did he deal with that?

    “I appreciated the fact that the coach and my teammates trusted me, despite—or even thanks to—my personality: frank and demanding, I always stick to my convictions.

    “I appreciate that my words and decisions are heard and followed by action. It’s flattering to be a role model for my teammates and for future generations of blind footballers.

    “I like to listen to the team and to each player. We must ensure that we maintain bonds within the team to strengthen cohesion.”

    Villeroux says Paris 2024 has not only increased awareness and interest in blind football, but has also helped people with different disabilities gain more acceptance in society.

    “The general public has been made aware of Para sport and has wonderful memories. Children will remember that a person with a disability can participate in almost any sport.

    “Sport opens doors and sets an example for greater inclusion. Respect and inclusion for all people with disabilities should be reflected in the Paralympic Games.

    “During the Games, disability becomes a source of pride. We are more frequently asked to speak in schools, businesses, and at conferences to talk about Para sport and disability. It is also more prominently featured in the print media.”

    Two blind football players in Argentina uniforms and black eyeshades chase a French player, who has the ball
    Villeroux, right, was competing at his fourth Games, 20 years after making his Paralympic debut at Athens 2004. @Andy Lyons/Getty Images

     

    Home Games heroics

    Yet, there is still a long way to go, Villeroux says.

    “The truth is that communication around our sport is still not up to scratch. And as a result, we struggle to attract spectators to competitions.”

    Having competed in three Games before Paris 2024 – at London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020- Villeroux’s experience has proven invaluable for France. He almost retired in 2020 with injuries a concern, but had to hold on for Paris, to perform in front of his people.

    “Representing France at the Paralympic Games is a tremendous honour. It’s a privilege to have done it four times. I actually considered retiring from sport after the Tokyo Games.

    “But who can give up on a home Games?”

    A wide image of the Eiffel Tower Stadium, Three teams are on the podium, in front of a packed crowd and the Eiffel Tower.
    France won gold, Argentina took silver and Brazil took bronze in blind football at Paris 2024. @Aitor Alcalde/Getty Images for IPC

     

     

    More glory in the future?

    Will he stop now? Don’t count on it. There is more home success to be had, and Villeroux is desperate to be involved.

    “I wanted to stop after Paris, but I’m going to try to make it at least to the 2026 European Championship, since it’s taking place in France. During this Euro, we’ll play every match like a final, because all our opponents will want to beat the Paralympic champions.

    “The hardest part will be remaining champions.”

    Champions. It felt like a dream before it happened. Now one year on, for Villeroux and France, it is the most special of memories.

    Ten blind football players wearing France's white uniform celebrates on the podium in front of many fans
    Villeroux and the French team are aiming for another podium finish at the 2026 IBSA Blind Football European Championship Division 1 in August next year. @Andy Lyons/Getty Images

     

     

    Do you want to relive all the excitement of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games? Click here to read the day-by-day recap and experience the magic all over again


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  • Olympic champion Jessica Fox focusing on recovery after kidney surgery

    Olympic champion Jessica Fox focusing on recovery after kidney surgery

    Olympic canoe champion Jessica Fox has undergone surgery to remove a tumour from her left kidney and says she will not compete in the remaining Canoe Slalom World Cup events.

    The 31-year-old three-time Olympic gold medallist shared news of her condition and her subsequent recovery on social media on Thursday (28 August).

    “Last week I had surgery to remove a tumour from my kidney. The surgery went really well and I’m on the mend,” said Fox.

    “It’s been a whirlwind over the last few weeks, but I’m all good – just a couple of gnarly new scars, a bit less kidney and a whole lot more toughness.”

    Fox was one of Australia’s Opening Ceremony flagbearers at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 and went on to win two gold medals to become the first female canoe slalomist to win three Olympic titles and the most decorated of all time.

    She expressed optimism around her recovery and hopes to return to her sport soon.

    “I’m feeling positive and looking forward to heading home, focusing on recovery, and then building towards being back on the water again,” Fox added.


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  • Novel Approach to Dressing Using Vinegar-Soaked Gauze and Grated Papaya in the Management of Pseudomonas-Infected Pressure Ulcers: A Case Report

    Novel Approach to Dressing Using Vinegar-Soaked Gauze and Grated Papaya in the Management of Pseudomonas-Infected Pressure Ulcers: A Case Report


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  • Synthesis and photophysical studies of new fluorescent naphthalene chalcone

    Synthesis and photophysical studies of new fluorescent naphthalene chalcone

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  • Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway boosted Mitsubishi and Mitsui stakes. Why he’s enamored with Japan.

    Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway boosted Mitsubishi and Mitsui stakes. Why he’s enamored with Japan.

    By Steve Goldstein

    Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has admiration for Japanese trading hours.

    Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has boosted its stake in Mitsubishi and Mitsui, further increasing a long-standing bet on Japanese trading houses.

    Mitsubishi (JP:8058) disclosed that Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) unit National Indemnity increased its stake to 10.2% from 9.7%, as Mitsui (JP:8031) separately told Bloomberg that Berkshire’s stake was increased.

    Berkshire Hathaway since 2019 has invested in the pair along with Marubeni (JP:8002), Itochu (JP:8001) and Sumitomo (JP:8053).

    The increased stakes were not a surprise – the firm this year had asked a Japanese regulator permission to increase the stakes beyond 10% in all five. Berkshire Hathaway pledged not to increase stakes beyond 20% and not to exert day-to-day control.

    In the last annual report, Buffett explained why he bought the five in the first place.

    “We simply looked at their financial records and were amazed at the low prices of their stocks. As the years have passed, our admiration for these companies has consistently grown. Greg [Abel] has met many times with them, and I regularly follow their progress. Both of us like their capital deployment, their managements and their attitude in respect to their investors,” wrote Buffett.

    “Each of the five companies increase dividends when appropriate, they repurchase their shares when it is sensible to do so, and their top managers are far less aggressive in their compensation programs than their U.S. counterparts,” he added.

    He added that Abel, and his successors, will hold the Japanese position “for many decades.”

    Another plus – the estimated interest cost on Berkshire’s yen-denominated debt will be $135 million but its dividend income will be $812 million, Buffett said.

    The iShares MSCI Japan ETF EWJ has gained 17% this year, outperforming the S&P 500.

    -Steve Goldstein

    This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. 

    
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  • Minneapolis school shooting leaves 2 dead, 17 injured

    Minneapolis school shooting leaves 2 dead, 17 injured



    The Minneapolis school shooting killed two children and injured 17

    A tragic shooting incident occurred at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis during a morning mass on Wednesday, August 27, 2025. The two children killed were ages 8 and 10, and of the 17 injured, 14 were children and three were adults.

    The shooter was identified as a 23-year-old boy, Robin Westman, who killed himself with a self-inflicted gunshot and was found dead in the parking lot of the school.

    The shooter was identified as a 23-year-old boy, Robin Westman
    The shooter was identified as a 23-year-old boy, Robin Westman

    He was equipped with a pistol, a shotgun, and a rifle. All of the weapons were legally purchased. A smoke bomb was also found, but no other explosives were at the scene.

    The firing was carried out from outside the church, with Westman shooting from the window at the people inside.

    The shooter’s mother was an ex-employee at the school.

    Messages found on Westman’s weapons included, “kill Donald Trump”, “Nuke India”, “Where is your God”, “6 million was not enough”

    The FBI declared the incident an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime targeting Catholics. Investigators are trying to find the shooter’s vehicle and three associated residences.

    Brian O’Hara, the Chief of Minneapolis police, described the dreadful event as a “deliberate act of violence against innocent children.”

    Robin Westman allegedly posted content on YouTube before the shooting. This material contains violent/suicidal thoughts, and an apology to the family. Some of the writings on the weapons allegedly mentioned “kill Donald Trump.”

    The FBI declared the incident an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime targeting Catholics.
    The FBI declared the incident an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime targeting Catholics.

    Jacob Frey, the Mayor of Minneapolis, condemned the act of violence. He also spoke out against using the incident to “villainise the transgender community” because federal officials identified Westman as transgender.

    Memorial and prayers have been held in the Minneapolis area.

    The Minneapolis school shooting is a part of a larger violent incident that has been happening in the US for over two decades. There have been numerous attacks conducted on schools and colleges from 1999 to 2025.

    What are the messages found on the weapons of Robin Westman?

    According to reports, messages found on Westman’s weapons included, “kill Donald Trump”, “Nuke India”, “Where is your God”, “6 million was not enough”, apparently a reference to the Holocaust. 

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  • UCL Study Recreates Early RNA–Amino Acid Link

    UCL Study Recreates Early RNA–Amino Acid Link

    Chemists at UCL have shown how two of biology’s most fundamental ingredients, RNA (ribonucleic acid) and amino acids, could have spontaneously joined together at the origin of life four billion years ago.

    Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, the “workhorses” of life essential to nearly every living process. But proteins cannot replicate or produce themselves – they require instructions. These instructions are provided by RNA, a close chemical cousin of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid).

    In a new study, published in Nature, researchers chemically linked life’s amino acids to RNA in conditions that could have occurred on the early Earth – an achievement that has eluded scientists since the early 1970s.

    Senior author Professor Matthew Powner, based at UCL’s Department of Chemistry, said: “Life relies on the ability to synthesise proteins – they are life’s key functional molecules. Understanding the origin of protein synthesis is fundamental to understanding where life came from.

    “Our study is a big step towards this goal, showing how RNA might have first come to control protein synthesis.

    “Life today uses an immensely complex molecular machine, the ribosome, to synthesise proteins. This machine requires chemical instructions written in messenger RNA, which carries a gene’s sequence from a cell’s DNA to the ribosome. The ribosome then, like a factory assembly line, reads this RNA and links together amino acids, one by one, to create a protein.

    “We have achieved the first part of that complex process, using very simple chemistry in water at neutral pH to link amino acids to RNA. The chemistry is spontaneous, selective and could have occurred on the early Earth.”

    Previous attempts to attach amino acids to RNA used highly reactive molecules, but these broke down in water and caused the amino acids to react with each other, rather than become linked to RNA.

    For the new study, the researchers took inspiration from biology, using a gentler method to convert life’s amino acids into a reactive form. This activation involved a thioester, a high-energy chemical compound important in many of life’s biochemical processes and that has already been theorised to play a role at the start of life*.

    Professor Powner said: “Our study unites two prominent origin of life theories – the ‘RNA world’, where self-replicating RNA is proposed to be fundamental, and the ‘thioester world’, in which thioesters are seen as the energy source for the earliest forms of life.”

    In order to form these thioesters, the amino acids react with a sulphur-bearing compound called pantetheine. Last year, the same team published a paper demonstrating pantetheine can be synthesised under early Earth-like conditions, suggesting it was likely to play a role in starting life.

    The next step, the researchers said, was to establish how RNA sequences could bind preferentially to specific amino acids, so that RNA could begin to code instructions for protein synthesis – the origin of the genetic code.

    “There are numerous problems to overcome before we can fully elucidate the origin of life, but the most challenging and exciting remains the origins of protein synthesis,” said Professor Powner.

    Lead author Dr Jyoti Singh, from UCL Chemistry, said: “Imagine the day that chemists might take simple, small molecules, consisting of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, and sulphur atoms, and from these LEGO pieces form molecules capable of self-replication. This would be a monumental step towards solving the question of life’s origin.

    “Our study brings us closer to that goal by demonstrating how two primordial chemical LEGO pieces (activated amino acids and RNA) could have built peptides**, short chains of amino acids that are essential to life.

    “What is particularly groundbreaking is that the activated amino acid used in this study is a thioester, a type of molecule made from Coenzyme A, a chemical found in all living cells. This discovery could potentially link metabolism, the genetic code and protein building.”

    While the paper focuses solely on the chemistry, the research team said that the reactions they demonstrated could plausibly have taken place in pools or lakes of water on the early Earth (but not likely in the oceans as the concentrations of the chemicals would likely be too diluted).

    The reactions are too small to see with a visible-light microscope and were tracked using a range of techniques that are used to probe the structure of molecules, including several types of magnetic resonance imaging (which shows how the atoms are arranged) and mass spectrometry (which shows the size of molecules).

    Reference: Singh J, Thoma B, Whitaker D, Satterly Webley M, Yao Y, Powner MW. Thioester-mediated RNA aminoacylation and peptidyl-RNA synthesis in water. Nature. 2025;644(8078):933-944. doi: 10.1038/s41586-025-09388-y

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