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2 weeks ago | 
health.harvard.edu | Rachael Moeller Gorman
April 7, 2025 By Rachael Moeller Gorman, Health Writer Reviewed by Teresa Fung, MS, RD, ScD, Contributor; Editorial Advisory Board Member, Harvard Health Publishing The word zinc may conjure images of cold remedies and sunblock. But dietary zinc, found in a variety of foods including seafood, meat, and fortified breakfast cereal, is an important nutrient that plays a vital role in many of the body's functions. What is zinc?
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Jul 15, 2024 | 
drugdiscoverynews.com | Rachael Moeller Gorman
The brain extends from the skull and touches the outside world in only one place: the phyllo-like layers of retinal cells that line the back of the eye. Like their brethren in the brain, these delicate light sensors cannot be replaced; if they die, vision is lost.
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May 15, 2024 | 
the-scientist.com | Rachael Moeller Gorman
Whether it’s a jog through the park or a weight lifting session in a sweaty gym, exercise fosters good health. Compared to remaining sedentary, regular movement associates with a 20-30 percent lower risk of dying from all causes.1However, exercise causes mechanical stress in skeletal muscles; this, along with microinjuries, can spark mild inflammation.
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May 9, 2024 | 
the-scientist.com | Rachael Moeller Gorman
The retina is layered with photoreceptors, a variety of other neurons, and protective and structural membranes, but retinal disorders can tamper with this delicate system. Mutations in the Crumbs homolog 1 (CRB1) gene disrupt the integrity of retinal membranes, leading to the gradual loss of photoreceptors. CRB1 mutations associate with multiple retinal diseases, including Leber congenital amaurosis and retinitis pigmentosa.
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Apr 5, 2024 | 
the-scientist.com | Rachael Moeller Gorman |Shashank Shekhar
Cells in the human body are made to move. They assemble during embryo development, migrate to repair tissue, hunt pathogens, and perform a host of other tasks requiring travel. As part of the cytoskeleton, actin filaments help maintain a cell’s shape, but they also help the cell move and divide. They do much of this by treadmilling, a process in which actin monomers are added to one end of the filament and removed from the other end.
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Feb 5, 2024 | 
the-scientist.com | Rachael Moeller Gorman
Three floors below Dmitriy Sheyn’s lab at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, doctors remove degenerated intervertebral discs from patients with severe back pain. Instead of tossing the old discs, however, they sometimes give them to one of Sheyn’s lab members, who rushes them upstairs to harvest the fresh cells. The patients in these operating rooms accepted surgery because they were suffering, but many people with degenerated discs feel no pain at all. Sheyn wanted to know why.
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Nov 13, 2023 | 
morningstar.com | Rachael Moeller Gorman
These New Englanders have found a way to help the planet and convert more than 9,000 tons of cow waste annually into electricity NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / November 13, 2023 / Vanguard Renewables Originally published by Smithsonian Magazine By Rachael Moeller Gorman Photographs by David Degner The Connecticut River cuts between the Green Mountains of Vermont and the White Mountains of New Hampshire and rushes into the heart of Massachusetts, where Denise Barstow Manz stands in the wind,...
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Nov 12, 2023 | 
menafn.com | Rachael Moeller Gorman
(MENAFN- 3BL) Originally published by Smithsonian Magazine By Rachael Moeller Gorman Photographs by David Degner The Connecticut River cuts between the Green Mountains of Vermont and the White Mountains of New Hampshire and rushes into the heart of Massachusetts, where Denise Barstow Manz stands in the wind, surveying the land her family has farmed for 217 years.
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Nov 7, 2023 | 
the-scientist.com | Rachael Moeller Gorman
CRISPR-Cas holds great promise for treating and curing human disease. One of the few ways that scientists can usher CRISPR elements into a large number of mammalian cells is via an adeno-associated viral (AAV) vector. These vectors are small, so squeezing the large Cas enzyme gene plus its promoters, the polyadenylation signal, guide RNA genes, and other needed components into one vector is difficult; splitting the components into two vectors can create problematic doses or reduce the efficiency.
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Nov 6, 2023 | 
the-scientist.com | Rachael Moeller Gorman
Butterflies alighted on Christina Lynggaard’s skin, licking her sweat as she, Jan Gogarten, and a small team of researchers swabbed leaves deep in the rainforest in Uganda’s Kibale National Park. The work was an unplanned side project. Gogarten, a molecular ecologist at the University of Greifswald, had hoped to research pathogens in red colobus monkeys, but he didn’t receive permission to dart the animals in time.
