This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Human gut microbes are critical for maintaining the integrity of the GI tract, immune system homeostasis, and host energy metabolism. Alterations in this network can have health consequences, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Antibiotic treatment compromises the composition of the gut microbiome, affecting microbial function and resulting in long-lasting detrimental effects on the host. A recent study examined how different antibiotics affect the ability of gut microbes to control intestinal inflammation. Researchers treated mice with antibiotics prior to fecal microbiota transplantation. They found that antibiotic pre-treatment significantly altered the ability of the microbiota to control intestinal inflammation. Streptomycin- and vancomycin-treated microbes failed to control inflammation, and pathobionts associated with IBD thrived. In contrast, microbes treated with metronidazole were able to control inflammation, and beneficial microbial species were enriched..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Despite their known benefits, chemotherapy and other cancer treatments can take a toll on patients. Side effects such as hair loss, nausea, immune system suppression, fatigue, cognitive impairment, and infertility are common. The reason is that many cancer-fighting treatments target cells that quickly reproduce, which is true of cancer cells but also of other, healthy cells in the body, including blood cells and those lining the gastrointestinal tract. Is it possible to target only cancerous tissues with therapeutic drugs so that healthy organs remain unaffected? Researchers at the RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research in Japan are engineering molecules to do just that. The team showed that artificially designed gold-based enzymes (or metalloenzymes) can be used to guide drug delivery through a technique called selective cell tagging therapy. These metalloenzymes are studded with sugar molecules that can bind to specific proteins called lectins displayed on the surface of cancer cells..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Lung cancer is the number one cause of cancer-related death Early detection is key to beating the disease A lung tumour that’s detected early, before it grows too large or spreads to other parts of the body, can be removed by surgeons and essentially cured The problem is that early detection is tricky Most patients don’t develop symptoms until advanced disease has set in, and the most common screening methods can be expensive and impractical Scientists are working on a new blood test that could help The test can spot small bits of DNA floating around in the blood Cancer cells shed this DNA as they grow and multiply Preliminary tests in mice showed the test can detect lung tumours before they become malignant The amount of tumour DNA found in the blood went up as tumours grew, giving scientists an idea of how large a mass had become More work is needed before the test can be used to detect cancer in humans But the research suggests that spotting early-stage lung cancer may one day be.."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Glioblastoma is a devastatingly aggressive and prevalent primary brain tumor. Despite the discovery of many potential biomarkers and treatment targets, there has been little improvement in survival. One unexplored pathway in glioblastoma is chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA), which has been implicated in a variety of human malignancies. A new paper examined CMA and its key component, lysosome-associated membrane protein type 2A (LAMP-2A), using clinical samples, in vitro experiments, and a mouse xenograft model. In clinical samples, glioblastoma showed elevated expression of LAMP-2A compared to peritumoral regions and low-grade glioma and an associated decrease in nuclear receptor co-repressor (N-CoR). Glioblastoma with high LAMP-2A expression also had inhibited unfolded protein response and apoptosis. In vitro, silencing LAMP-2A up-regulated N-CoR and activated the unfolded protein response pathway, which led to apoptosis..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"We already know that eating good food makes our bodies feel good, but what we eat can also affect our brains. Microbiota that reside in our guts influence behavior through a mechanism called the microbiota-gut-brain axis. Certain foods – including prebiotic, probiotic, and fermented foods – have received attention for their mood-boosting benefits. Now, a new study adds another food to that list. Kefir, a fermented food produced from a combination of live bacteria and yeasts, is known to affect the gut microbiota, but whether it affects the microbiota-brain axis and behavior is unclear. Researchers fed mice two different types of kefir and examined their behavior and their gut microbes. They found that feeding kefir reduced stress-induced hormone signaling and reward-seeking and repetitive behaviors in the mice. Different kefirs affected different types of behaviors and changed the abundance of specific bacterial species in the gut..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Overconsumption of food is one factor linked to obesity. In certain individuals, the pleasure experienced from food rewards may override signals indicating “I’m full.” One possible influencer in this process is the gut microbiome. The composition of the gut microbiota is known to be unbalanced in obesity. But how it contributes to further dysregulating eating behaviors via the food reward system is poorly understood. To assess the role of the gut microbiota in food intake regulation, researchers transferred gut-microbe-containing fecal material from obese donor mice into lean recipient mice. Experiments revealed that recipient mice developed excessive motivation for a food reward and that the gut microbes from obese donor mice altered the brain reward system of recipient mice. Motivation for food rewards was associated with changes in gut microbe-produced metabolites. with the metabolite 33HPP being identified as a modulator of neurotransmitter signalling..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"B-cells are a type of white blood cell that play an important role in the immune system, and some of these cells secrete a protein known as IL-35, which has been shown to regulate inflammation. Because the microorganisms living in the digestive system can have critical effects on the immune system of their host, scientists recently set out to uncover the link between these microbes and IL-35 production. The team found that certain microbes inhabiting the guts of mice, such as Lactobacillus bacteria, can promote the generation of IL-35-secreting B-cells and that they do this by producing 3-indoleacetic acid (IAA) in the presence of lipopolysaccharides. They also found that IL-35 may help prevent mice fed a high-fat diet from becoming obese and observed lower levels of IAA in obese mice than in nonobese mice..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"The phrase “you are what you eat” is becoming increasingly true. Tiny residents of our GI tracts – gut microbes – affect more than just our digestion. Gut microbiota have recently been linked to host health and behavior through a connection called the “gut-brain axis,” but exactly how our gut microbes affect our brain function remains unclear. A recent study examined the links between host genetics, the gut microbiome, and memory. Using specialized mice, researchers performed genome-wide association analysis to identify variations in DNA that were linked to short-term memory. They then performed association analyses between memory and the gut microbial community in the same mice. The results showed that specific microorganisms, in particular Lactobacillus, were correlated with better memory retention, and inoculating germ-free mice with Lactobacillus species improved their memory compared to controls. Treatment with a Lactobacillus metabolite, lactate, also boosted memory on its own..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

In this lesson, students will practice using a mouse in order to type onto a Google Doc T-chart .

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"The numerous microorganisms that live in our gut take care of us by regulating our metabolism. One way to take care of them is to add fiber to our diet. While indigestible to humans, certain forms of fiber are the perfect food for beneficial microorganisms. Unfortunately, it’s notoriously difficult to determine which organisms in the gut respond to fiber and more difficult still to measure their response. To solve that problem, researchers have devised a new technique called the single-amplified genome-gel platform, or SAG-gel. SAG-gel works by trapping single cells found in fecal samples in tiny gel beads. These individual cells are often entire bacteria, whose DNA can be neatly extracted and stored within each bead. DNA sequencing then reconstructs the genome of the trapped organisms which can then be analyzed to determine the regions responsible for breaking down different forms of fiber..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Antibiotics are known to impact the bacteria in our gut microbiome, but their impact on gut fungi has been understudied. It is thought that antibiotics increase the fungal population by decreasing the competition from bacteria for nutrients. But a recent study found that the antibiotic amoxicillin-clavulanic acid has the opposite effect. By examining samples from mice and a small number of human infants, researchers found that this treatment triggered a decrease in intestinal fungi. The treatment also led to a total remodel of the fungal and bacterial population structures in the mouse gut microbiomes. Specifically, the fungal community gained a higher proportion of Aspergillus, Cladosporium, and Valsa groups, and the bacterial community had an increase in bacteria belonging to Enterobacteriaceae. Many Enterobacteriaceae reduce the fungal growth but among them E. hormaechei was particularly active in vitro and in vivo..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in elderly individuals. Many factors affect age-related neurodegenerative disorders like AD, but one contributor is something you may not expect. Gut microbes – beneficial and pathogenic microbes in the GI tract – have far-reaching effects, including modulating the immune responses of hosts. Microbial populations change with age, and the decline of beneficial bacteria has been linked to increased inflammation. In one study, researchers found that transferring gut microbes from elderly individuals to mice through fecal transplantation caused cognitive impairment. Researchers isolated specific bacterial strains - Paenalcaligenes hominis and Escherichia coli – that are increased in the feces of elderly humans and mice. Transplanting these bacteria into younger pathogen-free mice caused cognitive impairment and colitis. Bacteria seemed to exert their effects by deploying extracellular vesicles toward the brain..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Sepsis – life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by infection – is a major cause of death in intensive care units. Inflammation and coagulation are known to build off of each other to contribute to sepsis pathogenesis. Unfortunately, the detailed mechanisms behind signaling in sepsis are incompletely understood. In a new study, researchers evaluated signaling pathways using human cell lines and a mouse model of sepsis. They found that inhibiting phosphorylation of the Tyr705 site on STAT3 (pY-STAT3) reduced inflammation. In septic mice, pY-STAT3 inhibition reduced proinflammatory factors, coagulation, lung injury, and vascular leakage, improving the sepsis survival rate. Inhibiting pY-STAT3 decreased LPS-induced cytokine production by macrophages, protecting pulmonary endothelial cells from damage, and procoagulant factors were downregulated by pY-STAT3 inhibition. Although further studies are needed to translate these findings to the clinic..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

Students learn about rotary encoders and discover how they operate through hands-on experimentation. Rotary encoders are applied in tools to determine angle measurements and for translations of angular motion. One common rotary encoder application is in a computer's ball-type mouse—the ball itself is a type of rotary encoder. In this activity, students experiment with two rotary encoders, including one from a computer mouse and one created using a LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT kit. They collect data to define and graph the relationship between the motion of the rotary encoder and its output.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"While best known for its role in the brain, serotonin does more in our body than influence mood. There is even growing evidence that it is involved in tumor development. However, little is known about its role in colorectal cancer. In a recent study, researchers found that serotonin promotes colon cancer cell growth in cell culture and animal models. Further tests revealed that serotonin is moved into colorectal cancer cells via its transporter SERT and that once the serotonin is inside the cancer cells, the enzyme TG2 links serotonin to the protein RhoA, activating it. Through down-stream signaling mediators, activated RhoA increases expression of the known cancer-promoting protein YAP. Blocking SERT from transporting serotonin with citalopram reversed the serotonin-induced YAP expression and cell proliferation increases and blocked serotonin’s effects on tumor formation in mice..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"How do you fix a broken heart? According to a new study, TREEs can help—that is, tissue regeneration enhancer elements. The study found that these short DNA control modules from zebrafish can precisely regulate gene expression in mammals to promote healing after a heart attack. Heart attack, or myocardial infarction, and heart failure are common and devastating cardiac conditions. But the hearts of adult mammals can’t regenerate well after injury, making treatment difficult. One option is to attempt to use gene therapy with viral vectors to enhance heart cell proliferation, thus improving cardiac regeneration. However, current gene therapies are limited in their ability to control their cargoes, leading to strong, continuous delivery in one or more organs. And unchecked cell proliferation can lead to problems like tumor formation, making methods for precise control essential. Zebrafish TREEs are promising mediators of such precise control..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a rare, spontaneous cancer found in bone marrow. Often the causative mutation generates a fusion protein, BCR-ABL1, with abnormal tyrosine kinase activity, and that abnormal activity is the target of the current tyrosine kinase inhibitor treatments. However, these treatments are expensive if used long term and do not kill cancerous stem cells. Thus, new treatments and treatment targets are needed. One potential category of targets are transcription regulators, such as CDK9 (cyclin-dependent kinase 9). Wogonin is a naturally occurring inhibitor of CDK9, and in a recent study it showed anti-CML effects on cell lines and primary CML cells. Specifically, wogonin induced erythroid differentiation in CML cell lines and primary cells and apoptosis in the KU-812 cell line. Wogonin treatment increased binding between GATA-1 and FOG-1, key players in erythrocyte differentiation and decreased binding between GATA-1 and RUNX1, which regulate megakaryocyte differentiation..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Type 2 diabetes is a serious disease affecting the way the body converts food into energy, and an increasing number of people are diagnosed with the disorder each year. Those whose mothers had hyperglycaemia in pregnancy (HIP) are particularly at risk, and it is possible that the microbes living in the mother’s gut may be at least somewhat responsible. To find out more, researchers compared the metabolic characteristics and gut microbial communities of mice whose mothers had HIP. The mice were born either naturally or via cesarean section and were nursed by either their own mother or a foster mouse without HIP. Cesarean section birth and foster nursing prevented the transmission of gut microbes from biological mother to offspring. In fact, the gut microbial communities of fostered offspring were more closely related to those of their foster mothers than to those of their biological mothers, with increased relative abundances of Bifidobacterium species and short-chain fatty acid bacterial metabolites..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.