news 2022

An international research team has characterised, in the brain of foetuses, the cell populations responsible for the formation of blood vessels in the prenatal human brain. They are groups of endothelial and mural cells that line the cerebral vasculature in the second trimester of pregnancy. Led by the University of San Francisco, the work has the participation of the Cavanilles Institute of the University of Valencia-CIBERNED, as well as the collaboration of the Health Research Institute (IIS) and the La Fe Hospital in Valencia.

By analysing images obtained with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), UPF researchers have found that the measurements of turbulence in brain dynamics allow distinguishing one state from another far more precisely than using other existing techniques.

Researchers from the University of Valencia (UV), the INCLIVA Health Research Institute and the Clinical Hospital of Valencia, among other centres, have carried out a study to create a prediction model for the risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (DM2). This takes parameters present in any routine blood test (basal glucose and triglyceride levels) and others that are easily obtained (age, sex, weight and height of patients).

The COVID-19 pandemic generated a unique scenario to analyse the psychological impact of global and extreme situations on the population. Now, a study reveals the importance of the configuration of individual brain networks —before the COVID-19 outbreak— in people's ability of managing the impact of stress and coping strategies regarding the pandemic.

The team from the Sanitary Parasitology Unit of the University of Valencia (UV), an official collaborating centre of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Geneva and a World Reference Centre of the FAO/United Nations, has managed to elucidate the origin of fascioliasis, a parasitic disease caused by two species of helminths from the trematode group, the liver flukes Fasciola hepatica and F. gigantica .

Research institutes from five European countries have committed to improving the way researchers discover and access sensitive human data across national borders to enable more efficient health research. Institutes from Finland, Germany, Norway, Spain, and Sweden have become the first five nodes of the Federated European Genome-phenome Archive (Federated EGA), one of the largest international networks for discovery and access of sensitive human data.

Research shows that turning off a brain region decreases aggressiveness in lactating female mice A research team from the Universities of Valencia and Jaume I of Castellón has managed to show that if the medial amygdala - a part of the brain that detects pheromones and participates in social behaviour - is inactivated in mice, lactating females are no more aggressive the second time they must face a male, as it happens in unmanipulated females.

A research team at the Universitat de València led by Professors Jesùs Rodríguez Díaz, from the Department of Microbiology and Ecology, has been able to replicate human noroviruses in mice by eliminating intestinal microbiota with the use of antibiotics. This will allow progress to be made in the development of vaccines against one of the viruses responsible for most cases of acute gastroenteritis.

The correct development of the brain cortex is an essential process for the acquisition of correct cognitive skills. Reelin, a key extracellular protein in neuronal migration and synaptic plasticity, is determinant in this process. For this reason, the dysfunction —genetic or at an expression level— of this protein is involved in neurodevelopmental pathologies —such as lissencephalies, epilepsy or some psychiatric disorders, particularly autism, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder— or neurodegenerative diseases.

Obesity is a growing global health problem, the prevalence of which has tripled since 1975. It currently affects 650 million people worldwide, and in Spain the prevalence among adults is 28%. This pathology is related to cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, osteoarthritis and certain forms of cancer.

A study in which the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) is participating has managed to estimate the number of species that are actually affected by the illegal use of poison. The magnitude of this threat had remained unknown until now due to the low detection of poisoning cases in the wild.

Early life stress enhances neural and behavioural alterations caused by lack of Mecp2 , a gene involved in several rare diseases A research team from the University of Valencia has analysed in male m

Not all living organisms always evolve by natural selection or genetic drift, as stated in a study by the University of Valencia recently published in the journal PLOS One. The research team has shown that the common yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae can evolve through a deterministic mechanism that does not follow the rules of -survival of the fittest-.

Researchers from the Department of Information and Communication Technologies and the Department of Medicine and Life Sciences are involved in research that has found that extremely similar but unrelated people share genetic characteristics in the genes responsible for the formation of facial features.

In the paper, published in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution , the researchers argue that individuals with different cytotypes are able to mate with each other. This makes organisms with holocentric chromosomes model organisms for studying chromosomal evolution and speciation processes. Professor Antonio Marcial Escudero , from the Department of Plant Biology and Ecology of the US , together with two colleagues from the University of Basel (Switzerland), have studied the processes of creation of new species depending on the chromosome types of the original species.

The US signs an agreement with CSIC and Amicus Therapeutics to develop drugs to help counteract this pathology.

Bat cells have specific molecular barriers to deal with SARS-CoV-2 replication, according to a study published in Journal of Virology —publication of the American Society of Microbiology— which includes the participation of Jordi Serra-Cobo, lecturer of the Faculty of Biology and the Biodiversity Research Institute ( IRBio ) of the UB and expert on ecoepidemiological studies.

UB study warns of the ecological impact of native fish species introduced into river basins that do not belong to them Exotic fish are a threat to river ecosystems, but what happens when invasive species are native to a territory and have been introduced into waters that are not their original territory?

A study published in the journal Pharmacological Research reveals the oligomeric molecular structure of the MOR-Gal1R complex, a component present in the brain which is involved in the analgesic and addictive effects of certain opioids. The study includes the participation of the experts Vicent Casadó, Estefanía Moreno and Verònica Casadó-Anguera, from the Molecular Neuropharmacology Research Group of the Faculty of Biology and the Institute of Biomedicine of the University of Barcelona (I ).

When the body is subjected to a high-calorie diet, the physiological response is not homogeneous and some organs or tissues are more sensitive to metabolic stress.