In most steelmaking processes, impurities are removed from the iron ore using chemistry that will use fossil fuels or release large amounts of carbon dioxide. This is objectively not very good for the environment. Thanks to a new technology termed "HYBRIT," scientists in Europe hope to revolutionize steelmaking by replacing coal with fossil-free electricity and hydrogen to eliminate the carbon footprint from their process. The amount of carbon dioxide emission reduction they tout is significant but probably not nearly enough to combat the global climate change we are experiencing, however, as with everything in life, we have to start somewhere! You can read more about their initiative here.
The Sanford M. Simon laboratory at The Rockefeller University recently published a finding in Clinical Cancer Research detailing a specific mutation that enhances the ability of a rare, deadly liver cancer to spread in their hosts. Known as fibrolamellar carcinoma, this disease is nearly incurable if surgical resection does not eliminate the ability of the cancer to spread. By mutating the fusion oncogene, termed DNAJB1-PRKACA, the group showed marked tumor reduction in their animal models. Subsequently, the group designed a short hairpin RNA targeted drug to attack the mRNA of the fusion product, which showed a complete stop to tumor growth and reduced existing tumor size. The group hopes their research can inspire others to look at fusion genes as drug targets for other cancers. You can read the press release from Rockefeller here.
An international collaboration noted that specific subpopulations of neurons could enhance a patient's ability to walk again after a spinal cord injury. This subgroup of neurons expresses VSX2 and is associated with a region of the spinal cord that expresses HOXA10, both genes coding for transcription factors. Having identified these biomarkers, the authors demonstrate the critical role these neurons play in allowing the injured person to walk again. The results are published in Nature.