ISSNAF News http://www.issnaf.org/ Sun, 19 May 2013 17:29:11 GMT FeedCreator 1.8.0-dev (info@mypapit.net) Supernova explosion discovered 15 days in advance http://www.issnaf.org/in-the-spotlight/supernova-explosion-discovered-15-days-in-advance.html A team of young researchers and scientists from the International Scholarship of Relativistic Astrophysics of the International Center for Relativistic Astrophysics (ICRA) at the La Sapienza University in Rome, lead by Professor Remo Ruffini, was able to predetermine the explosion of a Supernova with 15 days in advance. The result has been named "Exceptional and unique in the history of Astrophysics" by the new minister of University and research Maria Chiara Carrozza.

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]]> Fri, 17 May 2013 02:06:34 GMT http://www.issnaf.org/in-the-spotlight/supernova-explosion-discovered-15-days-in-advance.html Squinzi: Italian brain drain costs 5 billion euro every year http://www.issnaf.org/in-the-spotlight/squinzi-italian-brain-drain-costs-5-billion-euro-every-year.html President of Confindustria Giorgio Squinzi talks about the Italian brain drain as a “real hemorrhage” that the country pays almost 5 billion euros every year and that must be stopped with any possible effort because it affects always more the youngest generation. President Squinzi during a round table at Politecnico di Milano, also talked about a “great gift” that Italy gives to its competitors.

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]]> Tue, 14 May 2013 02:12:08 GMT http://www.issnaf.org/in-the-spotlight/squinzi-italian-brain-drain-costs-5-billion-euro-every-year.html Cecilia Martini Bonadeo wins USD 200.000 award for her research http://www.issnaf.org/in-the-spotlight/cecilia-martini-bonadeo-wins-usd-200000-award-for-her-research.html The 39 year old Italian researcher Cecilia Martini Bonadeo just won the international award of USD 200.000 sponsored by the cultural foundation Riyadh King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz with a translation work from the ancient Arab of “Harmony” about Platon and Aristotle wrote by the medieval philosopher al-Farab. “I have a degree in philosophy – said the researcher – but I've never found a good position in Italy”.

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]]> Tue, 14 May 2013 02:10:47 GMT http://www.issnaf.org/in-the-spotlight/cecilia-martini-bonadeo-wins-usd-200000-award-for-her-research.html Key Shift Identified In The Brain That Creates Drive To Overeat http://www.issnaf.org/in-the-spotlight/key-shift-identified-in-the-brain-that-creates-drive-to-overeat.html A team of Italian and American neuroscientists has identified a cellular change in the brain that accompanies obesity. The findings could explain the body's tendency to maintain undesirable weight levels, rather than an ideal weight, and identify possible targets for pharmacological efforts to address obesity. The findings, have just been published on Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

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]]> Tue, 14 May 2013 02:08:44 GMT http://www.issnaf.org/in-the-spotlight/key-shift-identified-in-the-brain-that-creates-drive-to-overeat.html Alzheimer's disease VS protein ADAM10 http://www.issnaf.org/in-the-spotlight/alzheimers-disease-vs-protein-adam10.html  

Alzheimer's disease is characterized by the accumulation of neurotoxic β-amyloid peptide (A-beta). ADAM10, a protein that resides in the neural synapses, has previously been shown to prevent the formation of A-beta. In a study published on the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Monica Di Luca and colleagues at the University of Milan report that ADAM10 is removed from synapses through association with the protein AP2.

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]]> Thu, 09 May 2013 03:53:30 GMT http://www.issnaf.org/in-the-spotlight/alzheimers-disease-vs-protein-adam10.html New Transistor powered by light http://www.issnaf.org/in-the-spotlight/new-transistor-powered-by-light.html
Two Italian researchers from La Sapienza University, Claudio Conti and Marco Leonetti, in collaboration with a team of scientists from Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid Cefe Lopez, demonstrated that a new kind of transistor can get power from disordered system, such as liquids, gas or metals even if made of a much simpler structure compared to the optic ones. In this way it could be possible for a light beam, for example, to pass through a wall keeping the control of the signal.
The discovery has been published on Nature Communication.

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]]> Thu, 09 May 2013 03:51:45 GMT http://www.issnaf.org/in-the-spotlight/new-transistor-powered-by-light.html A conformational switch in HP1 releases auto-inhibition to drive heterochromatin assembly http://www.issnaf.org/in-the-spotlight/a-conformational-switch-in-hp1-releases-auto-inhibition-to-drive-heterochromatin-assembly.html A new research about the conformational switch in HP1 that releases auto-inhibition to drive heterochromatin assembly, lead by the Italian Daniele Canzio, has just been published on Nature magazine. According to the research, a hallmark of histone H3 lysine 9 (H3K9)-methylated heterochromatin, conserved from the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe to humans, is able to spread to adjacent genomic regions. Central to heterochromatin spread is heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1), which recognizes H3K9-methylated chromatin, oligomerizes and forms a versatile platform that participates in diverse nuclear functions, ranging from gene silencing to chromosome segregation. How HP1 proteins assemble on methylated nucleosomal templates and how the HP1–nucleosome complex achieves functional versatility remain poorly understood. Here we show that binding of the key S. pombe HP1 protein, Swi6, to methylated nucleosomes drives a switch from an auto-inhibited state to a spreading-competent state. In the auto-inhibited state, a histone-mimic sequence in one Swi6 monomer blocks methyl-mark recognition by the chromodomain of another monomer. Auto-inhibition is relieved by recognition of two template features, the H3K9 methyl mark and nucleosomal DNA. Cryo-electron-microscopy-based reconstruction of the Swi6–nucleosome complex provides the overall architecture of the spreading-competent state in which two unbound chromodomain sticky ends appear exposed. Disruption of the switch between the auto-inhibited and spreading-competent states disrupts heterochromatin assembly and gene silencing in vivo. These findings are reminiscent of other conditionally activated polymerization processes, such as actin nucleation, and open up a new class of regulatory mechanisms that operate on chromatin in vivo.

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]]> Wed, 08 May 2013 15:47:22 GMT http://www.issnaf.org/in-the-spotlight/a-conformational-switch-in-hp1-releases-auto-inhibition-to-drive-heterochromatin-assembly.html Young Italian Researchers on Multiple Sclerosis Award http://www.issnaf.org/in-the-spotlight/young-italian-researchers-on-multiple-sclerosis-award.html  

After the great success collected with the first edition in 2012, also this year Societa' Italiana di Neurologia (SIN) is promoting an award for the best scientific publication about the research on multiple sclerosis (SM). The award includes a grant of 10.000 euros and is designated to scientists under 40 years of age of Italian nationality who had worked on their research in Italy and published during 2012. The award ceremony will be between November 2nd and 5th 2013 in Milan.

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]]> Tue, 07 May 2013 07:16:28 GMT http://www.issnaf.org/in-the-spotlight/young-italian-researchers-on-multiple-sclerosis-award.html Useless DNA can cause liver cancer http://www.issnaf.org/in-the-spotlight/useless-dna-can-cause-liver-cancer.html  

The study, called "Endogenous retrotransposition activates oncogenic pathways in hepatocellular carcinoma" comes from a international research nd had just been published on Cell magazine. In the team of researchers, lead by Professor Geoff Faulkner, there are also two groups of Italians from European Institute of Oncology (Ieo) in Milan and The Italian Institute of Technology (Itt) in Genova coordinated by Bruno Amati.

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]]> Tue, 07 May 2013 07:14:58 GMT http://www.issnaf.org/in-the-spotlight/useless-dna-can-cause-liver-cancer.html Parkinson: a microchip to study neurons http://www.issnaf.org/in-the-spotlight/parkinson-a-microchip-to-study-neurons.html  

A team of Italian researchers made by chemists, biologists and engineers created a microchip that is able to study the functionality of neurons and compare the results of the different treatments to contrast symptoms of Parkinson and epilepsy. The microchip is organic and bio compatible and could create new scenarios on research.

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]]> Tue, 07 May 2013 07:12:46 GMT http://www.issnaf.org/in-the-spotlight/parkinson-a-microchip-to-study-neurons.html