In this study, the authors observe if the symptoms of Rett Syndrome, a neurodegenerative disease in humans, are reflected in Drosophila melanogaster. This was achieved by differentiating the behavior and physical aspects of wild-type flies from flies expressing the full-length MeCP2 gene and the mutated MeCP2 gene (R106W). After conducting these experiments, some of the Rett Syndrome symptoms were recapitulated in Drosophila, and a subset of those were partially ameliorated by the introduction of pifithrin-alpha.

Environmental disasters such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill can be devastating to ecosystems for long periods of time. Safer, cheaper, and more effective methods of oil clean-up are needed to clean up oil spills in the future. Here, the authors investigate the ability of natural ocean algae to process crude oil into less toxic chemicals. They identify Coccochloris elabens as a particularly promising algae for future bioremediation efforts.

In this study, the effects of vitamin C, ginger, or curcumin supplements on C-reactive protein levels in healthy participants are determined in an eight-week open-label trial.

This study uses a fruit fly model of type 1 diabetes (T1D) to determine whether strengthening intestinal tight junctions to reduce intestinal permeability would improve T1D symptoms.

Sweet potatoes are one of the most common starches in Taiwan, and sweet potato peels hold significant potential to make biodegradable plastics which can alleviate the environmental impact of conventional petroleum-based plastics. In this paper, Tsai et al created starch-based bioplastics derived from sweet potato peels and manipulated the amount of added glycerol to alter the plastic’s strength and flexibility properties. Their results indicated that higher concentrations of glycerol yield more malleable plastics, providing insights into how recycled agricultural waste material might be used to slow down the rate of pollution caused by widespread production of conventional plastics.

Many diabetics agree that the current glucometer methods are invasive, inefficient, and unsustainable for measuring blood glucose. These authors investigate the possibility of using a non-invasive glucometer patch that predicts blood glucose from patient sweat, with high accuracy.

The sequence of nitrogenous bases that make up the DNA of organisms can contain hidden mathematical sequences. Here the authors used BioPython, a programming tool, to find an organism that displays Gijswijt’s Sequence in its genome. In this manner they found that the common carp best displays Gijswijt’s Sequence in its genome.

In this article, the authors identify the characteristics that make a book a best-seller. Knowing what, besides content, predicts the success of a book can help publishers maximize the success of their print products.

Mosquito-borne diseases are a major issue across the world, and the objective for this project was to determine the characteristics that make some communities more susceptible to these diseases than others. The authors identified and studied characteristics that make communities susceptible to mosquito-borne diseases, including water in square miles, average temperature, population, population density, and poverty rates per county. They found that the population of a county is the best indicator of the prevalence of mosquito-borne diseases.

In this study, the authors looked at a proto-oncogene, KRAS, and searched for molecules that are predicted to be able to bind to the inactive form of KRAS. They found that a modified version of Irbesartan, a derivative of benzimidazole, showed the best binding to inactive KRAS.