University of Adelaide mathematicians have devised a method for identifying how cell clusters have formed by analysing an image of the cluster.

Published in the Journal of Theoretical Biology, their mathematical modelling tool will be useful in helping biologists and tissue engineers to move towards growing human tissue such as liver in the laboratory.

"When any tissue or organ develops, the cells have to organise themselves into the correct structure," says Dr Edward Green, researcher in the University's School of Mathematical Sciences. "This self-organisation process is important in regenerative medicine where scientists are trying to grow tissues in the laboratory. Getting the right structure is key to ensuring the tissue is viable and functional.

Fortunately, more and more people survive critical illnesses and accidents. A new Danish-American survey shows, however, that hospitalisation where the patient has received mechanical ventilation can have serious consequences:

- Of course, the good news is that more and more patients survive critical illness and treatment using ventilators. But at the same time, the bad news is that we have now documented that the ventilator patients have a considerable risk of developing psychological problems.

The first few months after discharge are really critical, says professor of clinical epidemiology Henrik Toft Sørensen, Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital.

Researchers of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich have discovered a novel feedback mechanism that provides a mechanistic link between chronic inflammation and carcinogenesis.

Researchers have shown that they can detect tiny, misfolded protein fragments in cerebrospinal fluid taken from patients. Such fragments have been suggested to be the main culprit in Alzheimer's disease. The findings reported in the Cell Press journal Cell Reports lend hope that doctors might soon have a way to diagnose the disease while treatments might have a better chance of working—that is, before extensive brain damage and dementia set in.

Scientists used to think amyloid plaques were the problem in Alzheimer's disease.

Researchers from The University of Manchester have discovered a new mechanism that governs how body clocks react to changes in the environment.

And the discovery, which is being published in Current Biology, could provide a solution for alleviating the detrimental effects of chronic shift work and jet-lag.

The team's findings reveal that the enzyme casein kinase 1epsilon (CK1epsilon) controls how easily the body's clockwork can be adjusted or reset by environmental cues such as light and temperature.

The top predators of the Southern Ocean, far-ranging seabirds, are tied both to the health of the ocean ecosystem and to global climate regulation through a mutual relationship with phytoplankton, according to newly published work from the University of California, Davis.

When phytoplankton are eaten by grazing crustaceans called krill, they release a chemical signal that calls in krill-eating birds. At the same time, this chemical signal — dimethyl sulfide, or DMS — forms sulfur compounds in the atmosphere that promote cloud formation and help cool the planet. Seabirds consume the grazers, and fertilize the phytoplankton with iron, which is scarce in the vast Southern Ocean. The work was published March 3 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.