A newly identified compound is a promising candidate for inhibiting the production of amyloids, the abnormal proteins that form toxic clumps, called fibrils, inside the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. As published in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Chemical Communications, the compound — known as “C1” — uses a novel mechanism to efficiently prevent the enzyme gamma-secretase from producing amyloids.

A new degree program in biological neuroscience at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute explores the structure and function of the brain and nervous system. The major, which was recently approved by the New York State Education Department, will be offered beginning in the spring 2020 semester through the Rensselaer Department of Biological Sciences.

By folding snippets of DNA into the shape of a five-pointed star using structural DNA nanotechnology, researchers have created a trap that captures Dengue virus as it floats in the bloodstream. 

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have been working on two fronts to perfect continuous blood glucose monitor and insulin pump technologies: they are developing algorithms to create a closed-loop system that can effectively operate similar to a healthy pancreas, and they are working to make that system more accessible and understandable for users with diabetes.

People with diabetes face a significantly higher risk of osteoporotic fractures than those without the disease, but the reason for this is not well understood and can’t be adequately predicted.

Although concentrations of chemicals and pollutants like salt and nutrients have increased in the deep waters of Lake George, they’re still too low to harm the ecosystem at those depths, according to an analysis of nearly 40 years of data published today in Limnology and Oceanography.

A new imaging technique that makes it possible to match motor proteins with the cargo they carry within a cell is upending a standard view of how cellular traffic reaches the correct destination.

Steve Jane, a graduate student in biological sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has been awarded a prestigious Fulbright U.S. Student Program fellowship for the 2019-2020 academic year from the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. — Steve Jane, a graduate student in biological sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has been awarded a prestigious Fulbright U.S. Student Program fellowship for the 2019-2020 academic year from the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

How do you observe a process that takes more than one trillion times longer than the age of the universe? The XENON Collaboration research team did it with an instrument built to find the most elusive particle in the universe – dark matter. 

The loss of memory and cognitive function known to afflict survivors of septic shock is the result of a sugar that is released into the blood stream and enters the brain during the life-threatening condition.