Applying results iN FebruAry the european research Council awarded 60 grants, each worth up to € 150,000, to help researchers commercialise their results. This follows an earlier round in September 2012 under which 33 grants were awarded. in this round, one award went to a researcher at university College Dublin, Professor Martin Albrecht, who is developing a solar powered catalytic technique for splitting water to generate energy. www. sciencespin. com
Research grants reSeArCHerS have until 14th August to apply for Marie Curie fellowship grants. This year funding amounts to € 227 million, and about 1,000 researchers will benefit this year.
Losing fat
Patenting genes
Fighting infections
A Shared Resource
Applying results iN FebruAry the european research Council awarded 60 grants, each worth up to € 150,000, to help researchers commercialise their results. This follows an earlier round in September 2012 under which 33 grants were awarded. in this round, one award went to a researcher at university College Dublin, Professor Martin Albrecht, who is developing a solar powered catalytic technique for splitting water to generate energy. www. sciencespin. com
UPFRONT
Research grants reSeArCHerS have until 14th August to apply for Marie Curie fellowship grants. This year funding amounts to € 227 million, and about 1,000 researchers will benefit this year.
Marie Curie fellows receive broad ranging support enabling them to gain experience in institutions abroad.
Losing fat
A pArticulAr type of immune cell, known as invariant natural killer t-cell, iNKt, has been found to have a controlling influence on fat. An international team of researchers led by Dr Lydia Lynch at TCD, and involving Prof Donal O’ Shea and Prof Cliona O’ Farrelly from TCD, has found that with obesity these cells are lost, but they can be restored when weight is lost. it was thought that these iNKt cells were uncommon in humans, but the researchers discovered that they are plentiful in fat, and that they have a role in regulating body weight. the decrease in iNKt had been noted initially during studies of patients attending St Vincent’ s Obesity Clinic. These patients with low levels of iNKt had a higher risk from heart attacks and type 2 diabetes than lean individuals. However, if they had lost weight following a surgical intervention to restrict the gut,( bariatric surgery), iNKT increased back to normal levels.
Support for these findings came from animal studies in which mice were put on a high-fat diet. With weight gain, the iNKT cells were lost, but when put back on a normal diet, weight was lost and the iNKT cells returned.
To get more details, the same tests were carried out on different strains of mice, one a normal control, and two deficient in iNKT. Given the high-fat diet, all the mice gained weight, but the iNKtdeficient ones grew 30 per cent fatter than the controls, and they developed the mouse-equivalent of diabetes 2 in six weeks. in a follow-up study, iNKt cells were harvested from the normal mice and injected into mice that were iNKT deficient. remarkably, the diabetes 2 in these fat mice was reversed, yet while continuing to eat a high-fat diet they lost about ten per cent of their weight.
Finally, the researchers administered a lipid known as alphagalactosylceramide, aGc, to mice with a diminished pool of iNKT cells. This lipid is known to activate iNKT cells, and it was found that a small dose of aGc resulted in a dramatic improvement, reducing weight and reversing diabetes 2.
Patenting genes
ACCOrDiNg to a ruling, made by Australia’ s Federal Court, naturally occurring genes can be patented. in a controversial case, Justice John Nicholas decided that the act of removing a gene is artificial, and therefore a patent can be applied to it. The case arose out of a patent filed by Myriad genetics. The company was developing a diagnostic test for cancer, and the ruling means that Myriad genetics now holds an exclusive right on diagnostic tests based on detection of a naturally occurring gene.
Fighting infections
CHeWiNg of betal leaves is widespread in india and countries in south east Asia and the use of this stimulant goes back thousands of years. The plant, Piper betle, is a creeper, extensively grown in West bengal as an economic crop.
Debmalya barh from the institute of integrative Omics and Applied biotechnology in West bengal, with a team of international researchers, have found that one of the compounds in the leaves, piperdarine, acts as a powerful antibiotic against a number of pathogens including those causing tuberculosis and hemorrhagic diarrhoea. reporting their findings in Integrative Biology and Plos One, the researchers claim that piperdarine is more powerful than common antibiotics, such as Chloramphenicol, Penicillin and Ampicillin. the article in Plos One is available from http:// dx. plos. org / 10.1371 / journal. pone. 0052773
Marine Institute
Foras na Mara
Ireland ' s National Agency for Marine Research and Innovation
Our Ocean
A Shared Resource
www. marine. ie
SCIENCE SPIN Issue 58 Page 7