Issued by EPSRC on behalf of the UK e-Science Programme
Highlight from forthcoming e-Science All Hands meeting 2005
A challenge, presented at last year’s e-Science All Hands meeting, has resulted in an e-Science project achieving one of the holy grails of the pharmaceutical industry – the computational prediction of a previously unidentified crystal structure, or polymorph, of a drug molecule.
Researchers working on the e-materials project picked up the gauntlet
Stem cells have long been described as the holy grail of bioscientists.
These amazing cells have the remarkable potential to develop into many different cell types in the body and have to potential to revolutionise medical science.
Serving as a sort of repair system for the body, they can theoretically divide without limit to replenish cells lost due to everyday wear and tear, or following injury or disease.
Dr Rod Rietze, head of the Queensland Brain Institut
University of California at Berkley and RIT release new findings on visual perception
A team of scientists has solved a key mystery of visual perception. Why do pictures look the same when viewed from different angles?
When you look at a picture, there is only one viewing position–the picture’s center of projection–that yields a correct image at your eye. For example, there’s but one place in the movie theater where the film creates the same image at your
FOXO1a caused death of tumor cells in laboratory study by triggering expression of caspase-3, which blocks cell division and causes cells to undergo apoptosis, according to St. Jude.
The loss of function of a gene called FOXO1a plays an important role in the development of the most common cancer of soft tissues in children, and restoring the function of that gene in cancer cells suppresses that cancer, according to investigators at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The can
Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered that a deceptively simple sugar is in fact a critical regulator of cells’ natural life cycle.
The discovery reveals that, when disturbed, this process could contribute to cancer or other diseases by failing to properly control the steps and timing of cell division, the researchers say. The findings are described in the Sept. 23 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, available online now.
The sugar, known as O-GlcNAc (
Daniel Gallie’s findings propose a useful approach to feed the world’s growing population
Corn with twice its usual content of protein and oil and about half its usual carbohydrate content is what Daniel Gallie, professor of biochemistry, will present at a congressional seminar in Washington, D.C., this week.
Because his research holds promise for efficiently feeding high-protein corn to people and livestock all over the world, Gallie has been invited to speak to an aud
Silencing Alzheimer’s: targeting a key enzyme with gene therapy reversed course of disease in mouse models
In mice, that had been genetically engineered to develop Alzheimer’s disease, scientists were able to reverse the rodents’ memory loss by reducing the amount of an enzyme that is crucial for the development of Alzheimer’s disease.
“What we are showing is a proof of principle that stopping the synthesis of a protein that is necessary for the form
Novel use of genetic testing methods helped public health officials control and limit the further spread of four outbreaks of foodborne hepatitis A virus in 2003 related to the consumption of green onions, according to a detailed analysis published in the October 15 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online.
The authors of the study, Joseph J. Amon, PhD, MSPH, and colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), explained that these m
“Biological diversity is a widely under-appreciated resource that is essential for human existence and has a crucial role to play in sustainable development and in the eradication of poverty. Biodiversity provides millions of people with livelihoods, helps to ensure food security, and is a rich source of both traditional medicines and modern pharmaceuticals.” That is how UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan defined biodiversity at the International Day for Biological Diversity in 2003.
The Structural Genomics Consortium, Karolinska Institutet, VINNOVA, Knut and Alice Wallenberg’s foundation (KAW) and The Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) today announces the establishment of a Swedish research node of the Structural Genomics Consortium.
A Swedish laboratory based at the Karolinska Institutet has been established by the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) in its ambitious efforts to unravel the structures of hundreds of proteins of biomedical importance. The
Climate models predict warmer temperatures due to global warming and this will mean warmer seas. Cod are essentially a cold-water species so what will warmer waters mean for them?
Based on future predictions of warmer waters, stocks in the Celtic and Irish Seas are expected to disappear while those in the southern North Sea and Georges Bank will decline. Cod will probably spread northward along the coasts of Greenland and Labrador and occupy larger areas of the Barents Sea.
In November 2005, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) will be discussing a proposal to abolish leap seconds.
The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) strongly recommends that this proposal should be shelved, and that, before any changes are implemented, there should be a broader, public debate on the future use of these small adjustments to our annual time-keeping.
Our scientific understanding of time has developed over several centuries. Today, scientists re
It is known that a key protein in the immune system, C3, bonds with and interacts with up to 40 other proteins and receptors in the blood. But until now it has not been understood what the significance of these bonds might be. In the latest issue of the scientific journal Nature a Swedish-Dutch research team has laid bare the crystal structure of the protein, which may lead to tailor-made treatments for autoimmune diseases.
Scientists at Uppsala University, in collaboration with the
The impact of global warming on European weather patterns has been underestimated, according to a new report published in Nature this week.
Dr Gillett, of the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit, compared Northern Hemisphere air pressure changes at sea level over the past 50 years with predicted changes from nine state-of-the-art climate models.
The Northern Hemisphere Circulation study found that present climate change models – computer representations of
Habitat protection, captive breeding, and research to fight life-threatening disease needed to halt a catastrophic decline in populations
A summit of leading scientists have agreed to an action plan intended to save hundreds of frogs, salamanders and other amphibians facing extinction from familiar threats such as pollution and habitat destruction, as well as a little-known fungus wiping out their populations.
The Amphibian Conservation Summit held Sept. 17-19 conclude
He has labored for years over trying to understand and detail the behavior of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) receptor, a protein which plays an important role in tumor growth. Several years ago he and his co-workers discovered that normal cells lacking the IGF-1 receptor gene could not be made to turn cancerous. He found that when they “knocked out” IGF-1 receptors in cancer cells, the cells self-destructed, meaning the IGF-1 receptor was somehow necessary for tumor cell growth. Companie
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