Using sophisticated computer algorithms running on standard desktop computers, researchers have designed and constructed a novel functional protein that is not found in nature. The achievement should enable researchers to explore larger questions about how proteins evolved and why nature “chose” certain protein folds over others.
The ability to specify and design artificial proteins also opens the way for researchers to engineer artificial protein enzymes for use as medicines or industrial c
Breakthrough proves possible to use biology to create electronics
Scientists at the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology have harnessed the power of DNA to create a self-assembling nanoscale transistor, the building block of electronics. The research, published in the Nov. 21, 2003 issue of Science, is a crucial step in the development of nanoscale devices.
Erez Braun, lead scientist on the project and associate professor in the Faculty Physics at the Technion, says scien
A study led by scientists at The Wistar Institute defines a functional role for the tumor suppressor proteins BRCA1 and BRCA2 in breast cancer. The findings, presented in November issue of the journal Molecular Cell, also identify a number of novel proteins that work alongside BRCA1 and BRCA2 and might also play a part in breast cancer. These proteins offer an important set of new targets for possible anti-cancer drugs.
The link between the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes and hereditary breast cancer
The explosion of “junk” DNA in animals, plants and fungi may be the simple result of their ancestors’ reduced population sizes, according to a new hypothesis proposed by Indiana University Bloomington and University of Oregon scientists in the Nov. 21 issue of Science.
The hypothesis explains a mysterious genetic difference between bacteria and eukaryotes, a giant group of organisms that includes animals, plants, fungi, algae and other protists. Bacteria tend to have extremely lean gen
Chemists at the University of Toronto have captured atom-scale images of the melting process-revealing the first images of the transition of a solid into a liquid at the timescale of femtoseconds, or millionths of a billionth of a second.
The result is an unprecedented “movie” detailing the melting process as solid aluminum becomes a liquid. This new study, led by Professor R. J. Dwayne Miller of the Departments of Chemistry and Physics, received the prestigious cover position of the Nov.
Findings may lead to new drug targets for treating schizophrenia
A mouse study reported in this week’s Science magazine shows that three drugs, each acting on a different chemical transmitter in the brain, all produce the same schizophrenia-like symptoms by acting on a single “master molecule” in the brain.
The findings, reported by researchers at Rockefeller University with collaboration from three pharmaceutical and biotech companies, provides, for the first time, a cellul
Long before the dinosaurs ever lived, the planet experienced a mass extinction so severe it killed 90 percent of life on Earth, and researchers at the University of Rochester think they’ve identified the unlikely culprit.
“An ancient meteorite body, one from the days when the solar system was still forming, struck the Earth 251 million years ago,” says Asish Basu, professor of earth sciences in today’s issue of Science. The research is the latest volley in a decades-long debate ove
Alistair Lees spends much of his research time hoping to see the light.
Using tools that improve by several orders of magnitude on the accuracy of microscopes and stopwatches, Lees is working at the molecular level to explore the effect of light on chemical systems. The field is called photochemistry and Lees’ efforts could help to find less-expensive ways to produce gasoline, make the environment cleaner and safer, and enhance the quality of microcircuitry and the equipment tha
In a special Soil Measurement & Methods section of Vadose Zone Journal, scientists review the state-of-the-art tools for measuring water content in soil
Growing grapes for wine is tightly linked to soil moisture: too little, and the crop can be lost, but an oversupply of water tends to favor leaf development at the expense of fruit quality. It is often difficult to determine which portions of the vineyards require more or less irrigation due to California wine country’s natural g
A research team at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center has found that a single protein known as ARF helps coordinate both growth and division within a cell — the functions that are often perturbed in cancer development.
Many proteins have been found in cancer research that are associated with either errant cell division or with uncontrolled growth, but ARF is the first “master molecule” that seems to be involved in both crucial aspects of the cell cycle, say the researcher
Guided by Japanese writings from an era of shoguns, an international team of scientists today reported new evidence that an earthquake of magnitude 9 struck the northwestern United States and southwestern Canada three centuries ago. Their findings are likely to affect the region’s precautions against future earthquakes and tsunamis.
Writing in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Solid Earth, published by the American Geophysical Union, scientists from Japan, Canada and the United State
Argonne research published in Science
A new study, published today in Science, indicates that the potential for soils to soak up atmospheric carbon dioxide is strongly affected by how long roots live. Large differences in root replacement rates between forest types might alter current predictions of how carbon absorption by soil will act to ameliorate global warming from excess human-caused carbon dioxide.
The study, by researchers at Argonne National Laboratory, Duke Univer
Protein discovery in Chlamydomonas
A new protein discovery sheds light on how chemical information is transported within cells. A group of researchers, which includes Dartmouth Professor of Biological Sciences Roger Sloboda, have found the protein EB1 in Chlamydomonas, a single-celled organism commonly used to study cell biology. Previous research has implicated EB1 in the progression of many colon cancers.
Published in the November 11 edition of the journal Current Biology,
Scientists at the Emory Vaccine Center and The Scripps Research Institute have found a way to identify which of the T cells generated after a viral infection can persist and confer protective immunity. Because these long-lived cells protect against reinfection by “remembering” the prior pathogen, they are called memory T cells. This discovery about the specific mechanisms of long-term immunity could help scientists develop more effective vaccines against challenging infections.
The research
Researchers have discovered that a specific type of calcium channel — a pore-like protein that nestles in the cell membrane and controls the flow of calcium into the cell — regulates the relaxation of coronary arteries.
The studies showed that mice engineered to lack these calcium channels had constricted coronary arteries and had fibrous tissue in their hearts, which was evident when the animals’ hearts reacted to chronic blood restriction. The researchers hypothesize that drugs tar
A recent Purdue University study has uncovered the processes responsible for shutting down scent production in certain flowers once they’ve been pollinated – a finding that may help the horticulture industry enhance floral scent.
Natalia Dudareva, associate professor of horticulture, and her colleagues have recently identified the molecular mechanisms that cause petunias and snapdragons to decrease scent production after they’ve been visited by pollinators such as bees or moths. Th
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