A research team at Uppsala University has shown in a new study that the size of the spot on a collared flycatcher’s forehead is important in the choice of a mating partner and reflects how well the immune defense system combats viruses. The findings are being presented on the home page of the journal Acta Zoologica on March 18 and in the print edition on March 20.
Evolutionary biologists have long attempted to explain why individuals of a species differ in appearance and why
Researchers at Purdue University have shown how a new ultra-fast chemical-analysis tool has numerous promising uses for detecting everything from cancer in the liver to explosives residues on luggage and “biomarkers” in urine that provide an early warning for diseases.
The analytical chemists have most recently demonstrated how the technology, called desorption electrospray ionization, or DESI, rapidly detects the boundaries of cancerous tumors, information that could help ens
Forget about buckets. Most maple syrup is now made with an assortment of machines and tubes so complex that some sugarmakers call their final product “technosyrup.” Chat with a few of them, boiling sap one evening, and you’re likely to hear debate about reverse osmosis sap extractors, “steam-away” units and air injectors. They’ll all agree that today’s maple syrup is produced more quickly than it was a generation ago, and many will argue that the new devices produce a syrup finer in quality — th
Vulnerability to both alcohol and nicotine abuse may be influenced by the same genetic factor, according to a recent study supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
In the study, two genetically distinct kinds of rat – one an innately heavy-drinking strain bred to prefer alcohol (“P” rats), the other strain bred to not prefer alcohol (“NP” rats) — learned to give themselves nicotine injections
Scientists at Stanford University have determined that the buildup of sticky mucus found in cystic fibrosis is caused by a loss in the epithelial cell’s ability to secrete fluid. This research appears as the “Paper of the Week” in the March 17 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, an American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology journal.
Cystic fibrosis is the most common, fatal genetic disease in the United States. It causes the body to produce thick, sticky mucus
Specialists of one of laboratories at the Department of Chemistry, Astrakhan State University, are sometimes involved in a strange exercise. They take a decent piece of smoked fish or sausage, grind it in a mincing machine, add water, shake it up for about 20 minutes, then filter it and throw away the disagreeable mass, into which the appetizing product was turned into. The remaining solution is analyzed. Here it becomes clear that one should not grudge at all the product used for the analysis. O
Researchers studying strains of a lethal canine virus and a related human virus have determined why the canine virus was able to spread so quickly from cats to dogs, and then from sick dogs to healthy dogs. Their studies may lead to a new understanding of the critical molecular factors that permit viruses to jump from one species to another — information that could be helpful in assessing how much of a threat avian influenza is to humans.
In advance online publication of a paper in the A
A paper published in Nano Letters is first to show that bone cells will adhere to and grow on a carbon nanotube scaffold.
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have published findings that show, for the first time, that bone cells can grow and proliferate on a scaffold of carbon nanotubes.
The paper, titled Bone Cell Proliferation on Carbon Nanotubes, appears in the March 8 edition of Nano Letters, a journal of the American Chemical Society. Lead aut
New class of selective inhibitors paralyze essential plasmodium enzymes
The most dangerous variant of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, infects up to 600 million people every year. The search for new effective therapies is thus an urgent area of research. An international team headed by François Diederich has now found a new point of attack: using a novel class of inhibitors, the researchers aim to block certain plasmodium enzymes known as plasmepsins, “starving ou
University at Buffalo chemists have for the first time identified at wastewater treatment plants the metabolites of two antibiotics and a medial imaging agent.
The data, which the UB scientists will present tomorrow at the Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy being held in Orlando, will allow wastewater treatment plants to begin monitoring for these byproducts.
The results also reinforce concerns about excreted pharmaceutical compoun
Whether depressed patients will respond to an antidepressant depends, in part, on which version of a gene they inherit, a study led by scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has discovered. Having two copies of one version of a gene that codes for a component of the brain’s mood-regulating system increased the odds of a favorable response to an antidepressant by up to 18 percent, compared to having two copies of the other, more common version.
Since the less common vers
Scientists at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and colleagues have developed new research mice to help them better understand how the body makes and uses “good” cholesterol to protect against heart attacks and strokes. Their latest findings are reported in the April issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
“Being able to develop drugs to raise levels of good cholesterol depends on knowing more about the how and where the particles are formed,” said John S. Park
Botulinum neurotoxin A can be either the greatest wrinkle remover or one of the world’s most potent biological weapons. To perform either job, however, the toxin must first find a way to enter cells.
But understanding how the toxin — one of seven neurotoxins produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum — enters nerve cells has proved elusive for scientists. Despite a decade-long search for the receptor by labs around the world, researchers had come up empty handed.
Scientists have identified a handful of microRNAs (miRNAs) that appear to play a significant role in the development of platelets – blood cells critical to the body’s ability to form clots following an injury. They also say some of these same miRNAs, when acting abnormally, may contribute to certain forms of leukemia.
“Basically, we found that a specific set of miRNA genes are turned off in normal platelet development, but turned on in certain platelet-related leukemia cells,” says lead au
Findings could increase popular compound’s therapeutic use and effectiveness
According to the study, these activators bind to specific sites on the neurotoxin protein, increasing protease activity and enhancing the toxin’s effect. In some cases, the study noted, the activation power of the new molecules was as much as fourteen-fold, the greatest increase in activation ever reported for a protease; before this study, a two-fold activation of a protease was referred to
Using a chain of molecules as an infinitesimal lanyard to tug on a chemical bond about to break, Duke University chemists have found they can speed a complex chemical reaction.
Their unusual manipulative technique can reveal previously unknown details about the evolution of such two-step bond reactions, said assistant Duke chemistry professor Stephen Craig. It might ultimately aid efforts to develop new kinds of polymers that can “heal” themselves after tearing, he said.
Craig, c
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