The next time you mutter about the high cost of relationship maintenance, take comfort in knowing that microbes share your pain. In the first study to examine the cost of sexuality in microbes, Jianping Xu, associate professor of biology at McMaster University, found that sex exacts physical, morphological and behavioural stress on microbes. His findings are published in the recent edition of Genetics, published by the Genetics Society of America.
“There was always an assumption that mic
OHSU study on mice is first to link disorder with enzyme pathway; may be key to preventing human diseases
Removing a gene involved in repairing damaged DNA causes mice to develop the metabolic syndrome, researchers at Oregon Health & Science University have discovered.
Scientists at OHSU, the University of Texas Medical Branch and the University of Alabama found that generating mice that lack the gene encoding the DNA repair enzyme NEIL1 causes them to develop severe
Kitchen chemistry is alive and well at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) as chemical researchers report cooking up a new and more water- soluble strain of carbon nanotubes. An article about this work, “Rapidly Functionalized, Water-Dispersed Carbon Nanotubes at High Concentration,” appeared Jan. 11, 2006, in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
The team led by Somenath Mitra, PhD, acting chair and professor, department of chemistry and environmental sciences, and Iqbal Za
Pulmonary emphysema is caused primarily by cigarette smoking, and the underlying cellular mechanisms are thought to involve smoke-induced activation of tissue degrading enzymes known as proteases. Elastases are proteases that specifically degrade the structural protein elastin and include enzymes such as MMP-12 (matrix metalloproteinase –12, also called macrophage metalloelastase), which is secreted by inflammatory cells called macrophages.
Now, researcher A. McGarry Houghton and col
Misfolded and damaged proteins are common to all human neurodegenerative diseases. Clumps of these aggregated proteins destroy neurons within the brain and cause disease. But explanations for the mechanism that actually causes cell death have varied widely, puzzling scientists and leading them to ask whether Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and Creutzfeldt-Jakob diseases and familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are related diseases or very different diseases.
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Researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School and the Brain Sciences Center at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center have discovered a new way to assess how brain networks act together.
Work funded by the MIND Institute (New Mexico) led Apostolos P. Georgopoulos, M.D., Ph.D., professor of neuroscience, neurology, and psychiatry, and collaborators to a novel way to assess the dynamic interactions of brain networks acting in synchrony, as reported in a recent issue of th
Tyrannosaurus rex, meet your newest –– oldest –– cousin.
Florida State University paleobiologist Gregory M. Erickson sliced up some ancient dinosaur bones uncovered in China to help an international team of scientists identify a new genus and species. Despite striking skeletal differences and only subtle similarities, the FSU researcher determined that the two remarkably intact specimens were cousins of North America’s hulking Tyrannosaurus rex.
Make that distant c
Need another reason to eat your vegetables? New research shows that some of them contain chemicals that appear to enhance DNA repair in cells, which could lead to protection against cancer development, say Georgetown University Medical Center researchers.
In a study published in the British Journal of Cancer (published by the research journal Nature) the researchers show that in laboratory tests, a compound called indole-3-carinol (I3C), found in broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage
Chemical engineer Kamalesh Sirkar, PhD, a distinguished professor at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and an expert in membrane separation technology, is leading a team of researchers to develop a breakthrough method to desalinate water. Sirkar, who holds more than 20 patents in the field of membrane separation, said that using his technology, engineers will be able to recover water from brines with the highest salt concentrations. The Bureau of Reclamation in the Department of Interi
Biologists at Purdue University have taken a “snapshot” of a Velcro-like protein on a cell’s surface just after it attached to the dengue virus, a linkup thought to initiate the early stages of infection.
The virus, which is spread by mosquitoes, infects more than 50 million people annually, killing about 24,000 each year, primarily in tropical regions.
During the earliest stages of infection, the dengue virus attaches to the “carbohydrate recognition domain,” or
Rhesus macaque DNA sequence available in free, public databases
A multi-center team has deposited the draft genome sequence of the rhesus macaque monkey into free public databases for use by the worldwide research community, the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), announced today.
The rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) is the second non-human primate, after the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), to have its genome seque
An innovative method of categorizing myosin—one of three molecular “motors” that produce movement within the cells of the body—has dramatically increased the amount of information available about these essential proteins. The studies lay the groundwork for development of treatments for conditions ranging from certain kinds of blindness and kidney disease to neurodegenerative disorders and parasitic diseases such as malaria.
All complex organisms use myosin and its relatives, kinesin and
A team of scientists at the John Innes Centre(1) in Norwich, UK led by Dr Graham Moore have a completely new understanding of the structure of a gene complex in wheat that controls the pairing of its chromosomes, knowledge of which has the potential to revolutionise wheat breeding.
Dr Moore said “The transfer of useful traits such as disease, drought and salt tolerance from wild species into wheat is a difficult and complex process. This new insight into the molecular nature of Ph1 and how
Locating mould and damp in buildings is difficult, sometimes even impossible. The Tekes’ Fine technology programme explores ways to use the concentration and size distribution of particles to pinpoint mould damage and determine its effect on health. Researchers are also developimg a DNA-based microchip, which can be used for determining the microbes in indoor air rapidly. This is the first experiment where existing medical technologies are being applied to indoor air specimens.
The last 20 years research on Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART), focused almost exclusively on embryos. Despite the impressive technological advances the live birth rate has stalled at between 25% – 27%. The uterus, where the embryo must implant and develops, had been poorly studied. A successful pregnancy is the result of a complex molecular and cellular exchange established between the mother and the embryo since the early stages of pregnancy until baby deliver.
Today, we are ab
Viruses and humans have evolved together over millions of years in a game of one-upmanship that, often as not, left humans sick or worse.
Now, a University of California, Berkeley, researcher has shown that viruses – in this case, a benign one – can be forced to evolve in ways to benefit humans.
The adeno-associated virus, or AAV, is a common, though innocuous, resident of the body that has received a lot of attention in recent years as a possible carrier for genes in
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