OHSU scientists using Xenopus eggs demonstrate Fanconi genes’ importance to DNA duplication, repair
A large, clawed frog is helping Oregon Health & Science University researchers gather a princely sum of knowledge on Fanconi anemia, a rare, genetic, cancer-susceptibility syndrome.
Scientists in the OHSU School of Medicine’s Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology are the first to report a new approach using eggs of the African clawed frog, which goes
In an important new study forthcoming from The American Naturalist, biologists from the University of Oxford tracked a colony of mute swans for more than two decades to explore a longstanding evolutionary question: whether the number of eggs laid by a female bird – known as “clutch size” – changes in accordance with natural selection.
“Extensive debate in the literature…was first focused on the question: Why does a population’s average clutch size differ from the most prod
University of Toronto study dispels decades-old theory
After decades of debate, a U of T researcher has finally determined that duck-billed dinosaurs’ massive but hollow crests had nothing to do with what many scientists suspected — the sense of smell.
Speculation about their function has led to theories that the crests functioned as everything from brain coolers to snorkels for underwater feeding. Now, David Evans, a PhD student in zoology at the University of To
Researchers at Johns Hopkins restored the normal growth of specific nerve cells in the cerebellum of mouse models of Down syndrome (DS) that were stunted by this genetic condition. The cerebellum is the rear, lower part of the brain that controls signals from the muscles to coordinate balance and motor learning.
The finding is important, investigators say, because the cells rescued by this treatment represent potential targets for future therapy in human babies with DS. And i
Bacteria and viruses utilize a natural mechanism to get inside cells and grow, researchers say.
These pathogens gain entry the same way millions of receptors on the cell’s surface routinely do after they get activated, says Dr. Yehia Daaka, professor and Distinguished Chair in Oncologic Pathology at the Medical College of Georgia. Dr. Daaka is corresponding author on an article published Jan. 23 by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
By moving off the cell su
Health economics study questions recent policy on screening of US blood donations for West Nile Virus
A recent mandate to screen blood donations in all US states for West Nile virus (WNV) makes little sense from a public health point of view, say researchers from Columbia University and Harvard School of Public Health.
And while this is not yet the time of year to worry about mosquitoes, it seems a good time to take a look at the current policy on screening blood produ
Genetic study shows humans have pushed orangutans to the brink of extinction
A new study published in the open-access journal PLoS Biology shows strong genetic evidence of a catastrophic collapse in orangutan populations living in the fragmented forests of the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary in Sabah, Malaysia. Benoit Goossens, Lounès Chikhi, Michael Bruford, and their colleagues report that the collapse occurred within the past hundred years, and most likely within the past decad
In an article appearing online today in the journal Nature Methods, researchers at the EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) unveil a powerful new tool that will facilitate genetic research and open up new avenues for the clinical treatment of genetic disease.
The researchers have combined several gene manipulation techniques and incorporated them into a single lentiviral vector – a gene delivery system partly derived from HIV. When injected into living cells – either
The function of tubular organs like the kidneys, lungs, and vessels of the vascular system is critically dependent on the length and diameter of the tubular branches of which they are composed. Several devastating pathological conditions like polycystic kidney disease and ischemias have been intimately linked to the aberrant sizes of tubular organs. Yet the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms that control tube size are poorly understood, and, consequently, drugs that intervene in tubular
Though linked to aging and cancer, reactive oxygen species plays another role
Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are normally produced as a product of metabolism, and, as their name implies, they are highly reactive with surrounding biological components. The ability of ROS to damage DNA and other critical molecules underlies their reputation for causing deleterious cellular effects and their association with aging, carcinogenesis, and atherosclerosis. However, in an unanticipated discovery sugge
In a discovery that could greatly accelerate the search for genetic causes of heart disease, a multi-disciplinary Duke University research team has found that the common fruit fly can serve as a powerful new model for testing human genes implicated in heart disease.
The finding is important, the Duke team said, because the entire genome of the fruit fly is well understood and catalogued, enabling researchers to systemically screen genes to identify potential gene mutations or vari
Scientists have for many years debated the cause of the Plague of Athens. Analysis carried out by Manolis Papagrigorakis and colleagues using DNA collected from teeth from an ancient Greek burial pit points to typhoid fever as the disease responsible for this devastating epidemic. The study appears on the online version of The International Journal of Infectious Diseases (IJID) published by Elsevier on behalf of the International Society for Infectious Diseases.
The plague that began in Ethi
New method may speed quest for medically useful compounds in fungi
Ever since penicillin, a byproduct of a fungal mold, was discovered in 1929, scientists have scrutinized fungi for other breakthrough drugs. As reported Jan. 20 in the Journal of Chemistry and Biology, a team led by a University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher has developed a new method that may speed the ongoing quest for medically useful compounds in fungi.
By manipulating a single fungal protein, the
The first genome-wide screen for protein complexes is completed
Today researchers in Germany announce they have finished the first complete analysis of the ”molecular machines” in one of biology’s most important model organisms: S. cerevisiae (baker’s yeast). The study from the biotechnology company Cellzome, in collaboration with the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), appears in this week’s online edition of Nature.
“To carry out their tasks, most proteins wo
Dr. Anthony E. Oro and colleagues (Stanford University) have identified two key Gli protein degradation signals that directly affect tumor latency in a mouse model of human skin cancer.
Their paper has been made available online ahead of print and will appear on the cover of the February 1 issue of the scientific journal Genes & Development.
Gli proteins are transcriptional mediators of the Sonic Hedgehog intracellular signaling pathway. Aberrant Shh signaling is imp
A new ’greener’ and cleaner chemical process* could revolutionize the leather-tanning industry, according to a report in the Feb. 15 issue of the American Chemical Society’s journal Environmental Science & Technology. ‘Reverse’ leather tanning, which essentially works backward from the point where conventional tanning ends, saves time, money and energy while drastically slashing water use and pollution, say researchers at the Central Leather Research Institute in Adyar, India.
Feedback
