While searching for new targets for malaria drugs and vaccines, a team including a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) medical student fellow reached a fundamental insight about evolution: different species make use of similar sets of proteins in different ways.
“We’ve observed that organisms may share many similar proteins and yet retain very little parallel function among them,” said Taylor Sittler, a medical student at the University of Massachusetts Medical School i
Researchers at Oregon State University have made a major discovery in basic plant biology that may set the stage for profound advances in plant genetics or biotechnology.
The scientists have identified for the first time a protein that can cross plant cell membranes, where it functions as a toxin to kill the cell. It had been known that viruses and bacteria can penetrate cell wall barriers and disrupt plant cells, but never before has a protein been found that could do this by it
20-year collaboration between UC Davis and Finnish researchers led to new drug
A tamoxifen-like drug developed by UC Davis and Finnish researchers, now in clinical testing as a treatment for vaginal atrophy, may also help to prevent breast cancer, two preliminary studies suggest.
The studies, based on research in a mouse model of human breast cancer, will be published in the November issue of the Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Decem
A new window opens on structure and function of enzymes
A Brandeis University study published in Nature this week advances fundamental understanding of the dynamic personalities of proteins and proposes that these enzymes are much more mobile, or plastic, than previously thought. The research, based on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments, may shed new light on how to improve rational drug design through docking to dynamic targets.
For the first time ever, t
Preconditioning could prevent injury to dendrites in neurologic diseases
Scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center have targeted a new culprit and method of attack on neurologic functions in diseases such as Alzheimer’s and dementia associated with HIV.
In an article in the Nov. 1 issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation, the Rochester scientists describe a new mechanism by which brain cells can be damaged during chronic neurodegenerative disea
A mutated plant that seems to return from the dead may hold the secret to how some flora protect their progeny during yield-limiting drought and other stresses, according to Purdue University scientists whose study of the plant led to discovery of a gene.
The gene, called RESURRECTION1 (RST1), has revealed a previously unknown genetic connection between lipid development and embryo development in plants, said Matthew Jenks, lead author of the study and a Purdue plant physiolog
Ground-breaking results from researchers at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA, disclosed at the 13th European Cancer Conference (ECCO) in Paris have shown for the first time that targeted drug delivery is possible using nanoparticle-apatamer conjugates.
Nucleic acid ligands (referred to as aptamers) are short DNA or RNA fragments that can bind to target antigens with high specificity and affinity; analogous to monoclonal antibodies. In
University of Leeds biologists have made an important breakthrough in developing the drugs of the future. Their work on targeting individual genes for more effective and cheaper drug testing opens the way to treatments for a huge range of diseases including diabetes and atherosclerosis, which leads to strokes and heart attacks.
Making new pharmacological ‘tools’ to explore individual genes is an enormous challenge, but vital for public health. “Testing specific genes gives us funda
Researchers at Northwestern University have discovered a key signaling mechanism that may promote the ability of highly aggressive malignant melanoma cells to metastasize, or spread from a primary tumor to distant sites within the body.
Results of their study, published in the November issue of Cancer Research, suggest that the signaling mechanism may be a potential target for prevention of metastatic melanoma.
The study was led by Angela R. Hess, a research scientist at t
Researchers have identified a protein that disrupts an important signaling pathway in prostate cancer cells and suppresses growth of the cancer.
The protein also assists in the retention of vitamin E in prostate cancer cells and increases the effect of vitamin E in limiting the proliferation of cancer cells, the researchers found.
The researchers, led by ShuYuan Yeh, assistant professor of urology and pathology at the University of Rochester Medical Center, are the f
Gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), a substance in evening primrose oil and several other plant oils used in herbal medicine, inhibits action of Her-2/neu, a cancer gene that is responsible for almost 30 percent of all breast cancers, Northwestern University researchers report.
“Breast cancer patients with Her-2/neu-positive tumors have an aggressive form of the disease and a poor prognosis,” said Ruth Lupu, director of Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Breast Cancer Translational R
Dendritic cell-based therapy uses tumor cells and ’danger’ signals to stimulate tumor immunity
A new type of immunotherapy in which dendritic cells are tricked into action against cancer when they are exposed to harmless pieces of viruses and bacteria is described in the November issue of Cancer Research. Dendritic cells, the pacemakers of the immune system, are known to play a vital role in the initiation of the immune response but are often eluded by cancer.
Neurons experience large-scale changes across their dendrites during learning, say neuroscientists at The University of Texas at Austin in a new study that highlights the important role that these cell regions may play in the processes of learning and memory.
The research, published online Oct. 23 and in the November issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience, shows that ion channels distributed in the dendritic membrane change during a simulated learning task and that this requires the rapid prod
A team led by Krzysztof Palczewski, Ph.D., chair of pharmacology at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, has taken the first steps in treating an eye disease causing irreversible congenital blindness in millions of people worldwide by successfully testing two new treatments in mice.
Publishing in this month’s open access journal PLoS Medicine, the researchers found that these treatments “provide highly effective and complementary means for restoring retinal
The Commission of the European Union has awarded €9 million over five years for a new Network of Excellence that will make computational systems biology accessible to bench scientists throughout Europe and beyond. ENFIN, which stands for “Experimental Network for Functional INtegration,” brings together some of Europe’s best computational and experimental biology labs – 20 groups across 17 institutions in 13 countries – to build a virtual institute that will put Europe at the centre of the sys
Doctors might be better off washing their hands with yoghurt instead of relying on antiseptic soap-scrubbing, according to a new discussion paper by a UCL (University College London) researcher.
Scientists should investigate whether saturating the skin with ‘good’ bacteria would offer better protection against deadly germs, says the paper. Professor Mark Spigelman, of the UCL Centre for Infectious Diseases and International Health, is calling for a study to be set up in hospi
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