Results may be relevant to drug development
The cellular cascade of molecular signals that instructs cells with fatally damaged DNA to self-destruct pivots on the p53 tumor suppressor gene. If p53 is inactivated, as it is in over half of all human cancers, checks and balances on cell growth fail to operate, and body cells start to accumulate mutations, which ultimately may lead to cancer. Not surprisingly, the regulation of this vital safeguard has been studied in great detail f
A University of Manchester scientist has been awarded £150,000 to study slime!
But this is no ordinary slime, says biologist Chris Thompson, who believes it could unravel mysteries of evolution that even Darwin couldn’t solve.
Dr Thompson’s curious research was one of only three scientific studies to win this year’s prestigious Lister Institute Research Prize.
The award will allow him to develop his work on slime moulds – microscopic organisms that show remarkabl
Our understanding of how messenger RNAs are translated into proteins is challenged by new research published today in the Open Access journal Journal of Biology. The study suggests that EF-G, the GTPase that facilitates tRNA translocation in bacteria, enters the ribosome bound to a different guanine nucleotide than previously thought – GDP, not GTP. The ribosome itself then seems to act as the guanine-nucleotide exchange factor, not some as-yet-unidentified factor as previously assumed. This findi
UCI study shows how new neurons created from adult stem cells are directed to specific brain regions
UC Irvine School of Medicine researchers have discovered how new neurons born from endogenous neural stem cells are sent to regions of the brain where they can replace old and dying cells, a finding that suggests how stem cell therapies can be specifically targeted to brain regions affected by neurodegenerative diseases or by stroke.
Associate Professor Qun-Yong Zhou an
A Better Understanding of Clot Physiology Can Lead to More Effective Therapies
For the first time ever, using “laser tweezers,” the mechanical properties of an individual fiber in a blood clot have been determined by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Their work, led by John W. Weisel, PhD, Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at Penn, and published in this week’s early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, pr
Experimenting with Arabidopsis, a fast-growing cousin of the humble mustard plant, scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill got a big surprise while investigating how plants respond to attacks from disease organisms such as bacteria and viruses.
“Contrary to what we thought we’d find, our experiments showed that at least three different proteins work in concert with one another in tug-of war or teeter totter-fashion to keep plant defenses in a state of
Proteins are the puzzle-pieces of life, involved in how organisms grow and flourish, but studying their complex biological processes in living systems has been extremely difficult. Now, a team of chemists and neurobiologists led by Timothy Dore at the University of Georgia and Erin M. Schuman at the California Institute of Technology has found a way to use light to regulate protein synthesis in specific locations.
The new method, which uses so-called “caged compounds” that can be
Scientists have found a new role for a previously identified enzyme that may make it a target for anti-inflammatory treatments.
The finding by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows that an enzyme known as cathepsin G regulates the ability of immune cells known as neutrophils to secrete chemicals that attract other immune cells and start the local inflammatory process. Over time, the excessive accumulation of immune cells can lead to tissue a
OHSU scientists say low FOXP3 means fewer disease-fighting cells, but new drug may help
Oregon Health & Science University researchers have measured genetic changes reflecting a drop in the body’s ability to suppress inflammatory cells that attack nerve fibers and promote progression of multiple sclerosis.
In a study published in the July issue of the Journal of Neuroscience Research, OHSU scientists, in collaboration with The Immune Response Corp. of Carlsbad, Cal
According to research published today, investigators from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) have used new techniques in the laboratory that allowed them for the first time to derive unlimited numbers of purified mesenchymal precursor cells from human embryonic stem cells (HESCs). Mesenchymal precursor cells are capable of giving rise to fat, cartilage, bone, and skeletal muscle cells, and may potentially be used for regenerative stem cell therapy in bone, cartilage, or muscle replac
Mice given a relatively new cancer drug can survive an otherwise lethal dose of vaccinia virus, a relative of smallpox virus, report scientists supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. The findings, say the investigators, suggest that Gleevec or similar drugs might be useful in preventing adverse side effects of smallpox vaccine. The classic smallpox vaccine is made from live, weakened vaccinia virus and is not recomme
Pilot solar power-plant delivers promising results
For the first time solar energy has been successfully used in a pilot-plant to create storable energy from a metal ore. In a project funded by the EU, the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ) together with other research institutes and industrial partners, have reached an important milestone.
A 300-kilowatt pilot installation to create zinc using solar temperatures o
Researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine have successfully isolated stem cells from human skin, expanded them in the laboratory and coaxed them into becoming fat, muscle and bone cells. The study, one of the first studies to show the ability of a single adult stem cell to become multiple tissue types, is reported today in Stem Cells and Development.
“These cells should provide a valuable resource for tissue repair and for organs as well,” said Anthony Atala, M.D.,
There’s more than meets the human ear when the black-capped chickadee lets its flock mates know a predator is lurking about by giving out its familiar “chick-a-dee-dee-dee” call.
The small songbirds, which are common throughout much of North America, use that signature call in a wide variety of social interactions including warning of predators. And it turns out that those alarms are far more subtle and information-packed than scientists previously imagined.
Writing in th
For the first time, scientists have discovered how C-reactive protein, or CRP, is able to access endothelial cells. The UC Davis researchers’ findings will be published in the July issue of Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, one of the American Heart Association’s leading journals.
CRP is a known risk marker for heart disease and, in a study published earlier this year, UC Davis researchers Ishwarlal Jialal and Sridevi Devaraj found that endothelia
By comparing 140 sequenced bacterial genomes, researchers have uncovered a system for regulating genes essential to bacterial replication – and they did it solely by computer keystrokes and mouse clicks.
Mikhail Gelfand, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute international research scholar at the Institute for Information Transmission Problems (IITP) in Moscow, and his postdoctoral fellow, Dmitry Rodionov, used comparative genomics to identify a new transcription factor system in
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