New storage method amplifies cells available for science
Like many other kinds of cells used in biomedical research, human embryonic stem cells are stored and transported in a cryopreserved state, frozen to -320 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature of their liquid nitrogen storage bath.
But when scientists thaw the cells for use in the lab, less than 1 percent awake from their frigid slumber and assume their undifferentiated state. This ’blank slate’ form is charact
Neurobiologists have discovered that a nearly identical version of a gene whose mutation produces an inherited language deficit in humans is a key component of the song-learning machinery in birds.
The researchers, who published their findings in the March 31, 2004, issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, said that their finding will aid research on how genes contribute to the architecture and function of brain circuitry for singing in birds.
Among the lead researchers was neurobiol
Scientists from the New Jersey University of Medicine and Dentistry have discovered a whole new class of enzymes which may represent a major advance in understanding the way bacterial cells self destruct under stress, researchers will hear on Wednesday, 31 March 2004, at the Society for General Microbiology’s meeting in Bath.
“These enzymes, called messenger RNA interferases, attack extremely accurately targeted sequences in bacterial messenger RNA”, says Professor Masoyori Inouye of th
How do you know if a stranger will be nice or nasty? Professor Cliff Summers’ group at the University of South Dakota has found that you can predict the social status of male lizards before they fight. What is more, green Anolis lizards show their fighting fitness through a colour signal on their face.
Wayne Korzan has discovered that how fast you recover from stress, to participate in feeding and courtship, can also foreshadow dominant social rank. Fast lizards are dominant lizards. As in
Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered genetic mutations in heart patients that make them vulnerable to heart failure because they produce an abnormal protein that can’t decode stress messages from the body.
Mayo researchers are the first to realize that these proteins do not recognize the stress alarm. As a result, they can’t properly respond to cue adjustments within the heart that normally manage stress. These defects make the heart muscle susceptible to damage. The Mayo Clini
A device invented at Ohio State University has dramatically boosted the production of a chemical that performs tasks as diverse as scenting perfume and flavoring Swiss cheese.
Engineers here have used their patented fibrous-bed bioreactor to genetically alter a bacterium so that it produces 50 percent more of the chemical propionic acid than the organism produces normally. And it did so without the aid of chemical additives employed in industry.
The device also reduced the amount of
Purveyors of snake oil and its mythical powers may not have had it all wrong, if preliminary findings with the Florida cottonmouth, bloodstains and a washing machine stay on target.
An enzyme extracted from the viper’s venom appears to help launder out notoriously stubborn blood spots on clothing, according to a report presented here today at the 227th national meeting of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.
“We have partially isolated a
Virginia Tech students and faculty members are creating releasable coatings and thin films using the same chemistry that nature uses to bind the double helix of DNA.
They will present their research at the 227th national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Anaheim, Calif., March 28-April 1, 2004.
“We are coating a patterned surface with accepting molecules then applying donating molecules – that is, using molecular recognition — to create a molecular zipper,” explains Tim
A multi-university research team led by Virginia Tech University Distinguished Professor of Chemistry David G.I. Kingston has succeeded in enhancing the structure of paclitaxel (Taxol™) to make it more effective in killing cancer cells.
Having determined how paclitaxel fits into a cancer cell’s reproductive machinery, the team is optimistic that simpler molecules can be designed as future medicines.
Kingston will present the research that brought the team to this point a
Developing electronic paper that can be written on and then erased with the touch of a button is a challenge. Sometimes the ink must adhere to the paper and other times bead up.
Getting it just right requires knowing how, on a molecular level, the liquid ink interacts with the solid paper.
Now Jeanne E. Pemberton has clarified why changing the electrical charge on electronic paper affects how well ink will stick.
The finding will further efforts to make a reusable tablet
The blood-sucking ticks that spread microbes, causing disease in livestock and people, are very sensitive to the weather. So different sorts of microbes cycle between ticks and their hosts in the UK and in other parts of Europe where the summers are warmer and drier. This has obvious implications for the possible effects of global warming on the spread of vector-borne diseases, such as malaria, Oxford University scientists said today, Monday 29 March 2004, at the Society for General Microbiology’s meet
Yet another extraordinary ability of the active ingredient in aspirin, salicylic acid, has just been identified by plant scientists working at the University of Cambridge, researchers heard today, Monday 29 March 2004, at the Society for General Microbiology’s meeting in Bath.
“We all recognise its bitter taste and pain-killing abilities, but the importance of the active ingredient of aspirin, called salicylic acid, is even greater”, says Dr John Carr of the Department of Plant Sciences
Viruses, often able to outsmart many of the drugs designed to defeat them, may have met their match, according to new research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The findings show that the introduction of a harmless molecule that uses the same machinery a virus needs to grow may be a potent way to shut down the virus before it infects other cells or becomes resistant to drugs. The results are published in the March issue of the journal, Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.
A group of scientists at The Scripps Research Institute, at the University of California in San Diego, and at the Oregon Hearing Research Center and Vollum Institute at Oregon Health & Science University have discovered a key molecule that is part of the machinery that mediates the sense of hearing.
In a paper that will appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Nature, the team reports that a protein called cadherin 23 is part of a complex of proteins called “tip links” that are on hair ce
Protein hydrogels can be genetically engineered to promote the growth of specific cells
Johns Hopkins University researchers have created a new class of artificial proteins that can assemble themselves into a gel and encourage the growth of selected cell types. This biomaterial, which can be tailored to send different biological signals to cells, is expected to help scientists who are developing new ways to repair injured or diseased body parts.
“We’re trying to give an
Fluorescent nanoparticles that can be attached to biological molecules are being developed for use in microscopic sensor devices. Philip Costanzo, a graduate student in chemistry at UC Davis, and Timothy Patten, associate professor of chemistry, have prepared nanoparticles of cadmium sulphide and silicon dioxide coated with polymer chains with biotin attached to the ends. When avidin, a protein that binds to biotin, is added, the nanoparticles cluster into larger aggregates. The researchers used dyna
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