An exciting and powerful service, using a new tool to investigate the genetics of human diseases, is announced today [1st October]. MRC geneservice, located in Cambridge, UK, is now able to supply researchers with fast and sensitive Affymetrix SNP genotyping in order to identify genome-wide linkage of diseases to particular markers in the human genome.
The GeneChipâ Mapping Assay kit from Affymetrix enables genotyping of more than 11,500 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on a single arr
Researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Boston have developed a fast and systematic method that could make it easier to understand how cells from complex animals work. Their results, published this week in Journal of Biology, should inspire scientists to perform comprehensive screens of the fruit fly genome to find molecules that control a variety of cellular processes. The research team, led by Norbert Perrimon, systematically inhibited the function of around 1,000 Drosophila
The contents of ancient pottery could help archaeologists resolve some longstanding disputes in the world of antiquities, thanks to scientists at Britain’s University of Bristol. The researchers have developed the first direct method for dating pottery by examining animal fats preserved inside the ceramic walls.
Archaeologists have long dated sites by the visual appearance of pottery fragments found around the site. The new analytical technique will allow archaeologists to more accurate
A non-human, cellular molecule is absorbed into human tissues as a result of eating red meat and milk products, according to a study by researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine, published online the week of September 29, 2003 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers also showed that the same foreign molecule generates an immune response that could potentially lead to inflammation in human tissues.
Several previous studies ha
A naturally occurring variation in an essential gene can suppress genetic mutations caused by retroviruses in mice, according to a new discovery by researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine.
Published in the September 28 online edition of Nature Genetics, and in the journal’s October issue, the study identified a novel change in mice in a gene called mRNA nuclear export factor 1 (Nxf1). This gene normally acts as part of the cell’s machinery for ensurin
Social structures form through group dynamics, not trait selection
From her work studying social insects, Arizona State University biologist Jennifer Fewell believes that these remarkable animals suggest a an alternate cause behind the development of complex societies. In a viewpoint essay in the September 26 issue of the journal Science, Fewell argues that complex social structures like those seen in social insect communities can arise initially from the nature of group interactions
Research published in Genome Biology this week has uncovered 25 genes that are expressed at different levels in worker and soldier termites. As one of the first molecular studies on termites, it paves the way for investigations into how termite larvae can develop into workers, soldiers or reproductive adults depending on the colony’s needs.
The eastern subterranean termite, Reticulitermes flavipes, exists in colonies, whose members share work and resources among themselves. Different castes
When biologists want to compare different sequences of DNA or protein, it’s as simple as plugging the information into a browser and pressing enter. Within 15 seconds, an online software tool contrasts one sequence of DNA with up to 18 million others catalogued in public databases. Now, a software tool developed by Whitehead Institute scientists promises to apply this same computational muscle to the far more intricate world of protein interaction networks, giving researchers a new view of the comple
Chance encounter between two labs resurrects dying immune system theory
A lucky encounter between laboratories at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of California-Berkeley has resurrected a moribund theory about how the immune system mobilizes one of the body’s most important defensive systems: the immune system cells known as T lymphocytes.
The new findings, published online by the journal Science this week, are a key step toward u
Duke University researchers have used self-assembling DNA molecules as molecular building blocks called “tiles” to construct protein-bearing scaffolds and metal wires at the billionths of a meter, or “nanoscale.”
The achievements in nanoscale synthesis, which the five authors said could lead to programmable molecular scale sensors or electronic circuitry, were described in a paper in the Sept. 26, 2003, issue of the journal Science written by HaoYan, Thom LaBean, Gleb Finkelstein, Sung Ha P
Salk researcher provides new view on how the brain functions
Scientists are developing a new paradigm for how the brain functions. They propose that the brain is not a huge fixed network, as had been previously thought, but a dynamic, changing network that adapts continuously to meet the demands of communication and computational needs.
In the Sept. 26 issue of Science, Salk Institute professor Terrence Sejnowski and University of Cambridge professor Simon Laughlin argue tha
New technique, partial shotgun-genome sequencing at 1.5X coverage of genome, provides a useful, cost-effective way to increase number of large genomes analyzed
Analysis reveals that 650 million base pairs of DNA are shared between dog and humans including fragments of putative orthologs for 18,473 of 24,567 annotated human genes; Data provide necessary tools for identifying many human and dog disease genes
Researchers at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) and The Cent
Graduate student camped out in the lab, sleepless in Seattle, to collect the data
Scientists at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have made a landmark discovery in yeast that may hold the key to revealing why growing older is the greatest cancer-risk factor in humans. Their findings appear in the Sept. 26 issue of Science.
Senior author Daniel Gottschling, Ph.D., a member of Fred Hutchinson’s Basic Sciences Division, and first author Michael McMurray, a graduate stu
A protein in Salmonella bacteria called SipA invades healthy human cells by using two arms in a “stapling” action, according to scientists at the University of Virginia Health System. The U.Va. researchers, working with colleagues at Rockefeller University in New York, report their findings in the September 26 edition of the magazine Science.
Edward Egelman, professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at U.Va., said the significance of this research is that it could be possible to design mol
Resistance exercise may directly reset the body clocks in skeletal muscle, according to research published in Genome Biology this week. This result may partly explain how exercising early in the day helps jet-lagged bodies readjust to their new time zone.
Many processes in the body vary in a 24-hour rhythm called the circadian rhythm. These rhythms are controlled by molecular clocks, in organs such as the liver, in tissues such as skeletal muscle, and in the hypothalamus, a part of the brai
MRC geneservice announced today [24th September, 2003] the availability in the UK of a major new tool which will revolutionise proteomics, and hasten the characterisation of the proteins coded by each gene. Dr Marc Vidal and his team at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, USA have produced clones from Open Reading Frames (ORFs) of genes – protein-encoding nucleotide sequences – from the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans. Whilst much is known about the sequence of genes, understanding what
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