Scientists from Imperial College London have suggested why the human genome may possess far fewer genes than previously estimated before the human genome project was begun.
Research published in the July issue of Trends in Immunology, shows how a more advanced immune system in humans could explain why the human genome may have only a slightly greater number of genes than the plant Arabidopsis thaliana , and probably less than rice, Oryza sativa .
Dr Andrew George, from I
Self-repairing fenders and intelligent implants – shape-memory polymers as materials of the future
With a bang, the fender is dented and has to be replaced. Wouldn`t it be nice if the dent could simply – presto! – disappear? Such “intelligent” materials are already being developed, relate Andreas Lendlein and Steffen Kelch in an overview of the field in Angewandte Chemie.
Shape-memory polymers, that`s the magic words: after an undesired deformation, such as a dent in the fend
Scientists at the University of Virginia Health System have identified another step in the mysterious process of gene regulation — what turns genes on or off, making them cause or suppress disease and other physical developments in humans. As reported in this week’s issue of the scientific journal Nature, a chemical group called ubiquitin has been shown to lie upstream of a switch that seems to control whether a gene is on or off. “Ubiquitin was first discovered on histones long ago, but before thi
A newly developed polymer surface could improve the interface between electronic implants and living tissue, helping to advance a technology that may one day enable the blind to see and the paralyzed to walk. The findings were described today at the 34th Central Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society. The meeting is being held at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti.
David C. Martin, Director of the Macromolecular Science and Engin
A study at Ohio State University is probing the nature of a unique sulfur-containing molecule — one that scientists consider a “missing link” in its chemical family.
The molecule, hydrogen thioperoxide, or HSOH for short, is related to the common bleaching and disinfectant agent hydrogen peroxide. Because HSOH contains sulfur, it could eventually help scientists understand how pollutants form in Earth’s atmosphere, and how similar molecules form in outer space.
Scientists
It’s a wonder cells make it through the day with the barrage of cues and messages they receive and transmit to direct the most basic and necessary functions of life. Such cell communication, or signal transduction, was at least thought to be an “automatic” cascade of biochemical events.
Now, however, a study reported in a recent issue of Nature by Johns Hopkins and Harvard scientists has found that even before a message makes it through the outer cell membrane to the inner nucleus, the
University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center researchers have found that the aging of the human retina is accompanied by distinct changes in gene expression.
Using commercially available DNA slides, a team of researchers directed by Anand Swaroop, Ph.D., have established the first-ever gene profile of the aging human retina, an important step in understanding the mechanisms of aging and its impact on vision disorders.
In the August issue of Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Scie
The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) launched a totally redesigned Web site today with a new Internet address – genome.gov . The streamlined Web site address makes it easy for users to access a comprehensive and authoritative government site focused on genomic research, including the international Human Genome Project slated for completion in April 2003. The new Web site supports ongoing scientific studies by researchers inside and outside
You may feel different at the dreary hour of 4 a.m. than you do mid-afternoon at 4 p.m. Now, researchers might understand why. A study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis helps explain how genes dictate our biological clock.
Nearly all living things have a natural rhythm that influences their behavior and physiology. This rhythm typically is “circadian”, following a near 24-hour cycle. Driven by an internal clock, a creature’s natural rhythm is synchronized to th
“I would like Europe to become a centre of excellence and a focus for pharmaceutical research once again”, stated EU Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin today at the annual assembly of the European pharmaceutical industry (EFPIA) in Bruges. “We need to nurture our research-based industries by reinforcing science and technology in Europe. Europe needs to invest more and in a better, more consistent way: it has to cut red tape and be bold.” From 1999 to 2002 the Commission invested around € 1 billio
According to fellow phycologists, algae expert Stefan Draisma from the Leiden University has turned brown algae phylogeny completely upside down. His research shows that few of the currently assumed relationships between the orders are correct. Furthermore, it transpires that some simple species arose not earlier but later than more complex species.
Brown algae are multicellular algae. Brown pigments mask the green colour of the chlorophyll. Most of the species occur in temperate regions. Th
At the Hubrecht Laboratory in Utrecht, the biologist Sylvia Fischer has discovered how organisms protect themselves against transposons. Transposons are pieces of DNA which can translocate themselves within the genome. Sometimes transposons cause damage to the DNA. Plants probably have a similar mechanism which protects them against viruses.
Biologists from Utrecht discovered that the nematode C. elegans keeps transposons in check with a sophisticated mechanism. Due to the mechanism, the tra
Protein movement can be simulated three times as fast than had been thought possible up to now. Researchers from Groningen achieved the gain in speed by leaving out the calculations concerning hydrogen atoms. Meanwhile research groups around the world are adapting their simulation programs.
Up until now researchers calculated all of the positions of atoms in a protein molecule after two femtoseconds. A femtosecond is one millionth of a billionth of a second. The research from Groningen revea
Primates found in Brazil’s Amazon rain forest
Conservation International announced today the discovery of two new species of titi monkey in Brazil’s Amazon rain forest. The findings are published in a just-released special supplement to the journal Neotropical Primates.
They were described by Marc van Roosmalen, a primatologist at Brazil’s National Institute for Amazon Research (INPA), his son, Tomas van Roosmalen, and Russell Mittermeier, president of Conservation Internat
Researchers at the University of Toronto and Mount Sinai Hospital have identified a protein that plays a critical role in the regulation of “natural killers cells” in the immune system’s battle against foreign and diseased cells.
“Our research is a small part of the larger problem of how viruses and diseased cells ravage the body and circumvent our immune system,” says Kathleen Binns, a U of T doctoral student in medical genetics and microbiology and an author on a paper in the June 20
A newly established national biomedical center at Cornell University is reporting its first major advance: a new way of measuring, or “visualizing,” proteins. The new technique will hasten the transformation of the human genome project’s blueprints of life into a comprehensive view of the biochemical and physiological circuitry that interconnect to form entire organisms.
The technique, which determines the structure of a protein by measuring the distances between atoms in the molecule at g
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