Life Sciences and Chemistry
Articles and reports from the Life Sciences and chemistry area deal with applied and basic research into modern biology, chemistry and human medicine.
Valuable information can be found on a range of life sciences fields including bacteriology, biochemistry, bionics, bioinformatics, biophysics, biotechnology, genetics, geobotany, human biology, marine biology, microbiology, molecular biology, cellular biology, zoology, bioinorganic chemistry, microchemistry and environmental chemistry.
Methamphetamine drastically increases virus’ ability to replicate in brain tissue
A controversial research study here has found that exposing cells infected with feline immunodeficiency virus – a surrogate for HIV – to methamphetamine increases those cells’ ability to replicate the deadly virus as much as 15-fold.
The finding, if confirmed by ongoing animal studies, could answer important questions about how lentiviruses such as FIV and HIV can gain a foothold in the brain. That knowledge is vital in slowing or lessening the dementia that often accompanies AIDS and s
Botanists Discover New Conifer Species in Vietnam
An unusual conifer found in a remote area of northern Vietnam has been identified as a genus and species previously unknown to science. The limestone ridges where the tree grows are among the most botanically rich areas in Vietnam, said Daniel Harder, currently director of the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC) Arboretum and a co-discoverer of the new species. The discovery is published in the current issue of the journal Novon.
“Biologists don’t need to contemplate finding life
Biochemist e-volution launched!
Biochemist e-volution – the site for life scientists – is an exciting new online magazine. With something new every day, it consists of:
~ daily news stories
~ the most comprehensive Diary of Events for life scientists
~ job adverts
~ training information
~ competitions and surveys
~ grants and awards news
~ book reviews
~ equipment and company news
~ the latest from The Biochemist magazine
“Over 60
HIRA, a new factor in the genome’s 3D organizational assembly chain
At the heart of every cell, vital information is “written” on the DNA, a long molecular ribbon almost one meter long bundled inside the nucleus of the cell. For the DNA to fit inside this small space, it is rolled up like a ball of yarn in a highly organized structure called chromatin. Beyond its purely structural role, the spatial organization of DNA is essential to the basic processes of a cell’s life because it provides information that is added to that contributed by the genetic code. This ball-
Rats depleted of salt become sensitized to amphetamine, show unusual growth of brain cells
Laboratory rats that have been repeatedly depleted of salt become sensitized to amphetamine, exhibiting an exaggerated hyperactive response to the drug and an unusual pattern of neuronal growth in a part of their brains, neuroscientists have found.
The researchers, headed by University of Washington psychologist Ilene Bernstein, discovered that nerve cells in the nucleus accumbens of sensitized rats have more branches and were 30 percent to 35 percent longer than normal. The nucleus accumbe
1st evidence that nuclear transplantation (’therapeutic cloning’) can eliminate tissue rejection
Heart ’patches’ and functioning kidney units cloned in cows
Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. (ACT) reported today that nuclear transplantation can be used to generate functional immune-compatible tissues. The research, which will appear in the July issue (cover story) of Nature Biotechnology, by ACT and its collaborators, provides the first experimental evidence that it may be possible to use cloning to generate medically important tissues and eliminate tissue rejection. Heart