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.
UIC researchers pinpoint genes involved in cancer growth
In a study made possible by the sequencing of the human genome, scientists at the University of Illinois at Chicago have identified 57 genes involved in the growth of human tumor cells.
Some of these genes appear to be linked with the growth of cancerous cells only – not healthy cells – making them possible targets for new drugs that could halt the spread of disease without necessarily compromising normal processes.
The research relied on a strategy pioneered in the laboratory of I
University of York spin-off company invents toxic testing device
A simple, quick and accurate hand-held kit which can be taken out into the field to test for toxic chemicals is being exploited by a spin-out company from the University of York.
The BATT (Bioassay Toxicity Testing) device is now being tested by environment agencies, textile industries, water boards, and diagnostic companies involved with pesticide measurement.
Microbiologist Dr Russell Grant was working on a third-year project as an undergraduate at York when the idea of th
Protein that fights bacteria and viruses cloned by Scripps scientists
Bacteria and viruses are completely different classes of pathogens, and not surprisingly the body uses completely different molecular “receptors” to detect them in order to mount an immune defense.
Paradoxically, while the detection systems are different, the actual immune defenses the body employs to clear the system of viral or bacterial infection are much the same. As are the symptoms–to you or me, fighting off bacteria or viruses can produce the same fatigue, inflammation, or hac
Fetal exposure to two chemicals cause of male reproductive disorders later in life
Primary author of several recent studies involving di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP) and linuron (L) discusses his findings and what they mean for understanding human development.
Over the last ten years, US researchers have observed a marked increase in some male reproductive disorders, including undescended testicles, increased instances of testicular cancer, and decreased sperm count. In the last 20 years the rates for testicular cancer have grown almost five-fold in Denmark, yet neighbo
Newly identified plant proteins may shed light on the evolutionary process
A group of nuclear-envelope-associated proteins have been found in a plant for the very first time by a team of researchers at Ohio State University. Led by Professor Iris Meier, this new finding show that these proteins (Plant RanGAP and MAF) have in common a nuclear envelope-targeting domain which is unique to plants and distinctly different from sequences found in known animal nuclear envelope proteins.
This finding is significant because it implies that a funadamentally different nuclea
New approach to gene knockouts reveals the "master planners" of the skeleton
Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers are moving closer to understanding how the global pattern of the skeleton of mammals is formed during development. In an exceptionally demanding series of experiments, the researchers knocked out entire sets of two families of genes suspected in playing a central role in establishing the pattern of the skeleton in the mammalian embryo.
Their findings regarding the “paralogous” gene families known as Hox10 and Hox11 establish that the genes