|
Headlines added February 13, 2006
Proteins' subtle 'backrub' motion could
have important implications
Duke University Medical Center | EurekAlert!
Biochemists have detected a surprising, subtle new gyration that protein
molecules undergo in the intricate, squirming dance that influences their
activity in the cell. The researchers have also created a realistic
geometrical model of the twisting "backrub" motion that could help
scientists understand the basics of protein function and design proteins
for medical use. 2/6/2006
Read whole story
A clue to core problem of neurodegenerative
disease and cell death
Northwestern University | EurekAlert!
Misfolded and damaged proteins are common to all human neurodegenerative
diseases, but explanations for the mechanism that kills neurons have
varied widely. Northwestern University scientists now offer a clue that
may establish a common mechanism in these diseases. Their findings suggest
that the disease-associated, aggregation-prone proteins may exert their
destabilizing effects by interfering with other proteins that are having
difficulty folding, causing them to lose function. Over time, this can
cause the organism to die. 2/8/2006
Read whole story
A new way of looking at molecular motors
Howard Hughes Medical Institute | EurekAlert!
An innovative way of categorizing myosin, one of three molecular motors
that produce movement within cells of the body, has dramatically increased
the amount of information available about these essential proteins. The
new system lays the groundwork for development of treatments for
conditions ranging from certain kinds of blindness and kidney disease to
neurodegenerative disorders and parasitic diseases such as malaria. 2/8/2006
Read whole story
Hydrogen bonds shown to play 'conserved'
role in protein folding
Duke University | EurekAlert!
By changing individual atoms in key places in proteins, Duke University
chemists have found new evidence for the importance of comparatively weak
"hydrogen bonds" in enabling stringlike proteins to fold into the
maximally stable shape they need to assume their roles as biological
workhorses. Such protein folding immediately after proteins are
synthesized is central to their function in the cell. 2/9/2006
Read whole story
When good DNA goes bad
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center | EurekAlert!
When otherwise normal DNA adopts an unusual shape called Z-DNA, it can
lead to the kind of genetic instability associated with cancers such as
leukemia and lymphoma, according to a study by researchers at The
University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. 2/9/2006
Read whole story
Headlines added
earlier
Brain changes significantly after age 18,
says Dartmouth research
Dartmouth College | EurekAlert!
Two Dartmouth researchers are one step closer to defining exactly when
human maturity sets in. In a study aimed at identifying how and when a
person's brain reaches adulthood, the scientists have learned that,
anatomically, significant changes in brain structure continue after age
18. 2/5/2006
Read whole story
Receptor critical in neurodegeneration
reduces Alzheimer's plaque
Yale University \ EurekAlert!
Increasing the level of a protein that plays a key role in traumatic
spinal cord injuries and multiple sclerosis reduces the concentration of
disease-causing plaque in Alzheimer's disease. 2/1/2006
Read whole story
MNI researchers find that sense of smell is
dependent on body position
McGill University | EurekAlert!
Before giving flowers or scattering rose petals on Valentine's Day, make
sure your significant other has already gotten out of bed. In a study
published recently in the journal Chemical Senses, researchers at the
Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University discovered that
sensitivity to rose odour is greater in subjects that are sitting than in
those lying down. 2/1/2006
Read whole story
New measurements prove myosin VI can act as
molecular transporter
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | EurekAlert!
In living organisms, hundreds of different kinds of molecular motors
perform a variety of essential, but little understood tasks that result in
such actions as muscle contraction, cell division and the movement of
materials within cells. Some motors act as transporters, some serve as
anchors, and some may do both. 2/1/2006
Read whole story
Study finds 60 new genes controlled by DNA
snippet
University of Rochester Medical Center | EurekAlert!
As part of a nationwide effort to define ancient sections of our genetic
code that may soon be as important to medical science as genes,
researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center scanned through
the vast human DNA code to reveal for the first time 60 genes influenced
by one such sequence, according to an article published today in the
journal Genome Research. 1/31/2006
Read whole story
Omega-6 fats cause prostate tumors to grow
twice as fast
University of California - San Francisco | EurekAlert!
Omega-6 fatty acids -- such as those found in corn oil -- caused human
prostate tumors in cell culture to grow twice as quickly as tumors to
which omega-6 fats had not been added, according to a study conducted at
the San Francisco VA Medical Center. 1/31/2006
Read whole story
Missing steps of jumping-gene replication
discovered
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine | EurekAlert!
In experiments with transgenic mice, University of Pennsylvania School of
Medicine researchers discovered the remaining steps in the complicated
process of how the largest class of jumping genes replicates and inserts
themselves within the human genome. This knowledge may shed light on the
origins of "junk" DNA, parts of the genome for which no function has yet
been discovered. 1/30/2006
Read whole story
RNAi and telomere length
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory | EurekAlert!
A team of Russian scientists, led by Dr. Vladimir Gvozdev (Russian Academy
of Sciences) reports on a novel link between RNAi and telomere maintenance
in the Drosophila germline. 1/30/2006
Read whole story
Common molecular 'signature' identified in
solid tumors
Ohio State University | EurekAlert!
Scientists have discovered that a wide variety of different cancers
actually share something in common - a molecular "signature" made up of
tiny bits of genetic material called microRNA (miRNA) that target key
cancer genes and promote malignant growth. The finding provides more
insight into miRNA as an emerging class of gene regulators and may also
pave the way for new approaches in diagnosis and treatment. 1/29/2006
Read whole story
Hot-spring bacteria flip a metabolic switch
Carnegie Institution | EurekAlert!
Researchers have found that photosynthetic bacteria in scalding
Yellowstone hot springs have two radically different metabolic identities:
as the sun goes down, these cells quit their day job of photosynthesis and
unexpectedly begin to fix nitrogen gas (N2) into biologically useful
compounds. They are the first known heat-tolerant organism that can juggle
both tasks within a single cell, and the discovery should help to answer
longstanding questions about nitrogen metabolism in hot-spring microbial
communities. 1/29/2006
Read whole story
Contagious obesity? Identifying the human
adenoviruses that may make us fat
American Physiological Society | EurekAlert!
Accumulating evidence suggests that human adenoviruses viruses may cause
obesity, in essence making obesity contagious, according to a study from
the University of Wisconsin. The research identified the third such virus
that causes obesity in animals, noting that one of these had already been
associated with human obesity. More research is needed to test and confirm
these results in humans, identify which human adenoviruses could cause
obesity, and develop a vaccine, the researchers said. 1/29/2006
Read whole story
Source of crucial immune cell in the skin discovered
Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of
Medicine | EurekAlert!
Mount Sinai researchers have identified the precursors of cells in the
skin that are part of the first line of defense against invading
pathogens. Known as Langerhans cells, they form a tight network of cells
covering the entire body. Many tumor vaccines rely on these cells to
activate an immune response. According to the researchers, this discovery
should contribute to ongoing efforts to engineer immune responses in
vaccine design and tumor immunotherapy. 1/28/2006
Read
whole story
Bacteria in dirt
may be "born" resistant to drugs
Maggie Fox | Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bacteria in dirt may be "born" with a resistance to
antibiotics, which could help shed light on the problem of drug-defying "superbugs,"
Canadian researchers said on Thursday.
They tested 480 different bacteria found in soil and discovered that every
single one had some resistance to antibiotics -- meaning they had evolved
a mechanism for evading the effects of the drugs.
The findings, published in the journal Science, could help explain why
bacteria so quickly develop resistance to antibiotics, and why drug
companies must constantly develop new ones. 1/19/2006
Read whole story
The closest look ever at the cell's
machines
European Molecular Biology Laboratory | EurekAlert!
Today researchers in Germany announce they have finished the first
complete analysis of the "molecular machines" in one of biology's most
important model organisms: S. cerevisiae (baker's yeast). The study from
the biotechnology company Cellzome, in collaboration with the European
Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), appears in this week's online edition
of Nature.
"To carry out their tasks, most proteins work
in dynamic complexes that may contain dozens of molecules," says Giulio
Superti-Furga, who launched the large-scale project at Cellzome four years
ago. "If you think of the cell as a factory floor, up to now, we've known
some of the components of a fraction of the machines. That has seriously
limited what we know about how cells work. This study gives us a nearly
complete parts list of all the machines, and it goes beyond that to tell
us how they populate the cell and partition tasks among themselves."
1/21/2006
Read whole story
Keeping biological tubes in check: New
insights into tube size morphogenesis
Cell Press | EurekAlert!
The function of tubular organs like the kidneys, lungs, and vessels of the
vascular system is critically dependent on the length and diameter of the
tubular branches of which they are composed. Several devastating
pathological conditions like polycystic kidney disease and ischemias have
been intimately linked to the aberrant sizes of tubular organs. Yet the
underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms that control tube size are
poorly understood, and, consequently, drugs that intervene in tubular
organ disorders are lacking. 1/22/2006
Read whole story
Reactive oxygen species shown essential for
development of inner ear's balance machinery
Cell Press | EurekAlert!
Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are normally produced as a product of
metabolism, and, as their name implies, they are highly reactive with
surrounding biological components. In an unanticipated discovery
suggesting that ROS may play important positive roles in development,
researchers have found that the production of ROS by a particular enzyme
is essential for inner ear development and for the ability to properly
maintain balance. 1/22/2006
Read whole story
Pair of studies offer new clues to combat
antibiotic resistance
American Chemical Society | EurekAlert!
In the continuing battle against antibiotic resistance, two new studies
shed light on the complex defense mechanisms pathogenic bacteria use to
evade antibiotic attack, an understanding of which could lead to new, more
effective antibiotics to help save lives and combat the growing problem of
antibiotic resistance. The studies are published in the inaugural issue of
ACS Chemical Biology, a monthly peer-reviewed publication of the
American Chemical Society. 1/23/2006
Read whole story
Common bacteria pirate natural mechanism to
get inside cells
Medical College of Georgia | EurekAlert!
These pathogens gain entry the same way millions of receptors on the
cell's surface routinely do after they get activated, says Dr. Yehia Daaka,
professor and Distinguished Chair in Oncologic Pathology at the Medical
College of Georgia. Dr. Daaka is corresponding author on an article
published Jan. 23 by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
By moving off the cell surface, receptors gain some respite from their
activating signals, Dr. Daaka says. Receptors can either stay inside the
newly created vesicle and be degraded or resurface to be activated once
again.
Bacteria and viruses also want inside cells and out of the direct line of
fire of the immune system or treatments such as antibiotics for bacterial
infections, Dr. Daaka says. "Some bacteria and viruses bind to receptors
on the plasma membrane and use them to go inside, and that is how they
start replicating inside the cell," he says. 1/23/2006
Read whole story
Patterns in genome organization may
partially explain how microbial cells work
University of California - San Diego | EurekAlert!
The location of a piece of real estate may be its most important feature
to many Realtors, and bioengineering researchers at the University of
California, San Diego (UCSD) and the University of Virginia have reported
that the location of genes and other features distributed along the
chromosomes of bacteria and simpler organisms also is fundamentally
important to how microbial cells operate.
In a paper published Jan. 13 online in PLoS Computational Biology, the
researchers reported large- and small-scale organizational patterns in the
genomes of 135 bacteria ranging from those that cause typhoid fever and
various other human infections to organisms that enrich the nitrogen
content of soil. In addition, 16 more primitive microorganisms, including
one that thrives in boiling hot springs, also exhibit patterns in their
genomes that are highly nonrandom. 1/23/2006
Read whole story
UCSD biologists find new evidence for
one-way evolution
University of California - San Diego | EurekAlert!
By tracing the 30-million year history of variation in a gene found in
plants such as tomatoes and tobacco, biologists at the University of
California, San Diego have found new evidence to support an old idea --
that some evolutionary changes are irreversible.
Their study, published this week in an early
online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, offers new support for the idea that the loss of complex traits,
like eyes, wings or in this case a reproductive mechanism, is often
irreversible. In other words, once lost, the traits never revert to their
original state.
"This is the strongest evidence yet to support irreversibility," said
Joshua Kohn, an associate professor of biology at UCSD who headed the
study. "If we had not used the genetic data coding for this reproductive
mechanism and only inferred the pattern of evolution based on the traits
of living species, we would have come to the opposite conclusion and with
high statistical support -- that the trait evolved more than once."
1/17/2006
Read whole story
Fat overload kills mammalian cells . key
culprit identified
Washington University School of Medicine | EurekAlert!
Investigating the harmful health effects of excess fat, researchers at
Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a
protein that triggers death in mammalian cells overloaded with saturated
fat.
The internal "skeleton" (in red) of cells is altered by exposure to high
fat.
When the researchers halted production of this protein, called EF1A-1, the
cells were able to thrive in ordinarily damaging amounts of the saturated
fat palmitate, a fat abundant in Western diets. At the same concentration
of palmitate, normal cells still producing EF1A-1 rapidly died. The study
will be published in the February 2006 issue of Molecular Biology of the
Cell. 1/17/2006
Read whole story
In the mind's eye: How the brain makes a
whole out of parts
Johns Hopkins University | EurekAlert!
When a human looks at a number, letter or other shape, neurons in various
areas of the brain's visual center respond to different components of that
shape, almost instantaneously fitting them together like a puzzle to
create an image that the individual then "sees" and understands.
The question of how the brain sees,
recognizes and understands objects is one of the most intriguing in
neuroscience, associate professor and paper co-author Charles E. Connor
said.
"This may not even seem like a scientific question to some people, because
seeing is so automatic and we are so good at it – far better than the best
computer vision systems yet devised," Connor said. "That is because a
large part of the human brain is devoted to interpreting objects in our
world, so that we have the necessary information for interacting with our
environment.
1/17/2006
Read whole story
Tiny RNA molecules fine-tune the brain's
synapses
Children's Hospital Boston | EurekAlert
Non-coding regions of the genome – those that don't code for proteins –
are now known to include important elements that regulate gene activity.
Among those elements are microRNAs, tiny, recently discovered RNA
molecules that suppress gene expression. Increasing evidence indicates a
role for microRNAs in the developing nervous system, and researchers from
Children's Hospital Boston now demonstrate that one microRNA affects the
development of synapses – the points of communication between brain cells
that underlie learning and memory. The findings appear in the January 19th
issue of Nature.
"This paper provides the first evidence that microRNAs have a role at the
synapse, allowing for a new level of regulation of gene expression," says
senior author Michael Greenberg, PhD, Director of Neuroscience at
Children's Hospital Boston. "What we've found is a new mechanism for
regulating brain function." 1/17/2006
Read whole story
Custom-Made
Microbes, at Your Service
Andrew Pollack | New York Times
There are bacteria that blink on and off like Christmas tree lights and
bacteria that form multicolored patterns of concentric circles resembling
an archery target. Yet others can reproduce photographic images.
These are not strange-but-true specimens from nature, but rather the early
tinkering of synthetic biologists, scientists who seek to create living
machines and biological devices that can perform novel tasks.
"We want to do for biology what Intel does for electronics," said George
Church, a professor of
genetics at Harvard and a leader in the field. "We want to design and
manufacture complicated biological circuitry."
1/16/2006
Read whole story
Long-term memory controlled by molecular
pathway at synapses
Harvard University | EurekAlert!
Harvard University biologists have identified a molecular pathway active
in neurons that interacts with RNA to regulate the formation of long-term
memory in fruit flies. The same pathway is also found at mammalian
synapses, and could eventually present a target for new therapeutics to
treat human memory loss. 1/11/2006
Read whole story
Supersized 'island' of resistance genes
discovered in an infectious bacterium
Public Library of Science | EurekAlert!
Researchers have discovered a cluster of 45 genes coding for antibacterial
drug resistance in the bacterium, Acinetobacter baumannii, a major cause
of hospital-acquired infections worldwide. The study was reported in the
open-access journal PLoS Genetics.
"We expected to find resistance genes," said lead author, Pierre-Edouard
Fournier, researcher at the Structural and Genomic Information Laboratory
at France's National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). "But the
grouping of most of these genes within a single genomic island was totally
unexpected." The resistance island--a group of resistance genes clustered
close together on a chromosome--is the largest discovered to date.
1/11/2006
Read whole story
Rockefeller researchers discover a
biological clock within a clock
Rockerfeller University | EurekAlert!
Just as a pocket watch requires a complex system of gears and springs to
keep it ticking precisely, individual cells have a network of proteins and
genes that maintain their own internal clock -- a 24-hour rhythm that, in
humans, regulates metabolism, cell division, and hormone production, as
well as the wake-sleep cycle. Studying this "circadian" rhythm in fruit
flies, which have genes that are similar to our own, scientists have
constructed a basic model of how the cellular timekeeper works. But now, a
new report in this week's issue of the journal Science turns the old model
on its head: By providing a glimpse into living cells, Rockefeller
University researchers have uncovered a previously undetected clock inside
the circadian clock. The scientists made the finding with a rarely used
technique called FRET, which enabled them to follow circadian proteins
over an extended period of time and watch the clock as it ticks away in a
living cell.
1/11/2006
Read whole story
Research details how a virus hijacks cell
signals to cause infection
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia | EurekAlert!
A common virus that causes meningitis and heart inflammation takes a "back
door" approach to evade natural barriers, then exploits biological signals
to infect human cells. Broadening knowledge of how viruses cause
infection, a new study describes elaborate methods that the group B
coxsackievirus has evolved to bypass the body's defenses.
"This study helps to explain how group B coxsackieviruses infect cells,"
said Jeffrey M. Bergelson, M.D., a pediatric infectious diseases
specialist at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "We found new steps
in the virus life cycle."
Dr. Bergelson's study, co-authored with Carolyn B. Coyne, Ph.D., also of
Children's Hospital, appears in the Jan. 13 issue of the journal Cell.
Group B coxsackieviruses (CVBs) are common in people, but usually are
defeated by the immune system after causing minor infections. However,
CVBs may sometimes cause myocarditis, a potentially severe inflammation of
the heart in children and adults, as well as viral meningitis, which
inflames the lining of the brain. Rarely, the virus may lead to fatal,
overwhelming infection in newborns. 1/11/2006
Read whole story
Molecule does more than slice and dice RNA
Howard Hughes Medical Institute | EurekAlert!
A team of Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) scientists has peeled
back some of the mystery of how cells are able to turn off genes
selectively to control critical events of development. The new insights
arise from the first clear molecular images of the structure of Dicer, an
enzyme that enables cells to dissect genetic material precisely.
The finding, which is reported in the January
13, 2005, issue of the journal Science by an HHMI research team at the
University of California, Berkeley, provides scientists with new
information about a mechanism that enables cells to silence genes, a
process that governs key developmental events ranging from brain
development to stem cell differentiation.
The study was led by Jennifer A. Doudna, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute
investigator at the University of California, Berkeley. Doudna's research
team used x-ray crystallography to assemble a detailed three-dimensional
picture of an enzyme known as Dicer. In cells, Dicer jumpstarts RNA
interference, a process that causes genes to be turned off and which, in
turn, prompts a host of key developmental events.
1/11/2006
Read whole story
Cracking the genetic code for control of
gene expression
University of Helsinki | EurekAlert!
Where will a gene be expressed and when? Researchers are now able to
predict regions of genomic DNA that will drive gene expression. Molecular
biologists, developmental biologists and computer scientists at the
University of Helsinki, Finland, came together to advance towards cracking
the code for how gene expression is controlled. The results of this work
are published in Cell, in January 2006.
Based on the universal code by which DNA encodes amino acids, we can make
sense of the constantly increasing amout of DNA sequence data as far as it
encodes proteins. This code was solved in 1966 and it has allowed
researchers to find new genes and estimate the total number of genes in
the human genome. However, coding sequence covers only about 1.2% of the
human genome. New codes and grammatical rules need to be resolved in order
to understand the remaining 98.8% of the genome.
It is evident that genes are expressed in tightly controlled spatial and
temporal patterns but we do not know the code by which the expression is
regulated. In this post-genomic era, the next big goal is to decipher the
genetic code of regulation of gene expression.
1/11/2006
Read whole story
Disgraced cloning
scientist 'sorry'
Disgraced South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-suk asks the nation for
forgiveness for fabricated research papers. 1/11/2006
Read whole story
The giant protein titin helps build muscles
European Molecular Biology Laboratory | EurekAlert!
Imagine grabbing two snakes by the tail so that they can't wriggle off in
opposite directions. Scientists at the Hamburg Outstation of the European
Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and collaborators from King's College
in London have now discovered that something similar happens to a protein
that is crucial in the formation of muscle tissue. Their work appears in
the current issue of the journal Nature.
Under the microscope, muscle looks like
millions of tiny pistons, stacked end-to-end into long rows. These
structures, called sarcomeres, permit the contraction and relaxation of
muscle that allow our bodies to move. Sarcomeres are connected at the ends
by Z-disks, thick bands of densely-packed molecules. "Sarcomeres are very
complex structures, and for many years we've been investigating the steps
by which they are formed," says Matthias Wilmanns, Head of the EMBL
Hamburg Outstation. "That probably starts when proteins link up to each
other in very big assemblies. The meeting point is the Z-disk, but
unraveling the connections has been difficult."
1/10/2006
Read whole story
Hedgehog protein
blocks fat production, produces more bone
UT Southwestern Medical Center | EurekAlert!
A protein that guides the early development of creatures as diverse as
fruit flies and humans also plays a role in regulating fat and bone
formation in adult organisms, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical
Center have discovered.
The protein, called hedgehog, activates a series of biochemical
reactions involving a host of other cellular proteins and genes. The
complex interaction among these many components is called the "hedgehog
signaling pathway," and it is critical that the pathway functions
properly in the early stages of development of many organisms. Mutations
in proteins that make up hedgehog signaling also are involved in some
human cancers and other human diseases.
"We found that if you stimulate the hedgehog pathway in fruit flies,
fat formation is blocked and the flies are skinny. If we block the
pathway, the flies become obese," said Dr. Jonathan Graff, associate
professor in the Center for Developmental Biology at UT Southwestern and
the study's senior author. "We also found the same effects in mammalian
models, specifically, in mouse cells. Activating the hedgehog pathway
blocks fat from forming in mammals, while inhibiting the pathway
stimulates the creation of more fat cells."
1/9/2006
Read whole story
Cells That Read
Minds
Sandra Blakeslee | New York Times
On a hot summer day 15 years ago in Parma, Italy, a monkey sat in a
special laboratory chair waiting for researchers to return from lunch.
Thin wires had been implanted in the region of its brain involved in
planning and carrying out movements.
Every time the monkey grasped and moved an object, some cells in that
brain region would fire, and a monitor would register a sound: brrrrrip,
brrrrrip, brrrrrip.
A graduate student entered the lab with an ice cream cone in his hand. The
monkey stared at him. Then, something amazing happened: when the student
raised the cone to his lips, the monitor sounded - brrrrrip, brrrrrip,
brrrrrip - even though the monkey had not moved but had simply observed
the student grasping the cone and moving it to his mouth.
1/9/2006
Read whole story
The unknown world
of the stomach
BBC News
A whole unknown community of bacteria makes its home in the human stomach,
it has been discovered.
Scientists had believed that the acid in
stomachs made them inhospitable.
But the discovery of the ulcer-causing bacteria H.pylori led Stanford
University scientists to explore this undiscovered world.
The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study even found a
bacterium related to one previously detected in radioactive waste sites.
"It's quite surprising that they found these bacteria", said Professor
Charles Penn, University of Birmingham. 1/8/2006
Read whole story
In bacterial diversity, Amazon is a
'desert'; Desert is an 'Amazon'
Duke University | EurekAlert!
Ironically, in the diversity of soil bacteria, the otherwise species-rich
Amazon is a more like a desert, while the arid desert is a teeming
microbial Amazon, researchers have found. Their first-ever
continental-scale genetic survey of soil bacteria revealed that the
primary factor that seems to govern the diversity of soil bacteria is soil
pH. Thus, the acidic soils of topical forests harbor fewer bacterial
species than the neutral soils of deserts.
The researchers said that, since soil
bacteria play a fundamental role in a vast array of ecological processes,
their survey constitutes an initial step in a new research pathway to
understanding that role.
"Although soil bacteria have been studied for centuries, fundamental
biological questions remain unanswered," said Fierer. "We probably know
more about the organisms in the deepest ocean trenches than we know about
the organisms living in soil in our backyards.
1/8/2006
Read
whole story
AIDS drug from sunflowers
University of Bonn | EurekAlert!
Sunflowers can produce a substance which prevents the AIDS pathogen HIV
from reproducing, at least in cell cultures. This is the result of
research carried out by scientists at the University of Bonn in
cooperation with the caesar research centre. For several years now the
hopes for a completely new group of AIDS drugs have been pinned to what is
known as 'DCQA'. However, the substance is only available in very small
quantities and is thus extremely expensive. By using the Bonn method it
could probably be produced for a fraction of the costs. The researchers
have patented their method. Together with the Jülich Research Centre they
now want to attempt to manufacture the substance on a large scale. They
are looking for partners in industry to help them with this.
It all began with a small mould with the tongue-twisting name sclerotinia
sclerotiorum. The pathogen responsible for the dreaded 'white stem rot'
can, if the weather conditions are unfavourable, destroy an entire
sunflower crop. However, some sunflowers survive the fungus attack more or
less unscathed. They do this by producing specific antibodies which
eventually put a stop to the fungus.
1/8/2006
Read whole story
Loosen leash on cancer protein
'watchdog,' researchers say
1/3/2006
Read whole story
Tandem transcripts team
together
1/3/2006
Read whole story
Where 'jumping genes' fear to
tread 1/3/2006
Read whole story
Not so different after all:
Mysterious eye cells adapt to light
1/3/2006
Read whole story
Little known DNA repair enzyme
may be a tumor suppressor gene
1/2/2006
Read whole story
Amid Confusion, Journal
Retracts Korean's Stem Cell Paper
12/31/2005
Read whole story
Study finds genes that 'fine-tune' muscle development process 12/28/2005
Read whole story
Study suggests way to re-energize immune response to chronic viral
infection
12/27/2005
Read whole story
Natural compound from 'pond scum' shows potential activity against
Alzheimer's
12/26/2005
Read whole story
Gene therapy for muscular dystrophy fixes frail muscle cells in animal
model, Stanford study finds
12/25/2005
Read whole story
Sickle cell disease corrected in human models using
stem cell-based gene therapy 12/24/2005
Read whole story
Mechanism for Epstein-Barr virus protein's role in blood cancers
discovered
12/22/2005
Read whole story
New
study expands understanding of the role of RNA editing in gene control
12/22/2005
Read whole story
A
little telomerase isn't enough 12/21/2005
Read whole story
Science's Breakthrough of the Year: Evolution in Action
12/21/2005
Read whole story
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