- Breakdown of Bone Keeps Blood Sugar in Check, New Study Finds
Researchers led by Columbia University Medical Center have discovered that the skeleton plays an important role in regulating blood sugar and have further illuminated how bone controls this process. The finding is important...
(Issue date: 26 July 2010)
- RNA offers a safer way to reprogram cells
In recent years, scientists have shown that they can reprogram human skin cells to an immature state that allows the cells to become any type of cell. This ability, known as pluripotency, holds the promise of treating diseases...
(Issue date: 26 July 2010)
- Hijacked supplies for pathogens
When it infects the lungs, the Legionnaire’s bacterium Legionella pneumophila causes acute pneumonia. The pathogen’s modus operandi is particularly ingenious: it infiltrates deliberately into cells of the human immune system and...
(Issue date: 26 July 2010)
- Important Clue to Understanding the Pathogenesis of Ciliary Disorders
A research team led by Dr. Heiko Lickert of Helmholtz Zentrum München has pinpointed a gene that is essential for the physiologically correct disassembly of cilia. Errors in the regulation of cilia assembly are implicated in a...
(Issue date: 26 July 2010)
- Scientists discover how deadly fungal microbes enter host cells
A research team led by scientists at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) at Virginia Tech has discovered a fundamental entry mechanism that allows dangerous fungal microbes to infect plants and cause disease. The...
(Issue date: 26 July 2010)
- The First Malaria-Proof Mosquito
For years, researchers worldwide have attempted to create genetically altered mosquitoes that cannot infect humans with malaria. Those efforts fell short because the mosquitoes still were capable of transmitting the...
(Issue date: 20 July 2010)
- Unearthing King Tet: Key protein influences stem cell fate
UNC researchers reveal how a protein called Tet1 helps stem cells keep their "stemness".
Take a skin cell from a patient with Type 1 diabetes. Strip out everything that made it a skin cell, then reprogram it to grow into a...
(Issue date: 20 July 2010)
- DISCOVERy OF LIGHT (QUANTUM) MEMORY AND PHOTOELECTRO PHYSIOLOGICAL SIGNALLING IN PLANTS
Although light is essential for photosynthesis, excess light can damage the photosynthetic apparatus and deregulate other cellular processes. Thus, protective integrated regulatory responses that can dissipate excess of absorbed...
(Issue date: 20 July 2010)
- University of South Florida researchers suggest ageing may be "a stem cell disease"
A combination of nutrients called NT-020 promoted adult neural stem cell proliferation in aged rats and boosted their memory performance, reported University of South Florida researchers studying natural therapeutic approaches to...
(Issue date: 20 July 2010)
- New research approach allows researchers to find and study metals in proteins much faster than ever before
Metals and proteins are crucial partners in keeping organisms healthy and stable. And yet the extent to which this molecular metalloprotein team works at the cellular level is not known because the numbers, amounts and types of...
(Issue date: 20 July 2010)
- Genome Signatures Enable Tracking of Algal Complexity
On the long and difficult road toward a carbon-neutral source of transportation fuels, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is pursuing a diversified approach. This effort involves exploring a range of potential new fuel sources...
(Issue date: 13 July 2010)
- A new spin on gene delivery
Chang Lu and his chemical engineering research group at Virginia Tech have discovered how to "greatly enhance" the delivery of DNA payloads into cells.
Lu says his ultimate goal is to apply this technique to create genetically...
(Issue date: 13 July 2010)
- Flemish researchers provide the first experimental evidence of dynamic allostery in protein regulation
The brand-new Jean Jeener Bio-NMR Center at the VIB Department of Molecular and Cellular Interactions, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, has already played a role in a scientific breakthrough. Thanks to NMR technology, it is possible...
(Issue date: 13 July 2010)
- Alternative Evolution: Why Change Your Own Genes When You Can Borrow Someone Else's?
It has been a basic principle of evolution for more than a century that plants and animals can adapt genetically in ways that help them better survive and reproduce.
University of Rochester biologist John Jaenike and colleagues...
(Issue date: 13 July 2010)
- Scientists Use Computer Algorithms to Develop New Vaccines
Every year, hundreds of thousands of people die from influenza all over the world. Defeating the illness is challenging because the virus evolves by frequent changes of its genetic code, making it difficult for scientists to...
(Issue date: 13 July 2010)
- Cell signalling classification system gives researchers new tool
Cell signalling classification system gives researchers new tool
Using ever-growing genome data, scientists with the Department of Energy's (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee are tracing the...
(Issue date: 05 July 2010)
- Histone H1 regulates gene activity throughout the cell cycle
A protein that helps pack DNA into the cell nucleus has an important role in regulating gene activity, scientists report. The researchers found that the protein, histone H1, also takes part in the formation of ribosomes, the...
(Issue date: 05 July 2010)
- Novel artificial proteins for industry and science
The creation of synthetic proteins plays an important role for economy and science. By the integration of artificial amino acids in proteins (genetic code engineering), their already existing qualities can be systematically...
(Issue date: 05 July 2010)
- Work-life balance: Brain stem cells need their rest, too
Stem cells in the brain remain dormant until called upon to divide and make more neurons. However, little has been known about the molecular guards that keep them quiet. Now scientists from the Salk Institute for Biological...
(Issue date: 05 July 2010)
- Scientists uncover novel role for DNA repair protein linked to cancer
Tufts University researchers in the School of Arts and Sciences have pinpointed a key cellular protein that repairs damaged DNA molecules but may also promote the development of cancer.
Assistant Professor of Biology Mitch...
(Issue date: 05 July 2010)
