- Explaining why pruning encourages plants to thrive
Scientists have shown that the main shoot dominates a plant’s growth principally because it was there first, rather than due to its position at the top of the plant.
Collaborating teams from the University of York in the UK and...
(Issue date: 24 September 2009)
- Rethinking Alzheimer's disease and its treatment targets
The standard explanation for what causes Alzheimer's is known as the amyloid hypothesis, which posits that the disease results from of an accumulation of the peptide amyloid beta, the toxic protein fragments that deposit in the...
(Issue date: 24 September 2009)
- Chemists Reach from the Molecular to the Real World with Creation of 3-D DNA Crystals
New York University chemists have created three-dimensional DNA structures, a breakthrough bridging the molecular world to the world where we live. The work also has a range of potential industrial and pharmaceutical...
(Issue date: 14 September 2009)
- Biologists discover "death stench" is a universal ancient warning signal
The smell of recent death or injury that repels living relatives of insects has been identified as a truly ancient signal that functions to avoid disease or predators, biologists have discovered. David Rollo, professor of biology...
(Issue date: 14 September 2009)
- When Proteins Change Partners
Dieter Wolf, M.D., and colleagues at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) have illuminated how competition between proteins enhances combinatorial diversity during ubiquitination (the process that marks proteins for...
(Issue date: 14 September 2009)
- Scientists Discover Mechanism to Make Existing Antibiotics More Effective at Lower Doses
A new study by researchers at the NYU School of Medicine reveals a conceptually novel mechanism that plays an important role in making human pathogens like Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus anthracis resistant to numerous...
(Issue date: 14 September 2009)
- U-M researchers find gene that protects high-fat-diet mice from obesity
University of Michigan researchers have identified a gene that acts as a master switch to control obesity in mice. When the switch is turned off, even high-fat-diet mice remain thin.
Deleting the gene, called IKKE, also appears...
(Issue date: 14 September 2009)
- We're all mutants, say scientists
Each of us has at least 100 new mutations in our DNA, according to research. Scientists have been trying to get an accurate estimate of the mutation rate for over 70 years. However, only now has it been possible to get a reliable...
(Issue date: 05 September 2009)
- Clemson University researcher regenerates brain tissue in traumatic injuries
An injectable biomaterial gel may help brain tissue grow at the site of a traumatic brain injury, according to findings by a Clemson University bioengineer. Research by assistant professor of bioengineering Ning Zhang shows that...
(Issue date: 05 September 2009)
- 60-Year-Old Drug Shows New Promise for Inherited Cancer
Cancer Research UK-funded scientists have shown that an early chemotherapy drug invented in the 1940s has the potential to work against a genetic fault called HNPCC which is linked to bowel and other cancers. HNPCC is a...
(Issue date: 05 September 2009)
- Fungal Map of Mutations Key to Increasing Enzyme Production for Bioenergy Use
In half a century, one fungus has gone from being the bane of the Army quartermasters’ existence in the Pacific to industry staple and someday, as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s mission to promote national energy...
(Issue date: 05 September 2009)
- Corrective genes closer thanks to enzyme modification
Scientists from the Université de Montréal and McGill University have re-engineered a human enzyme, a protein that accelerates chemical reactions within the human body, to become highly resistant to harmful agents such as...
(Issue date: 05 September 2009)
- DIESEL EXHAUST IS LINKED TO CANCER DEVELOPMENT VIA NEW BLOOD VESSEL GROWTH
Scientists here are the first to demonstrate that the link between diesel fume exposure and cancer lies in the ability of diesel exhaust to induce the growth of new blood vessels that serve as a food supply for solid...
(Issue date: 05 September 2009)
- Parasites persuade immune cells to invite them in for dinner, says new research
The parasites that cause leishmaniasis use a quirky trick to convince the immune system to effectively invite them into cells for dinner. The researchers, from Imperial College London, say their findings improve understanding of...
(Issue date: 27 August 2009)
- Scientists Control Living Cells With Light; Advances Could Enhance Stem Cells' Power
University of Central Florida researchers have shown for the first time that light energy can gently guide and change the orientation of living cells within lab cultures. That ability to optically steer cells could be a major...
(Issue date: 27 August 2009)
- The blossoms of maturity
A newly discovered signalling pathway ensures that plants remember to flower - even without positive signals from the environment. Plants normally flower in response to seasonal changes, such as those associated with the end of...
(Issue date: 27 August 2009)
- Understanding Intrinsic Changes in Protein Shape Could Lead to New Drugs
Computational biologists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have shown that proteins have an intrinsic ability to change shape, and this is required for their biological activity. This shape-changing also allows...
(Issue date: 27 August 2009)
- New Ultrasensitive Electronic Sensor Array Speeds Up DNA Detection
Scientists at Singapore’s Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN), the world’s first bioengineering and nanotechnology research institute, have successfully developed a novel electronic sensor array for more rapid,...
(Issue date: 27 August 2009)
- Nano-magnets guide stem cells to damaged tissue
Microscopic magnetic particles have been used to bring stem cells to sites of cardiovascular injury in a new method designed to increase the capacity of cells to repair damaged tissue, UCL scientists have announced.
The cross...
(Issue date: 21 August 2009)
- Osteoporosis research to investigate effects of cannabis on thinning bones
Scientists are to recruit 200 heavy cannabis users to investigate whether the drug has a harmful affect on users’ bones. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh believe their research programme could lead to completely new...
(Issue date: 21 August 2009)
