- AIDS virus changes in semen make it different than in blood
The virus that causes AIDS may undergo changes in the genital tract that make HIV-1 in semen different than what it is in the blood, according to a study led by researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill....
(Issue date: 23 August 2010)
- Researchers advance understanding of enzyme that regulates
Thanks to a single-molecule imaging technique developed by a University of Illinois professor, researchers have revealed the mechanisms of an important DNA-regulating enzyme. Helicase enzymes are best known for "unzipping" DNA...
(Issue date: 23 August 2010)
- New molecular signalling cascade increases glucose uptake
Scientists from Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences have in collaboration with colleagues at Harvard University discovered a novel molecular pathway which is activated in muscles during exercise.
Skeletal muscles combust...
(Issue date: 23 August 2010)
- Scientists pry new information from disease-causing, shellfish-borne bacterium
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have uncovered a key weapon in the molecular arsenal the infectious bacterium Vibrio parahaemolyticus (V. para) uses to kill cells and cause food poisoning in its human host.
Dr. Kim...
(Issue date: 23 August 2010)
- Road signs and traffic signals on DNA
The DNA genomes of organisms whose cells possess nuclei are packaged in a highly characteristic fashion. Most of the DNA is tightly wrapped around protein particles called nucleosomes, which are connected to each other by...
(Issue date: 23 August 2010)
- A pharmacy on the back of a cell
Drugs encapsulated in new MIT nanoparticles can hitch a ride to tumours on the surface of immune-system cells. Clinical trials using patients’ own immune cells to target tumours have yielded promising results. However, this...
(Issue date: 19 August 2010)
- Scientists Reveal New Targets for Anti-Angiogenesis Drugs
A new study describes how a carbohydrate-binding protein, galectin-3, promotes angiogenesis, the growth of new blood vessels. Targeting the protein, scientists identified two approaches that significantly reduced angiogenesis in...
(Issue date: 19 August 2010)
- Bacteria breakthrough is heaven scent
Bacteria are well-known to be the cause of some of the most repugnant smells on earth, but now scientists have revealed this lowest of life forms actually has a sense of smell of its own.
A team of marine microbiologists at...
(Issue date: 19 August 2010)
- Obesity and diabetes: immune cells in fat tissue explain the link
Inflammation-causing cells in fat tissue may explain the link between obesity and diabetes, a team of Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researchers has shown.
The discovery, by Professor Len Harrison and Dr John Wentworth from the...
(Issue date: 19 August 2010)
- Researchers find function of proteins that can enhance the progression of viruses and cancer cells
In a discovery that has implications for developing treatments against cancer and potentially deadly viruses, researchers at SUNY Downstate Medical Center have discovered the function of proteins that can enhance the progression...
(Issue date: 19 August 2010)
- Newly discovered mechanism controls levels and efficacy of a marijuana-like substance in the brain
A newly discovered molecular mechanism helps control the amount and effectiveness of a substance that mimics an active ingredient in marijuana, but that is produced by the body's own nerve cells.
The lead author on the study is...
(Issue date: 09 August 2010)
- EMBL scientists identify molecular machinery that maintains important feature of the spindle
During cell division, microtubules emanating from each of the spindle poles meet and overlap in the spindle’s midzone. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have uncovered the...
(Issue date: 09 August 2010)
- Scientists create human embryonic stem cells with enhanced pluripotency
Whitehead Institute researchers have converted established human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells and human embryonic stem (ES) cells to a base state of greater pluripotency.
"This is a previously unknown pluripotent state...
(Issue date: 09 August 2010)
- Newts' ability to regenerate tissue replicated in mouse cells by scientists
Researchers in Helen Blau's lab have found a way to help mouse cells regenerate tissues in the same way that newts do.
Tissue regeneration a la salamanders and newts seems like it should be the stuff of science fiction. But it...
(Issue date: 09 August 2010)
- Gladstone Scientists Discover New Method for Regenerating Heart Muscle by Direct Reprogramming
Scientists at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease (GICD) have found a new way to make beating heart cells from the body's own cells that could help regenerate damaged hearts. Over 5 million Americans suffer from...
(Issue date: 09 August 2010)
- Calcium Connections: Penn Researchers Discover Basic Pathway for Maintaining Cell’s Fuel Stores
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researchers have described a previously unknown biological mechanism in cells that prevents them from cannibalising themselves for fuel. The mechanism involves the fuel used by cells...
(Issue date: 03 August 2010)
- Herpes Virus Treats Head And Neck Cancer Patients
A genetically engineered cold sore virus has been used to treat head and neck cancer patients in a Phase I/II clinical trial run by The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust.
The herpes...
(Issue date: 03 August 2010)
- 'Guardian of the genome': Protein helps prevent damaged DNA in yeast
Like a scout that runs ahead to spot signs of damage or danger, a protein in yeast safeguards the yeast cells' genome during replication -- a process vulnerable to errors when DNA is copied -- according to new Cornell...
(Issue date: 03 August 2010)
- New insights into how stem cells determine what tissue to become
Within 24 hours of culturing adult human stem cells on a new type of matrix, University of Michigan researchers were able to make predictions about how the cells would differentiate, or what type of tissue they would become....
(Issue date: 03 August 2010)
- UT Southwestern researchers find key step in body's ability to make red blood cells
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have uncovered a key step in the creation of new red blood cells in an animal study.
They found that a tiny fragment of ribonucleic acid (RNA), a chemical cousin of DNA, prompts stem...
(Issue date: 03 August 2010)
