Better known as the light sensor that sets the body's biological clock, melanopsin also plays an important role in vision: Via its messengers-so-called melanopsin-expressing retinal ganglion cells, or mRGCs-it forwards information about the brightness of incoming light directly to conventional visual centers in the brain, reports an international collaboration of scientists in this week's issue of PLoS Biology.
Researchers discovered that a pair of enzymes called HDACs are critical to the proper formation of mammalian skin. The findings not only provide information about the molecular processes underlying skin development, they also suggest a potential anticancer strategy. Inhibition of these HDAC enzymes might be able to shut down the growth of tumors that contain cells resembling those in embryonic skin.
A brand-new bacterial species has been found aboard the RMS Titanic, which is contributing to its deterioration. The discovery by a team led by researchers at Dalhousie University reveals a potential new microbial threat to the exterior of ships and underwater metal structures such as oil rigs.
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An international team has identified a gene that appears to be an important switch in determining whether the biological program for the development of gender will go according to plan, or if, when mutated, will cause a glitch in the program.
Microbiologists Derek Lovley, Zarath Summers and colleagues report in the Dec. 2 issue of Science that they’ve discovered a surprising new cooperative behavior in bacteria known as interspecies electron transfer. It could have important implications for the global carbon cycle and bioenergy.
Groundbreaking discovery moves field closer to therapeutic applications.
Neuropsychologists at Baylor University have found the particular cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the age-dependent effect of alcohol in teens that may cause the reduced motor impairment.
Deletion of key muscle protein inhibits exercise.
Johns Hopkins scientists report success in significantly lowering levels of both fat mass and blood sugar in mice treated with a chemical compound designed to disrupt production of a hormone known to stimulate weight gain in humans.
A team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and their colleagues describe a molecular pathway that is a key determinant of the aging process.
With few exceptions, jumping genes-restless bits of DNA that can move freely about the genome-are forced to stay put. In patients with Rett syndrome, however, a mutation in the MeCP2 gene mobilizes so-called L1 retrotransposons in brain cells, reshuffling their genomes and possibly contributing to the symptoms of the disease when they find their way into active genes, report researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
New research led by scientists from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and the University of California, Santa Barbara, describes new complexities in the close chemical combat waged among bacteria. The findings may have implications for human health and survival.
Researchers have solved the structure of cystathionine beta-synthase, a protein that is integral to processes responsible for maintaining a healthy heart and nervous system.
The liver's unique ability among organs to regenerate itself has been little understood. Now Weill Cornell Medical College scientists have shed light on how the liver restores itself by demonstrating that endothelial cells -- the cells that form the lining of blood vessels -- play a key role.
A collaborative effort between researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the University of California, San Diego, successfully used human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells derived from patients with Rett syndrome to replicate autism in the lab and study the molecular pathogenesis of the disease.
Scientists have observed, for the first time, an intermediate stage in the chemical process that repairs DNA methylation damage and regulates many important biological functions that impact health conditions such as obesity, cancer and diabetes.
In an important breakthrough, scientists at McMaster University in Hamilton, ON, Canada, have discovered how to make human blood from adult human skin. Published in Nature, their paper has also shown the conversion of stem cells is direct, without translation through a pluripotent stem cell state.
By tracking the flow of information in a cell preparing to split, Johns Hopkins scientists have identified a protein mechanism that coordinates and regulates the dynamics of shape change necessary for division of a single cell into two daughter cells.
A study by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies revealed that stem cells can sense a decrease in available nutrients and respond by retaining only a small pool of active stem cells for tissue maintenance. When, or if, favorable conditions return, stem cell numbers multiply to accommodate increased demands on the tissue.
Mix two parts cornstarch and one part water. Swirl your fingers in it slowly and the mixture is a smoothly flowing liquid. Punch it quickly with your fist and you meet a rubbery solid -- so solid you can jump up and down on a vat of it. Cell membranes behave the same way.
Researchers with the Virginia Institute of Marine Science identify “alien pod” in local lake as a very large colony of freshwater bryozoans—aka "moss animals."
A team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Stanford University has devised a technology to more easily obtain membrane proteins for study.
Ken-ichi Noma, Ph.D., and Wistar researchers determined the three-dimensional structure of the fission yeast genome, S. pombe. The study is the first to combine microscopy with advanced genomic sequencing techniques, enabling researchers to literally see gene interactions. Applying this technique to the human genome may provide both scientists and physicians a whole new framework from which to better understand genes and disease. The study was published online as a featured article in the journal Nucleic Acids Research.
Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have reported the exact molecular structure and mechanisms of a major cell signaling pathway that serves a broad range of functions in humans.
Sanford-Burnham researchers discover how the enzyme SHIP regulates B cell growth in mice, findings that could impact lymphoma drugs in development.
A change in membrane voltage in newly identified "instructor cells" can cause stem cells' descendants to trigger melanoma-like growth in distant pigment cells. This metastatic transformation is due to changes in serotonin transport. Discovery of this novel bioelectric signal and cell type may help fight cancer, vitiligo and birth defects.
A new technique that searches blood for the tiniest remnants of broken down proteins has revealed new information about how cells crank up cancer activators called proteases. The results improve researchers' understanding of the mechanics of breast cancer and point to where to look for possible indicators of early disease. Appearing this week in PLoS ONE, the research shows previously unknown contributing factors to protease activation, which helps spread cancer.
A paper by NIST researchers may breathe new life into the use of a powerful--but tricky--diagnostic technique for cell biology.
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found that fluctuations in internal body temperature regulate the body’s circadian rhythm, the 24-hour cycle that controls metabolism, sleep and other bodily functions.
Whale feces float--and strongly enhance productivity of fisheries, scientists at the University of Vermont and Harvard have found, reversing the assumption that whales accelerate loss of nutrients to the bottom. This nitrogen input in the Gulf of Maine is more than the input of all rivers combined, 23,000 metric tons annually.
Using large-scale computer simulations, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have identified the most important factors affecting how molecules move through the crowded environment inside living cells.
Microbes matter -- perhaps more than anyone realizes -- in basic biological development and, maybe, they could be a target for reducing cancer risks, according to University of Oregon researchers.
By reconstructing an ancient protein and tracing how it subtly changed over vast periods of time to produce scores of modern-day descendants, scientists have shown how evolution tinkers with early forms and leaves the impression that complexity evolved many times.
Researchers at Vanderbilt University, Pennsylvania State University and the University of Pittsburgh have discovered a fundamentally new way that DNA-repair enzymes detect and fix damage to the chemical bases that form the letters in the genetic code.
A calcium-sensing protein, STIM1, known to activate store-operated calcium channels has been found to also inhibit voltage-operated calcium channels.
High levels of the stress hormone cortisol play a critical role in blocking testosterone's influence on competition and domination, according to new psychology research at The University of Texas at Austin.
Conductive polymers are plastic materials with high electrical conductivity that promise to revolutionize a wide range of products including TV displays, solar cells, and biomedical sensors. A team of McGill University researchers have now reported how to visualize and study the process of energy transport along one single conductive polymer molecule at a time, a key step towards bringing these exciting new applications to market.
Researchers at Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah demonstrate in a study featured today in Cell the mechanism by which mutation of the APC gene affects a cellular process known as DNA methylation.
Investigators, led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego, have mapped a huge network of protein interactions involving Mitogen Activated Protein Kinase (MAPK) pathways. Their study will be published in the advanced online edition of Nature Methods on September 19.
Rod cells – one of three kinds of exquisitely photosensitive cells found in the retina of the eye – are surprisingly found to be the only ones responsible for “setting” our internal clocks in low light.
Researchers have long believed that starving cancer cells of glutamine, which cancer cells require in larger quantities than normal cells, would help fight some cancers. Now, they have discovered a molecule that does the job.
By constructing a microscope apparatus that achieves resolution never before possible in living cells, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have illuminated the molecular interactions that occur during one of the most important “trips” in all of biology: the journey of individual messenger Ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules from the nucleus into the cytoplasm (the area between the nucleus and cell membrane) so that proteins can be made.
Proteins are made up of a chain of amino acids, and scientists have known since the 1980s that first one in the chain determines the lifetime of a protein. McGill researchers have finally discovered how the cell identifies this first amino acid – and caught it on camera.
Scientists from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have identified dendritic antigen-presenting cells in zebrafish, opening the possibility that the tiny fish could become a new model for studying the complexities of the human immune system.
Researchers at the Buck Institute for Age Research have discovered a novel way in which insulin affects cell metabolism and cell survival. Surprisingly the insulin signaling pathway, which is involved in aging, diabetes and stress response, is active at a deeper level of cell activity than scientists expected.
Long-sought chemical antioxidants in the world’s toughest microbe is reported in a breakthrough study.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego have revealed new details about how cannibalistic bacteria identify peers suitable for consumption. The work, which employed imaging mass spectrometry, is a first step toward a broader effort to map all signaling molecules between organisms
Johns Hopkins researchers working on mice have discovered a protein that is a major target of a gene that, when mutated in humans, causes tumors to develop on nerves associated with hearing, as well as cataracts in the eyes.
A long-held assumption about asymmetrical division of stem cells has cracked. Researchers at the University of Oregon report that the mitotic spindle does not act alone -- that cortical proteins help to position a cleavage furrow in the right location.
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