Novel contrast agents that sneak into bacteria disguised as glucose food can detect bacterial infections in animals with high sensitivity and specificity. These agents -- called maltodextrin-based imaging probes -- can also distinguish a bacterial infection from other inflammatory conditions.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists have identified a key immune system regulator, a protein that serves as a gatekeeper in the white blood cells that produce the “troops” to battle specific infections.
Using two methods, Whitehead researchers have manipulated targeted genes in both human embryonic stem (ES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. In one case, scientists employed proteins known as ZFNs to change a single base pair in the genome, allowing them either to insert or remove mutations known to cause early-onset Parkinson’s disease (PD).
Stowers researchers pinpoint the Super Elongation Complex as a major regulator in the coordinated expression of early developmental genes.
Successful gene expression requires the concerted action of a host of regulatory factors. Long overshadowed by bonafide transcription factors, coactivators—the hanger-ons that facilitate transcription by docking onto transcription factors or modifying chromatin—have recently come to the fore.
Farmers and other astute observers of nature have long known that crops like corn and sorghum grow taller at night. But the biochemical mechanisms that control this nightly stem elongation, common to most plants, have been something of a mystery to biologists—until now.
A small protein called SUMO might prevent the protein aggregations that typify Parkinson’s disease (PD), according to a new study in the July 11, 2011, issue of The Journal of Cell Biology.
Oh, the challenges of being a neuron, responsible for essential things like muscle contraction, gland secretion and sensitivity to touch, sound and light, yet constantly bombarded with signals from here, there and everywhere.
A discovery by University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers about a how a common cell pathway that helps regulate cell survival and production is turned on could lead to new treatments for autoimmune diseases and cancer.
Researchers at the Salk Institute have been able to genetically incorporate "unnatural" amino acids, such as those emitting green fluorescence, into neural stem cells, which then differentiate into brain neurons with the incandescent "tag" intact.
This study showed that pluripotent cells are not all equal. The researchers discovered the fate – or destination – of human pluripotent stem cells is encoded by how their DNA is arranged, and this can be detected by specific proteins on the surface of the stem cells.
A report from the Conaway lab at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in the July 8, 2011, edition of the journal Cell identifies a switch that allows RNA polymerase to shift gears from neutral into drive and start transcribing. This work sheds light on a process fundamental to all plant or animal cells and suggests how transcriptional anomalies could give rise to tumors.
By mapping various genomes onto an X-Y axis, a team comprised mostly of Kansas State University researchers has found that Charles Darwin and a fruit fly -- among other organisms -- have a lot in common genetically.
Excess nutrients, such as fat and sugar, don’t just pack on the pounds but can push some cells in the body over the brink. Unable to tolerate this “toxic” environment, these cells commit suicide. Now, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have discovered three unexpected players that help a cell overloaded with fat initiate its own demise.
When researchers at the Buck Institute dialed back activity of a specific mRNA translation factor in adult nematode worms they saw an unexpected genome-wide response that effectively increased activity in specific stress response genes that could help explain why the worms lived 40 percent longer under this condition. The study highlights the importance of mRNA translation in the aging process.
Using ovarian surface epithelial cells from mice, researchers from Virginia Tech have released findings from a study that they believe will help in cancer risk assessment, cancer diagnosis, and treatment efficiency in a technical journal.
Molecular and cell biologists at the University of Virginia Health System have discovered new information about how the Ebola virus works that could eventually lead to new drug treatments for the deadly virus.
A Case Western Reserve University researcher has found that the environment not only weeds out harmful and useless mutations through natural selection, but actually influences helpful mutations, which are passed to the next generation. He challenges peers to repeat the controversial findings.
A new U-M study bring us one step closer to developing treatments for issues associated with aging or chronic diseases in which cells lose their ability to maintain a stable pattern of gene expression.
Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have found clues to the functioning of an important damage response protein in cells. The protein, p53, can cause cells to stop dividing or even to commit suicide when they show signs of DNA damage, and it is responsible for much of the tissue destruction that follows exposure to ionizing radiation or DNA-damaging drugs such as the ones commonly used for cancer therapy. The new finding shows that a short segment on p53 is needed to fine-tune the protein’s activity in blood-forming stem cells and their progeny after they incur DNA damage.
A Johns Hopkins team has discovered in young adult mice that a lone brain stem cell is capable not only of replacing itself and giving rise to specialized neurons and glia – important types of brain cells – but also of taking a wholly unexpected path: generating two new brain stem cells.
A team of North Carolina State University researchers has discovered more about how a gene connected to the production of new brain cells in adults does its job. Their findings could pave the way to new therapies for brain injury or disease.
Columbia engineers develop new bioengineering approach to study stem cell function and factors that could lead to birth defects and disease.
There will be some very interesting passengers on the final mission of the NASA Space Shuttle Atlantis scheduled to launch July 8, 2011: thousands of bacteria.
By accounting for the floppy, fickle nature of RNA, researchers at the University of Michigan and the University of California, Irvine have developed a new way to search for drugs that target this important molecule. Their work appears in the June 26 issue of Nature Chemical Biology.
A new model of the single-celled marine cyanobacterium Cyanothece could help researchers use blue-green algae to make renewable energy by predicting which of its genes are central to capturing energy from sunlight.
Biologists worldwide subscribe to the healthy herds hypothesis, but could it be that predators can also make prey populations more susceptible to other predators or even parasites? Biologists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have discovered at least one animal whose defenses against a predator make it a good target for one opportunistic parasite.
In an effort to unravel the tangled biology of autism, Johns Hopkins scientists have created a mouse model that mimics a human mutation of a gene known to be associated with autism spectrum disorders.
The first roadmap to mathematical modeling of a powerful basic "decision circuit" in breast cancer has been developed and published in Nature Reviews Cancer.
A sugar-binding protein called galectin-9 traps an enzyme that influences how T-cells behave onto their surface, making them more susceptible to HIV infection.
In a study at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, researchers found that when a common type of prostate cancer was treated with conventional hormone ablation therapy blocking androgen production or androgen receptor (AR) function– which drives growth of the tumor – the cancer was able to adapt and compensate by activating a survival cell signaling pathway, effectively circumventing the roadblock put up by this treatment.
A new study from Mount Sinai School of Medicine has found that a cellular signaling pathway governs the differentiation of cells into fat tissue or smooth muscle, which lines the vascular system. Engaging this signaling pathway and its capacity to govern cell differentiation has important implications in preventing obesity and cardiovascular disease. The study is published in the June issue of Developmental Cell.
Communication Between Hair Follicles and Melanocyte Stem Cells Key to Mystery. Findings Also Offer Insight into Human Tissue Regeneration.
Birds do it, bees do it, and for most things biological, even plants do it. But not necessarily like their animal counterparts. A study led by Salk Institute scientists shows that a plant receptor does one of the most fundamental cellular “its”—the delivery of a hormonal signal from outside the cell to the nucleus—in a radically different way than its animal cousins. Knowing that could aid creation of techniques to speed plant growth and enhance agricultural production.
Among science’s “final frontiers,” one of the most difficult to cross has been looking into the workings of living cells. Now, a UMass Amherst physicist has built an instrument that sees and photographs single molecules in real time, to uncover such secrets as how enzymes regulate cell functions.
A biological sensor is a critical part of a human cell's control system that is able to trigger a number of cell activities. A type of sensor known as the "gating ring" can open a channel that allows a flow of potassium ions through the cell's wall or membrane — similar to the way a subway turnstile allows people into a station. This flow of ions, in turn, is involved in the regulation of crucial bodily activities like blood pressure, insulin secretion and brain signaling. But the biophysical functioning of the gating ring sensor has not been clearly understood. Now, UCLA researchers have uncovered for the first time the sensor's molecular mechanism, shedding new light on the complexity of cells' control systems.
Revealing another part of the story of muscle development, Johns Hopkins researchers have shown how the cytoskeleton from one muscle cell builds finger-like projections that invade into another muscle cell’s territory, eventually forcing the cells to combine.
It’s long been known that cancer cells eat a lot of sugar to stay alive. In fact, where normal, noncancerous cells generate energy from using some sugar and a lot of oxygen, cancerous cells use virtually no oxygen and a lot of sugar. Many genes have been implicated in this process and now, reporting in the May 27 issue of Cell, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have discovered that this so-called Warburg effect is controlled.
In his new book, 'First Life,' biochemist David Deamer presents an engaging and accessible overview of research into life's beginnings and a personal history of his work in this field.
The NSF has awarded a three-year, $1.12 million grant to three Virginia Tech researchers with expertise in systems biology and tissue engineering to determine how different cell types communicate.
Using a tiny bloodless worm, University of Maryland Associate Professor Iqbal Hamza and his team have discovered a large piece in the puzzle of how humans, and other organisms, safely move iron around in the body. The findings, published in the journal Cell, could lead to new methods for treating age-old scourges - parasitic worm infections, which affect more than a quarter of the world's population, and iron deficiency, the world's number one nutritional disorder.
Researchers at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson show that a simple sugar, lactate, is like “candy for cancer cells.”
Scientists at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research discovered a molecule called c-Abl that has a known role in leukemia also has a hand in Alzheimer’s disease.
Brenda Schulman, Ph.D., of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is a joint winner of The Protein Society’s 2011 Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin Award. The award recognizes exceptional contributions in protein science, which profoundly influence the understanding of biology.
Researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have discovered a new drug target for squamous cell carcinoma – the second most common form of skin cancer. Scientists in the laboratory of Valeri Vasioukhin, Ph.D., have found that a protein called alpha-catenin acts as a tumor suppressor and they also have unlocked the mechanism by which this protein controls cell proliferation.
A recently discovered enzyme drives the production of a potent form of estrogen in human breast cancer tissue, according to researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine.
A new comparison of proteins shared across species finds that complex organisms, including humans, have accumulated structural weaknesses that may have actually launched the long journey from microbe to man. The study, published in Nature, suggests that the random introduction of errors into proteins, rather than traditional natural selection, may have boosted the evolution of biological complexity.
In basic research with far-reaching impact, cell biologists Wei-Lih Lee and Steven Markus report in Developmental Cell that they have solved one of the fundamental questions in stem cell division: How dynein, the cell’s nano-scale “mitotic motor,” positions itself to direct the dividing process.
The seeds sprouting in your spring garden may still be struggling to reach the sun. If so, they are consuming a finite energy pack contained within each seed. Once those resources are depleted, the plant cell nucleus must be ready to switch on a “green” photosynthetic program. Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies recently showed a new way that those signals are relayed.
What does it take to regenerate a limb? Biologists have long thought that organ regeneration in animals like zebrafish and salamanders involved stem cells that can generate any tissue in the body. But new research suggests that cells capable of regenerating a zebrafish fin do not revert to stem cells that can form any tissue. Instead, the individual cells retain their original identities and only give rise to more of their own kind.
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