Without fungi, dead trees wouldn’t decay. The short-order cooks of the natural world, certain types of fungi can decompose plant cell walls and deposit carbon back in the soil. Scientists supported by the Department of Energy’s Office of Science are investigating these processes and how we may be able to use them to make biofuels production cheaper and more efficient.
A study published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry is the first to describe a signaling pathway that affects communication — a process called quorum sensing — between Streptococcus bacteria cells.
A new study shows the mechanism by which bacteria die at temperatures too low to rupture their cell walls.
A research team led by Stony Brook University scientists Mansa Munshi and Maurizio Del Poeta has discovered a novel gene that helps understand the mechanism of survival of Cryptococcus neorformans. Their finding, published in Cell Reports, may help pave the way for more effective treatments against cryptococcosis.
A team of researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have used Nobel prize-winning microscope technology to see full length serotonin receptors for the first time. The tiny proteins—approximately a billionth of a meter long—are common drug targets, despite limited available information about their structure. Now, new images published in Nature Communications provide snapshots of the receptors, including details about molecular binding sites that could lead to more precise drug design.
Scientists have developed a CRISPR gene-editing technique that can potentially correct a majority of the 3,000 mutations that cause Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) by making a single cut at strategic points along the patient’s DNA, according to a study from UT Southwestern Medical Center.
Scientists at University of Utah Health believe they identified a mechanism that activates T cells, a key component of the immune system, which could explain the elusive link between a tick bite and persistent Lyme arthritis. The results are published online in the February 5th issue of The Journal of Immunology.
About 15 million Americans don’t have a typical nine-to-five workday, and many of these may see their schedule change drastically one week to the next. As a result, these shift workers’ biological clocks cannot keep accurate time, potentially making the negative effects of a high fat diet on metabolic disorders even more pronounced.
Genes in an area of the brain that is relatively similar in fish, humans and all vertebrates appear to regulate how organisms coordinate and shift their behaviors, according to a new Cornell University study.
Toppling a widespread assumption that a “lactation” hormone only cues animals to produce food for their babies, Cornell University researchers have shown the hormone also prompts zebra finches to be good parents.
Researchers at The University of Kansas Cancer Center have found that mitochondrial DNA may contain information that could help determine the likelihood of cancer metastasizing.
In approximately 15 percent of cases where couples are unable to conceive, the underlying cause of infertility is not known. Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and in the Division of Biological Sciences at UC San Diego have identified a protein in mice that must be present in eggs for them to complete normal development. Without the protein, called ZFP36L2, the eggs appear ordinary, but they cannot be fertilized by sperm.
Moffitt Cancer Center researchers are trying to identify new drug targets to reduce the risk of GVHD. Their new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows a drug that targets the protein JAK2 may reduce the risk of GVHD.
A pioneering glimpse at an enzyme inside elusive cell membranes elucidates a player in cell health but also in hepatitis C and in Alzheimer's. With neutron beams, researchers open a portal into the hidden world of intramembrane proteins, which a third of the human genome is required to create.
How does psychological stress translate into physical health effects? A key piece of the puzzle may be found in specialized cellular structures known as mitochondria, according to a pair of articles in the January issue of Psychosomatic Medicine: Journal of Biobehavioral Medicine, the official journal of the American Psychosomatic Society. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.
A historic study involving researchers from UT Southwestern’s Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center demonstrates the effectiveness of CAR-T therapy, which uses genetically modified immune cells to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children and young adults.
UCLA researchers, in collaboration with the University of Iowa, discovered the contribution of a specific gene in the proper development of blood cells that give rise to hematopoietic stem cells. The findings identify a potential target for the development of treatments for some types of leukemia, anemia and other blood disorders.
Harvard Medical School scientists have identified the molecular machinery responsible for secretion of the neurotransmitter dopamine, opening door for new strategies to precision target dopamine release.
Shape-shifters aren’t just the stuff of fiction, they’re real—and they’re inside our DNA. In the Feb. 1 issue of the journal Nature, researchers describe how two mismatched bases in human DNA change shape in order to avoid the body’s natural defenses against genetic mutations.
A new study pinpoints a mechanism that controls how basal cell cancers respond to treatment and offers new ideas for controlling this disease when it gets tricky.
UCLA researchers have discovered the inner workings of a gene network that regulates the development of spinal motor neurons in the growing chicken and mouse embryo. The research also answers a long-standing question about why motor neurons, the nerve cells of the spinal cord that control muscle movement, form much faster than other types of neurons.
“Hairy” nanoparticles made with light-sensitive materials that assemble themselves could one day become “nano-carriers” providing doctors a new way to simultaneously introduce both therapeutic drugs and cancer-fighting heat into tumors. That’s one potential application for a new technology that combines water-repelling yet light-sensitive and water-absorbing materials into polymeric nano-reactors for creating photo-responsive gold nanoparticles.
Scientists answered a long-standing question about the role of enhancers. And by better linking the genomic complement of an organism with its expressed characteristics, their work offers new insights that further the growing field of systems biology, which seeks to gain a predictive understanding of living systems.
Updated results from a global clinical trial of the CAR T-cell therapy, tisagenlecleucel, a landmark personalized treatment for a high-risk form of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), reveal that children and young adults continued to show high rates of durable, complete remission of their disease. Most side effects were short-lived and reversible.
University of California, Irvine scientists have created a new chemical tool that can analyze RNA structures within living cells. The technique could facilitate a better grasp of how RNA structures fold and form in cells, as well as help in the design of drugs targeting RNA.
Houston Methodist researchers have a new explanation for what causes the lungs’ airways to close during asthma attacks. The researchers who published the study in the Feb. 5 issue of the Journal of Experimental Medicine note that the discovery holds promise for developing a new class of drugs different from the steroids currently used to treat asthma.
Googling "SNARE proteins," neuroscientist Edward Chapman gets a screenful of images showing corkscrew-shaped molecules, intertwined as they seize the outer membranes of two cells. "They did not give us credit at Wikipedia, but we drew that cartoon," he says, with delicious irony. "And now we've proven that this model is wrong," he says. "The textbooks need to be adjusted."
A pandemic flu outbreak could kill millions. Now, researchers have found features of the virus's genome that influence how well it multiplies. The findings could help target pandemic flu surveillance efforts to make it easier to find the next outbreak before it spreads widely.
In breakthrough colon cancer research, scientists at Christiana Care Health System’s Center for Translational Cancer Research (CTCR) of the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute have discovered that over-expression of HOXA4 and HOXA9 genes in colon cancer stem cells promotes cell replication and contributes to the overpopulation of stem cells that drives colon cancer development. The findings suggest treatment with vitamin A derivatives, called retinoid drugs, could provide a therapeutic strategy for decreasing the expression of these HOX genes and for targeting highly resistant cancer stem cells.
Researchers have identified cells that indicate anxiety in the brains of mice.
Using a simple analytical framework for random events within a predictable system, computational biologists have found a new way to accurately model certain forms of gene expression, including the body's 24-hour internal clock. This new approach of applying a piecewise deterministic Markov process (PDMP) to gene expression could inform possible design principles for synthetic biologists
Based on a novel approach to drug discovery, researchers at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center say an agent approved to treat a type of leukemia might also help young people with a much rarer and aggressive form of cancer, Ewing sarcoma.
Researchers with the Iowa Neuroscience Institute at the University of Iowa have shown that a group of neurons responsible for arousal are directly triggered by carbon dioxide and cause mice to wake up without any changes to breathing.
UCLA researchers Dr. Leonard Marks and Shyam Natarajan will lead a $3.1 million research project grant awarded by the National Institutes of Health to advance the adoption of a promising new technology to treat men with prostate cancer. By helping to increase the widespread use of the technique, known as MRI-guided focal laser ablation, the research has the potential to vastly improve treatment options and outcomes for patients with the disease.
The 2018 Experimental Biology meeting will be held April 21-25 in San Diego. With more than 14,000 attendees and hundreds of scientific sessions, EB 2018 is a life science research bonanza you won’t want to miss.
Castleman disease, a rare disorder of the lymph nodes and related tissues, was identified and named more than a half-century ago but, until recently, no one had written a book exclusively about it. Frits van Rhee, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine and director of developmental and translational medicine at the Myeloma Institute at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), has changed that.
New drugs that activate the immune system to target cancer cells have improved the lives of many patients with cancer. However, immunotherapies are not effective in all patients, and the success of these therapies depends on individual patient factors. A team of Moffitt Cancer Center researchers is trying to find new ways to further enhance the activity of the immune system against cancer. In an article published in the January issue of Cancer Cell, the researchers describe how a new type of immunotherapy drug targeting the protein TIM-3 works to stimulate the immune system.
Amyloid plaques have long been believed to be an indicator of neurodegenerative disease. But according to Raymond Anderson, a graduate student in West Virginia University's School of Medicine, such buildup alone does not correlate with disease severity. In fact, these buildups may even protect neurons.
Lab scientists use cryo-electron microscopy to gain a deeper understanding of the structure of a regulatory complex. Their research could open up new possibilities for cancer therapies.
A University of Colorado Cancer Center study published in the journal Pediatric Blood Cancers lays the scientific groundwork for the use of PD-1 inhibitors with an aggressive form of brain cancer, namely supratentorial pediatric ependymoma.
Researchers at The University of Kansas Cancer Center are working to fill the knowledge gap between DNA damage and cancer, including developing approaches to manipulate the DNA damage response to treat and prevent disease. Their research on an integral DNA repair protein was recently highlighted in the scientific journal, Nature Communications.
A synthetic protein that disrupts the ability of bacteria to perform basic life functions—moving, eating, attaching to hosts—could be a key to fighting infectious disease and preventing bacteria from evolving into drug-resistant pathogens.
Teresa Woodruff explains the fight for female inclusion in scientific research.CHICAGO - Women’s health research got a federal and local boost with the declaration of a national Women’s Health Research Day to coincide with the 2nd Annual Symposium on Sex Inclusion in Biomedical Research on Jan. 25.This event celebrates the second anniversary of the implementation of the landmark policy set forth by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) requiring investigators to consider sex as a biological variable.
CHICAGO - Northwestern Medicine scientists have discovered that two key cellular structures, called mitochondria and lysosomes, come into direct contact with each other in the cell to regulate their respective functions. This rare discovery has implications for the research of many diseases, including Parkinson's and cancer, as well as for the understanding of normal aging.
A new test developed by researchers at Mayo Clinic shows which mutations in the BRCA2 gene make women susceptible to developing breast or ovarian cancers. The research behind the test was published today in the American Journal of Human Genetics.
UCLA scientists found that boosting mice's cholesterol levels spurred intestinal stem cells to divide more quickly, enabling tumors to form faster. The study identifies a new drug target for colon cancer treatment.
The study proved a mosquito’s preference can shift if that person’s smell is associated with an unpleasant sensation. Hosts who swat at mosquitoes or perform other defensive behaviors may be abandoned, no matter how sweet.
Mayo Clinic的研究人员开发的一项新的测试可以显示BRCA2基因（BRCA2 gene）中的哪些突变会使女性易患乳腺（breast）癌或卵巢（ovarian）癌。 与该测试相关的研究发表在美国人类遗传学杂志上（American Journal of Human Genetics）。
Scientists at the Morgridge Institute for Research have discovered a promising new target to fight a class of viruses responsible for health threats such as Zika, polio, dengue, SARS and hepatitis C.
A team from the University of Delaware and University of California, San Diego recently uncovered new insights about how E. coli bacteria mutate in response to a life-threatening challenge.
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