Food dyes can give cakes, candy and sodas brilliant colors of the rainbow. Now a team of food scientists at Rutgers University in New Jersey has found that food coloring may be able to play more than its traditional esthetic role in food presentation.
Incredibly tough, slightly stretchy spider silk is a lightweight, biodegradable wonder material with numerous potential biomedical applications. But although humans have been colonizing relatively placid silkworms for thousands of years, harvesting silk from territorial and sometimes cannibalistic spiders has proven impractical. Instead, labs hoping to harness spider silk's mechanical properties are using its molecular structure as a template for their own biomimetic silks.
Knowing how cells exert force and sense mechanical feedback in their microenvironment is crucial to understanding how they activate a wide range of cellular functions, such as cell reproduction, differentiation and adhesion. Now a more fine-grained picture of adhesion mechanics is emerging, thanks to a new tool developed in Illinois in recent years called a "tension gauge tether," which allows scientists to measure cell mechanics at the single-molecule level.
Not unlike an urban restaurant, the success of a bacterial cell depends on three things: localization, localization and localization. But the complete set of controls by which bacteria control the movement of proteins and other essential biological materials globally within the confines of their membrane walls has been something of a mystery. Now, researchers have parsed out the localization mechanisms that E. coli use to sort through and organize their subcellular components.
A large percentage of the world's population -- fully one third, by the World Health Organization's estimates -- is currently overweight or obese. This staggering statistics has made finding ways to address obesity a top priority for many scientists around the globe, and now a group of researchers at the University of Wyoming has found promise in the potential of capsaicin -- the chief ingredient in chili peppers -- as a diet-based supplement.
Good drugs are hard to design: they must not only effectively treat a medical condition, but they must also do so without having side effects that outweigh their benefits. Sometimes, toxic side effects aren’t discovered until late in development, when substantial time and money have already been invested. Now, researchers have devised a new drug screen that capitalizes on the tendency of toxic compounds to alter the properties of the lipid bilayer that encases cells.
By employing derivatives of humanin, a naturally occurring peptide encoded in the genome of cellular mitochondria, researchers at Ben Gurion University of the Negev are working to interrupt necrosis, buying precious time for tissues whose cellular mechanisms have called it quits.
During the Biophysical Society's 59th Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Md., Christophe Lavelle, an expert in biophysics, epigenetics and food science who works for the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, France, will describe his research dedicated to gaining a deeper understanding of genome compaction within the cells in our bodies and the way it influences gene expression.
To prepare for people for safely journeying into space for extended periods of time in the future, it's crucial to gain a better understanding of the biophysics involved within reduced gravity and microgravity environments. To this end, a team of University of Delaware researchers is preparing to send transparent microscopic worms called "Caenorhabditas elegans" up to the International Space Station.
Combining experimental data from X-ray crystallography, NMR spectroscopy, cryoelectron microscopy and lipidomics, researchers have built a complete model of the outer envelope of an influenza A virion for the first time. The approach, known as a coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulation, has allowed them to generate trajectories at different temperatures and lipid compositions – revealing various characteristics that may help scientists better understand how the virus survives in the wild or find new ways to combat it.
Journalists are invited to discover the world of biophysics next month in Maryland, when the largest gathering of biophysicists in the world convenes from Feb. 7-11 at the Baltimore Convention Center for the 59th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society.
In a messy house, people use computers to manage paper and photo clutter; companies use computer systems to track their inventory. Now a team of researchers at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., is taking a similar approach to cell-molecular inventory control for cancer. They have created computer models, using their programming framework (PySB), which enable them to explore the complex biochemical processes that drive cancer growth.
Proteins are the workhorses of the cell, and their correctly folded three-dimensional structures are critical to cellular functions. Misfolded structures often fail to properly perform these vital jobs, leading to cellular stress and devastating neurodegenerative disorders such as Huntington's disease. Researchers will describe their multipronged efforts to gain a better understanding of the relationship between protein misfolding, aggregation and cell toxicity at the 58th Annual Biophysical Society Meeting.
A team of researchers at the University of Florence in Italy and the University of Connecticut Health Center have used a multidisciplinary approach to provide an unprecedented glimpse of what happens to the heart during an "infarction" -- a heart attack -- by looking at how the attack affects electrical activity and calcium release in heart cells.
For the millions of people living with HIV/AIDS, antiretroviral drugs can be a lifeline, slowing the progress of viral infection. Unfortunately, studies have shown that these benefits can be short-lived: therapy can lead to mutations in the HIV genetic code, which can make the virus resistant to drugs. However, researchers at the 58th Annual Biophysical Society Meeting will present new insight into how the therapy functions and how therapy-induced point mutations actually confer drug resistance.
Understanding how antibodies work is important for designing new vaccines to fight infectious diseases and certain types of cancer and for treating disorders of the immune system in animals and humans. In research to be presented at the 58th Annual Biophysical Society Meeting, Dr. Damian Ekiert will explain how the immune systems of cows are used to understand the diversity of antibodies and how that knowledge could improve the health of both people and livestock.
Calico cats, renowned and beloved for their funky orange and black patchwork or "tortoiseshell" fur, can thank X chromosome inactivation or "silencing" for their unique look. A team of University of California San Francisco (UCSF) researchers is striving to unlock the mystery of how one X chromosome can be rendered nearly completely inactive. They will present their latest results at the 58th Annual Biophysical Society Meeting.
To better understand the causes of male infertility, a team of Bay Area researchers is exploring the factors, both physiological and biochemical, that differentiate fertile sperm from infertile sperm. At the 58th Annual Biophysical Society Meeting, the team will present its work to identify and characterize proteins known as ion channels, which are crucial for sperm fertility and expressed within a sperm cell's plasma membrane.
Plop living, swimming bacteria into a novel water-based, nontoxic liquid crystal and a new physics takes over. The dynamic interaction of the bacteria with the liquid crystal creates a novel form of soft matter: living liquid crystal. Researchers, based at Kent State University and Argonne National Laboratory, will present their findings on this new type of active material, which holds promise for improving the early detection of diseases, at the 58th annual Biophysical Society Meeting.
Despite its heavy toll, the prevention and clinical treatment of dengue infection has been a "dramatic failure in public health compared to other infectious diseases like HIV," said Ping Liu of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Now, new research by Liu and her colleagues could offer vital insight into the mechanism of dengue virus entry into cells -- and aid vaccine and clinical drug development.
Sadly, Alzheimer's disease has been the least prone to progress in the one area where we'd like to find change the most -- in our ability to fight it. Many research groups are working to change that, and at the 58th Annual Biophysical Society Meeting, researchers will describe their progress making at unraveling the mystery of the amyloid beta ("Abeta") peptide, a tangling molecule found in the brain plaques associated with the disease.
New insights into one of the molecular mechanisms behind light harvesting, which enables photosynthetic organisms to thrive, even as weather conditions change from full sunlight to deep cloud cover, will be presented at the 58th Annual Biophysical Society Meeting. Researchers will describe how probing these natural systems is helping us understand the basic mechanisms of light harvesting -- work that could help improve the design and efficiency of devices like solar cells in the future.
Tularemia, aka "rabbit fever," is endemic in the northeastern United States, and is considered to be a significant risk to biosecurity -- much like anthrax or smallpox -- because it has already been weaponized in various regions of the world. At the 58th Annual Biophysical Society Meeting, Geoffrey K. Feld, a researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will describe his work to uncover the secrets of the bacterium Francisella tularensis, which causes tularemia.
A research team from Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., is the first to decipher the 3-D structure of a protein that confers antibiotic resistance from one of the most worrisome disease agents: a strain of bacteria called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which can cause skin and other infections. The Vanderbilt team's findings may be an important step in combatting the MRSA public health threat over the next 5 to 10 years.
Journalists are invited to discover the world of biophysics later this month in San Francisco, when the largest gathering of biophysicists in the world convenes from February 15-19 at the Moscone Center on Howard Street for the 58th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society.
Autism spectrum disorders affect nearly 1 in 88 children, with symptoms ranging from mild personality traits to severe intellectual disability and seizures. New work to examine which genes are responsible for autism disorders will be presented at the 57th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society (BPS), held Feb. 2-6, 2013, in Philadelphia, Pa.
A new understanding of how the brain’s G-protein receptors work may soon enable a way to better customize and target antipsychotic drugs to treat specific symptoms. Researchers will present their findings at the 57th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society (BPS), held Feb. 2-6, 2013, in Philadelphia, Pa.
A new breakthrough marks the first time anyone has been able to show the actual temperature distribution inside living cells. This work will be presented at the 57th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society (BPS), held Feb. 2-6, 2013, in Philadelphia, Pa.
Researchers have developed a new non-contact, non-invasive tool to measure the mechanical properties of cells at the sub-cell scale. Their work will be presented at the 57th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society (BPS), held Feb. 2-6, 2013, in Philadelphia, Pa.
Differences in the stiffness of cancerous versus healthy tissue may aid in diagnosis and therapy, researchers say. The work will be presented at the 57th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society (BPS), held Feb. 2-6, 2013, in Philadelphia, Pa.
A research team in Israel has devised a novel approach to identifying the molecular basis for designing a drug that might one day decrease the risk diabetes patients face of developing Alzheimer's disease. The team will present its work at the 57th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society (BPS), held Feb. 2-6, 2013, in Philadelphia, Pa.
When a population is a mixture of exploiters and exploited, the natural outcome is perpetual war. A new model reveals that even with never-ending battles, these two groups can survive, but only if they have room to expand and grow. The findings will be presented at the 57th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society (BPS), held Feb. 2-6, 2013, in Philadelphia, Pa.
An automated device is yielding a new understanding of how antibiotic resistance evolves at the genetic level. This work will be presented at the 57th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society (BPS), held Feb. 2-6, 2013, in Philadelphia, Pa.
A new approach to delivering therapeutics could lead to better treatment of central nervous system disorders. The work will be presented at the 57th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society (BPS), held Feb. 2-6, 2013, in Philadelphia, Pa.
Quantum dots can be used to rapidly move high concentrations of the active form of Vitamin D to targeted tumor sites where cancer cells accumulate. The research will be presented at the 57th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society (BPS), held Feb. 2-6, 2013, in Philadelphia, Pa.
Honeybee silk-inspired materials; a deconstruction of the Ebola virus; how microbes evolve resistance to antibiotics; and a possible connection between Alzheimer’s disease and type II diabetes are some of the intriguing topics that will be presented at the 57th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society (BPS).
A promising novel target for potentially treating Alzheimer's disease has been identified in mice. Researchers will present their findings at the Biophysical Society's 56th Annual Meeting in San Diego, Calif.
New experiments may provide insights into possible modes of heart damage from alcohol. Researchers will present their findings at the 56th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society (BPS), held Feb. 25-29 in San Diego, Calif.
Research on this potent drug paints an alarming picture, revealing that bath salts produce combined effects similar to both methamphetamine (METH) and cocaine, according to research to be presented at the 56th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society (BPS), held Feb. 25-29 in San Diego, Calif.
Cigarette smoke has long been considered the main risk factor for heart disease. But new research, to be presented at the 56th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society, shows that nicotine itself can contribute to the disease process.
The mineralization process required to permanently trap excess CO2 underground is extremely slow. Bacteria, say researchers at the 56th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society, might help speed things up.
Scientists have identified a promising strategy for vaccine design using a mathematical technique that has also been used in analyses of stock market price fluctuations. The team will give an update on its work at the Biophysical Society 56th Annual Meeting in San Diego, Calif.
For venomous creatures, the "business end," or active part, of a toxin is the area on the surface of a protein that is most likely to undergo rapid evolution in response to environmental constraints, say researchers at the 56th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society.
Scientists find that the unfolded end of a protein can kill E. coli-like bacteria selectively. The results, which will be presented at the 56th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society, may one day help scientists find new, more targeted ways to kill antibiotic-resistant microbes.
Researchers have developed an algorithm to predict how and when proteins misfold, with potential implications for neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS and Alzheimer’s. The team will present its findings at the 56th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society in San Diego, Calif.
A team of researchers has uncovered the specific mechanism that triggers phytoplankton to release their powerful toxins into the environment. They present their research at the 56th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society (BPS), held Feb. 25-29 in San Diego, Calif.
A new study of hibernating woodchucks may provide insight into arrhythmia therapies. The findings will be presented at a poster session at the 56th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society in San Diego, Calif.
Protein assassins, hibernating woodchucks, the evolution of neurotoxins, and more: The following summaries highlight a few of the upcoming BPS Annual Meeting’s many noteworthy talks.
Credentialed journalists and freelance reporters are invited to attend the Biophysical Society (BPS) 56th Annual Meeting, which will highlight innovations in medicine, environmental science, physics, interdisciplinary work, and more.
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