A protein called perforin
Human Immune System Assassin’s Tricks Visualized for the First Time
ScienceDaily (Oct. 31, 2010) — Scientists from the UK and Australia have seen the human immune system’s assassin — a protein called perforin — in action for the first time. The UK team is based at Birkbeck College where they used powerful electron microscopes to study the mechanism that perforin uses to punch holes in rogue cells.
Observing ribosomes
Scientists ‘Watch’ Formation of Cells’ Protein Factories, Ribosomes, for First TimeScienceDaily (Oct. 29, 2010) — A team from The Scripps Research Institute has revealed the first-ever pictures of the formation of cells’ “protein factories.” In addition to being a major technical feat on its own, the work could open new pathways for development of antibiotics and treatments for diseases tied to errors in ribosome formation. In addition, the techniques developed in the study can now be applied to other complex challenges in the understanding of cellular processes.
Miniature Human Livers
Miniature Human Livers Created in the Lab
ScienceDaily (Oct. 31, 2010) — Researchers at the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center have reached an early, but important, milestone in the quest to grow replacement livers in the lab. They are the first to use human liver cells to successfully engineer miniature livers that function — at least in a laboratory setting — like human livers. The next step is to see if the livers will continue to function after transplantation in an animal model.
10.31.10
Plant’s Light Switch
Plant’s Light Switch Could Be Used to Control CellsScienceDaily (Oct. 31, 2010) — Chandra Tucker shines a blue light on yeast and mammalian cells in her Duke University lab and the edges of them start to glow. The effect is the result of a light-activated switch from a plant that has been inserted into the cell.
10.30.10
1000 Genomes Project
1000 Genomes Project completes first map of human genetic variation
Thousands of human genomes are being used to catalogue the full diversity of human DNA in the 1000 Genomes Project with a view to improving our understanding of disease
Gene for camouflage
Newly Discovered Gene Enables Fish to ‘Disappear’
ScienceDaily (Oct. 29, 2010) — Researchers led by Vanderbilt’s Roger Cone, Ph.D., have discovered a new member of a gene family that has powerful influences on pigmentation and the regulation of body weight.
Genome: shape vs content
Is the Shape of a Genome as Important as Its Content?
ScienceDaily (Oct. 29, 2010) — If there is one thing that recent advances in genomics have revealed, it is that our genes are interrelated, “chattering” to each other across separate chromosomes and vast stretches of DNA. According to researchers at The Wistar Institute, many of these complex associations may be explained in part by the three-dimensional structure of the entire genome.
10.26.10
The genomic non-revolution
The most striking thing about the genomic revolution is that the revolution never happened …
Sleep and genes
Why Does Lack of Sleep Affect Us Differently? Study Hints It May Be in Our Genes
10.24.10
Electrical Link to Living Cells
Scientists Open Electrical Link to Living Cells
ScienceDaily (Oct. 23, 2010) — The Terminator. The Borg. The Six Million Dollar Man. Science fiction is ripe with biological beings armed with artificial capabilities. In reality, however, the clunky connections between living and non-living worlds often lack a clear channel for communication. Now, scientists with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have designed an electrical link to living cells engineered to shuttle electrons across a cell’s membrane to an external acceptor along a well-defined path. This direct channel could yield cells that can read and respond to electronic signals, electronics capable of self-replication and repair, or efficiently transfer sunlight into electricity.
10.15.10
Gene location and evolution
Gene’s Location on Chromosome Plays Big Role in Shaping How an Organism’s Traits Evolve
ScienceDaily (Oct. 14, 2010) — A gene’s location on a chromosome plays a significant role in shaping how an organism’s traits vary and evolve, according to findings by genome biologists at New York University’s Center for Genomic and Systems Biology and Princeton University’s Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics. Their research, which appears in the latest issue of the journal Science, suggests that evolution is less a function of what a physical trait is and more a result of where the genes that affect that trait reside in the genome.
10.13.10
Monarch Butterflies Use Medicinal Plants
Monarch Butterflies Use Medicinal Plants to Treat Offspring for Disease
ScienceDaily (Oct. 12, 2010) — Monarch butterflies appear to use medicinal plants to treat their offspring for disease, research by biologists at Emory University shows.
10.11.10
Wilson’s ant obsessions and reductionist scientism
E.O. Wilson’s obsession with ants reflects the reductionist scientism of this period and his age.
The reality is that ants are missing a major stage that led to the evolution of human consciousness, putting man in a completely different context. To reduce all categories to the level of entomology is surely a fallacy.
New Mongoose-Like Carnivorous
New Mongoose-Like Carnivorous Mammal Discovered in Madagascar
ScienceDaily (Oct. 11, 2010) — A new species of small carnivore, known as Durrell’s vontsira (Salanoia durrelli) has been identified by researchers from the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, the Natural History Museum, London, Nature Heritage, Jersey, and Conservation International (CI). The small, cat-sized, speckled brown carnivore from the marshes of the Lac Alaotra wetlands in central eastern Madagascar weighs just over half a kilogramme and belongs to a family of carnivores only known from Madagascar. It is likely to be one of the most threatened carnivores in the world.
10.10.10
Early Lung Cancer Detection
Early Lung Cancer Detection: Optical Technology Shows Potential for Prescreening Patients at High Risk
ScienceDaily (Oct. 9, 2010) — Researchers from Northwestern University and NorthShore University HealthSystem (NorthShore) have developed a method to detect early signs of lung cancer by examining cheek cells in humans using pioneering biophotonics technology.
Bee colony collapse
Bee Colony Collapse Associated With Viral, Fungal Infection, Biologist Says
ScienceDaily (Oct. 10, 2010) — The sudden death of bee colonies since late 2006 across North America has stumped scientists. But today, researchers may have a greater understanding of the mysterious colony collapse disorder, said a Texas Tech University biologist.
10.05.10
DNA repair
Newly Discovered DNA Repair Mechanism
ScienceDaily (Oct. 5, 2010) — Tucked within its double-helix structure, DNA contains the chemical blueprint that guides all the processes that take place within the cell and are essential for life. Therefore, repairing damage and maintaining the integrity of its DNA is one of the cell’s highest priorities.
10.01.10
West Nile mosquito genome
Genome of Mosquito That Spreads West Nile Virus Sequenced
ScienceDaily (Sep. 30, 2010) — Last year, 720 people in the United States became infected with West Nile virus, a potentially serious illness that is spread through the bite of a mosquito — the Culex mosquito — that has first fed on infected birds. Such mosquitoes have the virus eventually located in their salivary glands and transmit the disease to humans and animals when they bite to draw blood.
Beer ‘Proteome’
Most Complete Beer ‘Proteome’ Finding Could Lead to Engineered Brews
ScienceDaily (Sep. 30, 2010) — In an advance that may give brewers powerful new ability to engineer the flavor and aroma of beer — the world’s favorite alcoholic beverage — scientists are publishing the most comprehensive deciphering of the beer’s “proteome” ever reported.
09.27.10
Molecules and nucleus
How Molecules Escape from Cell’s Nucleus: Key Advance in Using Microscopy to Reveal Secrets of Living Cells
09.21.10
Folding of a nucleic acid
First observation of the folding of a nucleic acid
The prediction of the structure and function of biological macromolecules (i.e., the machinery of life) is of foremost importance in the field of structural biology. Since the elucidation of the three-dimensional structure of DNA (the molecule that carries all genetic information) by Watson and Crick, scientists have strived to decipher the hidden code that determines the evolution of the spatial arrangement of these molecules towards their functional native state. Attempts to follow these structural transitions experimentally and with atomic resolution are hampered by the ultra-fast nature of the folding process. To date, the characterization of these processes by pure computational means has also been very challenging, since monitoring the folding of nucleic acid with realistic methods requires years of computing time in a regular PC.
Viral infection and obesity
Childhood Viral Infection May Be a Cause of Obesity
ScienceDaily (Sep. 20, 2010) — The emerging idea that obesity may have an infectious origin gets new support in a cross-sectional study by University of California, San Diego School of Medicine researchers who found that children exposed to a particular strain of adenovirus were significantly more likely to be obese.
09.20.10
Learning/memory gene
Gene Limits Learning and Memory in Mice
ScienceDaily (Sep. 19, 2010) — Deleting a certain gene in mice can make them smarter by unlocking a mysterious region of the brain considered to be relatively inflexible, scientists at Emory University School of Medicine have found.
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