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Genetic master controls expose cancers' Achilles' heel
In a surprising finding that helps explain fundamental behaviors of normal and diseased cells, Whitehead Institute scientists have discovered a set of powerful gene regulators dubbed "super-enhancers" that control cell state and identity. Healthy cells employ these super-enhancers to control genes responsible for cellular functions and developmental transitions—
Molecular Biology
Source: Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
Posted on: Friday, Apr 12, 2013, 12:45pm
Rating: | Views: 1461 | Comments: 0
Researchers find new way to clear cholesterol from the blood
Researchers at the University of Michigan have identified a new potential therapeutic target for lowering cholesterol that could be an alternative or complementary therapy to statins.
Molecular Biology
Source: University of Michigan
Posted on: Thursday, Apr 11, 2013, 4:15pm
Rating: | Views: 3138 | Comments: 0
Research reveals Rx target for HPV, Hep C and related cancers
New discoveries by a team of scientists at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans for the first time reveal the inner workings of a master regulator that controls functions as diverse as the ability of nerve cells to "rewire" themselves in response to external stimuli and the mechanism by which certain viruses hijack normal cellular processes to facilitate their replication that
Molecular Biology
Source: Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center
Posted on: Thursday, Apr 11, 2013, 12:45pm
Rating: | Views: 1408 | Comments: 0
Video: Moving cells with light holds medical promise
Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown they can coax cells to move toward a beam of light. The feat is a first step toward manipulating cells to control insulin secretion or heart rate using light.
Molecular Biology
Source: Washington University School of Medicine
Posted on: Tuesday, Apr 09, 2013, 11:45am
Rating: | Views: 1770 | Comments: 0
Mitochondrial metabolic regulator SIRT4 guards against DNA damage
Healthy cells don't just happen. As they grow and divide, they need checks and balances to ensure they function properly while adapting to changing conditions around them.
Molecular Biology
Source: Harvard Medical School
Posted on: Friday, Apr 05, 2013, 1:45pm
Rating: | Views: 1876 | Comments: 0
Protein maintains order in the nucleus
Two metres of DNA are packed into the cell nucleus, presumably based on a strictly defined arrangement. Researchers working with biologist Patrick Heun from the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg have now succeeded in explaining a phenomenon, which was first observed 40 years ago.
Molecular Biology
Source: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
Posted on: Friday, Apr 05, 2013, 12:30pm
Rating: | Views: 1428 | Comments: 0
Accused of complicity in Alzheimer's, amyloid proteins may be getting a bad rap
Amyloids — clumps of misfolded proteins found in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders — are the quintessential bad boys of neurobiology. They're thought to muck up the seamless workings of the neurons responsible for memory and movement, and researchers around the world have devoted themselves to devising ways of blocking their prod
Molecular Biology
Source: Stanford University Medical Center
Posted on: Thursday, Apr 04, 2013, 11:00am
Rating: | Views: 1480 | Comments: 0
Research reveals how antibodies neutralize mosquito-borne virus
Researchers have learned the precise structure of the mosquito-transmitted chikungunya virus pathogen while it is bound to antibodies, showing how the infection is likely neutralized.
Molecular Biology
Source: Purdue University
Posted on: Wednesday, Apr 03, 2013, 11:00am
Rating: | Views: 1729 | Comments: 0
Crucial step in human DNA replication observed for the first time
For the first time, an elusive step in the process of human DNA replication has been demystified by scientists at Penn State University. According to senior author Stephen J. Benkovic, an Evan Pugh Professor of Chemistry and Holder of the Eberly Family Chair in Chemistry at Penn State, the scientists "discovered how a key step in human DNA replication is performed." The results of the research wil
Molecular Biology
Source: Penn State
Posted on: Tuesday, Apr 02, 2013, 11:45am
Rating: | Views: 2300 | Comments: 0
Mechanism of mutant histone protein in childhood brain cancer revealed
Most cancer treatments are blunt. In an attempt to eradicate tumors, oncologists often turn to radiation or chemotherapy, which can damage healthy tissue along with the cancerous growths. New research from C. David Allis' laboratory at Rockefeller University may bring scientists closer to designing cancer therapeutics that can target tumors with pinpoint accuracy.
Molecular Biology
Source: Rockefeller University
Posted on: Tuesday, Apr 02, 2013, 11:00am
Rating: | Views: 1545 | Comments: 0
DNA: How to unravel the tangle
A research coordinated by the scientists at SISSA of Trieste has now developed and studied a numeric model of the chromosome that supports the experimental data and provides a hypothesis on the bundle's function.
Molecular Biology
Source: International School of Advanced Studies (SISSA)
Posted on: Monday, Apr 01, 2013, 11:45am
Rating: | Views: 1559 | Comments: 0
Head-on collisions between DNA-code reading machineries accelerate gene evolution
Bacteria appear to speed up their evolution by positioning specific genes along the route of expected traffic jams in DNA encoding. Certain genes are in prime collision paths for the moving molecular machineries that read the DNA code, as University of Washington scientists explain in this week's edition of Nature.
Molecular Biology
Source: University of Washington
Posted on: Monday, Apr 01, 2013, 10:00am
Rating: | Views: 1614 | Comments: 0
Cell reprogramming during liver regeneration
During embryonic development, animals generate many different types of cells, each with a distinct function and identity.
Molecular Biology
Source: University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Posted on: Friday, Mar 29, 2013, 1:30pm
Rating: | Views: 2567 | Comments: 0
Researchers show stem cell fate depends on 'grip'
The field of regenerative medicine holds great promise, propelled by greater understanding of how stem cells differentiate themselves into many of the body's different cell types. But clinical applications in the field have been slow to materialize, partially owing to difficulties in replicating the conditions these cells naturally experience.
Molecular Biology
Source: University of Pennsylvania
Posted on: Friday, Mar 29, 2013, 1:15pm
Rating: | Views: 1591 | Comments: 0
Parkinson's disease protein gums up garbage disposal system in cells
Clumps of α-synuclein protein in nerve cells are hallmarks of many degenerative brain diseases, most notably Parkinson's disease.
Molecular Biology
Source: University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Posted on: Friday, Mar 29, 2013, 12:00pm
Rating: | Views: 1618 | Comments: 0
Protective prion keeps yeast cells from going it alone
Most commonly associated with such maladies as "mad cow disease" and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, prions are increasingly recognized for their ability to induce potentially beneficial traits in a variety of organisms, yeast chief among them.
Molecular Biology
Source: Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
Posted on: Friday, Mar 29, 2013, 11:15am
Rating: | Views: 1548 | Comments: 0
Biological transistor enables computing within living cells
When Charles Babbage prototyped the first computing machine in the 19th century, he imagined using mechanical gears and latches to control information. ENIAC, the first modern computer developed in the 1940s, used vacuum tubes and electricity. Today, computers use transistors made from highly engineered semiconducting materials to carry out their logical operations.
Molecular Biology
Source: Stanford University Medical Center
Posted on: Friday, Mar 29, 2013, 10:00am
Rating: | Views: 3118 | Comments: 0
How herpesvirus invades nervous system
Northwestern Medicine scientists have identified a component of the herpesvirus that "hijacks" machinery inside human cells, allowing the virus to rapidly and successfully invade the nervous system upon initial exposure.
Molecular Biology
Source: Northwestern University
Posted on: Friday, Mar 29, 2013, 8:00am
Rating: | Views: 1675 | Comments: 0
Compounds found that alter cell signaling, could lead to new breast cancer treatments
Using a broad spectrum of analytical tools, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have uncovered a class of novel compounds that can alter cell signaling activity, resulting in a variety of responses including a strong anti-inflammatory effect. These findings could lead to new strategies for treating diseases such as breast cancer
Molecular Biology
Source: Scripps Research Institute
Posted on: Wednesday, Mar 27, 2013, 8:45am
Rating: | Views: 1398 | Comments: 0
Cleverly designed vaccine blocks H5 avian influenza in models
Until now most experimental vaccines against the highly lethal H5N1 avian influenza virus have lacked effectiveness. But a new vaccine has proven highly effective against the virus when tested in both mice and ferrets. It is also effective against the H9 subtype of avian influenza. The research is published online ahead of print in the Journal of Virology.
Molecular Biology
Source: American Society for Microbiology
Posted on: Tuesday, Mar 26, 2013, 1:00pm
Rating: | Views: 1509 | Comments: 0
Reversing blood and freshening it up
The blood of young and old people differs. In an article published recently in the scientific journal Blood, a research group at Lund University in Sweden explain how they have succeeded in rejuvenating the blood of mice by reversing, or re-programming, the stem cells that produce blood.
Molecular Biology
Source: Lund University
Posted on: Tuesday, Mar 26, 2013, 12:30pm
Rating: | Views: 1439 | Comments: 0
Researchers unravel molecular roots of Down syndrome
What is it about the extra chromosome inherited in Down syndrome—chromosome 21—that alters brain and body development? Researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) have new evidence that points to a protein called sorting nexin 27, or SNX27. SNX27 production is inhibited by a molecule encoded on chromosome 21. The study, published M
Molecular Biology
Source: Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute
Posted on: Monday, Mar 25, 2013, 11:45am
Rating: | Views: 1492 | Comments: 0
Computer simulations yield clues to how cells interact with surroundings
Your cells are social butterflies. They constantly interact with their surroundings, taking in cues on when to divide and where to anchor themselves, among other critical tasks.
Molecular Biology
Source: DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Posted on: Monday, Mar 25, 2013, 8:45am
Rating: | Views: 1428 | Comments: 0
Study reveals potential treatments for Ebola and a range of other deadly viruses
Illnesses caused by many of the world's most deadly viruses cannot be effectively treated with existing drugs or vaccines. A study published by Cell Press in the March 21 issue of the journal Chemistry & Biology has revealed several compounds that can inhibit multiple viruses, such as highly lethal Ebola virus, as well as pathogens responsible for rabies, mumps, and measles, opening up ne
Molecular Biology
Source: Cell Press
Posted on: Friday, Mar 22, 2013, 10:15am
Rating: | Views: 1931 | Comments: 0
Tiny RNA molecule may have role in polycystic ovary syndrome, insulin resistance
A group of tiny RNA molecules with a big role in regulating gene expression also appear to have a role in causing insulin resistance in woman with polycystic ovary syndrome and, perhaps, in all women, researchers report.
Molecular Biology
Source: Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University
Posted on: Wednesday, Mar 20, 2013, 12:15pm
Rating: | Views: 1554 | Comments: 0
Predictability: The brass ring for synthetic biology
Predictability is often used synonymously with "boring," as in that story or that outcome was soooo predictable. For practioners of synthetic biology seeking to engineer valuable new microbes, however, predictability is the brass ring that must be captured. Researchers with the multi-institutional partnership known as BIOFAB have become the first to grab at least a portion of this ring by unveilin
Molecular Biology
Source: DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Posted on: Friday, Mar 15, 2013, 8:00am
Rating: | Views: 1429 | Comments: 0
Molecule's structure reveals new therapeutic opportunities for rare diabetes
Researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) have determined the complete three-dimensional structure of a protein called HNF-4α. HNF-4α controls gene expression in the liver and pancreas, switching genes on or off as needed. People with mature onset diabetes of the young (MODY1), a rare form of the disease, have inherited mu
Molecular Biology
Source: Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute
Posted on: Thursday, Mar 14, 2013, 1:15pm
Rating: | Views: 1398 | Comments: 0
Tapeworm DNA contains drug weak spots
For the first time, researchers have mapped the genomes of tapeworms to reveal potential drug targets on which existing drugs could act. The genomes provide a new resource that offers faster ways to develop urgently needed and effective treatments for these debilitating diseases.
Molecular Biology
Source: Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
Posted on: Thursday, Mar 14, 2013, 1:00pm
Rating: | Views: 1472 | Comments: 0
Polo takes the bait
A seemingly obscure gene in the female fruit fly that is only active in cells that will become eggs has led researchers at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research to the discovery of a atypical protein that lures, traps, and inactivates the powerful Polo kinase, widely considered the master regulator of cell division. Its human homolog, Polo-like kinase-1 (Plk1), is misregulated
Molecular Biology
Source: Stowers Institute for Medical Research
Posted on: Thursday, Mar 14, 2013, 11:45am
Rating: | Views: 1359 | Comments: 0
Hereditary neurodegeneration linked to ADP-ribose modification
Attaching chains of the small molecule ADP-ribose to proteins is important for a cell's survival and the repair of DNA damage, making this process a promising target for the development of new cancer drugs. Researchers have now identified a much sought after enzyme that removes such ADP-ribose modifications from proteins by studying a genetic mutation that causes neurod
Molecular Biology
Source: European Molecular Biology Organization
Posted on: Wednesday, Mar 13, 2013, 11:45am
Rating: | Views: 1491 | Comments: 0
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