Protein Study Suggests Drug Side Effects are Inevitable

A new study of both computer-created and natural proteins suggests that the number of unique pockets – sites where small molecule pharmaceutical compounds can bind to proteins – is surprisingly small, meaning drug side effects may be impossible to avoid.

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Newly Described Type of Immune Cell and T cells Share Similar Path to Maturity

Innate lymphoid cells protect boundary tissues such as the skin, lung, and the gut from microbial onslaught. They also have shown they play a role in inflammatory disease. Researchers have found that maturation of ILC2s requires T-cell factor 1 to move forward. They describe in Immunity that one mechanism used to build ILCs is the same as that in T cells. Both cell types use a protein pathway centered on Notch.

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Zinc: The Goldilocks Metal for Bioabsorbable Stents?

Some materials dissolve too quickly, before cardiac arteries can fully heal, and some hang around forever. Zinc, however, may be just right.

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Out of Sync: Body Clocks Altered at Cell Level in Depression

Every cell in our bodies runs on a 24-hour clock, tuned to the night-day, light-dark cycles that have ruled us since the dawn of humanity. But new research shows that the clock may be broken in the brains of people with depression -- even at the level of the gene activity inside their brain cells.

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Research On Cilia Heats Up: Implications For Hearing, Vision Loss And Kidney Disease

Experiments at Johns Hopkins have unearthed clues about which protein signaling molecules are allowed into hollow, hair-like “antennae,” called cilia, that alert cells to critical changes in their environments.

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Scientists Find Key to Gene-Silencing Activity

A team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute has found how to boost or inhibit a gene-silencing mechanism that normally serves as a major controller of cells’ activities. The discovery could lead to a powerful new class of drugs against viral infections, cancers and other diseases.

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Researchers Discover Dynamic Behavior Of Progenitor Cells In Brain

By monitoring the behavior of a class of cells in the brains of living mice, neuroscientists at Johns Hopkins discovered that these cells remain highly dynamic in the adult brain, where they transform into cells that insulate nerve fibers and help form scars that aid in tissue repair.

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Your Immune System: On Surveillance in the War Against Cancer

Wake Forest Baptist research looks at gene expression profiling in breast cancer.

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Duke Researchers Describe How Breast Cancer Cells Acquire Drug Resistance

A seven-year quest to understand how breast cancer cells resist treatment with the targeted therapy lapatinib has revealed a previously unknown molecular network that regulates cell death. The discovery provides new avenues to overcome drug resistance, according to researchers at Duke Cancer Institute.

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