Innovative work by two Florida State University scientists that shows the structural and DNA breakdown of a bacteria-invading virus is being featured on the cover of the February issue of the journal Virology.
A new “fluid biopsy” technique that could identify patients at high risk of a heart attack by identifying specific cells as markers in the bloodstream has been developed by a group of researchers at The Scripps Research Institute.
Researchers from the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology have revealed a critical player in the cellular interactions leading to eczema – a chronic inflammatory skin condition affecting more than 14 million U.S. children and adults.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have zoomed in on what is going on at the molecular level when the body recognizes and defends against an attack of pathogens, and the findings, they say, could influence how drugs are developed to treat autoimmune diseases.
Experiments at the University of Chicago show that one major function of a certain chemical modification on messenger RNA governs the longevity and decay of RNA, a process critical to the development of healthy cells.
Researchers at the Cedars-Sinai Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute and Department of Neurosurgery identified immune system targets on cancer stem cells – cells from which malignant brain tumors are believed to originate and regenerate – and created an experimental vaccine to attack them.
Producing brightly speckled red and green snapshots of many different tissues, Johns Hopkins researchers have color-coded cells in female mice to display which of their two X chromosomes has been made inactive, or “silenced.”
High temperatures can cause proteins within the embryo to become denatured—an unraveling that results in loss of function, an ineffective or denatured protein. Moreover, denatured proteins can form aggregates that are toxic. Understanding this process has important implications for human health, because such protein aggregates are a hallmark of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s and Huntington’s.
Your nose is not the only organ in your body that can sense cigarette smoke wafting through the air. Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis have shown that your lungs have odor receptors as well. The odor receptors in your lungs are in the membranes of flask-shaped neuroendocrine cells that dump neurotransmitters and neuropeptides when the receptors are stimulated, perhaps triggering you to cough to rid your body of the offending substance.
Biologists at UC San Diego have discovered an effective strategy that could prevent the human immune system from rejecting the grafts derived from human embryonic stem cells, a major problem now limiting the development of human stem cell therapies. Their discovery may also provide scientists with a better understanding of how tumors evade the human immune system when they spread throughout the body.
Researchers from Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah discovered a cellular mechanism that drives the spread of breast cancer to other parts of the body (metastasis), as well as a therapy which blocks that mechanism.
Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute have revealed an atomic-level view of a genetic defect that causes a form of muscular dystrophy, myotonic dystrophy type 2, and have used this information to design drug candidates with potential to counter those defects—and reverse the disease.
What new insights might be gleaned when engineers and mathematicians work with biologists to answer fundamental questions? A special symposium at the 2014 Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology annual conference brings together biologists, mathematicians and engineers, who will investigate the potential and power of a new, quantitative organismal systems biology to address these questions.
A deadly, rare type of soft-tissue cancer may be completely eradicated simply by inhibiting a key protein involved in its growth, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report.
A new study discovers a molecule termed "THRIL" that regulates TNF-alpha.
A new study identifies an unexpected molecular link between liver cancer, cellular stress, and risk factors for developing this cancer – obesity, alcoholism, and viral hepatitis.
A new study has uncovered an unprecedented example of horizontal gene transfer in a South Pacific shrub that is considered to be the sole survivor of one of the two oldest lineages of flowering plants.
Researchers have used new techniques and one of the brightest X-ray sources on the planet to map the 3-D structure of an important cellular gatekeeper in a more natural state than possible before.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, with colleagues in The Netherlands and United Kingdom, have produced the first map detailing the network of genetic interactions underlying the cellular response to ultraviolet (UV) radiation.
Cells with a mutation in the gene called K-Ras—found in close to 30 percent of all cancers , but mostly those with worst prognosis, such as pancreatic cancer, colon cancer, and lung cancer—subvert the normal mechanisms of cell death.
• Tissue-specific hair follicle stem cells initiate squamous cell skin cancer. • The stem cells cycle between an active and dormant state, and do not develop into cancer while dormant. • Understanding stem cell cancer suppression could help create prevention strategies for patients susceptible to squamous skin cancer.
If scientists can control cellular functions such as movement and development, they can cripple cells and pathogens that are causing disease in the body.
A UCLA research team has found no evidence of an association between iron levels in the body and the risk of atherosclerosis, the hardening and narrowing of the arteries that leads to cardiovascular disease, the No. 1 killer in the U.S. The discovery, based on a comprehensive study in a mouse model of atherosclerosis, contradicts a long-held hypothesis about the role of iron in the disease and carries important implications for patients with chronic kidney disease or anemia related to inflammatory disorders, many of whom receive high-dose iron supplementation therapy.
Today, December 17, JoVE, the Journal of Visualized Experiments, has published a novel technique that could resolve a snag in stem cell research for application in regenerative medicine—a strategy for reprograming cells in vivo to act like stem cells that forgoes the risk of causing tumors.
Using a new technique to evaluate working muscles in mice, researchers have uncovered physiological mechanisms that could lead to new strategies for combating metabolism-related disorders like muscle wasting and obesity.
The study identifies a common, early marker of senescent cells that could have important implications for tumor suppression and aging-related diseases like Progeria
UI researchers describe the evolution of various forms of the enzyme “dihydrofolate reductase” as it occurred from bacteria to humans. Their paper, which appears in the Dec. 13 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, may prove useful to scientists in the design of future drugs and catalysts.
A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have discovered that outer skin cells are able to unite to form suspended “bridges” during wound healing. The new findings will pave the way for tissue engineering, such as the design of artificial skin, and better wound treatment.
The team of Johannes Zuber at the IMP in Vienna, Austria, managed to overcome remaining key limitations of RNA interference (RNAi) - a unique method to specifically shut off genes. By using an optimized design, the scientists were able to inhibit genes with greatly enhanced efficiency and accuracy. The new method facilitates the search for drug targets. The IMP will make this „RNAi toolkit“ available to researchers.
Cell biologists at Johns Hopkins have identified a unique class of breast cancer cells that lead the process of invasion into surrounding tissues. Because invasion is the first step in the deadly process of cancer metastasis, the researchers say they may have found a weak link in cancer's armor and a possible new target for therapy.
For the first time, researchers describe the effect of sleep deprivation on the unfolded protein response in peripheral tissue. Stress in pancreatic cells due to sleep deprivation may contribute to the loss or dysfunction of cells important to maintaining proper blood sugar levels, and that these functions may be exacerbated by normal aging. The combined effect of aging and sleep deprivation resulted in a loss of control of blood sugar, somewhat like pre-diabetes in mice.
The function of two tumor-suppressing genes could play a vital role in helping to control obesity and other diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
New study affirms the use of large-scale protein measurements to validate disease biomarkers and drug targets
Nearly 90 percent of children and adults with a highly aggressive form of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) showed no evidence of cancer after receiving a novel, personalized cell therapy that reprograms a patient's immune system.
• Glioblastoma is the most common and deadly form of brain cancer. • Drugs target specific mutations on the surface of glioblastoma cells. • Glioblastoma cells are able to eliminate the gene mutation to avoid detection when the targeted drug is present. • When the drug is stopped, tumor cells are able to reacquire the gene mutation, which resensitizes them to the drug.
A new study, published in Cell Stem Cell, identifies a molecular pathway that can be activated to prompt hair growth of dormant hair follicles, or blocked to prevent growth of unwanted hair.
Researchers have identified a new tool that could help facilitate future stem cell therapy for the more than 700,000 Americans who suffer a heart attack each year.
A University of Wisconsin-Madison research team reports today that the brain can produce and release estrogen — a discovery that may lead to a better understanding of hormonal changes observed from before birth throughout the entire aging process.
University of Utah and German biologists discovered how nerve cells recycle tiny bubbles or “vesicles” that send chemical nerve signals from one cell to the next. The process is much faster and different than two previously proposed mechanisms for recycling the bubbles.
Damage to heart muscle caused by a heart attack turns on immune cells in the spleen that accelerate heart failure.
For what is believed to be the first time, researchers at The Johns Hopkins University have illuminated the inner workings of an important class of enzymes located inside the outer envelopes of cells. Much to their surprise, they report, these protein cutters, called rhomboid proteases, are entirely different than nearly every other type of enzyme studied, showing no attraction to the proteins they cut and being extremely slow in making their cuts.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists have identified an enzyme that can halt or possibly even reverse the build-up of toxic protein fragments known as plaques in the brains of mice with Alzheimer’s disease. The research appeared in a recent edition of the scientific journal Nature Communications.
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have discovered a natural mechanism that cells use to protect mitochondria, the tiny but essential “power plants” that provide chemical energy for cells throughout the body.
A new approach to mapping how proteins interact with each other, developed at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, could aid in the design of new drugs for diseases such as diabetes and osteoporosis.
For the first time, scientists have succeeded in transforming human stem cells into functional lung and airway cells. The advance, reported by Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers, has significant potential for modeling lung disease, screening drugs, studying human lung development, and, ultimately, generating lung tissue for transplantation. The study was published today in the journal Nature Biotechnology.
A byproduct of cholesterol functions like the hormone estrogen to fuel the growth and spread of the most common types of breast cancers, researchers at the Duke Cancer Institute report.
Researchers from the Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) present a novel approach for precise biological imaging with applications for sensitive and dynamic samples.
Study uses patient-derived stem cells to show that a mutation in the α-synuclein gene causes increased vulnerability to pesticides, leading to Parkinson’s disease.
Most trisomic pregnancies arise as a consequence of chromosome missegregation in egg precursor cells called oocytes. Austrian researchers at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) aim to understand the molecular causes of female age-dependent chromosome missegregation in oocytes. They have now discovered that a “molecular glue” called cohesin plays an important role in proper functioning of checkpoint control, ensuring correct chromosome segregation and production of euploid eggs.
A protector for PTEN, a tumor-thwarting protein often missing in cancer cells, has emerged from research led by scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center published online at Nature Cell Biology this week.
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