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Fish enzymes and gelatine may be the new treatment for psoriasis and eczema

A new skin cream has shown promising results in the treatment of psoriasis and eczema. The cream contains fish enzymes and gelatine and is under development by researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim and the University of Bergen, Norway.

23 Mar 2006

Zinc's role in Alzheimer's disease

Zinc may be a familiar dietary supplement to millions of health-conscious people, but it remains a mystery metal to scientists who study zinc's role in Alzheimer's disease, stroke and other health problems.

23 Mar 2006

Scientists create new molecule that holds promise in fighting disease via gene therapy

Inherited diseases, as well as many cancers and cardiovascular diseases, may eventually be helped by this approach, which delivers therapeutic genes directly to cells. These genes can correct genetic defects, for example, or help the body's immune system fight cancer cells.

23 Mar 2006

Yale researchers shed new light on the mechanism of nerve cell growth

Researchers at Yale shed new light on the mechanism of nerve cell growth by identifying novel functions for a molecular "motor" protein, myosin-II, according to an article in Nature Cell Biology.

20 Mar 2006

Real-time molecule-by-molecule "movie" of protein production in live cells

Chemists at Harvard University have developed the first technique providing a real-time, molecule-by-molecule "movie" of protein production in live cells.

19 Mar 2006

New DNA-based cell adhesion strategy

A new technique in which single strands of synthetic DNA are used to firmly fasten biological cells to non-biological surfaces has been developed by researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California at Berkeley.

9 Feb 2006

Myosin VI can act as molecular transporter

Myosin VI has been thought to be a monomer, but Park et al. show that full-length myosin VI can be a dimer, and can walk processively on actin. By increasing the concentration, a greater and greater fraction dimerizes in vitro, and walks processively on actin.

7 Feb 2006

Proof that proteins can be custom-designed

Ever since the advent of recombinant-DNA technology, scientists have conceived that it will be feasible to create entirely new enzymes for specific needs.

27 Jan 2006

HIV revealed in 3D

HIV, the virus which leads to AIDS and which affects 40 million people across the world, has been seen in 3D detail for the first time by Oxford scientists and their colleagues in Heidelberg and Munich.

25 Jan 2006

New tool for genetic research

In an article appearing online today in the journal Nature Methods, researchers at the EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Fidirale de Lausanne) unveil a powerful new tool that will facilitate genetic research and open up new avenues for the clinical treatment of genetic disease.

23 Jan 2006

New findings about messenger molecule raise hopes for new drug

Uppsala University scientists have developed a new method for measuring the concentration of the messenger substance for cells, cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), in individual living cells.

18 Jan 2006

New human embryonic stem cells grown in animal cell-free cultures

Scientists working at the WiCell Research Institute, a private laboratory affiliated with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, have developed a precisely defined stem cell culture system free of animal cells and used it to derived two new human embryonic stem cell.

2 Jan 2006

New understanding of Mediterranean spotted fever

New research by a team of scientists in France and the United States has identified both the bacterial and host receptor proteins that enable Rickettsia conorii, the Mediterranean spotted fever pathogen, to enter cells.

15 Dec 2005

Streptococcus mutans copes without pathway

Leave it to the bacteria that cause tooth decay to be able to live without something all cells were thought to require.

13 Dec 2005

Generation of neoantigenic epitopes after posttranslational modification of Type II collagen by factors present within the inflamed joint

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease characterized by chronic inflammation of the joints, which gradually erodes the cartilage and bone.

7 Dec 2005

Nanotechnology and biochemistry provide new way to study T cell signaling

Researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California at Berkeley, combining nanotechnology with biochemistry, have created unique synthetic membranes that, for the first time ever, enable them to directly control signaling activity in living T cells from the immune system. Already their experiments have yielded surprising results.

21 Nov 2005

Analytical method to trace the lineage trees of cells

Some fundamental outstanding questions in science - "Where do stem cells originate?" "How does cancer develop?" "When do cell types split off from each other in the embryo?" - might be answered if scientists had a way to map the history of the body's cells going back to the fertilized egg.

30 Oct 2005

Computer program helps explain how the same proteins can play different roles in a wide range of cellular processes

University of California, San Diego biochemists have developed a computer program that helps explain a long-standing mystery: how the same proteins can play different roles in a wide range of cellular processes, including those leading to immune responses and cancer.

27 Sep 2005

Decline in energy production by mitochondria appears to be a key problem leading to insulin resistance

A detectable decline in energy production by mitochondria - the organelles that are the cell's furnace for energy production - seems to be a key problem leading to insulin resistance, and thus to type 2 diabetes, according to studies by Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers.

16 Aug 2005

Nerve cells can also release neurotransmitters outside of synapses

Every neurobiology textbook invariably states that nerve cells communicate with each other through synapses, the specialized cell-cell contacts found at the end of the cells' threadlike extensions. In the journal Science, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences and the University of California at San Diego report that nerve cells, or neurons, may not have to rely on traditionally defined synapses to "talk" to each other.

18 Jul 2005