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New way to identify when a living cell begins to grow

In a discovery that has relevance in a variety of fields, including human health, UC Riverside Assistant Professor of Biochemistry Frank Sauer and colleagues at UC Riverside, in Germany, and in Wisconsin, have found a new way to identify when a living cell begins to grow.

3 Jun 2004

How the brain interprets electrical impulses sent by neurons

University of California, San Diego neurobiologists have uncovered evidence that sheds light on the long-standing mystery of how the brain makes sense of the information contained in electrical impulses sent to it by millions of neurons from the body.

3 Jun 2004

Scientists reveal the crystal structure of the first described enzymatic RNA

Scientists in the department of molecular biophysics and biochemistry at Yale revealed the crystal structure of the first described enzymatic RNA - what it looks like and how it reacts - in the journal Nature.

2 Jun 2004

Genes that allow nerve cells to communicate may have come from bacteria eons ago

Some of the genes that allow nerve cells and some other types of cells to send elaborate chemical messages to each other appear to have been transferred to animals or their immediate ancestors from bacteria eons ago.

2 Jun 2004

Mice may hold the key to longer life

Scientists from the University of Aberdeen, the Aberdeen-based Rowett Research Institute and the Medical Research Council (MRC) in Cambridge have made a major breakthrough in understanding how metabolism affects lifespan.

2 Jun 2004

Engineered virus could be ideal for targeting cancers with lethal gene therapy

Scientists from Cancer Research UK have taken advantage of the selfish behaviour of cancer cells to target them with a genetically engineered virus.

1 Jun 2004

Cellular garbage plays a key role in the process of cytokinesis, or cell division

A cellular structure discovered 125 years ago and dismissed by many biologists as "cellular garbage" has been found to play a key role in the process of cytokinesis, or cell division, one of the most ancient and important of all biological phenomena.

27 May 2004

Blueprint for rational design of vaccines that induce desired T-cell responses

Investigators from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, have conducted studies in mice to gain a new picture of how the immune system’s “killer” T cells are prompted to destroy infected cells. Their insights provide a blueprint for rational design of vaccines that induce desired T-cell responses.

27 May 2004

Finding overturns long held ideas about how cells build proteins

Writing in the May 28 issue of Cell, Johns Hopkins researchers report that four critical components of cells' protein-building machine don't do what scientists had long assumed.

27 May 2004

Link between oral bacterium and premature babies

For years, scientists have noticed a particular oral bacterium can be found in the amniotic fluid of about 20 percent of women with premature babies.

27 May 2004

Toxoplasma gondii discovery may help fight against malaria

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill scientists have discovered a protein in the cell wall of parasites that’s crucial to the molecular mechanism allowing them to move between cells, survive and cause disease.

25 May 2004

Baby born from 21 year old cryopreserved sperm

"We believe this is the longest period of sperm cryopreservation resulting in a live birth so far reported in the scientific literature," according to one of the authors, Dr Elizabeth Pease, Consultant in Reproductive Medicine at the Department of Reproductive Medicine at St Mary's Hospital, Manchester.

25 May 2004

X-ray beams could kick start genes into fighting cancer

X-ray beams could kick start genes into fighting cancer as an exciting new way of targeting therapy against the disease, according to new research in the Journal of Gene Medicine.

25 May 2004

Computer program to predict where DNA molecules will pop open when twisted

Biologists are used to thinking about DNA sequences as a string of letters (A, C, G, T) that happens to be arranged in an elegant double helix. But DNA also has mechanical properties that affect how genes are turned on or off, say researchers at the UC Davis Genome Center.

24 May 2004

A higher male susceptibility to disease has helped shape the evolution of social insect behavior

A pair of scientists has proposed a new model for behavioral development among social insects, suggesting that a higher male susceptibility to disease has helped shape the evolution of the insects' behavior.

24 May 2004

Cultured nanoparticles from filtered homogenates of diseased calcified human cardiovascular tissue

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic found they could isolate and culture nanoparticles from filtered homogenates of diseased calcified human cardiovascular tissue. These cultured nano-sized particles were recognized by a DNA-specific dye, incorporated radiolabeled uridine, and after decalcification, appeared via electron microscopy to contain cell walls.

24 May 2004

Scientists have genetically engineered a mouse with extraordinary resistance to bowel cancer

Scientists have genetically engineered a mouse with extraordinary resistance to bowel cancer, delegates at the Cancer Research UK senior researchers' conference in Harrogate will hear today.

24 May 2004

Biologists have discovered a new genus of bacteria

University of Missouri-Rolla biologists studying the mineral-rich waters of Soap Lake in Washington state recently discovered a new genus of bacteria in the lake. Their findings will be presented at the General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology to be held May 23-27 in New Orleans.

23 May 2004

Discovery and improvement of glyphosate tolerance gene

Verdia Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Maxygen, Inc. has announced today the publication in the journal Science of a study that describes the successful development of a novel glyphosate-resistant crop trait by scientists at Verdia and Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of DuPont.

21 May 2004

Using smart fluids to retrain muscles

Physical rehabilitation has traditionally consisted of arduously retraining the body on weight machines and other resistance devices, but with the growing interest in “smart fluids,” NU engineering professor Constantinos Mavroidis envisions a simple brace that can increase the resistance on a healing joint with the turn of a dial.

21 May 2004