Archive for 'Biology'

Plant microbe shares features with drug-resistant pathogen

Posted on 18. Jun, 2009 by admin.

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Implications for biotech applications; possible targets for infection-fighting drugs
UPTON, NY — An international team of scientists has discovered extensive similarities between a strain of bacteria commonly associated with plants and one increasingly linked to opportunistic infections in hospital patients. The findings suggest caution in the use of the plant-associated strain for a range of biotech [...]

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Cells are like robust computational systems, Carnegie Mellon-led team reports

Posted on 18. Jun, 2009 by admin.

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PITTSBURGH—Gene regulatory networks in cell nuclei are similar to cloud computing networks, such as Google or Yahoo!, researchers report today in the online journal Molecular Systems Biology. The similarity is that each system keeps working despite the failure of individual components, whether they are master genes or computer processors.
This finding by an international team led [...]

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Sugarcoating fruit fly development

Posted on 31. May, 2009 by admin.

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Scientists discover that sugar tags on nuclear proteins have an important developmental function
Proteins are the executive agents that carry out all processes in a cell. Their activity is controlled and modified with the help of small chemical tags that can be dynamically added to and removed from the protein. 25 years after its first discovery, [...]

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Oldest evidence of leprosy found in India

Posted on 27. May, 2009 by admin.

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BOONE, N.C. – A biological anthropologist from Appalachian State University working with an undergraduate student from Appalachian, an evolutionary biologist from UNC Greensboro, and a team of archaeologists from Deccan College (Pune, India) recently reported analysis of a 4000-year-old skeleton from India bearing evidence of leprosy. This skeleton represents both the earliest archaeological evidence for [...]

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Viruses are sneakier than we thought

Posted on 27. May, 2009 by admin.

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Press release from PLoS Biology
Viruses are molecular marauders, plundering cells for the resources they need to multiply. Of central importance for viruses is the ability to commandeer cellular gene expression machinery. Several human herpesviruses put the breaks on normal cellular gene expression to divert the associated enzymes and resources towards their own viral genes. Kaposi’s [...]

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In a rare disorder, a familiar protein disrupts gene function

Posted on 27. May, 2009 by admin.

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Press release from PLoS Biology
As reported this week in the open-access journal PLoS Biology, an international team of scientists studying a rare genetic disease has discovered that a bundle of proteins already known to be important for keeping chromosomes together also plays an important role in regulating gene expression in humans. In addition to shedding [...]

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Meet the complete mouse — whole mouse genome sequence published

Posted on 27. May, 2009 by admin.

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Press release from PLoS Biology
Are you a man or a mouse? A new paper, published in this week’s issue of PLoS Biology, explores exactly what distinguishes our genome from that of the lab mouse. In the first comprehensive comparison between the genes of mice and humans, scientists from institutions across America, Sweden and the UK [...]

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Lessons from the vaccine-autism wars

Posted on 27. May, 2009 by admin.

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Press release from PLoS Biology
Researchers long ago rejected the theory that vaccines cause autism, yet many parents don’t believe them. Can scientists bridge the gap between evidence and doubt?
This week, the open-access journal PLoS Biology investigates why the debunked vaccine-autism theory won’t go away. Senior science writer/editor Liza Gross talks to medical anthropologists, science historians, [...]

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Activated stem cells in damaged lungs could be first step toward cancer

Posted on 27. May, 2009 by admin.

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DURHAM, N.C. – Stem cells that respond after a severe injury in the lungs of mice may be a source of rapidly dividing cells that lead to lung cancer, according to a team of American and British researchers.
“There are chemically resistant, local-tissue stem cells in the lung that only activate after severe injury,” said Barry [...]

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