agent

Virus

..., previously thought of primarily as the causative agent of neurological disease in horses, could be responsible for psychiatric illness in humans. The relative ability of viruses to cause disease is described in terms of virulence . The ability of viruses to cause devastating epidemics in human so...

Vaccine

...term derives from vaccinia , the infectious viral agent of cowpox , which, when administered to humans, p...emembers' them. When the virulent version of an agent comes along, the immune system is thus prepared to respond, by (1) neutralizing the target agent bef...

Tubulin

...r anticancer drugs like taxol . The anti- gout agent colchicine binds to tubulin and inhibits microtubule formation, arresting neutrophil motility and decreasing inflammation ....

Prion

...developed to explain why the mysterious infectious agent causing Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease resisted ultra...ed when researchers discovered that the infectious agent consisted mainly of a specific protein, which Prusiner called PrP (an abbreviation for "prion protei...

Photosynthesis

...s; → NADPH The NADPH is the main reducing agent in cells, providing a source of energetic electrons to other reactions. This leaves chlorophyll with a deficit of electrons, which must be obtained from some other reducing agent. In plants and algae this role is played by water, resulting in the ...

Nutrition

...h was the hypothesis that oxidative damage was the agent which accelerated aging, and that aging was retard...t al, 2003) In effect, it is now thought that the agent which increases longevity is leanness in animals, and that it is the accumulation of fatty tissue ov...

Mutagen

...gen ( Latin , literally origin of change ) is an agent that changes the genetic information (usually DNA... test is one method to determine how mutagenic an agent is. See also DNA repair Genetics Teratogen...

Magnetic resonance imaging

... such as administration of a paramagnetic contrast agent (such as gadolinium) or using a technique known as "flow-related enhancement" (e.g. 2D and 3D time-of-flight sequences), where the only signal on an image is due to blood which has recently moved into that plane. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy M...

Antibiotic resistance

...in . This left vancomycin as the only effective agent available at the time. However, VRSA ( Vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus ) was first identified in Japan in 1997 and has since been found in hospitals in England, France and the US. VRSA is also termed GISA (glycopeptide intermediate Sta...

Malaria

...oped that the genome sequence of the most deadly agent of malaria, Plasmodium falciparum , which was completed in 2002 , will provide targets for new drugs or vaccines. Efforts to eradicate malaria by attacking mosquitos have been successful in some areas. Malaria was once common in the United State...

Life

...t Kauffman 's definition of life as an autonomous agent or a multi-agent system capable of reproducing itself or themselves, and of completing at least one thermodynamic work cycle Robert Pirsig 's definition of life, found in his book Lila: An Inquiry into Morals , as that which maximizes its ra...

Human

...he species, while the latter refers to a rational agent : see, for example, John Locke 's Essay concerning Human Understanding II 27 and Immanuel Kant 's Introduction to the Metaphysic of Morals . The term "person" is thus used of non-human animals , and could be used of a mythical being , an arti...

Homunculus

...e prime actor, it can be viewed as an entity or agent . The term appears to have been first used by the... 'regress': "According to the legend, whenever an agent does anything intelligently, his act is preceded and steered by another internal act of considering ...

Photosynthesis

...s; → NADPH The NADPH is the main reducing agent in cells, providing a source of energetic electrons to other reactions. This leaves chlorophyll with a deficit of electrons, which must be obtained from some other reducing agent. In plants and algae this role is played by water, resulting in the ...

Avian influenza

... 7 External links Infection The causative agent is the avian influenza (AI) virus . AI viruses all belong to the influenza virus A genus of the Orthomyxoviridae family and are negative-stranded, segmented RNA viruses . Avian influenza spreads in the air and in manure . Wild fowl often a...

Artificial life

... of single phenomena. The usual way is through an agent based model , which usually gives a minimal possible solution. That is: "we don't know what in nature generates this phenomenon, but it could be something as simple as..." The field is characterized by the extensive use of computer programs and ...

Antibiotic resistance

...in . This left vancomycin as the only effective agent available at the time. However, VRSA ( Vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus ) was first identified in Japan in 1997 and has since been found in hospitals in England, France and the US. VRSA is also termed GISA (glycopeptide intermediate Sta...

Ames test

...sent. The experimental cultures are exposed to the agent to be tested while the positive control cultures a...control dishes is necessary. Occasionally a tested agent will be toxic enough to simply kill the bacterial culture in which case a "thin lawn" is observed. ...

Affinity chromatography

...t [ [1] ]. For elution purposes a nickel chelating agent is used. GST has an affinity for glutathione (commercially available as glutathione sepharose ). For elution purposes glutathione is used. Another use for the procedure is the affinity purification of antibodies from blood serum. If serum is known...