anchor

Gene therapy promising for growing tooth-supporting bone

...one---the patient also needs the bone structure to anchor the new tooth in place. Such reconstructive surgery today involves either taking a bone graft from the patient's chin or jaw, which leaves a second wound needing to heal, or using donated bone from a tissue bank, which yields unpredictable results. ...

Engineers improve plastic's potential for use in implants by linking it to biological material

... at Austin have found a way to modify a plastic to anchor molecules that promote nerve regeneration, blood vessel growth or other biological processes. In the study led by Dr. Christine Schmidt, the researchers identified a piece of protein from among a billion candidates that could perform the unusual fea...

Researchers identify new catfish family

...hese big jaw muscles that come up over the top and anchor on top of the head" Hendrickson said. "This has a very narrow cranium and the muscles anchor to the sides of the bone instead of coming up on top. That and a number of other characters clearly ...

Variant prion protein causes infection but no symptoms

...fected: * The host cell might require the GPI anchor to receive the "toxic signal" from the abnormal prion protein * The plaques might be less toxic than the non-plaque form of prion protein clumps In either case, more time might be required to produce disease due to the reduced toxicity, Dr. Ches...

Plant genes identified that can form basis for crops better adapted to environmental conditions

...root formation Root systems absorb nutrients and anchor plants in the soil − two crucial functions for a plant's growth and further development. The formation of capillary roots is vital to the root system and determines how much water and minerals a plant can absorb. As early as 1937, scientists kn...

Researchers identify molecular anchor that allows bacterial invasion of central nervous system

...be target to block CNS infectionA single molecular anchor that allows bacteria to invade the nervous system may hold the key to treating many types of bacterial meningitis, a University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine study has found. By blocking the molecule's anchoring ability, resear...

Anti-cancer drugs may hold promise for premature aging disorder

...in cells grown in the laboratory, progerin did not anchor itself to the inner nuclear membrane and instead clumped within the nucleus. Moreover, they observed no nuclear blebbing. The researchers then tried treating the cells carrying progerin with FTIs, which are drugs originally developed to inhibit cert...

Antibacterial coatings cut infection rates

...ts. "When bacteria sit on the surface, they first anchor themselves individually and then send out signalli...s covalent bonding because it is important that we anchor them very firmly to the surface, making it impossible for them to break away and travel into remote ...

Molecule by molecule, new assay shows real-time gene activity

...protein. The inclusion of the Tsr domain serves to anchor the fused protein to a cell's membrane, sidestepping the longstanding difficulty of imaging single proteins zipping about in cell cytoplasm, where diffuse fluorescent signals tend to be overwhelmed by background noise. The gene coding for this combi...

Berkeley researchers lay groundwork for cell version of DNA chip

...chemical handle, the sulfur-based thiolate ion, to anchor single-stranded DNA onto gold pads, which were incorporated into microfluidic chips through standard photolithography. After the DNA-coated Jurkat cells were rinsed over the chips, fluorescence microscopy revealed that only those cells coated with s...

Groovy protein essential for promoting cancer development

... picture of the part of telomerase that forms this anchor site, and in fact have identified a groove within ...ly extends the telomeres, Cech pointed out, so the anchor site secures the DNA molecule nearby, slightly closer to its center. Cech is optimistic that the n...

Report lists top 20 most-vulnerable African carnivores

... picture of the part of telomerase that forms this anchor site, and in fact have identified a groove within ...ly extends the telomeres, Cech pointed out, so the anchor site secures the DNA molecule nearby, slightly closer to its center. Cech is optimistic that the n...

Unraveling the viral mechanism

... shell contain structures like tails that actually anchor the bacteriophage to the surface of the bacteria itself. The shape of these "tail" structures gives clues about how the virus or phage and cell interact. Then as Chiu and Jiang used the computer visualization tool to strip away the surface shell ent...

'Biobullets' fight harmful mussels

...ustrial facilities. In addition, zebra mussels can anchor themselves to other mollusks, making it impossible for native species to thrive. In some case, as many as 10,000 zebra mussels have attached themselves to a single native mussel, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). In all, the researchers...

Tiny shock absorbers help bacteria stick around inside the body

...l force required to keep the finger trap-like FimH anchor from breaking loose. "This system is similar to a set of shock absorbers on your car that dampen turbulent forces caused by bumpy road conditions," added study co-author Dr. Wendy Thomas, assistant professor of bioengineering at the UW. The resear...

African parasite makes component of fat differently from all other organisms

...e proteins are attached to the cell membrane by an anchor composed in part of a fatty acid only 14 units long - dubbed myristate -- whereas typically, in other organisms, these types of anchors contain longer fatty acids, generally 16 or 18 units long. "For many years we thought the parasite had to get t...

Researchers unveil strategy for creating actively-programmed anti-cancer molecules

...e from a tumor mass, move through the bloodstream, anchor down in a distant tissue or organ to begin a new cancer-remains a critically important goal. The most recent figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that more than 200,000 U.S. women are diagnosed with new cases of invasi...

Weizmann Institute scientists discover a molecular security mechanism for keeping mutations in check

... the clamp. The ubiquitin, in this case, serves to anchor replacement DNA polymerase molecules ?careless ones ?to the clamp. p53 enters the picture when it is alerted to the damage and causes p21 to be created. The p21 then acts as a sort of facilitator, helping to fasten the proper ubiquitin in place and c...

With record resolution and sensitivity, tool images how life organizes in a cell membrane

... of a hydrophobic group to a protein forms a lipid anchor that attaches the protein to the lipid membrane. Associations of different proteins in a section of compositionally distinct fatty membrane have been called ''lipid rafts.'' Just as a raft is a bunch of logs associated because a rope binds them toge...

Living laboratory found on shoreline statues

...s. The Gormley statues not only provide a perfect anchor point but sheltered parts of the figures such as the inner thigh protect them from extreme harsh conditions. "This particular breed is a cross-fertilising hermaphrodite which means that once it has settled, the barnacle can produce multiple broods...

New clues to how sex evolves

...on - the telomeres on the ends of the chromosomes anchor to the nuclear membrane in a transient structure called a 'meiotic bouquet,'" Dernburg says. "In C. elegans it's the Pairing Centers, not telomeres, that attach to the nuclear envelope. They do so seemingly randomly, not in a single bunch; neverthele...

In nature, proteins sweep up nanoparticles

... one-millionth of a meter). And these larger blobs anchor the nanoparticles in place. Stopping nanoparticles in their tracks, as this process does, could become a critical component of a bioremediation strategy, if only scientists understand how it works. To explore this question, the team turned to Berk...

Progress toward an antitumor vaccine

...am has now found a good anchoring technique: Their anchor is a thioether (two carbon atoms coupled together through a sulfur atom). To this end, the carrier protein is first equipped with a spacer, which has an allyl group (two carbon atoms attached by a double bond) at its end. The glycopeptide is coupled ...