nucleic

Novel technology detects human DNA mutations

...ential to markedly advance the state-of-the-art in nucleic acid and proteomic research anddiagnostics."The analysis of whole human genomic DNA is extraordinarily complex asit requires sifting through the more than one billion base pairs of DNA to find a particular base pair of interest. Once that base pair i...

Scientists Replicate Hepatitis C Virus in Laboratory

...nstruct was “naked,?meaning that it contained only nucleic acids, the genetic material of the virus, and did not have the HCV viral envelope, a protective shell of lipids and proteins that surrounds the viral RNA in fully-formed HCV. The naked HCV construct was then placed into human liver cells in a cell cu...

Dinosaur DNA? New Patent Covers Degraded DNA recovery

... and fungi fossilized in amber. By reconstituting nucleic acid molecules that have been degraded but still contain useful information scientists at MatrixDesign are able to create a template from which to multiply the genetic material. That process is repeated until the genetic material is substantially rep...

Scientists document complex genomic events leading to the birth of new genes

...d at the nuclear pore complex, helping to regulate nucleic acid and protein traffic in and out of the nucleus. The corresponding gene is present in all sequenced animal genomes but not in other eukaryotes, such as plants or fungi. The new gene family characterized by Dr. Bork and his colleagues was largely ...

NASA links nanobacteria to kidney stones and other diseases

...ntroversial because the research on their putative nucleic acid has not been completed yet," states lead researcher Neva Ciftcioglu, Ph.D. However, the group's research provides additional clues to understanding NB and its link to pathologic calcification-related diseases. "Hopefully, eradication or treatme...

Affymetrix Licenses Microfluidics Technology From Caliper Life Sciences

...try." The scope of the license agreement includes nucleic acids processing and handling associated with Gene... respect to products intended primarily to perform nucleic acid separations as a discrete, non-integrated quality control step. ...

Disease diagnosis, biodefense among UH chemical research projects

...l additive effects on metal affinity adsorption of nucleic acids." Purification of nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) is important in diagnosing genetic diseases, genome sequencing and making DNA-ba...

Biomarkers isolated from saliva successfully predict oral and breast cancer

...e biggest hurdle stems from the fact that salivary nucleic acids or protein markers might be influenced by eating, drinking, smoking, diet or oral hygiene," said Wong. "So our goal is to provide the optimized and standardized protocol to assure consistent results." The studies are supported by grants from t...

Protein helps regulate the genes of embryonic stem cells

... decades ago worked to crack the genetic code, the nucleic acid sequence of As, Cs, Gs and Ts making up the DNA of genes. Today, Magnuson's team is trying to unravel a different, newly appreciated mode of inheritance: epigenetics. "Epigenetic inheritance is heritable information passed down through generati...

Signs of aging: Scientists evaluate genes associated with longevity

...hypo-metabolic' state, which involved major lipid, nucleic acid, protein, and energy pathways, became less pronounced with advanced age. "We speculate that the apparent metabolic repression in early and mid-life adults contributes substantially to the observed longevity of daf-2," says Dr. Julius Halaschek-W...

Basis for DNA ejection from single phage particles

...d without directly contacting the membrane. Phage nucleic acid transport poses a fascinating biophysical problem: Transport is unidirectional and linear; it concerns a unique molecule the size of which may represent 50 times that of the bacterium. The driving force for DNA transport is still poorly defined....

Affymetrix Launches New Globin-Reduction Kits and Protocol Developed with PreAnalytiX

...the collection, stabilization, and purification of nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) for molecular diagnostic testing. The first product from PreAnalytiX, the PAXgene(TM) Blood RNA System, was launched in April 2001, and has set a new standard for stabilizing whole blood cellular RNA profiles at the time of blood ...

Microarrays as phenotype

...des. Then researchers attach fluorescent labels to nucleic acids (DNA or RNA) from the cells under study. These labeled nucleic acids are allowed to bind to the DNA on the slides. Researchers then use a microscope to measure how...

Gene silencing technique offers new strategy for treating, curing disease

...ey developed a synthetic molecule called a peptide nucleic acid, or PNA, which physically binds to DNA and blocks enzymes from copying, or transcribing, the DNA into messenger RNA. More importantly, the researchers also employed RNA itself as a silencing agent. Previous work by other scientists had shown th...

The making and breaking of microtubules

...ucleotides like GTP are best known as units of the nucleic acids DNA and RNA, consisting of a base (a letter in the genetic code) plus a sugar and three phosphate groups. But these molecules also regulate enzyme activity and play a crucial role in controlling microtubule growth. When GTP binds to a particul...

Nanowires can detect molecular signs of cancer, scientists find

...ists also fitted some nanowires in the arrays with nucleic acid receptors for telomerase, an enzyme inactive in most of the body's somatic cells but active in at least 80 percent of known human cancers. In testing of extracts from as few as 10 tumor cells, these receptors allowed real-time monitoring of telo...

Life's origins were easier than was thought

...ganic molecules that combined to produce the first nucleic acid chains, which were the first elements able to self-replicate. According to one of the more accepted theories, these molecules were ribonucleic acid (RNA) chains, a molecule that is practically identical to DNA and that today has the secondary ro...

Nanotechnology to provide portable genetic risk detection

...tem uses an array of 20 microcantilevers coated in nucleic acid that react when they come into contact with a DNA sample displaying the genetic anomaly. The sample is injected into the device via a microfluidic header and the deflection of the cantilevers ?by as little as 0.1 to 0.5 nanometres ?is picked up ...

New book expands biological classifications to account for 'alien' life

...ng considered to be non-living bits of protein and nucleic acid but which Ward argues are as alive as the many parasites that infect humans and other organisms. The revamped classification system also would include life based on RNA instead of DNA, and life found away from Earth that likely would be based on...

A new step towards an AIDS vaccine

...ons mediate the endocytosis of HIV-1. Next, viral nucleic acids, particularly RNA, stimulate pDCs through Toll-like receptors. A decrease of blood pDC frequency is typically observed in chronic infections due to HIV-1 and correlates with high viral load, reduced CD4 counts and susceptibility to opportunis...

Preclinical study of a new brain tumor therapy

...ntists then selected a type of genetic material (a nucleic acid) associated with viral infections and linked ...rogrammed to die once they take up this particular nucleic acid. The treatment therefore eliminates the tumor cells but avoids damage to the normal brain tissu...

Hot-spring bacteria flip a metabolic switch

...All cells require nitrogen for making proteins and nucleic acids, but N2 gas from the atmosphere cannot be directly used for this purpose; it must first be reduced or fixed into larger, carbon-containing compounds. N2 fixation is a problem for photosynthetic cells, since the oxygen produced during photosynth...

A real time look at interactions between RNA and proteins

...ve cell. One end of the molecule, called a peptide nucleic acid (PNA), has a cell-penetrating peptide called transportan 10 to first get the PNA through the cell membrane. Once in the cell, the PNA binds to a specific target messenger RNA (mRNA). There is also a compound on the molecule that can be activated...

'Virus chip' detects new virus in prostate tumors

...erest over the slide, and wherever the two sets of nucleic acid match up, they anneal to each other. The slide is then rinsed and visualized with a scanning laser microscope. The dots that have found a match glow with fluorescent light. ...

'Accelerated evolution' converts RNA enzyme to DNA enzyme in vitro

...uence information between two different classes of nucleic acid-like molecules-between RNA and DNA, for examp...ionary pathways may exist between other classes of nucleic acid-like molecules. These findings could help answer some fundamental questions concerning the bas...

Immune system response to viral DNA is unique

...l be placed in two categories based on the type of nucleic acids that comprise their genome: viruses made of ... DNA. Infected cells sense the presence of foreign nucleic acids as viruses replicate inside them and distill the problem of recognizing a dizzying array of vi...

Research details how a virus hijacks cell signals to cause infection

...to move deeper into cells where it can release its nucleic acid payload and complete the process of infection. "We showed for the first time that this virus is dependent on signaling pathways to drive invasion," said Dr. Bergelson. Specifically, the coxsackievirus activates kinases, enzymes that are instru...

Enzyme crystal structure reveals 'unexpected' genome repair functions

...enzymes that unwind or separate the strands of the nucleic acid double helix, an action that is critical to transcription and nucleotide excision repair (NER), as well as other cell processes. "XPB was initially identified as the gene responsible for NER defects in xeroderma pigmentosum patients, who are h...

UAB researchers confirm HIV-1 originated in wild chimpanzees

...were able to detect SIVcpz-specific antibodies and nucleic acids (viral genetic information) in as many as 35 percent of chimpanzees in some ape communities. The UAB investigators went on to molecularly clone and sequence the complete viral genomes from four individual chimpanzees. According to UAB post-do...

Killing brain tumors from within: A 'Trojan horse' approach

...BM), the most lethal form of brain cancer. The nucleic acid-EFG molecule acts as a "guided missile," explained Prof. Levitzki, which, when injected into the blood stream, is avidly gobbled up by the multiple EGF receptors on the cancer cells, without harming normal cells. Once embedded in the tumor cells...

What's next for gene therapy? Plastic

...talk, "Influence of macromolecular architecture on nucleic acid transfection (POLY 611)," at 4 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 13, in the Marriott Salon 14/15 as part of the International Biorelated Polymers Symposium. Authors are Layman, Anjali A. Hirani of the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest School of Biomedical Engineer...

Scientists design simple dipstick test for cocaine, other drugs

...hemicals." Lu said. Aptamers are single-stranded nucleic acids that can bind to specific molecules in three-dimensions. For each molecular target, such as cocaine, a corresponding aptamer can be selected from a large DNA library. By using lateral flow devices as platforms to separate aptamer-linked nanop...

Gene-bender proteins may sway to DNA

...xpression by clasping onto key spots of DNA -- the nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions. How does the protein recognize a particular binding site" Structural changes in both the protein and DNA, sometimes with the DNA within the complex kinked or sharply bent, allow for the specific contacts ...

Selecting life: Scientists find new way to search for origin of life

... amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) and nucleic acids (the essence of DNA). But which of the countless possible combinations of biomolecules and mineral surfaces were key to this evolution? This vexing question has stumped scientists for years because of the sheer volume of possibilities. Now an ...

Uncovering DNA's 'sweet' secret

...ic system For example, it cannot pair with other nucleic acids - unlike DNA and RNA which can and must pair with each other. Also the steep angle, or inclination, between the sugar backbone and the bases of homo-DNA requires that the pairing strands align strictly in an antiparallel fashion - unlike DNA wh...

Novel laboratory technique nudges genes into activity

...said. "But the idea of RNA being used as a sort of nucleic acid modulator of chromosomes, at the level of the chromosome itself, is novel and unexpected, and it’s going to take some getting used to." ...

Coated nanoparticles solve sticky drug-delivery problem

...tial in the delivery of chemotherapy, antibiotics, nucleic acids and other treatment directly to the lungs, gastrointestinal tract and cervicovaginal tract. ...

Triplex assay used to assay duplex genomic DNA

Direct detection of base sequence in duplex nucleic acid has long been an unfulfilled objective. Ingen...ndense the duplex target, which renders the duplex nucleic acid readily reactive to oligo ssDNA probes. Any sequence present in the duplex may be specifically ...

RNA enzyme structure offers a glimpse into the origins of life

...s about the origins of life. "Which came first, nucleic acids or proteins? This question once seemed an intractable paradox, but with the discovery of ribozymes, it is now possible to imagine a prebiotic 'RNA World' in which self-replicating ribozymes accomplished both tasks," said William Scott, associat...

World's largest flower evolved from family of much tinier blooms

...ust a few millimeters in diameter. "The power of nucleic acid comparisons is revealed as well as ever in this stunning deduction," says noted botanist Peter H. Raven, president of the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, who was not involved in this research. "The massive increase in flower size is one ...

Stability of mRNA/DNA and DNA/DNA duplexes modulates mRNA transcription

...genetic information in living systems. However, do nucleic acids possess other attributes that contribute to ...erns, recognized by DNA binding proteins. However, nucleic acids are real molecules with defined physical characteristics, which can influence their biological...

Genome of yellow fever/dengue fever mosquito sequenced

...Es) in the Ae. aegypti genome. TEs are segments of nucleic acids, or genetic material, that move around the genome and have a significant impact on its structure and size. Also, Jinsong Zhu, assistant professor of biochemistry at Virginia Tech, who was a senior researcher at the University of California,...

Mutating the entire genome

...rom numerous “base pairs” of four building blocks: nucleic acids designated A, C, G and T. DNA in each human cell has about 3 billion base pairs, arranged into 23 pairs of chromosomes. Those chromosomes include roughly 20,000 genes, which carry the code needed for cells to produce the proteins used to ma...