Tag: "attempt" at biology news

Breakthrough developments in rheumatoid arthritis reported

...thritis (and some family members without it) in an attempt to single out those genes that are involved in the autoimmune process. In fact, in 2004, they identified a gene called PTPN2 that confers a two-fold risk for rheumatoid arthritis and a number of other autoimmune diseases. The Feinstein now holds the ...

'Nurse cells' make life and death decisions for infection-fighting cells

.... Once invaders have been identified, T cells then attempt to eliminate disease-infected cells. "In early studies, it was suggested that thymic nurse cells only removed non-functional thymocytes," said Eve Barak, program director in NSF's Division of Molecular and Cellular Biology. "This research shows th...

Smallpox outbreak: How long would it take for vaccines to protect people? Would it work?

... by Saint Louis University School of Medicine will attempt to answer this question. General routine vaccinations for smallpox were stopped in the United States in 1971, and the world was declared free of smallpox in 1980. But because of the recent concern about biowarfare and bioterrorism throughout the w...

Resistant HIV quickly hides in infants' cells

...ts treated with antiretrovirals in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent mother-to-child transmission found the virus quickly developed resistance, but levels of resistant virus declined over time to undetectable levels. In the current study, however, researchers found these resistant viruses quickly took up re...

The sound of proteins

...erted protein sequences into classical music in an attempt to help vision-impaired scientists and boost the popularity of genomic biology. New research published today in the open access journal Genome Biology describes how researchers have found a way to present human proteins as musical notes. Rie Takahas...

Iowa State scientists demonstrate first use of nanotechnology to enter plant cells

...ntrol for timing the delivery The team’s first attempt to use the porous silica nanoparticle to deliver DNA through the rigid wall of the plant cell was unsuccessful. The technology had worked more readily in animals cells because they don’t have walls. The nanoparticles can enter animal cells through a ...

Study warns deep-sea mining may pose serious threat to fragile marine ecosystems

... coast of Tonga and Fiji," he says. "If this first attempt at mining proves successful, it’s like letting the genie out of the bottle."...

Scientists identify molecular cause for one form of deafness

...fraction of normal espin linkers, a kind of rescue attempt at restoring hearing could, in principle, be made. "We have identified the underlying molecular cause for one form of deafness, and we have identified a mechanism to potentially 'rescue' this particular kind of pathology," Wong said. "Even so, this...

Tracking sperm whales and jumbo squid

...le to tagging. To our knowledge, this is the first attempt to simultaneously study a mesopelagic predator and its prey using electronic tagging techniques." Size matters The jumbo (or Humboldt) squid is a large cephalopod species found only in the Pacific. A mature jumbo squid can weigh more than 100...

Remote sheep population resists genetic drift

A whimsical attempt to establish a herd of mouflon for sport hunting on a remote island in the Indian Ocean 50 years ago has inadvertently created a laboratory for genetic researchers and led to a surprising discovery. A mouflon population, bred over dozens of generati...

Misusing vitamin to foil drug test may be toxic; plus, it doesn't work

Taking excessive doses of a common vitamin in an attempt to defeat drug screening tests may send the user to the hospital—or worse. Researchers from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and The University of Pennsylvania reported on two adults and two adolescents who suffered toxic side effects from t...

Bacteria control how infectious they become, study finds

... that this study likely marks the first successful attempt by a laboratory to determine the structure of RfaH. They used special X-ray techniques to study and describe RfaH proteins that they had extracted from E. coli. They found that while about two-thirds of RfaH's structure closely resembles the struc...

Study to explore using magnets to correct 'sunken chest'

... "The problem with present techniques is that they attempt to reshape the chest wall in one big operation," Harrison said. "A better idea is to apply a little force over a longer time, like the orthodontist moves your teeth." The use of the magnets has been deemed safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administra...

Prenatal cocaine's lasting cellular effects

...amines and cocaine." "The current study was an attempt to look at the mechanism of this decrease in D1 receptor signaling," he said. Stanwood examined the levels of D1 receptor in brain cells taken from "teenage" rabbits that were exposed to cocaine during that short, sensitive prenatal period. H...

Are journal rankings distorting science?

...t’s easy to criticise bibliometrics, but we should attempt to refine them and debate in parallel how we can track academic careers and encourage fewer, but better studies that affect the wider community, he concludes....

Penn researchers replace organ in adult mice using 'single-parent' stem cells

...n's team created an experiment in which they would attempt to reconstitute the hematopoietic, or blood-producing, stem cells that were destroyed in mice exposed to radiation. The Penn researchers first created gynogenetic (egg-based) and androgenetic (sperm-based) embryonic stem cells and then injected thos...

Jefferson researchers' discovery may change thinking on how viruses invade the brain

... to other parts of the dynein-LC8 interaction, and attempt to find other proteins that could be involved in viral transport. ...

Termites get the vibe on what tastes good

...riments to test termites' assessment methods in an attempt to determine precisely what aspect of the vibrations termites are responding to in assessing food. "If we understand how they use vibrations to assess their food, we might be able to exploit this to manipulate their feeding habits, and address the ...

Cells use 'noise' to make cell-fate decisions

...capacitor or switch in an electrical circuit in an attempt to understand the function of the electrical device in which the circuit is housed. "Our research provides a systems-level view of how gene circuits work as a whole," he said. Dr. Süel said the next step in his research would be to uncover the ...

Chimpanzees found to use tools to hunt mammalian prey

...the day. Although there was only one successful attempt in 22 recorded instances of the chimpanzees using the spear-like tools to find and obtain prey, the researchers observed that tool-crafting and associated hunting behavior was systematic and consistent, suggesting that it was habitual. The hunting be...

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