biochemical 2 10

Tag: "biochemical" at biology news

Drugs from the deep blue

...nd mangrove lagoons. Some of these compounds have biochemical activities that could be useful in medicine -- killing microbes, stopping growth of cancer cells, or affecting the flow of calcium in and out of cells. Marine natural products are an eclectic mix of chemical types, drawing on all the pathways of met...

Study: Plants use dual defense system to fight pathogens

Researchers have uncovered the link between two biochemical pathways that plants use to defend themselves against pathogens ?pathways that scientists have long believed worked independently of each other. Knowing how these pathways of immunity work may one day help researchers breed plants that can better re...

Study charts origins of fear

...otional fear memory and pain begin by studying the biochemical processes in a different part of the brain. In a paper published in the Sept.15 issue of Neuron the researchers use mice to show how receptors activated in the pre-frontal cortex, the portion of the brain believed to be involved with higher intellect...

Scientists create digital bacteria to forge advances in biomedical research

...that allows them to study the relationship between biochemical fluctuations within a single cell and the cell's b...today: to document the connection between internal biochemical fluctuations and cellular behavior. "The belief is that these fluctuations are going to be reflected...

Evolution of life on Earth may hold key to finding life in outer space

..."All known living organisms on Earth share various biochemical properties, such as the same genetic code, the same major amino acids in proteins, and ?with minor exceptions ?the use of DNA or occasionally RNA as genetic material," Fox said. "This suggests life had a single origin from an earlier 'prebiotic' worl...

Gradient guides nerve growth down spinal cord

...of Chicago researchers reported that a gradient of biochemical signals known as the Wnt proteins acted as a guide for sensory nerves. These nerves have a receptor on the tips of their growth cones, known as Frizzled3, which responds to Wnts. In this paper, the researchers show that the nerves growing in the opp...

Genomics researchers discover protein deficit that causes drug toxicity

...he mystery of thiopurine metabolism had focused on biochemical mechanisms -- not changes in protein levels. Background Researchers have known for decades that 1 in 300 patients of Caucasian European genetic background has two copies of the variant gene -- specifically, a switch in 2 out of 245 amino acids -- t...

Results of world's first gene therapy trial for arthritis show approach safe, feasible

...ds to this receptor, the cell unleashes additional biochemical agents, which in turn cause more local inflammation. As inflammation builds, patients experience progressively worse pain and stiffness in their affected joints. To block this process, the team sought a way to prevent the main actor, IL-1, from bind...

Carnegie Mellon cyLab researchers work to develop new red tide monitoring

...ware that will monitor dangerous algae and various biochemical anomalies for public health," said Cai, who noted other applications for this software might range from studying cancer tumor growth to tracking serial killers. "The other very important part of this research is to adapt our findings to homeland secu...

Nanowires can detect molecular signs of cancer, scientists find

...tly, in a physician's office, without any need for biochemical manipulation. Lieber's co-authors are Gengfeng Zheng, Fernando Patolsky, Yi Cui and Wayne U. Wang, all of Harvard's Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Biophysics Program and Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences. The work was suppo...

Structures of marine toxins provide insight into their effectiveness as cancer drugs

...m what nature has already done. We're adding deep biochemical meaning to this area." He adds that synthetic chemists hope that actin-based drugs might one day rival the success of Taxol, a powerful drug derived from a natural product that keeps breast-cancer cells from dividing. "Actin-based drugs have not ye...

Investigating 'brain shrinkage' in alcoholics

...ghout this course, the brain undergoes significant biochemical and structural modifications, some for the better and some for the worse, depending on when an individual is studied. Because human alcoholics cannot be forced to drink or not, researchers have no control over when in their course an alcoholic can be...

Aptamer-based Biosensor screens Air Force personnel and equipment

...al Laboratory. The box uses an Air Force-developed biochemical assay based on aptamers, or single chain DNA fragments. "We've used our lab's expertise to develop an instrument that's complementary to the Air Force's technology and that simultaneously satis? es the speed, specificity, sensitivity, portability, d...

USC researchers determine mechanism of action of chemotherapy drug

...chers looked at gene expression profiles and other biochemical properties of cells from human lung, prostate and lymphoma cancer cell cultures that had been treated with motexafin gadolinium, or MGd. What they found was that the drug created oxidative stress in the tumor cells, increasing the levels of expressio...

New protein vital for immune response is found in surprise location

...AVS protein functions within the complex series of biochemical reactions that takes place when the body is infect...tic material. That interaction starts a cascade of biochemical reactions that eventually triggers the cell to make a protein called interferon, which in turn fight...

Fluorescing lab worms signal longer life spans

...hance metabolic processes that involve an array of biochemical and kinetic reactions, said Rea. "This work starts to address the question of why genetically identical organisms raised in identical environments still age at different rates," said Rea. "It suggests that chance alterations in how stress-response m...

Scripps research scientists solve structure of a critical innate immune system protein

...e immune system, which responds with a multi-stage biochemical defense starting with the unleashing of an army of..., and then trigger the immune system's multi-stage biochemical attack on the pathogens. Humans have at least 10 different TLRs, each of which recognizes a specifi...

Researcher gets NSF grant to create mutant maize lines

...hat are easily visible to the naked eye or through biochemical or physiological analysis. Such experimentation will give researchers a better understanding of the relationships between specific genes and complex plant systems. The database will be invaluable to academic researchers interested in how specific ge...

Unusual antibiotics show promise against deadly 'superbugs'

...tings. Yu's goal is to change some of collagen's biochemical or mechanical properties to give it new medical applications. Traditionally, scientists have altered collagen by using intense heat or chemical reactions, techniques that may damage the protein or limit its safe use in humans. Yu's method, however, r...

Scientists take aim at virulent bacteria by decoding machinery of key control enzyme

...d sequenced the Dam gene and has been studying the biochemical mechanism of the enzyme and Dr. Albert Jeltsch and his student Kirsten Liebert from International University Bremen in Germany. Dr. Cheng and his colleagues plan to continue their research using structure-based virtual screening techniques and high t...

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10