Tag: "chemically" at biology news

Researchers Uncover Key Step In Manufacture of Memory Protein

... (nerve cell.) Once in the compartment, proBDNF is chemically converted into active mBDNF. After mBDNF is formed, it is released to the outside of the neuron, where it binds to receptors on other neurons and stimulates them to form long-term memory. Dr. Loh explained that, like other proteins, proBDNF is made ...

Computers to be used to find blueprint for new influenza drug

... disease developing. The drug would work by being chemically very similar to part of the protective coating aro...ter the cell and reproduce. The new drug would be chemically similar to the sialic acid, but would act to inhibit the sialidase. This would hinder the virus from...

Scientists find missing enzyme for tuberculosis iron scavenging pathway

...hed," explains Dr. Baker. "The N-acetyltransferase chemically modifies the sugar amino group by transferring an acetyl group to it. This inactivates the antibiotic because it can no longer fit into its target." However, in vitro biochemical assays have failed to demonstrate aminoglycoside N-acetyltransferase a...

Novel Enzyme Shows Potential As An Anti-HIV Target

...e HIV promoter (where transcription begins). CDK-9 chemically modifies the RNA polymerase and enhances its transcribing efficiency. The transcription process—including the labyrinthine protein–protein and protein–DNA (and in the case of Tat, protein–RNA) interactions—is highly regulated. One process that figur...

ASU researchers finds novel chemistry at work to provide parrot's vibrant red colors

...d feathers. The work casts a new light on what is chemically responsible for the colors of birds, and defies previous assumptions and explanations for color variations in parrots, said Kevin McGraw, an assistant professor in ASU's School of Life Sciences. "Evolutionary biologists have not really thought hard ...

Transport System Smuggles Medicines Into Brain

...d feathers. The work casts a new light on what is chemically responsible for the colors of birds, and defies previous assumptions and explanations for color variations in parrots, said Kevin McGraw, an assistant professor in ASU's School of Life Sciences. "Evolutionary biologists have not really thought hard ...

Influenza vaccine uses insect cells to speed development

...nse in humans. "Since all the media used here are chemically stable and commercially available, the process can be easily scaled up for commercial manufacture," says Wang. "New FluBlok vaccines can be developed quickly and safely to address late appearing influenza viruses and to reduce the impact of a potenti...

Transgenic plants remove more selenium from polluted soil than wild plants, new tests show

...t is tricked into absorbing selenate because it is chemically similar to sulfate, an essential nutrient for the plant. Gary S. Banuelos, a soil scientist with the USDA's ARS and co-lead author of the paper, directed the field tests, which were carried out in Fresno County. The three types of transgenic plants...

Computational Method Speeds Mapping of Cell Signaling Networks

...attle the infection. Components in the pathway are chemically altered during the signaling. Such alterations occur only at points of active signaling in the network. The researchers measured the modified signaling molecules to determine where along the pathway T-cell components changed in response to signals. ...

Researchers make gains in understanding antibiotic resistance

...l resistance to a group of antibiotics that, while chemically quite different, all jam the activity of the protein-making factory in bacteria in much the same way. They studied the MLSBK antibiotics, an acronym for a group of antibiotics which include macrolides, lincosamides, streptogramin B and ketolides. MLS...

Brain Scans Reveal How Gene May Boost Schizophrenia Risk

...e enzyme catecho-O-methyltransferase (COMT), which chemically breaks down dopamine. It comes in two versions, val and met, so a person can have two of the same version or one of each. Since it results in considerably weaker enzyme action, people with the met version are thought have more dopamine in their prefr...

Researchers unlock mechanism creating jigsaw puzzle-like plant cells

...tissues, a deeper understanding of how plant cells chemically talk to each other to grow or recede in an ordered way remains unclear. ...

Cerebral navigation: How do nerve fibers know what direction to grow in?

...is present and binds to Eph receptors, ephexin1 is chemically modified, causing it to alter the cell's cytoskeleton, or internal scaffolding. This alteration makes the growth cone collapse, steering the axon in a new direction or halting its growth. In chicken motor neurons whose ephexin1 was inactivated, the a...

NYU and MSKCC research provides model for understanding chemically induced cancer initiation

...n new horizons for understanding the initiation of chemically induced cancers. The findings appear as the cover story in the latest issue of the Journal of Molecular Biology. This team was headed by Dinshaw Patel at MSKCC, Nicholas Geacintov, chair of NYU's chemistry department, and Suse Broyde, a professor in...

Marine sponge yields nanoscale secrets

...es. They showed that when two populations of these chemically modified nanoparticles, each bearing half of the catalytic site, are brought together, they function just as the natural biological catalyst does to make silica at low temperatures. The UCSB scientists are already taking the next steps toward the de...

Study uncovers bacteria's worst enemy

...le the process. Our study found that actinides are chemically toxic to bacteria only at high levels far, far above concentrations at contaminated sites, and that common toxic metals, such as cadmium, nickel, and chromium, are more likely to cause problems for the bacteria." Generally, bacteria used for bioreme...

Cellular Defects in Premature Aging Disease are Reversible

...n," said Scaffidi. The NCI researchers designed a chemically stable DNA oligonucleotide ?a short DNA sequence that the cell wouldn't be able to degrade ?that would bind to the mutant splice site and prevent the splicing machinery from cutting in the wrong place. "You can think of it as a molecular Band-Aid®," ...

Newly Discovered 'Branding' Process Helps Immune System Cells Pick Their Fights

...at the immune system can brand foreign proteins by chemically modifying their structure, and that these modifica...tors or microbial products, they start putting out chemically unstable compounds such as nitric oxide and superoxide. Together, these compounds generate peroynitr...

Bugs, even 'bad' ones, can be educationally beneficial, new book says

...eed the developing larva. Tsetse milk is white and chemically similar to human or cow's milk," Waldbauer wrote in a chapter titled "Guaranteeing descendants: The role of parental care." Waldbauer emphasizes that insects can be useful to humans. For example, he said, maggot therapy has been used to remove gangr...

Atmosphere may cleanse itself better than previously thought

...opy, could reveal OH radical production from other chemically related molecules as well. "This study is important because it shows that the atmosphere could be generating far more OH radicals than we thought before because the models are underestimating the amount of chemistry that’s happening," said Sinha, wh...

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