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Tag: "critical" at biology news

Infants With Rare Genetic Disease Saved by Cord Blood Stem Cells

...e Disease, in which children are missing an enzyme critical to forming the myelin sheath that protects developing brain cells from damage. Moreover, the findings add to the growing body of evidence showing that cord blood can save children with other fatal "lysosomal storage diseases," each of which stems fro...

White Blood Cell 'Waste Disposal' System Plays Critical Regulatory Role

A new research study identifies a critical inhibitory step that is a key component of the fee...ditions characterized by abnormal numbers of these critical immune cells. Human neutrophils are white blood cells that are constantly being produced in the bon...

Genetic defects give the immune system the green light to attack the pancreas

...ancreas, mistaking them as foreign invaders. “It’s critical for the immune system to recognize and tolerate tissues that belong in the body, which immunologists call ‘tolerance,’?said Dr. Zucchelli. “Previous studies have shown that when the T-cells don’t learn this tolerance, they can infiltrate the pancreas...

Nano-bumps could help repair clogged blood vessels

...ulate the growth of more new bone tissue, which is critical for the proper attachment of artificial joints once they are implanted. Now the biomedical engineers have seen the same kind of increased attachment for endothelial and vascular smooth muscle cells lining the insides of arteries, said Thomas Webster...

Used in a new way, RNA interference permanently silences key breast cancer gene

... that RNAi can be used to permanently silence such critical genes as STAT3 "has potential application for treating breast cancer." ...

Different microarray systems more alike than previously thought

...systems may ultimately allow scientists to uncover critical differences between, say, healthy and cancerous tissue. Unless laboratories can rely on each others' results, such findings would not have much value. For the study, 10 laboratories in the Washington, D.C./Baltimore area were given identical samples...

Brain Scans Reveal How Gene May Boost Schizophrenia Risk

...rugs that block dopamine. The prefrontal cortex is critical for motivation, learning in response to reward, and working memory ?functions impaired in schizophrenia, which is thought to involve a dopamine imbalance. Individuals inherit two copies (one from each parent) of the gene for the enzyme catecho-O-met...

Researchers unlock mechanism creating jigsaw puzzle-like plant cells

...dings point out that these distinct signals play a critical role in the development of leaf cell walls and leaf structures in a controlled and ordered way and that genetically over expressing one or the other leads to cells lacking the interlocking jigsaw puzzle appearance. While the researchers unlocked a f...

NIH Researchers Discover How Insulin Allows Entry of Glucose Into Cells

... National Institutes of Health have discovered the critical sequence of events by which insulin stimulates the entry of glucose into fat cells. The study, appearing in the May 9 Journal of Cell Biology, was conducted by researchers from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Nat...

New tumor-suppressor gene discovered

...ich the mats gene belongs has been shown to play a critical role in growth inhibition. The scientists began their research when they found one line of the Drosophila fly, a model laboratory species, which developed tumors on their bodies. Lai suspected that these flies had a naturally occurring genetic defec...

Grasping metaphors: UC San Diego research ties brain area to figures of speech

..., hearing and vision, Ramachandran conjectures, is critical both to conceptual metaphors and to cross-modal abstractions more generally. "While it would be premature to conclude that the angular gyrus is the 'metaphor center' of the human brain, we suggest that the evolution of the dominant angular gyrus con...

Insight into DNA's 'weakest links' may yield clues to cancer biology

...y of one form of DNA polymerase, which are enzymes critical in DNA duplication. Yeast with abnormally low levels of DNA polymerase exhibited higher frequencies of chromosomal loss and aberrations than normal, resulting when broken chromosomes re-joined with others to form novel arrangements, the researchers r...

FDA Works To Speed The Advent Of New, More Effective Personalized Medicines

... science behind personalized medicine, an issue of critical importance to both consumers and FDA. Presentations will be from experts in the field and there will be time for questions. For more information ; for public session . ...

Roots Engage in Underground Chemical Warfare

...erimental approaches used by this team uncovered a critical aspect of the battle that occurs between plants and microbes. ...

Habitat use by North Pacific right whales, Eubalaena japonica, in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska

...e. To help define areas and ecological parameters critical to the survival of this remnant population of right whales, habitat use was investigated by scientists at the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service's, National Marine Mammal Laboratory, in Seattle, Washington by examining all available sighting and ...

Africa to take it on chin again with climate change

...nusual nor extreme," says Hurrell. Monsoon rains, critical to life in much of Africa, shift north and south with the seasons. They normally reach the Sahel from July to September and the southern part of the continent from February into April. Low-pressure centers moving west from the Sahel during the monsoo...

Biochemists report discovery of structure of major piece of telomerase; implications for cancer

...of rational, structure-based drug design, and is a critical first step. The structure provides a potential target for drug intervention." Feigon emphasized that her laboratory conducts basic research, and is not involved in cancer treatment. Every time a cell divides, telomeres, which act like the plastic t...

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

..., is an important tumor suppressor gene that plays critical roles in cellular functions such as cell-cycle control, differentiation, and DNA repair. Many different chemical carcinogens, including those that are primary components of cigarette smoke, are known to damage DNA. This damage occurs at special posit...

Plant Sacrifices Cells to Fight Invaders

...all cell types, both plant and animal. PCD plays a critical role in many biological processes including immune system function, embryonic development and elimination of defective cells. When PCD malfunctions, or is undermined by pathogens, the effects can be devastating, resulting in diseases such as cancer, ...

A little stress gives beneficial oomph! to immune system

... had much higher numbers of leukocytes arriving at critical defense organs, such as the skin, than did non-stressed mice. "Acute stress could help increase immune protection," said Firdaus Dhabhar, the study's lead author and an associate professor of oral biology and molecular virology, immunology and medic...

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