Tag: "defective" at biology news

One species, many genomes

...ot be found at all. Almost every tenth gene was so defective that it could not fulfill its normal function anymore! Results such as these raise fundamental questions. For one, they qualify the value of the model genomes sequenced so far. "There isn’t such a thing as the genome of a species," says Weigel. H...

Penn researchers link cell's protein recycling systems

...-related neurological diseases are associated with defective proteins accumulating in nerve cells, suggesting t...red or overwhelmed, which leads to accumulation of defective proteins, HDAC6 facilitates delivery to the autophagy-lysosomal system for degradation. “That’s how ...

Adult stem cells from human cord umbilical cord blood successfully engineered to make insulin

...their own insulin-producing cells for a damaged or defective pancreas, medical researchers here have reported that they have engineered adult stem cells derived from human umbilical cord blood to produce insulin. The researchers announced their laboratory finding, which caps nearly four years of research, in ...

Tissue engineered scaffolding allows reproduction of cartilage tissue

...ve a limited ability to heal naturally, to replace defective cartilage tissue. Cartilage cells are extracted and seeded to the scaffold which is implanted into the body, where new cartilage tissue is grown along the structure. The study appears in the journal Artificial Organs. The procedure was extremely suc...

Sleepless for science: Flies show link between sleep, immune system in Stanford study

...he normal flies. They looked at flies that were defective in one of two genes, called "timeless" and "period". They found that the loss of either gene's function made the flies more sensitive to bacterial infections and these sick flies died significantly faster than control flies, which lived two to four t...

Blood sugar's manufacture limited by building blocks' supply

...n overnight fast. They further found evidence that defective amino acid breakdown promotes the development of fasting hypoglycemia in the mutant animals by limiting the availability of a glucose substrate called pyruvate. Indeed, the mice had markedly reduced activity of genes that encode amino acid-degradi...

Mutation improves memory, may lead to memory-enhancing pill

...ural memory-blocking protein. Animals that carry a defective version of this gene showed improved performance in classical behavioral memory tests, they show. Moreover, animals treated with a small molecule that had the opposite effect—leading ultimately to an increase in the memory-blocker's concentration—sho...

Major gene study uncovers secrets of leukemia

... or resulted in the formation of PAX5 protein with defective function. Mutations were also found in other genes...get they are supposed to attack. However, if these defective B lymphocytes do not differentiate because of the mutations, the body will not recognize them as def...

Nanotextured implant materials: blending in, not fighting back

...g up with ways to repair the human body, replacing defective and worn out parts with plastic, titanium, and ceramic substitutes ?but the body does not always accept such substitutes seamlessly. Engineers from Brown and Purdue universities have found that simply changing the surface texture of implants can dram...

Veterinary scientists explore poultry virus as cancer killer

... explains Dr. Subbiah. Cancer cells, however, have defective interferon antiviral systems, he said. NDV utilizes the defects to replicate in the diseased cells. The replication of NDV leads to the death of the cancer cell by a process called apoptosis - also known as programmed cell death or cell suicide- in t...

Tumor-suppressor gene is critical for placenta development

...ten. They gave rise to too many cells and formed a defective placenta, especially where the placenta interacts with the uterus. These embryos died about 15 days after fertilization, a time at which placenta function becomes critical for survival (the gestation period for mice is 19 days). Interestingly, ...

Dual gene therapy suppresses lung cancer in preclinical test

... well-known tumor suppressor that works by causing defective cells to commit suicide and is often shut down or defective in cancer cells, and FUS1, a tumor-suppressor discovered by the research group that is deficient in ...

Penn study on lung-infecting bacterial enzyme suggests new approach to cystic fibrosis treatment

...ting bacteria further shuts down a protein that is defective in cystic fibrosis patients. The disruption to this protein that conveys ions from lung cells to airways causes thick mucus to buildup inside the lung. The finding suggests a new therapeutic target for treating lung infections in some cystic fibrosis...

Protein found to shield pancreatic cancer cells from self-destruction

...cal defense mechanism that systematically destroys defective cells by forcing them to kill themselves. In apoptosis, the cells die via damage to their nucleus and DNA, with other cellular organelles preserved. Autophagy kills by degrading those other organelles while sparing the nucleus. Mehta's lab report...

MIT biologists solve vitamin puzzle

...er's team has now found that one such mutant has a defective form of an enzyme known as BluB that leaves it unable to synthesize B12. BluB catalyzes the formation of the B12 fragment known as DMB, which joins with another fragment, produced by a separate pathway, to form the vitamin. One of several possible...

MicroRNA helps prevent tumors

...er in the Bartel lab, picked Hmga2, a gene that is defective in a wide range of tumors. In these tumors, the protein-producing part of the Hmga2 gene is cut short and replaced with DNA from another chromosome. Biologists have mostly focused on the shortened protein as the possible reason that the cells wit...

Engineering the heart piece by piece

... that died during their attack. Children born with defective heart valves might get new ones that can grow in place, rather than being replaced every few years. And people with clogged or weak blood vessels might get a new “natural?replacement, instead of a factory-made one. These possibilities are all within...

Anti-dandruff compound may help fight epilepsy

...oors swing freely.? The researchers then tested defective channels that contain the same mutations known in ...i says. “But here we found a chemical that makes a defective protein work better. So now we have a chance to actually try to fix the causes of epilepsy, rather t...

A potential biological cause for sudden infant death syndrome

...od pressure. If the brainstem serotonin system is defective or still immature, this transition to total independence in the control of vital functions may be impaired during the crucial first six months of life. "We think that the control systems for vital or homeostatic functions reach full maturity only...

Progress made in HIV vaccine development

...DNA to prime the immune response and a replication defective recombinant adenovirus serotype 5 vector to boost responses." ...

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