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Tag: "focused" at biology news

Researchers unlock how cells determine their functions

...er said."Over the last few years, researchers have focused on how noncoding RNAs silence genes," said Anthony Carter, of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, which partially funded the research. "Dr. Sauer's work has revealed that noncoding RNAs have a broader range of functions than was previ...

Infection 'alarm' yields clues to immune system behavior

...s and rheumatoid arthritis. Their findings, which focused on how a large protein molecule called tumor necrosis factor, or TNF, triggers an immune response, were reported in the February issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry. "We were surprised by how sensitive cells were to small amounts and brief ...

UC Berkeley researchers create a biologically-inspired artificial compound eye

...r's torch burning a hole into metal, over time the focused light beams etch holes in the resin creating the tiny channels called self-written waveguides. Because these channels are formed at the angle of the light beams that strike them, Lee used a condenser lens to bend his light source into a spoke-like p...

Tiny polyps gorge themselves to survive coral bleaching

... past 13 years. There, she and her collaborators focused on two types of common coral that thrived on the local reefs, Montipora capitata, or "rice" coral, and Porites compressa, "finger" coral. They collected samples of both types and placed them in sets of tanks supplied with natural seawater. Water from...

Climate change: The rice genome to the rescue

...p drop in national rice production. Other examples focused on the impact of climate change and variability on gross domestic product, generally causing it to slip by several percentage points. "One of the main problems with climate change is that the effects are felt mostly in poor, underdeveloped countries...

'Uniquely human' component of language found in gregarious birds

...e uniqueness of human language." The researchers focused on recursion, or center-embedding, a characteristic, found in all human languages. Recursion is one way of creating of new and grammatically correct meanings by inserting words and clauses within sentences -- theoretically, without limit. So, for ex...

Mute swan population helps explain longstanding evolutionary question

...on. "Extensive debate in the literature…was first focused on the question: Why does a population's average clutch size differ from the most productive clutch size?" said researcher Ann Charmantier. "Gradually the debate switched to an evolutionary point of view with a second, related question: Why is clutch...

Natural selection at single gene demonstrated

...o any organism, including humans. The PLoS paper focused on the weed Arabidopsis thaliana, and in particular on the FRIGIDA (FRI) gene, known to influence flowering time. A. thaliana was once a plant that bloomed annually. But two versions of FRI that appeared thousands of years ago enabled the plant to ...

DNA conclusive yet still controversial, Carnegie Mellon professor says

...s a biologist, and much of her current research is focused on using statistical tools to understand the workings of the human genome and the nature of inherited diseases. She is a member of the Bioinformatics and Statistics Genetics Group, which includes researchers in the departments of Statistics and Biolo...

MIT: Oceans are a major gene swap-meet for plankton

... how this microbial system works, the MIT team has focused on Prochlorococcus as a model. The team's studies are showing that all Prochlorococcus strains "are very closely related, yet they display quite an array of physiologies, and astounding genetic diversity on top of that," Chisholm said. It's becomin...

Relic of life in that Martian meteorite? A fresh look

...t arise from microbial activity on Earth. The team focused on whether macromolecular carbon (MMC) in and around the globules was processed organically or not--an unresolved issue. The team had a complete depth profile of the meteorite. Lead author Andrew Steele explained, "By using micro-Raman spectroscopy a...

Waking a sleeping virus

...people with immune deficiencies. Researchers have focused on ZEBRA because of its ability to activate so many genes. It does so by recognizing specific strings of chemical "letters" in the DNA, docking onto them and allowing the information to be read and transformed into raw materials to make new viruses. ...

Botox could help target resistant tumors for treatment

...c agents. Until recently, much cancer research has focused on the opposite: reduction of blood vessel growth, which starves tumor cells of nutrients. "Tumor vasculature is targeted by several advanced anti-cancer approaches that may appear contradictory," said Gallez. "Anti-angiogenesis and anti-vascular t...

Study by Einstein researchers could lead to a novel strategy for treating obesity

...s and responds by controlling appetite. The study focused on malonyl CoA, a molecule suspected of being one of the critical nutrients influencing hypothalamic regulation of eating behavior. Previous studies had shown that hypothalamic levels of malonyl CoA increase markedly after meals and are suppressed by...

Less is more, gene study shows

...nary forces behind the loss. So the researchers focused their attention on another human-specific pseudogene, CASPASE12. Work by other researchers had shown that the gene has completely lost its function in non-Africans, but a small percentage of Africans and African Americans have a functional copy of th...

A new focus for the mechanism of nerve growth

...cesses such as cell division. "Past research has focused on how actin structures are assembled at the leading edges of motile cells," said Forscher. "Instead, this paper investigates turnover or recycling of the actin networks. As the complement to actin network assembly, recycling is necessary to prevent ...

Watching the brain switch off 'self'

... perceptual engagement, all neuronal resources are focused on sensory cortex, and the distracting self-related cortex is inactive. Thus, the term "losing yourself" receives here a clear neuronal correlate. This theme has a tantalizing echoing in Eastern philosophies such as Zen teachings, which emphasize the...

Basic research leads to a novel cancer therapy

...od vessels. Worldwide, research into receptors has focused on a special class of proteins, called tyrosine kinases. They are responsible for causing the received signal to be transduced through a long signalling cascade into the nucleus, triggering cell division and multiplication. Signalling cascades are ab...

High-resolution light microscope reveals the fundamental mechanisms of nerve communication

... at the nanoscale can potentially be answered with focused light. ...

Leave it to salmon to leave no stone unturned

...rs since 1999, including one by Moore in 2004, has focused on the disturbance created by spawning salmon and the ecosystem at large. In this most recent paper, Moore also outlines a conceptual framework he's developed that gives ecologists a way to formulate when the abundance of animals and their activities...

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