Tag: "illuminate" at biology news

Detecting cold, feeling pain: Study reveals why menthol feels fresh

...ficiency -- the next step, says Julius, will be to illuminate this residual aspect of cold sensation. The finding is the latest of a series of discoveries led by the Julius lab on the molecular mechanisms of temperature sensation and pain. In 1997, the lab cloned the gene for the capsaicin receptor, the main...

Scientists find potential 'off-switch' for HIV virus

...r Weinberger and Thomas Shenk hope their work will illuminate the processes by which human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other viruses transition into dormant phases in their hosts. The researchers have discovered a specific genetic trigger that makes HIV fall into its latent phase, where the virus essential...

DNA analysis reveals rapid population shift among Pleistocene cave bears

...ation dynamics in the distant past and potentially illuminate the influence of human migrations in animal population changes. The new work, reported by a collaborative group of researchers including Michael Hofreiter of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, appears in the F...

Biologists call for better choice of model organisms in 'evo-devo'

...tirely a matter of chance whether a new model will illuminate a particular evo-devo theme. "Instead, we urge workers to select new models specifically to illuminate hitherto neglected general themes within evo-devo.". In other cases, new model organisms are chos...

Transplanted photoreceptor precursor cells restore visual function in mice with retinal degeneration

...escent protein. This enabled Kellogg scientists to illuminate the rods, which begin as unspecified cells and gradually differentiate into cells dedicated to light reception. "One of our critical discoveries," says Swaroop, "is that there is a window of opportunity during which a cell has committed itself to be...

Does natural selection drive the evolution of cancer?

...und that the concepts from another field helped to illuminate cancer biology. Mutant cells compete with each other for needed resources. The immune system often kills tumor cells like a predator hunting prey, and the tumor cells that develop defenses against the predation are the ones that survive and repro...

Two-faced protein can stop metastasis or promote it, researchers say

...online issue of the Journal of Cell Biology, helps illuminate the very first steps involved in metastasis, the spread of cancer that makes the disease difficult to treat, and suggests that a future designer drug might be able to block the beginning of this dangerous process, or stop it once it starts. "Our d...

Light-sensitive photoswitches could restore sight to those with macular degeneration

...o get light into areas of the body not possible to illuminate directly. "I'm struck by how versatile this approach seems to be," Isacoff said, noting its applications for screening, diagnosing and treating disease. "I'm convinced that we'll come up with a therapy that will work in the clinic." ...

Study provides first look at the 'birth' of a retina cell

... research group can use the fluorescent protein to illuminate the chain of events that occurs when a gene mutation interferes with rod -- or even cone -- development. "This model may give us the earliest look yet at some devastating diseases we are all eager to cure," he says. ...

Malignant melanoma cells secrete protein required for embryo formation

... embryonic microenvironment. Further, the findings illuminate the remarkable plasticity of melanoma cells and the utility of the developing zebrafish as a model for studying the epigenetic modulation of tumor cells. Melanoma is one of the deadliest forms of cancer. The five-year survival rate for melanoma pat...

Mystery solved: Gold's power against autoimmune diseases defined

...ell Biology, which uses powerful chemical tools to illuminate complex biological processes and provide new leads for drug development. "But instead we discovered a biochemical mechanism that may help explain how an old drug works." DeDecker and co-author Stephen De Wall, PhD, undertook a large-scale search for...

For some young fish, early gene expression is a clear harbinger of fated lifestyle

...ndividual's future lifestyle. The findings, which illuminate how programs of gene expression have evolved to control profoundly different developmental outcomes, are reported in the April 18th issue of Current Biology by Drs. Thomas Giger, Carlo Largiadèr, and Laurent Excoffier of the University of Bern, along...

Genome sequencing is for ecologists, too

...e Institute. "And the Daphnia genome sequence will illuminate all of this by allowing us to infer the ground state from which the insect genomes evolved." ...

Scientists sequence DNA of woolly mammoth

...ore specimens from plant, animal, and man that can illuminate the route evolution took on its way from the past to the present, and that can perhaps clarify the role environmental changes did play in the extinction of an entire species. Initial funding for this study was provided by McMaster University, The Na...

SLU researchers uncover direct evidence on how HIV invades healthy cells

...it, until now, investigators have not been able to illuminate the process. "Many biological and structural aspects of HIV integration are undefined," said Sibes Bera, Ph.D. "Therefore, any insight into the molecular mechanism of this process is significant in developing integrase inhibitors." Integrase, whic...

Anti-cancer drugs may hold promise for premature aging disorder

... understanding progeria at the molecular level may illuminate the general processes involved in normal human aging. The LMNA gene codes for a protein called lamin A, which constitutes a major component of the scaffold-like network of proteins just inside the cell's nuclear membrane, called the lamina. The gene...

Regenerating worms help elucidate stem cell biology

...e needed to establish whether this humble worm can illuminate the mechanisms underlying the unique biology of stem cells. ...

AACR Favors 'full spectrum of stem cell research biology'

...tify markers for early detection of cancer, and to illuminate the path to novel, targeted treatments," said Lynn M. Matrisian, Ph.D., AACR past president and Ingram Distinguished Professor of Cancer Research at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. "Our belief is based on the results of peer-reviewed resea...

Frog peptides block HIV in lab study

...he brain communicate, Tononi says. Beyond helping illuminate the secrets of consciousness, the new study, which was directed in part by Marcello Massimini, a research associate in the UW Psychiatric Institute and Clinics, may aid in the development of diagnostic and therapeutic tools for neurological and psych...

Deep sleep short-circuits brain's grid of connectivity

...he brain communicate, Tononi says. Beyond helping illuminate the secrets of consciousness, the new study, which was directed in part by Marcello Massimini, a research associate in the UW Psychiatric Institute and Clinics, may aid in the development of diagnostic and therapeutic tools for neurological and psych...

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