Tag: "mistakes" at biology news

Math that powers spam filters used to understand how brain learns to move our muscles

... errors, but also stored the information about its mistakes in a memory bank so it could adapt and make more accurate predictions the next time around. Every time the learner repeated the task, it would sift through the prior knowledge in its memory banks and make a prediction on how to move, which in turn wo...

Stroke study sheds light on left-right brain divide

...nt to the left or right. All the participants made mistakes during the task, but it was those with right-brain... damage to the left frontal lobes corrected 68% of mistakes in the test, whereas people with right-brain damage only made corrections to 30% of their errors. Th...

Herpes virus hijacks DNA repair process

...ed by radiation or other environmental factors, or mistakes accidentally introduced when cells copy their genetic material prior to dividing. In the murine (or mouse-infecting) herpes virus they studied, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis identified a protein that can tric...

HIV protein enlisted to help kill cancer cells

...unning out of natural ingredients like sugars, and mistakes are accumulating in their DNA," Hawkins says. "This results in signals telling cancer cells to die, but the cells don't quite have the permission they need to do it. Proteins like TAT-Bim can tip the balance in favor of death." To further enhance t...

Protein averts cell suicide but might contribute to cancer

... of DNA. "This allowed us to pin down exactly what mistakes Dpo4 makes," he says. The findings reveal why the enzyme makes mistakes. DNA resembles a spiral staircase that is made from separate halves, with half-steps protruding from each. The half-steps fit together down the center to form the complet...

Vanishing beetle horns have surprise function

... however, you may prevent yourself from making big mistakes when drawing up evolutionary histories. In this case, I think we did both." ...

Mayo discovers protein as potential tactic to prevent tumors

...control within dividing cells is essential because mistakes during duplication of the genetic code can lead to cancer," says Donald Tindall, Ph.D., co-leader of the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center prostate cancer research program. "CDK2 is a key protein component in the cellular mechanism that leads to repair of da...

'Tribbles' protein implicated in common and aggressive form of leukemia

...ion; however, data from the Pear lab suggests that mistakes in the expression of the Tribbles gene may lead to degradation of proteins that hold cancer in check, such as tumor suppressors. "One of our current challenges is to determine what other proteins Tribbles degrades to cause leukemia," says Pear. Th...

Weizmann Institute scientists discover a molecular security mechanism for keeping mutations in check

Everyone knows mutations ?genetic mistakes in DNA, the material of heredity ?are bad: The more mutations in the cell's DNA, the higher the risk of cancer developing. But in the last few years it has become clear that the very processes that generate mutations, if they take place at a relative...

Knowledge of dendritic cells branches out

...Multiple Sclerosis, where the body's immune system mistakes "self " for "foreign " and launches an attack. Since DC are central to many immune responses, they are potential targets for the development of new immune therapies. Since their discovery in the US in 1975, it has been known that DC, like other whit...

New approach to vaccine development provides potent, long-lasting immunity

...y control muscles. As for error, it's thought that mistakes help the brain and muscles fine-tune fine movements. The requirement for time and error explains why repetition of simple movements day after day is used routinely in rehabilitating partially paralyzed stroke patients and those with other brain injur...

Robotic joystick reveals how brain controls movement

...y control muscles. As for error, it's thought that mistakes help the brain and muscles fine-tune fine movements. The requirement for time and error explains why repetition of simple movements day after day is used routinely in rehabilitating partially paralyzed stroke patients and those with other brain injur...

Unusual mechanism keeps repair protein accurate

...er, they found that it made up to a 100 times more mistakes than did the similar repair protein, DNA polymerase beta. "That error rate is too high," Suo says. "If the entire repair protein produced that many errors, it would cause more problems than it would fix." Next, the researchers made the entire p...

Oops! Researchers publish new findings on the brain's response to costly mistakes

... empty on a lonely stretch of highway, we all make mistakes that aren't just annoying, but potentially costly. Now, a team of University of Michigan researchers has looked inside the human brain and captured the instant when someone makes a costly mistake. What they've found is interesting by itself, but may...

Morning grogginess more debilitating than sleep deprivation, according to CU-Boulder study

...tnap" at times, could be prone to make simple math mistakes when calculating dosages of medicine during bouts of sleep inertia, he said. The results also have implications for emergency medical technicians and firefighters who may be hastily awakened and called upon to drive a vehicle to an emergency scene, ...

Cheaper and simpler keyhole surgery

...e needed when using the manipulator and that fewer mistakes were made than with the existing instruments. Jaspers will now further develop this mechanical manipulator, supported by funding from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and in collaboration with engineering firms. Work on his camera and instrument ho...

Scientists crack 40-year-old DNA puzzle and point to 'hot soup' at the origin of life

...egrity. "This is important because these kinds of mistakes can be fatal for an organism," said Dr van den Elsen. "None of the older theories can explain how this error tolerant structure might have arisen." The new theory also highlights two amino acids that can be excluded from the doublet system and are l...

DNA size a crucial factor in genetic mutations, study finds

...eveal new insights into how genetic mutations-tiny mistakes that occur during DNA replication-arise. The disco...is known as its efficiency. These rare and random mistakes can cause genetic mutations. While we tend to heap negative connotations onto the term, some mutatio...

Stressed cells spark DNA repair missteps and speed evolution

...ed in time and space, it reduces the risk that the mistakes in repair will affect some other gene. It can also enhance the likelihood of two mutations occurring in the same gene or neighboring genes. "This can speed evolution of complex protein machines." Rosenberg said. ...

UCSD discovery may provide novel method to generate medically useful proteins

...tes has unique characteristics that cause frequent mistakes to be made in the copying process. As a result, the RNA ends up specifying a different amino acid, and a protein with different structural and chemical properties is created. Antibodies are another type predator protein that must respond to rapidly...

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