Largest synthetic gene ever built offers insights into anti-malarial drug resistance
...stroys the parasite by building up toxic levels of non crystalline heme. But because of the overuse of chloroquine, isolates of P. falciparum from around the globe have developed genetic mutations that make them resistant to that drug as well as other similar agents. Not all mutations found in all res...Human genetic 'deserts' are teeming with significant life
...d precise location of all the protein-encoding and non protein-encoding genes in the genome will have to be determined. “The notion that mammalian transcriptomes [the set of all messenger RNA molecules produced in a population of cells] are made of a swarming mass of different overlapping transcripts, t...Sheffield scientists light up bacteria
...and developing a light signal through fluorescence non radiative energy transfer (NRET), the researchers will be able to detect early stage bacterial contamination. Being developed by a multi-disciplinary team of researchers from the University’s Departments of Chemistry, Engineering Materials and t...New research says winning a Nobel Prize adds nearly 2 years to your lifespan
...pped four from that total who died prematurely for non biological reasons - such as active combat in the First World War. That left 524 scientists, of whom 135 actually won a Nobel Prize. The average life span for this group was just over 76 years. Winners of the Nobel Prize were found to live 1.4 yea...Commercial fishing causes dangerous fluctuations in fish populations
...ited species' population levels vary far more than non exploited species' in the same ecosystem. Researchers concluded that this increased variability in exploited fish stocks was most likely to be caused by the effect fishing has on the age structure of a population. Heavily-fished populations are un...Massive duplication of genes may solve Darwin's 'abominable mystery' about flowering plants
...pels and primitive petals and sepals, the sine qua non of flowering plants," dePamphilis says. Angiosperms also boast plenty of unique biochemistry. "They're a rich source of medicinal compounds. Even the kind of wood they make is special." The new results support the idea that "whole-genome duplicat...MatBase -- A new transcription factor knowledge base released by Genomatix
... for a minimum number of false positive results in non regulatory DNA. ...Frog’s ear canal may provide insights for understanding human hearing loss
...to as the concave-eared torrent frog, is the first non mammalian vertebrate found to be capable of producing and detecting ultrasounds for communication, much like dolphins, bats and some rodents. It does so, the researchers report, to make itself heard above the din of low-frequency sounds produced in i...Marine bacterium suspected to play role in global carbon and nitrogen cycles
...like these continue to highlight the importance of non disease-causing microorganisms and their critical role in our understanding of global environmental cycles. ......of potential vaccines. The EuroVacc Foundation, a non profit organization, was created in 2002 as an evolution of the network. The EuroVacc Foundation aims at facilitating European collaboration in vaccine development, coordinating European efforts and raising funds for fundamental and clinical research...