play 2 9

Tag: "play" at biology news

Study charts origins of fear

...to be involved with higher intellectual functions, play a critical role in the development of fear. Previous research had pointed to activation in the hippocampus, an area buried in the forebrain that regulates emotion and memory, as the origin of fear memory. "This is critical as it changes how and whe...

Molecular mechanism of feather formation found

...wny chick feather. The two proteins, which tend to play off each other in organ development, also are involved in the embryonic development of limbs, lungs, teeth and the gut. In the current study, appearing in the Aug. 16 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS Online, Aug. 8), Fallon's te...

Virus uses tiny RNA to evade the immune system

...ers growing evidence that the little molecules can play important roles not only in normal human cells but in infected cells as well. "A popular notion is that the whole system of generating small RNAs was designed to be a defense by cells against viruses. Our study shows that a virus can also adapt it t...

Hidden sponges determine coral reef's nutrient cycle

Marine organisms hidden in caves, such as sponges, play an extremely important role in the nutrient cycle of coral reefs. Indeed they probably play the most important role of all, says Dutch biologist Sander Scheffers. And that is valuable informat...

Forsyth scientists find three bacteria associated with oral cancer

...e question of whether bacteria might, in some way, play a causal role. The current discovery, reported in the July 7 Journal of Translational Medicine, suggests that elevated levels of three particular bacteria in saliva indicate the presence of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC)--one of the deadliest o...

Water management in cells

...s identified a number of important mechanisms that play a role in this process. Increasing the salt conc...water channels and ion channels, organic particles play an important role. If the salt balance is disrupted, so-called 'volume-regulated anion channels' are...

Enzyme affects hypertension by controlling salt levels in body

...lood pressure, suggesting that genetic factors may play a role in the disease. One extension of the current work may lead to a better understanding of hypertension that is induced by low potassium intake. Previous studies have shown that diuretics, a class of drugs commonly used to control hypertension, ...

Molecular trigger for Huntington's disease found

... also speculated that disturbances in p53 may also play a role in some forms of Parkinson's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease. Ironically, p53 is the same regulatory protein that is inactivated in a large fraction of cancers. This inactivation allows abnormal cancer cells...

Environment, not genes, key in family relationships

...nd personality traits. Now, it appears, nature may play a larger role than nurture when it comes to family relationships between adolescents and their parents. Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin and George Washington University in Washington, D.C., used data on 674 families, each with a s...

Birds and bats sow tropical seeds

...d bats. Just how big a role these winged gardeners play is a question ecologists from the University of Illinois at Chicago and several Latin American universities are about to find out by setting up essentially a living laboratory in Mexico's gulf coast state of Veracruz. Henry Howe, a noted authority i...

Scientists discover genetic pathway responsible for breast cancer cell growth

...identified around 20 estrogen-activated genes that play a role in development of breast cancer. "That's about one gene discovery per year," says Dr. Giguère. "Using cutting edge new technology derived directly from the human genome project, this study adds over hundred additional genes to this total." Th...

Rutgers to lead $52.7 million protein research program

...gram that will help reveal the roles that proteins play in life's most fundamental processes and point the way to designing new medicines. Under the direction of Rutgers Professor Gaetano Montelione, the Northeast Structural Genomics Consortium (NESG) will conduct the five-year undertaking. "This grant, ...

UW-Madison scientists zero in on drugs' sweet spots

...t." The new technique, according to Thorson, will play a prominent role in the new UW-Madison National Cooperative Drug Discovery Group, a consortium of UW-Madison scientists seeking to develop new anti-cancer drugs from natural products. The group was recently formed with the help of a $5.6 million gran...

Micro RNAs play role in egg making

...ribed class of molecules called microRNAs (miRNAs) play an important role in regulating oogenesis, the process by which females make eggs. MiRNAs silence genes by binding to genetic elements called messenger RNA and preventing them from making new proteins -- the molecules primarily responsible for cell a...

No single gene for ageing

...ss, environment, nutrition, lifestyle and immunity play an additional role. Great variation between individuals can be seen in organisms such as round worms ?and in humans." Studies of ageing also give insight into the causes of cancer, because cancer and ageing have the same background causes, thinks Vi...

Virginia Tech football player uses prototype cast

...h's starting running back Cedric Humes was able to play against Boston College despite a broken arm (the ulna bone) thanks, in part, to a prototype composite brace designed for him by Virginia Tech engineers. Brian Love, a professor of materials science and engineering in the College of Engineering, and ...

UNC scientists discover new role for protein as fundamental inhibitor of cell movement

...t UNC in 1997 as a blood platelet protein that may play a role in clotting. Cell migration belongs to the...modulin are so similar could suggest that CIB1 may play multiple roles in multiple cell types." "Our study of CIB1 is still very much in its early days, bu...

Tiny roundworm's telomeres help scientists to tease apart different types of aging

...on-dividing cells. We thought that telomeres might play a role in the later but that's clearly not the case," says Dillin. "What is probably playing a role in the other half of aging is the insulin signaling pathway, proper mitochondrial function and dietary restriction," he reasons. Several types of cel...

Newly recognized gene mutation may reduce seeds, resurrect plants

...the study and a Purdue plant physiologist. Lipids play a role in preventing plant dehydration in forming ... development. Scientists already know that lipids play an important role in signaling developmental changes in plants and animals, and that other plants an...

Researchers discover key to human embryonic stem-cell potential

... all gene activity.) These proteins were known to play essential roles in maintaining stem cell identity--if they are disabled, the stem cell immediately begins to differentiate and is thus no longer a stem cell. "But we did not know how these proteins instructed stem cells to be pluripotent," says Laur...

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10