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Tag: "structural" at biology news

Scientists identify molecular cause for one form of deafness

...ctin (F-actin) is a rod-like protein that provides structural framework in living cells. F-actin is organized in...of mutant espin and normal espin would prevent the structural transition from occurring. If gene expression could turn on the production of just a fraction of nor...

Fascinating spider silk

...could be pulled into threads. "It is clearly not a structural change in the protein, but rather the degree of oligomerization that is crucial for thread formation," concludes Scheibel. The silk solution in the spider's silk gland has a very high protein concentration. This solution also contains a high conce...

Scripps research study shows humans and plants share common regulatory pathway

...ts from various pathogens. The study also confirms structural similarities between the Nod1 protein, which plays a pivotal role in the innate immune system’s recognition and response to bacterial infection and members of the R protein family. "There has been a great deal of speculation that R proteins and N...

Discovery could lead to better control of hemorrhagic fever viruses

...says. Coincidentally, Stephen Harrison, PhD, a structural biologist and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Children's, had crystallized TfR1 and determined its 3-dimensional structure in 1999. Knowledge of TfR1's structure will speed up the Choe lab's efforts to pinpoint the parts of the molecu...

Bacterial walls come tumbling down

... many years identifying bacterial components whose structural features might have weaknesses that can be exploit...to get the antibiotics into the cell." In their structural studies, the researchers focused on Staphylococcus aureus, a notorious human pathogen. An epidemic s...

McBride shows DNA detective work with paper-eating bacteria that 'glide'

...bacterium that can break down cellulose, the major structural component of plants that is also found in forestry by-products (including paper) and waste feedstocks. Mark McBride, a professor of biological sciences, worked with DOE's Joint Genome Institute and scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory to ex...

Common gene version optimizes thinking -- but with a possible downside

...he human brain, the NIMH researchers used genetic, structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging, and pos...ion of the gene, which boosted circuit activation, structural and functional connectivity and performance on thinking tasks, likely by increasing gene expression....

ATR checkpoint-activating DNA structure

... damage response have been uncovered, this type of structural information is quite novel and valuable. The elucidation of the first defined DNA structure capable of eliciting the ATR checkpoint will aid researchers to further identify additional checkpoint proteins, as well as understand how checkpoint signals ...

Researcher to study astronaut bone loss for space biology agency

...issions to the moon and Mars will require that the structural integrity of the skeleton be maintained." Astronauts who spend weeks or months in the weightless environment of space –?a state called skeletal unloading –?lose bone because, in the absence of gravity, they lose the ability to make enough new bone...

Darwin's famous finches and Venter's marine microbes

...liminate any but one of the 10 key residues. Using structural modeling, and patterns of sequence conservation, Kannan was able to show that loss of one key residue could be compensated by changes around other conserved regions of the protein, and that some of these changes in bacterial kinases are also seen in ...

Scripps research study reveals structural dynamics of single prion molecules

...isease-causing amyloids." To define the dynamic structural details of individual prions, Deniz and his colleagues employed several novel technologies including single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer (SM-FRET) and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS). Fluorescence resonance energy t...

Selective marker found to indicate aggressive form of breast cancer

Researchers have linked a structural protein called nestin to a particularly deadly form of breast cancer, identifying a new biomarker that could lead to earlier detection and better treatment. In the January 15 issue of Cancer Research, researchers from Dartmouth Medical School demon...

Scientists map key landmarks in human genome

..., and where there are other biologically important structural features," said Fisher. Transcription factors are proteins that bind to particular DNA sites in "promoter" regions of genes and turn the genes on or off. The novel method employed gene microarray studies followed by sophisticated computational dat...

Resistance to anti-HIV drugs in Uganda developed due to drug supply problems

...vioral strategies to increase adherence, but about structural failures that interrupt access to treatment. Free access to treatment leads to better survival than self-pay therapy because free treatment may be less susceptible to interruptions that lead to resistance" said study senior author David R. Bangsberg,...

Pacific Rim researchers to collaborate on distributed bioinformatics analysis of avian flu

...applications are designed specifically for protein structural homology recognition and functional annotation.) The San Diego-based researchers will also develop a robust production environment for routine computational analysis, using PRAGMA member-developed tools, including Grid Datafarm (Gfarm) and Community ...

Scripps Research study reveals new activation mechanism for pain sensing channel

...ion channels through a lock-and-key mechanism have structural similarity. TRPA1 activators have no structural similarity; instead, they share a common potential for chemical reactivity, and their binding is lon...

Scientists identify a candidate gene for osteoporosis

...hormones, growth factors, signaling molecules, and structural components of bone and cartilage. Previous genetic studies had pointed to a region on mouse chromosome 1 as containing a gene responsible for BMD regulation. In the current project, Mohan and his colleagues honed in on this region of chromosome 1...

A sweet step toward new cancer therapies

...chers were able to do just that, yielding valuable structural information. In a project that continues to build on this line of work, Hakansson is collaborating with U-M Health System cancer surgeon Diane Simeone to investigate sugars attached to proteins in the membranes of pancreatic cancer cells. "The ...

Researchers show that veins stiffen as we age

...iffening of our veins as we age is probably due to structural changes, such as a thickening of the vein walls," Farquhar said. "Hardening of the arteries is a good analogy for what is happening in our veins as we grow older." So can we do anything to keep our veins limber as time marches on? "While there ha...

Scientists crack rhino horn riddle

... Scientists have discovered new details about the structural materials that form the horn and the role those materials play in the development of the horn's characteristic shape. The horns of most animals have a bony core covered by a thin sheath of keratin, the same substance as hair and nails. Rhino hor...

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