Discovery of new molecular tools for biosynthesis could lead to advances in use of pectin
...pectin synthesis. This is a powerful new molecular tool that could help researchers understand--and potentially manipulate--pectins. The result, which arose from the use of biochemistry and bioinformatics to discover gene sequences, could be genetically altered pectins that might dramatically improve pl...New nano-canary in the nanotoxicology coalmine: The body itself
...ptured in minutes in live cell studies, offering a tool to rapidly detect whether nanoparticles are biologically active. This information can be used to prioritize nanoparticles for further study to ascertain the nature of the biological activity in terms of toxicity. A broader approach underway at PNN...Clues to breast cancer hidden inside stem cells
...relied on 2-dimensional cell cultures as the basic tool of their trade. But there is a big difference between a flat layer of cells and culturing cells in three-dimensions. The Icelandic researchers, realizing just how much a cells context matters, used the 3-D cell culture pioneered by Mina Bissell, at t...Natural selection at single gene demonstrated
...ction at the single-gene level have a powerful new tool at their disposal. Chris Toomajian, postdoctoral researcher in molecular and computational biology in the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, led a group that sought to replace the standard neutral model, a common but unrealistic test for nat...New RNAi tools enable systematic studies of gene function
...a vehicle for gene discovery. "This critical new tool illustrates the requirement for academic and industry partnerships to drive scientific innovation," said Eric Lander, director of the Broad Institute and a senior author. "The importance of putting these reagents in the public domain will be demonstr...Typhoid fever led to the fall of Athens
...l aspects of infectious diseases can be a powerful tool for several disciplines to learn from. We believe this report to be of outstanding importance for many scientific fields, since it sheds light to one of the most debated enigmas in medical history." ...There's something fishy about human brain evolution
Forget the textbook story about tool use and language sparking the dramatic evolutionar...ally point to things like the rise of language and tool making to explain the massive expansion of early hominid brains. But this is a Catch-22. Something h...GPSDB, the free Gene and Protein Synonyms DataBase
... other sequestration options, making it a powerful tool for long-term mitigation of climate change. In fact we have calculated that up to 12 percent of the carbon emissions produced by human activity could be offset annually if slash-and-burn were replaced by slash-and-char." In addition, many biofuel pr...Amazonian terra preta can transform poor soil into fertile
... other sequestration options, making it a powerful tool for long-term mitigation of climate change. In fact we have calculated that up to 12 percent of the carbon emissions produced by human activity could be offset annually if slash-and-burn were replaced by slash-and-char." In addition, many biofuel pr...Pleasing plant shapes explained by new computer model
...will enhance biological experiments by providing a tool botanists can use to complement and interpret their traditional laboratory experiments. It also promises to lead to accurate models of how other organisms, including animals, develop from primordial stem cells. "This was a great example of the syner...Mining for gems in the fungal genome
... produce an anti-tumor agent. "We now have a new tool we can use to find secondary metabolites that are of pharmaceutical interest," says Keller. Although the team worked on a widely studied fungus, Aspergillus nidulans, the method can be used to find secondary metabolites in many other fungal species....Satellites show Amazon parks, indigenous reserves stop forest clearing
...who have assumed for years that the most important tool for tropical forest conservation is the creation of protected areas. A tropical forest ecologist, Nepstad has studied Amazon forests and strategies for their conservation for the last 21 years. His research includes forest fires and "savannization"...Powerful new tool for studying brain development
...igators around the world free access to a powerful tool for studying brain development. The Internet-based tool, called the mouse Brain Gene Expression Map (BGEM), is one of the largest gene expression maps of an organ ever developed, according to the St. Jude researchers. They say the map will likely hel...Human prostate grown from embryonic stem cells
...te tissue from embryonic stem cells provides a new tool for examining the origins of cancer and role of primitive stem cells. Research collaborators are the Monash Institute of Medical Research, Monash Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratories, Department of Anatomy, University of California, San Francisco, ...Living taste cells produced outside the body
...on, health and disease. "We have an important new tool to help discover molecules that can enhance or block different kinds of tastes," explains principle investigator Nancy Rawson, PhD, a cellular biologist. "In addition, the success of this technique may provide hope for people who have lost their sens...Infection 'alarm' yields clues to immune system behavior
...dication makers. "Models like this are a wonderful tool for experimental drug testing," Levchenko said. ...Clawed frog helps Fanconi anemia research make leaps
...ol the important steps. These extracts give us the tool we need for those experiments," she said. In fact, in the new Molecular and Cellular Biology study, Hoatlin's lab already found that an important regulator of the cell's DNA damage-sensing mechanism controls some, but not all, of the Fanconi protein'...Carnegie Mellon develops non-invasive technique to detect transplant rejection at cellular level
...n Ho and his colleagues have developed a promising tool that uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to track immune cells as they infiltrate a transplanted heart in the early stages of organ rejection. This pre-clinical advance, described in an upcoming issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of S...Swiss researchers develop all-in-one remote control gene expression tool
...hnique Fédérale de Lausanne) unveil a powerful new tool that will facilitate genetic research and open up ...of RNA interference. But the cargo that makes this tool really novel and exciting is a fusion protein that acts as a kind of remote control. By administerin...... to detect epilepsy in people and are an important tool to show not just what bits of the brain are lighting up but also what triggers it to light up and when. In this test, the important thing was to find out whether brain activity before an event has an impact on memory or whether, as was previously t...