Blocks in Biological News

Vaccine blocks malaria transmission in lab experiments

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute have for the first time produced a malarial protein (Pfs48/45) in the proper conformation and quantity to generate a significant immune response in mice and non-human primates for use in a potential transmission-blocking vaccine. Antibodi...

Natural brain substance blocks weight gain in mice, UT Southwestern researchers discover

DALLAS Jan. 28, 2009 Mice with increased levels of a natural brain chemical don't gain weight when fed a high-fat diet, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found. The chemical, orexin, works by increasing the body's sensitivity to the "weight-loss hormone," leptin, the researc...

Infection blocks lung's protective response against tobacco smoke

An infection that often goes undetected can block the lung's natural protective response against tobacco smoke, according to researchers at National Jewish Health. The findings, recently published online and scheduled to appear in the October issue of Infection and Immunity, suggest one mechanis...

Researchers discover a gene that regulates and blocks ovulation

Montreal, July 17, 2008 A group of Canadian and European researchers have unlocked the mystery of a gene with the potential to both regulate and block ovulation. The new study a collaboration between the Universit de Montral in Canada and the Institut de gnetique et biologie molculaire et cellul...

Anti-inflammatory drug blocks brain plaques

Brain destruction in Alzheimer's disease is caused by the build-up of a protein called amyloid beta in the brain, which triggers damaging inflammation and the destruction of nerve cells. Scientists had previously shown that preventing individual amyloid beta proteins from sticking to one another m...

Drug aimed at 2 bioterror agents blocks live viral infection, Weill Cornell team reports

NEW YORK (Dec. 19, 2007) -- Two deadly and highly infectious viruses -- both potential bioterror threats -- may have met their match in a new drug developed by scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. Hendra and Nipah viruses are related, newly recognized zoonotic viruses t...

Building blocks of life formed on Mars

Washington, DCOrganic compounds contain carbon and hydrogen and form the building blocks of all life on Earth. By analyzing organic material and minerals in the Martian meteorite Allan Hills 84001, scientists at the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory have shown for the first time that b...

Scripps research team blocks bacterial communication system to prevent deadly staph infections

LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA, OCT. 30, 2007 -- In hopes of combating the growing scourge of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, in particular drug-resistant staph bacteria, a team of scientists from the Scripps Research Institute has designed a new type of vaccine that could one day be used in humans to block ...

Natural product discovery by Cleveland medical researchers blocks tissue destruction

CLEVELAND Scientists at Case Western Reserve Universitys School of Medicine have published in the Journal of Inflammation a remarkable discovery with a natural product derived from the Amazon rainforest. The discoverys unique actions suggest a broad set of applications in various joint, skin and ...

Building blocks of life

The 140 million construction of the ISIS Second Target Station at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire is nearing completion. The largest science construction project in the UK, it is on time and on budget. The Second Target Station is an addition to the existing ISIS facility whic...

Researchers discover surprising drug that blocks malaria

Northwestern University researchers have discovered how malaria parasites persuade red blood cells to engulf them -- and how to block the invading parasites. The malaria marauders hack into the red cell's signaling system and steal the molecular equivalent of its password to spring open the door to...

New drug blocks influenza, including bird flu virus

Opening a new front in the war against flu, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have reported the discovery of a novel compound that confers broad protection against influenza viruses, including deadly avian influenza. The new work, reported online this week (Oct. 4, 2006) in the J...

'LEGO-Like' building blocks to halt cell growth wins Hebrew University prize

A method for delivery of drugs to targeted cells through the design of specific molecular structures called SIB (Small Integrated Building Blocks) has won a prestigious scientific prize for a Ph.D. student in organic chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Jerusalemite Nir Qvit, 34, will ...

Cigarette smoke blocks cell repair mechanism, University of Florida study shows

Cigarette smoke can turn normal breast cells cancerous by blocking their ability to repair themselves, eventually triggering tumor development, University of Florida scientists report. While some cells nonetheless rally and are able to fix their damaged DNA, many others become unable to access t...

Anemone genes reveal versatile building blocks for body plans

The same set of genes responsible for establishing the bilateral body axes in animals as diverse as flies and frogs have been found to play an unexpected role in patterning an animal with a different body plan--a simple sea anemone. Sea anemones, along with corals and jellyfish, are members of t...

Scientist uses form to explain function of key building blocks of life

University of Wisconsin-Madison biochemists have developed an approach that allows them to measure with unprecedented accuracy the strengths of hydrogen bonds in a protein. The scientists were then able to predict the function of different versions of the protein based on structural information, a...

Brainstem blocks pain to protect key behaviors

Certain behaviors, such as eating, drinking and urinating, are so crucial to survival that the brains of all vertebrates contain clusters of nerve cells that can suppress pain long enough to allow the animal to eat, drink -- or pee -- in peace. A report from researchers at the University of Chi...

Newly Discovered Compound Blocks Known Cancer-Causing Protein

Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center scientists have discovered a potential new drug that inhibits destructive cell signals that drive the growth of one-third of all cancers. The scientists showed they could block the growth of cultured colon cancer cells using this new compound, called cysmethynil. ...

Protecting cells from their neighbors

...ing also reaches neighbouring somatic cells. The researchers have now discovered that the cells that abut germ cells are protected by a mechanism that blocks the silencing signal emitted by the latter. Casanova explains the context of the study, "it is crucial to unveil all the actors and molecular mechanis...

Scientists decoding genomic sequences of H1N1 using isolates from outbreak in Argentina

...e," said Dr. Lipkin. "While there is no evidence so far to indicate the emergence of resistance to the oseltamivir vaccine, the antiviral drug that blocks the influenza virus from spreading between cells in the body, we are cautious about the findings until we have more sequences," said Gustavo Palacios,...

A crystal ball for brain cancer?

... Cancer cells secrete a growth factor called VEGF that spurs the growth of new blood vessels to supply the tumor with oxygen and nutrients. Avastin blocks VEGF, essentially starving the tumor to death. This process launches a chain of events that is detectable by MRI. Oxygen-starved cells produce mor...

Comprehensive look at rare leukemia finds relatively few genetic changes launch disease

...ormed DNA re-sequencing of 25 genes that are commonly mutated in adult AML. Point mutations involve a single chemical change in the molecular building blocks of DNA. The data demonstrated that, in contrast to pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), AML is characterized by a very low burden of mutat...

ISU researchers find possible treatment for spinal muscular atrophy

...resence of a specific intronic sequence in the gene or DNA. To make SMN2 behave as SMN1, Singh has introduced a small antisense oligonucleotide that blocks this specific intronic sequence. When the intronic sequence is blocked, SMN2 produces normal proteins and acts, in effect, like SMN1. "The signifi...

Short stressful events may improve working memory

...ible for the improved memory, as they proposed, researchers injected one group of rats before the stressful forced-swim with a medicinal compound that blocks the pathway, and injected another group with saline. Results showed that the saline group, in which the corticosterone neuropathway was not blocked, p...

Munich researchers discover new target for tailored antibiotics

...ging to the class of terpenes and steroids from the small isoprene building blocks dimethylallyl pyrophosphate (DMAPP) and isopentenyl pyrophosphate (IPP). Ma... antibiotics. Research into the bacterial synthesis of isoprene building blocks was initiated as early as 12 years ago by Professor Adelbert Bacher in coll...

Ben-Gurion U. researchers reveal connection between cancer and human evolution

...he genome mitochondria mutations from 98 unrelated individuals. Combinations of mutations tended to occur in tumors in precisely the same DNA building blocks that changed during evolution. The team also found that the mitochondrial genome of humans who migrated out of Africa to Europe 100,000 years ago car...

Complications early in pregnancy or in previous pregnancies adversely affect existing or subsequent pregnancies

... a subsequent pregnancy of all of these conditions; in addition, it increased the risk of placenta praevia (where the placenta partially or completely blocks the cervix) six-fold and congenital malformations nearly two-fold. If a previous pregnancy had to be terminated for any reason, this increased the ris...

Proteins in gel

... polymer molecules are constructed unit by unit on the surface. "Our technique is a mixture of the two known methods. We use larger molecular building blocks to build up the network on the surface," explains Falko Pippig, who is doing his doctorate on this subject at the IAP. As the hydrogel layers are v...

Scientists sequence genome of the N2-fixing, soil-living bacterium Azotobacter vinelandii

...itrogen fixation is essential for life since different nitrogen-containing molecules are used to produce DNA and the amino acids that are the building blocks of proteins. For most bacteria, the nitrogenase enzymes involved in nitrogen fixation are very susceptible to destruction by oxygen. A. vinelandii i...

Technology guide: Principles -- applications -- trends

...ive television. There is also a chapter dedicated to selforganizing systems and nanosystems, a still fledgling area of research. Here, simple building blocks organize themselves into complex structures with new properties, in much the same way as happens in nature. Just like tourists navigating their way...

SRI International announces findings from new upper atmospheric radar system for scientific research

...ral companies supported the SRI-led project. These include subcontractor Sanmina-SCI, which manufactured the Antenna Element Units, the basic building blocks of the radar panels. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) served as the co-investigator on the project. ...

Wiping out the world's mass migrations

...versity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History, first author of the paper in Endangered Species Research . "Fencing, for example, blocks migratory routes and reduces migrant's access to forage and water. Migrations can then stop, or be shortened, and animal numbers plummet." Migrati...

Liver disease 'shrunk' by blood-pressure drug

...study what was happening inside the liver when losartan, an angiotensin II receptor antagonist drug, was present. Researchers believe that the drug blocks the signalling pathway so that the liver myofibroblasts die, removing the source of scar tissue. As the scar tissue breaks up, the damaged area of th...

Lombardi scientist brings 'dream team' breast cancer research effort to GUMC

...ponse of breast cancer cells to preventive and treatment agents. He is recognized by many as the "father" the anti-cancer drug tamoxifen, a drug that blocks estrogen from fueling some breast cancers. Millions of women around the world continue to be treated with tamoxifen. Jordan's team, led by Dennis Sla...

Shellfish face an uncertain future in a high CO2 world

...ed acidity tips the balance toward bicarbonate formation and away from carbonate. Less carbonate in the water means that shellfish have fewer building blocks to generate their shells. If the water is acidic enough, shells can even begin to dissolve. "Estuarine and coastal ecosystems may be especially vul...

American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- May 20, 2009

...esearchers say. ARTICLE #3 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE "Facile Fabrication of Raspberry-like Composite Nanoparticles and Their Application as Building blocks for Constructing Superhydrophilic Coatings" DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT ARTICLE: http://pubs.acs.org/stoken/presspac/presspac/full/10.1021/jp9016344 C...

Tips from the American Journal of Pathology

...inase plasminogen activator receptor-deficient mice demonstrate reduced hyperoxia-induced lung injury. Am J Pathol 2009, 174: 2182-2189 AM80 blocks Early Multiple Sclerosis Researchers led by Drs. Takahashi Yamamura and Shinji Oki at the National Institute of Neuroscience, Tokyo, Japan have fo...

Synthetic catalyst mimics nature's 'hydrogen economy'

...n Chemical Society , and posted on the journal's Web site. Scientists have long been puzzled by nature's ability to use cheap and plentiful building blocks iron, nickel and sulfur to achieve the catalytic performance seen in rare and expensive metals. In particular, two enzymes iron-iron hydrogenase an...

ISU researcher identifies key function in protein, cell transcription

... AMES, Iowa -- When cells decide to make proteins, key building blocks of all organisms, they need to know where to start reading the instructions for assembling them. An Iowa State University researcher has figured o...

When cells reach out and touch

...cted that microRNAs might play a role in contact inhibition because whenever they studied these enigmatic bits -- only about 20 or so genetic building blocks comprise a microRNA -- they always saw more in the tissues of animals, where cells are packed together, relative to the amount they found in isolated ...