Simplicity is crucial to design optimization at nanoscale

MIT researchers who study the structure of protein-based materials with the aim of learning the key to their lightweight and robust strength have discovered that the particular arrangement of proteins that produces the sturdiest product is not the arrangement with the most built-in redundancy or t...

In lung cancer, silencing one crucial gene disrupts normal functioning of genome

PHILADELPHIA While examining patterns of DNA modification in lung cancer, a team of international researchers has discovered what they say is a surprising new mechanism. They say that "silencing" of a single gene in lung cancer led to a general impairment in genome-wide changes in cells, contribu...

Mayo researchers identify dangerous 'two-faced' protein crucial to breast cancer spread and growth

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. Two critical properties of cancer cells are their ability to divide without restraint and to spread away from the primary tumor to establish new tumor sites. Now, researchers from the Mayo Clinic campus in Florida have found a protein they say acts as a deadly master switch, b...

Hidden infections crucial to understanding, controlling disease outbreaks

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Scientists and news organizations typically focus on the number of dead and gravely ill during epidemics, but research at the University of Michigan suggests that less dramatic, mild infections lurking in large numbers of people are the key to understanding cycles of at least on...

Brown scientists say biodiversity is crucial to ecosystem productivity

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] - In the first experiment involving a natural environment, scientists at Brown University have shown that richer plant diversity significantly enhances an ecosystem's productivity. The finding underscores the benefits of biodiversity, such as capturing carbon d...

Speed plays crucial role in breaking protein's H-bonds

Researchers at MIT studying the architecture of proteins have finally explained why computer models of proteins behavior under mechanical duress differ dramatically from experimental observations. This work could have vast implications in bioengineering and medical research by advancing our unders...

Rapid response was crucial to containing the 1918 flu pandemic

One of the persistent riddles of the deadly 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic is why it struck different cities with varying severity. Why were some municipalities such as St. Louis spared the fate of the hard-hit cities like Philadelphia when both implemented similar public health measures? What mad...

Researchers discover gene crucial for nerve cell insulation

Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have discovered how a defect in a single master gene disrupts the process by which several genes interact to create myelin, a fatty coating that covers nerve cells and increases the speed and reliability of their electrical signals. The dis...

Large size crucial for Amazon forest reserves

An international research team has discovered that the size of Amazon forest reserves is yet more important than previously thought. Their findings, to be published this week (January 12th) in the journal Science, underscore the importance of protecting the Amazon in large stretches of primary fore...

Brown team finds crucial protein role in deadly prion spread

A single protein plays a major role in deadly prion diseases by smashing up clusters of these infectious proteins, creating the "seeds" that allow fatal brain illnesses to quickly spread, new Brown University research shows. The findings are exciting, researchers say, because they might reveal a ...

Neural stem cell gene plays crucial role in eye development

Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have demonstrated that normal development of the eye requires the right amount of a neural stem cell gene be expressed at the right time and place. Neural stem cells are cells that can differentiate into different cell types in the ne...

Scientists identify protein with a crucial role in cell death

Ageing, and the processes of deterioration that go with it, are largely attributable to cells that die off in a controlled manner. Therefore, gaining better understanding of this controlled cell death is very important in the fight against deterioration diseases like dementia. In this light, rese...

Researchers add crucial information on how the body's T cells react to parasitic diseases

In the 1980s, the phrase "T cell count" burst into the world's medical vocabulary as thousands and then millions of patients died of AIDS. The public began to understand the crucial importance of T cells--cellular Pac-Men that roam the bloodstream gobbling up infection and guarding against future a...

Source of crucial immune cell in the skin discovered

Mount Sinai School of Medicine researchers have identified the precursors of cells in the skin that are part of the first line of defense against invading pathogens. The study will appear on Nature Immunology's website this week and will be published in a future issue. A tight network of cells co...

Einstein scientists discover how protein crucial for motion is synthesised at the right place in the cell

Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the German Cancer Research Institute have shown how protein synthesis is targeted to certain regions of a cell--a process crucial for the cellular motility that governs nerve growth, wound healing and cancer metastasis. Their study appears ...

DNA size a crucial factor in genetic mutations, study finds

Researchers at Stanford University have created a larger-than-normal DNA molecule that is copied almost as efficiently as natural DNA. The findings, reported in the Oct. 25 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), may reveal new insights into how genetic mutatio...

Scientists discover the body's marijuana-like compounds are crucial for stress-induced pain relief

new study shows, for the first time, that the release of the body's own marijuana-like compounds is crucial to stress-induced analgesia ?the body's way of initially shielding pain after a serious injury. The work, led by scientists at the University of Georgia and the University of California, I...

Molecular messengers perform a crucial role in the ability of injured nerve cells to heal themselves

Weizmann Institute findings might advance search for new therapies for injured nerve fibers. Long distance messengers star in many heroic tales, perhaps the most famous being the one about the runner who carried the news about the victory of the Greeks over the Persians in the fateful battle of Mar...

Researchers identify protein crucial for survival of Lyme-disease bacterium

When the tick-borne bacterium that causes Lyme disease lacks a specific protein that responds to an incoming meal of blood, it is unable to be transmitted from the tick to a new animal host, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found. The findings suggest that the protein, called Bp...

Epstein-Barr virus protein crucial to its role in blood cancers

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have identified a link between a critical cancer pathway and an Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) protein known to be expressed in a number of EBV-associated cancers. Their findings demonstrate a new mechanism by which EBV transforms human B c...

Holding breath for several minutes elevates marker for brain damage

...how far they can swim underwater and how deep they can dive. Participants must undergo intense training to increase their lung capacity while learning crucial safety measures. Breath-hold diving often leads to hypoxia, elevated blood pressure, slowed heartbeat and other physiological changes. However, whe...

Scientists open doors to diagnosis of emphysema

...lved in the development of emphysema. Emphysema is characterised by the damage and destruction of the alveoli, the tiny air-sacs of the lungs that are crucial for respiration and uptake of oxygen from the air. Cigarette smoke and other irritants activate immune cells, like macrophages, in the lungs to des...

Protecting cells from their neighbors

...but 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 mechanisms that participate in the repression and activation of the genomes of distinct species because failure...

Rodent size linked to human population and climate change

...er chance to survive big environmental changes caused by humans. Understanding which species and populations have the greatest ability to change has a crucial impact on being able to conserve biodiversity." ...

New computer simulation helps explain folding in important cellular protein

...portant process called the Wang-Landau algorithm) that sheds light on how a crucial proteinglycophorin Abecomes an active part of living cells. The new use of ... 131-amino acid protein that spans the human red-blood cell membrane and is crucial in cell procedures. Because it has been studied in depth for many years, it...

Fox Chase researchers uncover one force behind the MYC oncogene in many cancers

... Philadelphia (July 27, 2009) DLX5, a gene crucial for embryonic development, promotes cancer by activating the expression of the known oncogene, MYC, according to researchers from Fox Chase Cancer Cen...

University of Toronto helps to 'barcode' the world's plants

...e University of Toronto and the head of the Canadian plant barcoding working group. "This discovery is important because understanding biodiversity is crucial to long-term human existence on the planet." DNA barcoding has been widely used to identify animal species since its invention five years ago. But ...

'Corrective genes' closer thanks to enzyme modification

...ising new avenues." "We were intrigued to find the enzyme's internal flexibility was impacted by our modifications and that this fact played such a crucial role for resistance," says Albert Berghuis, a professor at the McGill University Department of Biochemistry and Canada Research Chair in Structural Bi...

Humans lend a hand to critically endangered waterbird

...nger. Traditional small-scale farming by local communities is therefore crucial to the ibis' survival because grazing livestock and burning of the forest u...of local farming methods practiced for generation after generation will be crucial in saving this once common species from extinction," added Hugh. With fe...

Noise pollution negatively affects woodland bird communities, says CU-Boulder study

...oise disturbance when selecting nesting sites. "Understanding how birds respond to noise, especially birds with critical links to ecosystems, are crucial in maintaining biodiversity in growing areas of landscapes disturbed by urban clamor," said Francis. ...

Ethiopian government celebrates rinderpest eradication

...roaches to vaccination. Eradication of rinderpest in Ethiopia is especially crucial because the country has the largest cattle population in Africa. "Most o...sion. Their ability to monitor for flare-ups following the vaccinations was crucial to conquering rinderpest. Similar tactics were used to eradicate rinderp...

University of Miami receives stimulus funds for study of hurricane impacts on structures, ecosystems

...cientists and engineers from around the world. It will provide a unique environment for scientists and engineers to work side by side on solutions for crucial problems facing humanity." The structure is designed to be environmentally sustainable and LEED Certified. It will consist of two distinct, but i...

The right messenger for a healthy immune response

...ecular Immunology group at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, Germany have now shown that Beta-Interferon also plays a crucial role during an immune response: without Beta-Interferon immune cells are unable to show "wanted posters" of pathogens to other cells. As a consequence...

Reviews of microbial gene language published in special issue of Trends in Microbiology

...e comparison of gene function across the different domains of life." Candace Collmer of Wells College, who helped launch PAMGO in 2003, noted: "A crucial step at the beginning of the PAMGO project was the realization that plant pathogenesis is only one possible outcome along a continuum of broadly-defin...

Surviving mass extinction by leading a double life

... Drifting across the world's oceans are a group of unicellular marine microorganisms that are not only a crucial source of food for other marine life but their fossils, which are found in abundance, provide scientists with an extraordinary record of climatic cha...

Munich researchers discover new target for tailored antibiotics

...y may spell doom for those bacteria. The TUM researchers have unraveled the structural basis of the terminal step in bacterial isoprene synthesis. The crucial enzyme has a most unusual structure, similar to a three-leaf clover, and may open a potent line of attack for custom-tailored antibiotics. Research...

Building memories with actin

... Memories aren't made of actin filaments. But their assembly is crucial for long-term potentiation (LTP), an increase in synapse sensitivity that researchers think helps to lay down memories. In the July 13, 2009 issue of ...

22nd Congress of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology, Sept. 12-16, 2009, Turkey

...nce various neurotransmitter systems. The discovery of specific receptors in the brain has led to the identification of endogenous chemicals playing a crucial role in various physiological systems. For instance, the discovery of endocannabinoids has been of central importance in establishing the existence of...

Arctic climate under greenhouse conditions in the Late Cretaceous

...p predict its future behaviour. The Late Cretaceous, the period between 100 and 65 million years ago leading up to the extinction of the dinosaurs, is crucial in this regard because levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) were high, driving greenhouse conditions. But scientists have disagreed about the climate at thi...

UAB study reveals bone coupling factor key to skeletal health

...Previously, scientists had searched for but missed the biological link between bone growth and bone remodeling a natural give-and-take system that is crucial to skeletal health. The discovery is reported online in the journal Nature Medicine . "For the first time, we've identified TGF beta-1 is a coupli...