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A gene's first 'kiss' sets off that affair known as puberty

Puberty, that awkward phase when boys and girls are primed for their sexual reproductive years as men and women, appears to be triggered by the brain's own version of "It takes two to tango," whereby a signal literally gets turned on by a molecule that is produced by a gene aptly named KiSS-1. The couple ?a biochemical equivalent to Adam and Eve ?makes its sudden appearance in a region of...

UW's Rosetta software to unlock secrets of many human proteins

University of Washington TechTransferrecently licensed software that will give scientists a huge advantagein the fight against disease.The software, known as Rosetta, predicts how proteins fold, informationthat is highly valuable to biological and biomedical researchers.UW Tech Transfer's Digital Ventures licensed Rosetta software withoutcharge to the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB), a...

A bacterial genome reveals new targets to combat infectious disease

More than a billion people are at risk for infection with filarial nematodes, parasites that cause elephantiasis, African river blindness, and other debilitating diseases in more than 150 million people worldwide. The nematodes themselves play host to bacteria that live within their cells, but in this case, the relationship is classic mutualism, with each benefiting from the other. Indeed, the Wo...

Weill Cornell Research Reveals Secrets Of Trafficking Within Cells

As you read this, cells in your eye are transmitting information to your brain, while cells in your heart and arteries work just as hard to keep that brain alive. Every one of these cells -- and others throughout the body -- depends on an internal process called endocytosis to keep the flow of cellular nutrients and information healthy and strong. It's an incredibly important life process,...

Scientists reveal molecular secrets of the malaria parasite

In an innovative project with implicationsfor malaria vaccine development, scientists have used genomics,proteomics and gene expression studies to trace how malaria parasitesevolve on a molecular level as they move between their hosts and insectvectors.That focus on the parasites' complex life cycle is helping researchersunderstand when different genes switch on and off as the pathogensmet...

Artifical cornea lets woman blind 20 years see

A severe allergic reaction to a medication robbed Elma Phifer of her vision two decades ago when she was 39. The reaction scarred her corneas and reduced the ability of her eyes to soothe their damaged surfaces by remaining moist. She came to rely upon family and friends to help her do many of the activities people with normal vision sometimes take for granted. Now, twenty years and severa...

Nanoscale Diagnostic Sets Sights on Alzheimer's

Using their novel bio-bar-code amplification (BCA) technology, researchers analyzing fluid from around the brain and spinal cord have detected a protein linked in recent studies to Alzheimer's disease. Gold nanoparticles and bio-bar codes bring sen...

Heart repair gets new muscle

Some organs in the human body deal with injury better than others. A flesh wound or muscle tear might hurt, but, assuming you are otherwise healthy, both will heal. The prognosis for a heart attack, on the other hand, is not so clear-cut. It has long been thought that cardiac cells (cardiomyocytes) lack the capacity for self-renewal and repair, impeding the chances of a full recovery from...

Marine sponge yields nanoscale secrets

The simple marine sponge is inspiring cutting-edge research in the design of new materials at the University of California, Santa Barbara. A report about these exciting new results involving the use of gold nanoparticles is the cover story of the current issue of the scientific journal, Advanced Materials. The article is written by Daniel E. Morse, professor of molecular, cellular and dev...

Study reveals candidate targets for anti-retroviral therapeutics

The increased frequency of drug resistance in isolates of the AIDS virus, HIV, makes identification of new antiviral targets an urgent necessity. Host genes required to support the replication of HIV are a potential source of such novel targets, but relatively few appropriate target genes have been identified in animal cells thus far. A new study, conducted by Dr. Suzanne Sandmeyer and colleagues...

'Smart drug' targets deadly brain cancer

A study led by Mayo Clinic researchers and conducted by the North Central Cancer Treatment Group (NCCTG) reports that a new "smart" drug treatment for an incurable form of recurrent brain cancer slowed tumor growth in more than one-third of the 65 adult patients who tried it. The same research team also developed a screening technique to help predict which patients will respond best to this treat...

NHGRI targets 12 more organisms for genome sequencing

The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), announced today that the Large-Scale Sequencing Research Network will begin sequencing 12 more strategically selected organisms, including the marmoset, a skate and several important insects, as part of its ongoing effort to expand understanding of the human genome. The National Advisory...

Researchers reveal secrets of flying snakes

It seems size does matters after all. But for flying snakes, smaller is better, according to University of Chicago researchers. "Despite their lack of wing-like appendages, flying snakes ar...

Moffitt-USF head toward first human trials of anti-cancer drug that targets protein AKT

H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, working in partnership with the University of South Florida (USF), has discovered a new use for an old, previously discredited anti-cancer drug that could add another weapon in the arsenal against several cancers, including tumors of the breast, ovary, colon, skin and prostate. The compound, tricirbine, was tested at various cancer cen...

Revueltosaurus skeleton unearthed at Petrified Forest upsets dinosaur tale

The fossilized skeleton of a small crocodile relative excavated last year at Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona throws a wrench into theories of how and where the dinosaurs arose more than 210 million years ago at the end of the Triassic Period. The animal, one of many creatures from the Late Triassic known only from their teeth, was thought to be an ancestor of the plant-eating or...

Researcher gets NSF grant to create mutant maize lines

A Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) researcher at Cornell University has received a grant to help assemble a unique database of DNA mutations in maize (corn). The project not only will allow researchers to study the effects of knocking out the function of single genes, one at a time, but also will create seeds for each mutation, or disrupted gene. The seeds will be made widely available to r...

New tool reveals secrets of migrating cells

Called two-photon laser-scanning microscopy, it has revealed, for...

Secrets of the deep may hold key to life on other planets

Leeds researchers use NERC grant to understand extreme sea creaturesExtraordinary creatures who inhabit extreme underwater conditions are being investigated by University scientists in a three-year project. These deep-sea communities could reveal an evolutionary history different to anything else on earth and even give us clues to how life could exist onother planets. The creatures live a...

DOE's Office of Science sets up program to aid scientists displaced by Hurricane Katrina

The Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science has established a program to assist scientists displaced by the effects of Hurricane Katrina. "Our colleagues in science have historically been a close-knit, generous community," wrote Dr. Raymond L. Orbach, director of DOE's Office of Science, in a letter describing the program to: universities and colleges, including those in Alabama, L...

Researchers make nanosheets that mimic protein formation

How to direct and control the self-assembly of nanoparticles is a fundamental question in nanotechnology. "This establishes an important connection between two basic building blocks in biology an...

Secrets to antibody's success against West Nile Virus surprise scientists

Insights may advance vaccines for related viruses including dengue fever. A monoclonal antibody that can effectively treat mice infected with West Nile virus has an intriguing secret: Contrary to scientists' expectations, it does not block the virus's ability to attach to host cells. Instead, the antibody somehow stops the infectious process at a later point. "This was a complete surprise...

Novel targets found for the development of drugs to complement, or replace, statins

Leading marine scientists for the first time have assessed dolphin and porpoise populations around the world which are severely threatened by entanglement in fishing gear and recommended nine urgent priorities for action in a report commissioned by the World Wildlife Fund. These nine projects highlight species threatened by bycatch that will most likely benefit from immediate action and will cont...

Hanging baskets of sex and death help fruit growers

A hanging basket style device is at the heart of a plan by researchers at the University of Warwick to harness the sex drive of a major pest of fruit orchards as a weapon to spread a virus to kill that very same pest. The device allows growers to selectively target the pest with a virus that kills its larvae without killing other beneficial insects. The researchers at Warwick HRI, th...

WCS says avian flu prevention should focus on farms, markets

Wildlife health experts from the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) warn that efforts to control the spread of avian flu across Asia and beyond must focus on better management practices on farms and in markets. WCS is currently working with Mongolian agencies on the ground in Mongolia's Kovsgol province, collecting samples from wild birds that have recently contracted the...

Vaccine targets tumors where they live

Vaccine strategies are being designed to battle cancer, but their use for metastatic melanoma is a challenge. Effective vaccines against established tumors require tumor-reactive T cells to traffic to the sites of the tumors and are locally activated there in order to kill cancer cells. A problem is that the T cells lose their tumor-killing power once they reach the environment surrounding the tu...

Firefly protein lets researchers monitor molecule linked to cancer

Scientists have used a glowing protein from fireflies to observe the activity of a molecule that is an important target for new drugs to treat cancer, autoimmune diseases and several other disorders. The target molecule, known as IKK (for IKappa kinase), regulates processes that can trigger dramatic changes in cellular physiology. Scientists have linked these changes to many different diso...

Study findings offer potential new targets for antibiotics

A new study of genetic changes in bacteria may ultimately help drug makers stay a step ahead of disease-causing bacteria that can become resistant to antibiotics. Many currently used antibiotics alter a ribosome's ability to make proteins, said Kurt Fredrick, a s...

War on terror meets war on cancer

A scientific method that has been used to track the source of illegal drugs, explosives, counterfeit bills and biological warfare agents may have some new uses: detecting rapidly growing cancers and studying obesity and eating disorders. The method, known as "stable isotope ratio mass spectrometry," can determine where a substance was produced by "weighing" various forms or isotopes of an...

Switching to new anti-bacterial targets: Riboswitches

The recently emerged field of bacterial riboswitches may be a good hunting ground for effective targets against bacterial infection, according to a report by Yale researchers in the journal Chemistry and Biology. Rona...

Watch your step when the going gets rough

Placing your foot accurately is a complicated process. If something moves where you plan to place your foot then you can adjust your step while your foot is swinging through. Experts thought previously that if nothing changed in the path, or in your plans, then the place where your foot will land is fixed before it even leaves the ground. In this case, you would make no use of immediate visual in...

Pitt professor's theory of evolution gets boost from cell research

An article by University of Pittsburgh Professor of Anthropology Jeffrey H. Schwartz and University of Salerno Professor of Biochemistry Bruno Maresca, published Jan. 30 in the New Anatomist journal, shows that the emerging understanding of cell structure lends strong support to Schwartz's theory of evolution, originally explained in his seminal work, Sudden Origins: Fossils, Genes, and the Emerg...

Cholesterol gets 'thumbs up' for role in digit development

When a new mother counts her newborn's fingers and toes, she probably doesn't realize that cholesterol may be to thank for baby's complete set of 20 digits. Although cholesterol has a bad rap as the sticky, fatty substance responsible for clogging arteries, Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers recently found that the attachment of cholesterol to an important developmental prot...

UW-Madison engineers squeeze secrets from proteins

Proteins, one of the basic components of living things, are among the most studied molecules in biochemistry. Understanding how proteins form or "fold" from sequenced strings of amino acids has long been one of the grand challenges of biology. A common belief holds that the more proteins are confined by their environment, the more stable - or less likely to unfold - they become. Now, as r...

NHGRI announces new sequencing targets

The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), today announced its latest round of sequencing targets, with an emphasis on enhancing the understanding of how human genes function and how genomic differences between individuals influence the risk of health and disease. The National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research, which is a...

Uncovering sex-change secrets of black sea bass

In a former cowshed on the edge of the University of New Hampshire campus, David Berlinsky, assistant professor of zoology, peers into a big blue plastic tub. Inside, black sea bass circle slowly in the dim light. The converted barn is now an aquaculture research facility for the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture, and home to Berlinsky's latest research. Black sea bass feature promi...

'Biobullets' fight harmful mussels

British researchers have developed a "biobullet" that could help control an invasive mollusk that has ravaged U.S. waterways for nearly two decades clogging water pipes, virtually wiping out some native mussels species and causing billions of dollars in industrial damage. The new microcapsules, which contain toxins that dissolve within a zebra mussel's digestive tract, offer a safe and cost-effec...

Secrets of the sea yield stronger artificial bone

The next generation of artificial bone may rely on a few secrets from the sea. Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have harnessed the way seawater freezes to develop a porous, scaffolding-like material that is four times stronger than material currently used in synthetic bone. Although still in the investigational stages, var...

Study reveals mass migration of mormon crickets driven by hunger, fear

An international team of researchers, including Kent State University professor Dr. Patrick D. Lorch, have revealed the motivating factors behind the seasonal mass migration of Mormon crickets in western North America. Throughout th...

NHGRI announces latest sequencing targets

The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), today announced several new sequencing targets including the Northern white-cheeked gibbon (Nomascus leucogenys), setting the stage for completing a quest to sequence the genome of at least one non-human primate genome from each of the major positions along the evolutionary primate tree and makin...

When the going gets tough, slime molds start synthesizing

In times of plenty, the uni-cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum leads a solitary life munching on bacteria littering the forest floor. But these simple creatures can perform heroic developmental acts: when the bacterial food supply dries up, Dictyostelium amebas band together with their neighbors and form a multi-cellular tower designed to save the children. In a forthcoming stud...