Insights in Biological News

New insights into health and environmental effects of carbon nanoparticles

A new study raises the possibility that flies and other insects that encounter nanomaterial "hot spots," or spills, near manufacturing facilities in the future could pick up and transport nanoparticles on their bodies, transferring the particles to other flies or habitats in the environment. The s...

UC San Diego engineer provides insights to decades-old DNA squabble

A group of nanoengineers, biologists and physicists have used innovative approaches to deduce the internal structure of chromatin, a key player in DNA regulation, to reconcile a longstanding controversy in this field. This new finding could unlock the mystery behind the origin of many diseases suc...

Tumor suppressor gene in flies may provide insights for human brain tumors

SINGAPORE and DURHAM, N.C. In the fruit fly's developing brain, stem cells called neuroblasts normally divide to create one self-renewing neuroblast and one cell that has a different fate. But neuroblast growth can sometimes spin out of control and become a brain tumor. Researchers at Duke-NU...

Domestication of Capsicum annuum chile pepper provides insights into crop origin and evolution

Without the process of domestication, humans would still be hunters and gatherers, and modern civilization would look very different. Fortunately, for all of us who do not relish the thought of spending our days searching for nuts and berries, early civilizations successfully cultivated many spec...

Slicing chromosomes leads to new insights into cell division

ANN ARBOR, Mich.By using ultrafast laser pulses to slice off pieces of chromosomes and observe how the chromosomes behave, biomedical engineers at the University of Michigan have gained pivotal insights into mitosis, the process of cell division. Their findings could help scientists better unde...

Researchers gain genome-wide insights into patterns of the world's human population structures

Through sophisticated statistical analyses and advanced computer simulations, researchers are learning more about the genomic patterns of human population structure around the world. Revealing such patterns provides insights into the history of human evolution, the predominant evolutionary forc...

New insights into progressive hearing loss

In parallel studies in human and mouse, two groups of researchers have come to the same conclusion: that a new kind of gene is associated with progressive hearing loss. The new gene - called a microRNA - is a tiny fragment of RNA that affects the production of hundreds of other molecules within se...

Lohafex provides new insights on plankton ecology

The Indo-German team of scientists from the National Institute of Oceanography and the Alfred Wegener Institute has returned from its expedition on research vessel Polarstern. The cooperative project Lohafex has yielded new insights on how ocean ecosystems function. But it has dampened hopes on th...

Addiction: Insights from Parkinson's disease

A new comprehensive review by researchers at the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI), McGill University and the University of Cambridge, England provides vital insights into the neurological basis of addiction by investigating Parkinson's disease patients, who in some instances develop various a...

Mixed population provides insights into human genetic makeup

Genetic diseases and genetically mixed populations can help researchers understand human diversity and human origins according to a Penn State physical anthropologist. "We wanted to get to a strategy to predict what a face will look like," said Mark D. Shriver, associate professor of biological ...

New paper offers key insights into how new species emerge

This year marks both the bicentennial of Charles Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his seminal work "On the Origin of Species." Just in time for the Darwin observances, a new paper appearing today in the journal Science by a team led by University of Notre Dame rese...

New insights into a leading poultry disease and its risks to human health

Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University associate research scientist Melha Mellata, a member of professor Roy Curtiss' team, is leading a USDA funded project to develop a vaccine against a leading poultry disease called avian pathogenic E. coli (APEC). APEC is part of a large, divers...

Mixing genomics and geography yields insights into life and environment

In an upcoming issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , Yale researchers used newly developed mathematical models to analyze huge amounts of data on physical characteristics such as temperature and salinity in different ocean habitats and metabolic activity in marine micro-organ...

New papers offer insights into process of malarial drug resistance

Malaria, one of the oldest diseases known to man, has shown no signs of slowing down as it ages. More than 1 million children die from malaria in sub-Saharan Africa each year, and in areas along the Thailand/Cambodian border multiple drug-resistant strains of the disease are becoming commonplace....

St. Jude study gives new insights into how cells accessorize their proteins

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital investigators have gained new insight into how the cell's vast array of proteins would instantly be reduced to a confusion of lethally malfunctioning molecules without a system for proteins to "accessorize" in order to regulate their function. Just as eyeg...

New insights into the regulation of PTEN tumor suppression function

BOSTON -- The PTEN tumor suppressor gene controls numerous biological processes including cell proliferation, cell growth and death. But PTEN is frequently lost or mutated; in fact, alteration of the gene is so common among various types of human cancer that PTEN has become one of the most frequen...

Deep sequencing study reveals new insights into human transcriptome

In a collaborative project scientists from the Max-Planck-Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin (MPI MolGen), Germany and Genomatix with a business in Munich, Germany and Ann Arbor, MI, USA, applied next generation sequencing and analysis methods to generate an unprecedented view at the human...

Study of marine snail leads to new insights into long-term memory

UCLA cellular neuroscientists are providing new insights into the mechanisms that underlie long-term memory research with the potential to treat long-term memory disorders. "The more we know about how long-term memory is induced in the brain and how our memories are maintained in the brain,...

Researchers reveal insights into hidden world of protein folding

The proteins upon which life depends share an attribute with paper airplanes: Unless folded properly, they just won't fly. But researchers have been puzzled by how the long, linear proteins cranked out by the ribosome factories in a cell are folded into the shapes they must assume to perform th...

Metagenomics of skin reveals insights into the human microbiome

Friday, May 23, 2008 The human body is home to a diverse range of microorganisms, estimated to outnumber human cells in a healthy adult by ten fold. The importance of characterizing human microbiota for understanding health and disease is highlighted by the recent launch of the Human Microbio...

First study hints at insights to come from genes unique to humans

St. Louis, March 21, 2008 Among the approximately 23,000 genes found in human DNA, scientists currently estimate that there may be as few as 50 to 100 that have no counterparts in other species. Expand that comparison to include the primate family known as hominoids, and there may be several hundr...

New insights into the diversity of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease agents

Researchers from the United Kingdom and France have identified four separate biochemical subgroups in a selection of cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The study, published March 14th in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens, suggests that these subgroups could represent distinct prion strains i...

New chemical tool kit manipulates mitochondria, reveals insights into drug toxicity

BOSTON, Mass. (Feb. 24, 2008)Why do nearly 1 million people taking cholesterol-lowering statins often experience muscle cramps? Why is it that in the rare case when a diabetic takes medication for intestinal worms, his glucose levels improve? Is there any scientific basis for the purported health ...

New dinosaur from Mexico offers insights into ancient life on West America

SALT LAKE CITY A new species of dinosaur unearthed in Mexico is giving scientists fresh insights into the ancient history of western North America, according to an international research team led by scientists from the Utah Museum of Natural History at the University of Utah. To date, the di...

Antarctic expedition provides new insights into the role of the Southern Ocean for global climate

In the Southern Ocean, large quantities of surface-drifting plankton algae are able to significantly reduce the carbon dioxide content of the surface waters, which can affect the global carbon dioxide cycle. This is one of the results from an Antarctic expedition which has just drawn to a close in...

New mechanical insights into wound healing and scar tissue formation

New research published today in the Journal of Cell Biology illuminates the mechanical factors that play a critical role in the differentiation and function of fibroblasts, connective tissue cells that play a role in wound healing and scar tissue formation. When we are injured, the body launch...

Hinode: new insights on the origin of solar wind

Spectacular images and data from the Hinode mission have shed new light on the Sun's magnetic field and the origins of solar wind, which can disrupt power grids, satellites and communications on Earth. The results are published in the 7 December issue of the journal Science. Data from Hinode,...

New insights into the fate of antiparasitics in manure and manured soils

In recent years, there has been growing interest in the question, if the entry of veterinary medicinal products (VMP) into soils via manure application is of environmental relevance. In a recent study, published in the November issue of the journal CLEAN, Kreuzig and co-workers now focused on the ...

Tumor genome analysis unveils new insights into lung cancer

An international consortium of scientists today in an advanced online publication in the journal Nature revealed a comprehensive view of the altered genetic background of the type of lung cancer that is the most common cause of cancer deaths in humans. Of particular interest was a specific pr...

New insights into how lasers cut flesh

Lasers are at the cutting edge of surgery. From cosmetic to brain surgery, intense beams of coherent light are gradually replacing the steel scalpel for many procedures. Despite this increasing popularity, there is still a lot that scientists do not know about the ways in which laser light inter...

Study involving more than 100 scientists provides new insights on green algae

Culminating a three-year research project, 115 scientists from around the world report in the Oct. 12 issue of the journal Science a "gold mine" of data on a tiny green alga called Chlamydomonas, with implications for human diseases. The single-celled Chlamydomonas, a slimy organism that grows ...

KGI professor contributes new insights on 'jumping genes'

CLAREMONT, Calif., Oct. 4, 2007 Keck Graduate Institute (KGI) today announced that Dr. Animesh Ray, KGI professor and director of KGIs PhD program, has published a paper in the international online journal PLoS ONE that sheds new light on the evolution of moveable genetic elements, or jumping g...

Limping rat provides sciatica insights

DURHAM, N.C. -- A newly developed animal model for the painful nerve condition known as sciatica should help researchers diagnose and treat it, according to Duke University bioengineers and surgeons. Sciatica is not a single disorder, but rather a diverse range of symptoms, such as numbness or ...

First neuroimaging study examining motor execution in children with autism reveals new insights

(Baltimore, MD) In the first neuroimaging study to examine motor execution in children with autism, researchers at the Kennedy Krieger Institute have uncovered important new insight into the neurological basis of autism. The study, published online in the journal Brain 's April 23 Brain Advanced...

Stomach stem cell discovery could bring cancer insights

ANN ARBOR, Mich. Scientists have identified and described stem cells specific to several tissues and organs of the body key master cells that give rise to the specialized cell types characteristic of that organ. But to date, it hasnt been possible to pinpoint functioning stem cells in the stomac...

Largest synthetic gene ever built offers insights into anti-malarial drug resistance

Researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center say they are moving closer to understanding why the most lethal form of human malaria has become resistant to drug treatment in the past three decades. They have been able to artificially construct, and then express in yeast, a protozoan gene th...

New insights into autoimmunity and depression

Systemic lupus erythomatosus (SLE), often simply called lupus, is a complex autoimmune disease marked by joint pain, skin rashes, extreme fatigue, and depression, among other symptoms. Some studies have described a possible link between SLE’s most severe psychiatric manifestation, psychosis, and a ...

From hot springs to rice farms, scientists reveal new insights into the secret lives of archaea

In the world of microbes, as in politics, some groups just can't seem to shake the label ''extremist.'' So it is with archaea (ar-KEY-uh), a collection of bacteria-like microorganisms whose unique genetics and chemical structure separate them from all other living things. For years, biologists ha...

Mutant mouse provides insights into breast cancer

By discovering a mutant mouse that is highly susceptible to mammary tumors, Cornell researchers have found a novel potential link between genetic defects in DNA replication (copying) and breast cancer. The mouse contains a mutation in a gene essential for replicating DNA in both humans and mice t...

AIDS vaccine research offers new insights on survival

New insights into how a subpopulation of helper T-cells provides immunity and promotes survival following infection with an AIDS-like virus offer a new means of predicting an AIDS vaccine's effectiveness, a discovery that could help scientists as they test these vaccines in clinical trials. Led b...