Key in Biological News

Agricultural research key to food security

Boosting agricultural research in the developing world is the key to ensuring food security for the world's poorest, says Adel el-Beltagy, Chair of the Global Form on Agricultural Research (GFAR), writing in the latest issue of the TWAS Newsletter, published last week. With nearly a billion peo...

Little-known protein found to be key player

HOUSTON -- (July 29, 2009) -- Italian and U.S. biologists this week report that a little-understood protein previously implicated in a rare genetic disorder plays an unexpected and critical role in building and maintaining healthy cells. Even more surprising, their report in the journal Nature s...

Early detection and quick response are key to defense against anthrax attack

NEW YORK (July 24, 2009) -- A large attack on a major metropolitan area with airborne anthrax could affect more than a million people, necessitating their treatment with powerful antibiotics. A new study finds that in order for a response to be effective, quick detection and treatment are essentia...

In vitro antibody production enables HIV infection detection in window period -- key to safer blood

This release is available in Chinese . Researchers in Israel and Kenya have shown that the contribution of variable degrees of immune suppression, either due to existing chronic infections such as parasitemi...

Climate change may spell demise of key salt marsh constituent

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] Global warming may exact a toll on salt marshes in New England, but new research shows that one key constituent of marshes may be especially endangered. Pannes are waterlogged, low-oxygen zones of salt marshes. Despite the stresses associated with global war...

UAB study reveals bone coupling factor key to skeletal health

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) have discovered a molecular coupling factor that helps bones grow and remodel themselves to stay strong, a finding that could lead to better bone-building therapies and new osteoporosis drugs, the researchers said Th...

Tummy troubles -- gastrin key in bacterial-induced stomach cancer

New York, New York Current research suggests that levels of gastrin play a key role in the development of Helicobacter -induced stomach cancer. The related report by Takaishi et al, "Gastrin is an essential cofactor for Helicobacter -associated gastric corpus carcinogenesis in C57BL/6 mice," a...

Policy transparency key to saving world's fisheries

The sustainability of fisheries depends on the transparency with which coastal states incorporate scientific advice into policies, reports a study led by researchers at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia and published in the journal PLoS Biology . A new study provides the first globa...

Elevated water temperature and acidity boost growth of key sea star species: UBC researchers

New research by zoologists at the University of British Columbia indicates that elevated water temperatures and heightened concentrations of carbon dioxide can dramatically increase the growth rate of a keystone species of sea star. The study is one of the first to look at the impact of ocean a...

LSUHSC research describes function of key protein in cancer spread

New Orleans, LA Research led by David Worthylake, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, may help lay the groundwork for the development of a compound to prevent the spread of cancer. The research will be published in the May 29,...

Proteomics: Finding the key ingredients of disease

This release is available in French . Montreal, May 19th, 2009 - The winner of the chilli cook-off, usually has a key secret ingredient, which is hard to identify. Similarly, many diseases have crucial proteins, which change the dynamics of cells from benign to deadly. New findings from a...

Yale team identifies key to potential new treatment for allergy-induced asthma

New Haven, Conn. In research that could lead to new asthma drugs, scientists at Yale School of Medicine, Hydra Biosciences of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the University of California, San Francisco have discovered that a protein may be a trigger of allergy-induced asthma in mice. They also demo...

A combined tooth-venom arsenal revealed as key to Komodo dragon's hunting strategy

A combined tooth-venom arsenal revealed as key to Komodo Dragon's hunting strategy. A new study has shown that the effectiveness of the Komodo Dragon bite is a combination of highly specialized serrated teeth and venom. The authors also dismiss the widely accepted theory that prey die from sept...

Identification of a key molecular pathway required for brain neural circuit formation

Montral, May 15, 2009 The research group of Dr. Frdric Charron, a researcher at the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montral (IRCM), has made a discovery which could help treat spinal cord injuries and neurodegenerative diseases. This new finding has been published in the current issue of the ...

Aerosol: A key piece of the climate change puzzle

Fitting all the different pieces of the climate change puzzle together is one of the major challenges of our age. Aerosol is a key piece of this puzzle, but the size and shape of its effect is still unclear a fact that jeopardises the reliability of all current predictions of climate change. ...

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 out a mechanism involved in marking where these instructions are located in a c...

International team finds key gene that allows plants to survive drought

A team of scientists from Canada, Spain and the United States has identified a key gene that allows plants to defend themselves against environmental stresses like drought, freezing and heat. "Plants have stress hormones that they produce naturally and that signal adverse conditions and help t...

Vanderbilt engineers play key role in new DOE energy frontier research center

A team of Vanderbilt engineers will play a key role in a new federal effort to significantly improve our understanding of how gases and liquids interact with solid surfaces basic studies that have potential applications ranging from better batteries to more efficient methods for converting solar ...

Gladstone scientists identify key factors in heart cell creation

Scientists at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease have identified for the first time key genetic factors that drive the process of generating new heart cells. The discovery, reported in the current issue of the journal Nature , provides important new directions on how stem cells may...

Genetic switch potential key to new class of antibiotics

Researchers have determined the structure of a key genetic mechanism at work in bacteria, including some that are deadly to humans, in an important step toward the design of a new class of antibiotics, according to an accelerated publication that appeared online today as a "paper of the week" in t...

CSHL-led team identifies key decision-point at which cells with broken DNA repair themselves or die

When cells undergo potentially catastrophic damage, for example as a result of exposure to ionizing radiation, they must make a decision: either to fix the damage or program themselves for death, a process called apoptosis. It's a stark decision that is as mysterious as it is remarkable, invol...

Scientists identify key gene that protects against leukemia

Researchers have identified a gene that controls the rapid production and differentiation of the stem cells that produce all blood cell types -- a discovery that could eventually open the door to more streamlined treatments for leukemia and other blood cancers, in which blood cells proliferate out...

Phasic firing of dopamine neurons is key to brain's prediction of rewards

San Antonio Researchers are one step closer to understanding the neurobiology that allows people to successfully learn motivated behaviors by associating environmental cues with rewarding outcomes, according to a study published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ' ...

Meet-the-expert sessions on 20 key topics to enhance scientific programme of IOFWCO-ECCEO10

The International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) and the European Society for Clinical and Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis and Osteoarthritis (ESCEO) will hold a joint global congress, IOF WCO- ECCEO10, in Florence, Italy from May 5-8, 2010. Complete programme information, online registration...

Innerscope Research(R) Uses Same-Day Results From Biometric Study to Identify Key Themes, Styles Behind Effective, Engaging Speaker Presentations

CEO Dr. Carl Marci to discuss results March 19 during 12 p.m. Advertising Research Foundation webcast BOSTON, March 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Innerscope Research (R), a revolutionary media research firm, recently conducted a live biometric study of an Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) conferen...

Protein is key to embryonic stem cell differentiation

LA JOLLA, Calif., March 18, 2009 -- Investigators at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) have learned that a protein called Shp2 plays a critical role in the pathways that control decisions for differentiation or self-renewal in both human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and mouse embryo...

Shellfish and inkjet printers may hold key to faster healing from surgeries

Using the natural glue that marine mussels use to stick to rocks, and a variation on the inkjet printer, a team of researchers led by North Carolina State University has devised a new way of making medical adhesives that could replace traditional sutures and result in less scarring, faster recover...

Gladstone scientists reveal key enzyme in fat absorption

Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes of Cardiovascular Disease (GICD) have found that a key enzyme involved in absorbing fat may also be a key to reducing it. The enzyme, acyl CoA: monoacylglycerol acyltransferase 2 or Mgat2 is found in the intestines and plays an important part in the uptake o...

Scripps research team identifies key molecules that inhibit viral production

The research, led by Professor Donny Strosberg of Scripps Florida, was published on March 4, 2009, in the Journal of General Virology 's advance, online edition, Papers in Press. In the new study, Strosberg and his colleagues describe peptides (molecules of two or more amino acids) derived fr...

Study of protein structures reveals key events in evolutionary history

A new study of proteins, the molecular machines that drive all life, also sheds light on the history of living organisms. The study, in the journal Structure , reveals that after eons of gradual evolution, proteins suddenly experienced a "big bang" of innovation. The active regions of many pro...

Understanding soil carbon sequestration: New book presents key concepts

Madison, WI, March 6, 2009 -- As the severity of climate change increases with each passing year, researchers continue to study the ways that greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere. Developing methods of sequestration for carbon emissions is essential to reducing this greenhouse effect,...

Antibody key to treating variant CJD, scientists find

Scientists at the University of Liverpool have determined the atomic structure of the 'binding' between a brain protein and an antibody that could be key to treating patients with diseases such as variant CJD. Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) is part of a family of rare progressive neur...

Frog's immune system is key in fight against killer virus

Scientists from Queen Mary, University of London have discovered how changes to a frog's immune system may be the key to beating a viral infection which is devastating frog populations across the UK. Communities of common frogs (Rana temporaria) are being struck down by a foreign virus which i...

Gladstone scientists reveal that fat synthesizing enzyme is key to healthy skin and hair

Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes of Cardiovascular Disease (GICD) have found that an enzyme associated with the synthesis of fat in the body is also an element in healthy skin and hair. The enzyme is acyl CoA:diacylglycerol acyltransferase 1 or DGAT1. Mice that lack DGAT1 have many interes...

New target for medicine to combat Alzheimer's: VIB scientists confirm protein's key role

Alzheimer's disease Two thirds of all patients with dementia suffer from Alzheimer's disease. Estimates indicate that by 2010 our country will have more than 150,000 Alzheimer's patients. Alzheimer's is a disease that gradually destroys brain cells, with the result that the mental capacity of p...

Genetic adaptations key to microbe's survival in challenging environment

The genome of a marine bacterium living 2,500 meters below the ocean's surface is providing clues to how life adapts in extreme thermal and chemical gradients, according to an article published Feb. 6 in the journal PLoS Genetics , an open-access publication published by the Public Library of Sci...

NYU Langone Medical Center researchers find micro RNA plays a key role in melanoma metastasis

NEW YORK CITY (February 5, 2009)Scientists have long wondered how melanoma cells travel from primary tumors on the surface of the skin to the brain, liver and lungs, where they become more aggressive, resistant to therapy, and deadly. Now, scientists from NYU Langone Medical Center have identifi...

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...

Scientists uncover new class of non-protein coding genes in mammals with key functions

A research team at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has uncovered a vast new class of previously unrecognized mammalian genes that do not encode proteins, but instead function as long RNA molecules. Their findings, presented in the February 1st advanc...

Jefferson scientists discover a key protein regulator of inflammation and cell death

(PHILADELPHIA) Reporting in the journal Nature , researchers led by Emad Alnemri, Ph.D., professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson, discovered a key protein component involved in inflammation. The protein, AIM2 (absent in melanoma 2), is involved...