Structures

Man and mouse share genome structures

In the most detailed large-scale study to date of the proteins that package DNA, researchers have mapped a family of switches that turn genes on and off. Their findings may help scientists understand regulatory mechanisms underlying cancer and human development. The research team includes first author Bradley Bernstein, recipient of a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) physician postd...

The Shapes Of Life: NIGMS Project Yields More Than 1,000 Protein Structures

The Protein Structure Initiative (PSI), a national program aimed at determining the three-dimensional shapes of a wide range of proteins, has now determined more than 1,000 different structures. These structures will shed light on how proteins function in many life processes and could lead to targets for the development of new medicines. The PSI is a 10-year, approximately $600 million pr...

SuperLigands - a database of ligand structures derived from the Protein Data Bank

Scientists have isolated the first human embryonic stem cell lines specifically tailored to match the nuclear DNA of patients, both males and females of various ages, suffering from disease or spinal cord injury. These ce...

Structures of marine toxins provide insight into their effectiveness as cancer drugs

Vibrantly colored creatures from the depths of the South Pacific Ocean harbor toxins that potentially can act as powerful anti-cancer drugs, according to research findings from University of Wisconsin-Madison biochemists and their Italian colleagues. The research team has defined the structure of the toxins and provided a basic understanding that can be used to synthesize pharmaceuticals,...

DNA self-assembly used to mass-produce patterned nanostructures

Duke University scientists have used the self-assembling properties of DNA to mass-produce nanometer-scale structures in the shape of a 4x4 grids, on which patterns of molecules can be specified. They said the achievement represents a step toward mass-producing electronic or optical circuits at a scale 10 times smaller than the smallest circuits now being manufactured. Instead of using si...

Scientists map one of biology's critical light-sensing structures

For plants, the ability to accurately sense light governs everything from seed germination, photosynthesis and pigmentation to patterns of growth and flowering. Now, for the first time, scientists have obtained a detailed map of one of biology's most important light detectors, a protein found in many species across life's plant, fungal, and bacterial kingdoms. By resolving the three-dimens...

Sandia work launched on space shuttle shows live cells influence growth of nanostructures

Albuquerque, N.M. -- Far above the heads of Earthlings, arrays of single-cell creatures are circling Earth in nanostructures. The sample devices are riding on the International Space Station (courtesy of Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico, NASA and US Air Force) to test whether nanostructures whose formations were directed by yeast and other single cells can cre...

New understanding of parasite cell structures may provide treatments for serious tropical diseases

Don't even think about trying to pronounce it. Although it is found in many organisms including humans, glycosylphosphatidylinositol has remained a mouthful for laymen and a puzzle for scientists. And yet GPIs, as science thankfully calls these cellular lipids, are important in numerous biological functions, including disease transmission. Now, for the first time, cellular biologists at th...

Chemotherapy temporarily affects the structures of the human brain

Researchers have linked chemotherapy with short-term structural changes in cognitive areas of the brain, according to a new study. Published in the January 1, 2007 issue of CANCER ( ), a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study reveals that within 12 months of rec...

Decoding protein structures helps illuminate cause of diabetes

Any photographer can vouch for the difficulty of capturing a clear picture of a moving target. Now, chemists...

Better insight into brain anatomical structures

Magnetic resonance imaging is a very effective method for revealing anatomical details of soft tissues. Contrast agents can help to make these images even clearer and allow physiological processes to be followed in real time. Conventional gadolinium complexes currently used as MRI contrast agent cannot reveal anatomic structures. As reported in the journal Angewandte Chemie, Korean researchers...

New designer lipid-like peptide with lipid nanostructures for drug delivery systems

Scientists from Institute of Biophysics and Nanosystems Research (IBN), Austrian Academy of Sciences and of Centre for Biomedical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA report the study of “Tuning Curvature and Stability of Monoolein Bilayers by Designer Lipid-Like Peptide Surfactants” in the May 30th issue of the online, open-access journal PLoS ONE. Their finding...