act in Biological News

Obama administration announces more than $327 million in Recovery Act funding for science research

Washington, D.C. U.S Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced today that more than $327 million in new funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will go toward scientific research, instrumentation, and laboratory infrastructure projects. Ten of DOE's national laboratories...

Enzyme doesn't act alone in atrial fibrillation

HOUSTON (June 17, 2009) An overactive enzyme is behind a leaky calcium channel that plays a role in the development of atrial fibrillation, which is the most common cardiac arrhythmia that is responsible for a third of all strokes. However, it doesn't act alone, say researchers at Baylor College...

Disappearing act of world's second largest fish explained

Researchers have discovered where basking sharks the world's second largest fish hide out for half of every year, according to a report published online on May 7th in Current Biology , a Cell Press publication. The discovery revises scientists' understanding of the iconic species and highlights...

Study finds blood cells can be reprogrammed to act as embryonic stem cells

(WASHINGTON, April 20, 2009) - In a recent study, U.S. researchers have reprogrammed cells found in circulating blood into cells that are molecularly and functionally indistinguishable from embryonic stem cells, a revolutionary achievement that provides a readily accessible source of stem cells an...

From the backyard to the ocean: New study shows streams act as key nitrogen filters

KNOXVILLE -- As spring arrives across the country, tourists returning to beaches will face the reality of "red tide" -- harmful blooms of algae that make water unfit for swimming and pose risks to humans and sea life. What they may not realize is that the small streams running through their nei...

Chemist Brings SAFETY Act Expertise to Homeland Security Firm

Dr. McWhorter Joins Olive, Edwards & Cooper with Technical, Products Liability Background WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Olive, Edwards & Cooper announced the addition of Dr. David McWhorter as a principal who will provide clients with strategic plans as t...

Scientists from the UGR prove that rivers do not act as barriers for groundwater flow

This release is also available in Spanish . The research team from the Geodynamics Department at the University of Granada and the Spanish Institute of Geology and Mining (which is part of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science ) has studied the hydrogeology of the karst a...

Ecological Society of America criticizes administration's overhaul of the Endangered Species Act

The Ecological Society of America today criticized the Bush administration's Aug. 15 proposal to reinterpret the Endangered Species Act, which would impose regulatory changes eliminating the requirement for federal projects to undergo independent scientific review. The proposal would allow federal...

Researchers catch ion channels in their opening act

Each thought or action sends a million electrical signals pulsing through your body. At the heart of the process of generating these electrical impulses is the ion channel. A new study by researchers from the University of Illinois measures movements smaller than one-billionth of a meter in ion...

Examining the Lacey Act

Andrea Fowler, David Lodge, and Jennifer Hsia (University of Notre Dame) examined the efficacy of the Lacey Act in their research communication, Failure of the Lacey Act to protect US ecosystems against animal invasions. The study appears in the September issue of Frontiers in Ecology and the Env...

Stem cells act through multiple mechanisms to benefit mice with neurodegenerative disease

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) hold great promise for benefiting degenerative diseases, and do so by invoking multiple mechanisms. Such cells can be grown in a manner compatible with clinical use (i.e., without animal feeder layers) and even without the need for immunosuppression. These were a ...

Small molecule dervived from Rb2/p130 could act as cancer therapeutic

A small molecule derived from the spacer domain of the tumor-suppressor gene Rb2/p130 has demonstrated the ability to inhibit tumor growth in vivo and could be developed into an anti-cancer therapeutic, according to researchers at Temple University's Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecul...

Living with water scarcity -- world must act now

Only if we act to improve water use in agriculture now will we meet the acute water-environment-poverty challenges facing humankind over the next 50 years. "With earth's water, land and human resources it is possible to produce enough food for the future ?but it is probable that today's food produ...

New neurons could act to alleviate epilepsy

The new neurons generated as a result of neural damage due to epilepsy show a reduced excitability that could alleviate the disorder, researchers have found. The researchers said their results suggest that therapies for epilepsy aimed at inducing neurogenesis could prove effective in alleviating th...

UCLA study finds same genes act differently in males and females

UCLA researchers report that thousands of genes behave differently in the same organs of males and females ?something never detected to this degree. Published in the August issue of Genome Research, the study sheds light on why the same disease often strikes males and females differently, and why ...

Research into how prions act in the brain could hold the key to defeating diseases

Scientists at the University of Southampton are continuing their pioneering research into diseases such as Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease (CJD) and related conditions caused by tiny particles known as prions, thanks to a £300,000 grant from the Medical Research Council. So far, there have been 148 dea...

Compounds in plastic packaging act as environmental estrogens altering breast genes

Compounds found in plastic products used to wrap or contain food and beverages have aroused concerns as possible cancer-causing agents because they can sometimes leach out of the plastic and migrate into the food, especially after heating or when the plastic is old or scratched. In two studies fund...

Controversial drug shown to act on brain protein to cut alcohol use

Medication against nicotine addiction is nowadays readily available. However, a similar and equally dangerous addiction, alcoholism, can't yet be controlled by drugs. Or can it be? Researchers from the University of California in San Diego identified a natural compound able to block alcohol addict...

NIH stimulus funding supports Emory biomedical scientists

...ents. Emory has received half of all the NIH ARRA grants awarded to Georgia academic institutions thus far. The American Recovery and Reinvestment act of 2009 (ARRA), passed by Congress in February, opened up funding opportunities for new projects as well as supplemental funding for projects that alr...

Protein handlers should be effective treatment target for cancer and Alzheimer's

... as well as pancreatic and prostate cancer. They also want to know whether ramping up the activity of molecular chaperone can essentially make them act young again and halt development of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative diseases. "We have to find the balance," Dr. Mivechi says ...

ComCam Selected by ePortation on New Maritime Domain Awareness Project

...tegral to our seaport security solution." The two companies have teamed to assist additional Ports under the American Recovery and Reinvestment act of 2009 stimulus specifically targeting the $150m Port Security Grant Program (PSGP) http://www.fema.gov/government/grant/psgp/index.shtm ePor...

Neuropathic pain: The sea provides a new hope of relief

...mpounds also significantly reversed hyperalgesic behaviour in the experimental rats. "To provide better quality of life, we need new drugs that can act rapidly and have specific functions with low side effects. Moreover, we need better management for chronic pain conditions," says Dr Wen. "Today t...

Recovery act-funded research projects aid communities across the country

... In the five months since passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment act of 2009 (ARRA), thousands of research-related awards have been made, supporting important scientific efforts across the country. ARRA delivered the l...

UCSF researchers identify new drug target for Kaposi's sarcoma

...e entire viral family." To their knowledge, the researchers said, this is the first small-molecule inhibitor of a herpes virus protease to not only act outside the active site, but also to select for the partially unfolded protein to keep it from forming the dimer interface. Herpes viruses make up ...

Jet-propelled imaging for an ultrafast light source

...fold themselves into an amazing variety of origami-like structures, whose bumps and crannies and distribution of electrical charges determine how they act individually or fit together to form complex molecular machines. Simple organisms like viruses often consist of a few proteins fitted together to encl...

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

... From this, Testa and Xu were able to gain a broader understanding of how cancers involving AKT2, DLX5 and MYC might develop. A mutation in AKT2 may act as a "first hit" that makes the inversion on mouse chromosome 6, which contains the DLX5 gene, more likely. When the inversion happens, the cell begin...

After dinosaurs, mammals rise but their genomes get smaller

...ynch said. "Another possibility is that natural selection was just stronger, but we doubt it. For that to be the case, natural selection would have to act in the same way on several lineages around the globe simultaneously." ...

Grant supports LSUHSC research on how like cell receptor systems determine very different functions

...ding' molecules that assemble the pathway around growth factor receptors." The supplement was funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment act and will be used to help retain key personnel needed to identify and characterize ERK phosphorylation targets proteins to which phosphate groups can ...

Parasitic worms make sex worthwhile

..., and are just a few meters away." The Current Biology report also supports the "Geographic Mosaic Theory," which says natural selection need not act uniformly on all members of a species, but can be intense in pockets of a population (hot spots) and absent elsewhere (cold spots). "Asexual female...

Carnegie Mellon team makes sequestration recommendations

...ion. Specific recommendations include: Amend the Safe Drinking Water act to direct Underground Injection Control (UIC) program regulators to create ...ursuant to a valid UIC permit. Modify the Federal Land Policy Management act to specifically authorize the use of federal lands for geologic sequestrati...

Stunting plants' skyward reach could lead to improved yields

...boratory at MSU, Montgomery in July landed a four-year, $765,249 National Science Foundation grant funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment act of 2009 to study that process. "We've developed a unique approach that's allowing us to ask questions people haven't been able to ask," Montgomery ...

Researchers design first model motor nerve system that's insulated and organized like the human body

...deficiency in model research systems. James Hickman, a bioengineer at UCF and the lead researcher on this project explained: "The nodes of Ranvier act like power station relays along the myelin sheath. They chemically boost signals, allowing them to get across breaks in myelin, or from node to node, ...

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

...warded a $15 million grant funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment act (ARRA). These Recovery act dollars will help to create new jobs in Miami-Dade County through the const...

UCLA researchers discover new molecular pathway for targeting cancer, disease

...t, noted the importance of the UCLA study and its significance for the next stages of research finding a pharmaceutical drug or substance molecule to act as an agonist, which would stimulate LXR activity to inhibit aberrant Hh signaling. "The hedgehog Hh signaling pathway is an important regulato...

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

...ntology was the development of terms that describe the functions of gene products that are made by one organism, for example the microbe, but actually act in a different organism, namely the host." The first review in the Trends in Microbiology publication describes how the PAMGO Consortium has deve...

Study explains potential failure of oral contraceptives with obese women

...include people with a high body mass index," Cherala said. "But body weight and amounts of fat can seriously change the pharmacokinetics, or way drugs act and are processed in the body. There's a growing awareness that we need to more carefully consider obesity and other factors that affect drug absorpti...

Hush little baby... Linking genes, brain and behavior in children

... soothable and exhibited more attention problems compared to the other children. These findings indicate that the long version of the DRD4 gene may act as a moderator of children's temperament. The authors note that the "results suggest that it is possible that the DRD4 long allele plays different rol...

M2SYS Technology to Offer Desktop Biometric Technology to Kronos Customers

...ty. Bio-SnapON(TM) runs on a PC and authenticates employees with a USB biometric reader. Requiring a biometric scan eliminates "buddy punching", the act of one employee punching in for another, which can translate into substantial savings for employers. "The M2SYS offering complements the Kronos 4...

French Authorities Give Sole Approval to GMAT Exam to Collect Biometric Data to Advance Security

...ortance of the high priority we place on vigilant security." In 2005, GMAC notified the CNIL of other security measures under the Data Protection act to protect the GMAT exam against fraud, including audio-visual recording in the test room and photos of candidates. However, France and some other co...

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

...e disorders in the most rational and empirical manner. Neuropsychopharmacological research provides data that are required to develop drugs, which act on specific receptors within a neurotransmitter system. The pharmacological progress achieved in recent decades is mainly due to the development of re...