become in Biological News

Protein identified as critical to insulating the body's wiring could also become treatment target

AUGUSTA, Ga. - A new protein identified as critical to insulating the wiring that connects the brain and body could one day be a treatment target for divergent diseases, from rare ones that lower the pain threshold to cancer, Medical College of Georgia researchers say. They report this week in ...

ACLU -- Myriad Genetics lawsuit will become landmark case

New Rochelle, NY, May 14, 2009The American Civil Liberties Union action in filing a lawsuit yesterday against Myriad Genetics is going to lead to one of the most important legal battles in the history of biotechnology, asserts Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN). ( www.genengnews.com ...

Two innovative University of Texas at Austin biologists become HHMI Early Career Scientists

AUSTIN, Texas Two University of Texas at Austin biologists join 50 of the nation's best early career science faculty to focus on their boldest and potentially transformative research ideas with support from a new initiative from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). As Early Career Scien...

Human adult testes cells can become embryonic-like

WASHINGTON, D.C. Using what they say is a relatively simple method, scientists at Georgetown University Medical Center have extracted stem/progenitor cells from testes and have converted them back into pluripotent embryonic-like stem cells. Researchers say that the nave cells are now potentially ...

Lombardi research: Monoclonal antibodies primed to become potent immune weapons against cancer

Washington, DC - New research suggests that monoclonal antibody therapy of cancer can be improved to be much more powerful than it is today, says a researcher at Georgetown University Medical Center's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in the March 21 issue of the Lancet . "We believe that a...

A sticky business -- how cancer cells become more 'gloopy' as they die

The viscosity, or 'gloopiness', of different parts of cancer cells increases dramatically when they are blasted with light-activated cancer drugs, according to new images that provide fundamental insights into how cancer cells die, published in Nature Chemistry today (15 March). The images...

Old flies can become young moms

Female flies can turn back the biological clock and extend their lifespan at the same time, University of Southern California biologists report. Their study, published online this month in Molecular Genetics and Genomics , casts doubt on the old notion of a tradeoff between reproduction and lo...

Pitt research finds that low concentrations of pesticides can become toxic mixture

PITTSBURGH Ten of the world's most popular pesticides can decimate amphibian populations when mixed together even if the concentration of the individual chemicals are within limits considered safe, according to University of Pittsburgh research published Nov. 11 in the online edition of Oecologia...

Life on the edge: To disperse, or become extinct?

(Kingston, ON) The hardiest plants and those most likely to survive the climatic shifts brought about by global warming are now easier to identify, thanks to new research findings by a team from Queen's University. "Predicting the speed at which plants are likely to migrate during climate warm...

Refusal of suicide order: Why tumor cells become resistant

Cells with irreparable DNA damage normally induce programmed cell death, or apoptosis. However, this mechanism often fails in tumor cells so that transformed cells are able to multiply and spread throughout the body. Scientists at the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentru...

A protein sequence associated with Huntington’s disease may become life-saving vaccine component

On June 10, 2008 the scientific journal " Vaccine " published a paper by the Massachusetts based biotech company Cure Lab, Inc., demonstrating that a protein sequence important in neurodegenerative Huntington's disease can be safely used as a new generation of vaccine adjuvants. The major comp...

Computation to unravel how genes are regulated and shed light on how cells become different

A closer alliance between computational and experimental researchers is needed to make progress towards one of biologys most challenging goals, understanding how epigenetic marks contribute to regulation of gene expression. This emerged from a recent workshop organised by the European Science Foun...

Making sure the wonder materials don't become the wonder pollutant

Carbon nanotubes are 10,000 times thinner than a human hair, yet stronger than steel and more durable than diamonds. They conduct heat and electricity with efficiency that rivals copper wires and silicon chips, with possible uses in everything from concrete and clothes to bicycle parts and electro...

First 'rule' of evolution suggests that life is destined to become more complex

Scientists have revealed what may well be the first pervasive rule of evolution. In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences researchers have found evidence which suggests that evolution drives animals to become increasingly more complex. Looking back throug...

Computers explain why pears may become brown during commercial storage

Internal browning of pears stored under low oxygen conditions is related to restricted gas exchange inside the fruit, according to a study published March 7th in the open-access journal PLoS Computational Biology. Researchers at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium suggest a computer mode...

Could 'hairy roots' become biofactories?

HOUSTON, Oct. 30, 2007 -- Rice University bioengineers have reported an advance in tapping the immense potential of "hairy roots" as natural factories to produce medicines, food flavorings and other commercial products. The study is available online and slated to appear in the November/December...

Mandate for public access to NIH-funded research poised to become law

Washington, D.C. October 24, 2007 - The U.S. Senate last night approved the FY2008 Labor, HHS, and Education Appropriations Bill (S.1710), including a provision that directs the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to strengthen its Public Access Policy by requiring rather than requesting particip...

Farmed salmon could become an invasive species in forest streams

Ever since the Norwegians expanded commercial farming of salmon in the 1960s, the industry has continued to rapidly grow worldwide. It has expanded to such a degree that prices for farmed salmon have plummeted and, there is concern that farmed fish may become the next invasive species. "Farmed f...

Scientists discover stage at which an embryonic cell is fated to become a stem cell

Cambridge scientists have discovered the stage at which some of the cells of a fertilised mammalian egg are fated to develop into stem cells and why this occurs. The findings of the study, which overturn the long-held belief that cells are the same until the fourth cleavage (division) of the embry...

Will the plague pathogen become resistant to antibiotics?

A small piece of DNA that helps bacteria commonly found in US meat and poultry resist several antibiotics has also been found in the plague bacillus Yersinia pestis, gene sequence researchers report. The ability to resist many of the antibiotics used against plague has been found so far in only...

An AIDS-related virus tricks cells to become tumors, new Penn study finds

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered how the Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) subverts a normal cell process in order to promote tumor growth. The finding, published in the most recent issue of PLoS Pathogens, offers new potential strategies...

Bone marrow cells can become functional gut lining cells

Researchers report the discovery that cells used in bone marrow transplantation can develop into new cells lining the gut, according to a study by Yale School of Medicine in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study showed that bone marrow derived cells can differentiate into...

Genes affecting blood pressure change as children become adults

As children transform into adults some of the genes involved in controlling their blood pressure change as well, according to a study of more than 500 pairs of twins. The study of black and white identical and fraternal twins showed that changes in gene expression between ages 14 and 18 accounted...

Paleontologists learn how not to become a fossil

The best way to avoid becoming a fossil is to be small and live in deep, tropical waters. So say four paleontologists who have published a detailed, global study of clam preservation. Their work is intended to enhance evolutionary studies by determining what's missing from the fossil record and why...

Measuring artery repair cells could become new heart disease test

A more accurate method for measuring blood levels of specialized cells that circulate in the bloodstream and repair damage to the arterial lining has been discovered by Duke University Medical Center cardiologists. These cells, known as endothelial progenitor cells (EPC), are produced in the bone m...

How the brain learns to become addicted

Researchers have identified a key signaling molecule in the brain that appears to trigger the brain to "learn" a craving for cocaine. Their finding could offer an important target for drugs to treat addiction by short-circuiting that adaptive process. In an article in the February 16, 2006, issue...

OHSU discovery sheds light into how stem cells become brain cells

Researchers at the Oregon National Primate Research Center at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) have discovered one key gene that appears to control how stem cells become various kinds of brain cells. The finding has significant implications for the study of Parkinson's disease, brain a...

Model identifies genes that induce normal skin cells to become abnormal

Northwestern University researchers have developed a novel, three-dimensional model that allows scientists to observe how interacting with the microenvironment of metastatic melanoma cells induces normal skin cells to become similar to aggressive cancer cells that migrate and spread throughout the ...

Study: Well-known protein helps stem cells become secretory cells

Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered that a single protein regulates secretion levels in the fruit fly's salivary gland and its skin-like outer layer. Described in the May 15 issue of Development, the finding improves understanding of how cells become specialized for secretion, which is a c...

Making Sure Sacred Sheep Don't Become Extinct

Animal geneticist Harvey D. Blackburn is responsible for collecting and storing thousands of samples of animal germplasm -- mainly semen and embryos -- to make sure there's enough genetic material to reintroduce a species if necessary. Much of his collection deals with important livestock such as H...

South America's vast pantanal wetland may become next everglades, UNU experts warn

South America's giant Pantanal wetlands, one of the world's most bio-diverse ecosystems, is at growing risk from intensive peripheral agricultural, industrial and urban development ?problems expected to be compounded by climate change, United Nations University experts warn. Covering more than 16...

Tiny scaffolding allows stem cells to become working fat cells

Researchers here have used a new microscopic, three-dimensional scaffolding to coax mouse stem cells to transform themselves into fat cells, and then to function identical to how fat cells naturally do in the body. While other studies have previously grown fat cells, or adipocytes, in the laborat...

Navigating in the ocean of molecules

... This release is available in German . Tracking down new active agents for cancer or malaria treatment could soon become easier - thanks to a computer program with which researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology in Dortmund aim to facilitate the s...

AGU journal highlights -- Aug. 6, 2009

...ith two sills separated by 1.5 kilometers (0.93 miles), a separation typical in fjords. The model shows that, in the case of two sills, internal waves become trapped between the two sills, leading to standing wave generation as well as increased mixing as energy is transferred from larger waves to shorter w...

Wastewater produces electricity and desalinates water

...liter. Another problem with the current cell is that as protons are produced at one electrode and consumed at the other electrode, these chambers become more acidic and alkaline. Mixing water from the two chambers together when they are discharged would once again produce neutral, salty water, so the a...

Moving to the US increases cancer risk for Hispanics

...tients more on their background and family history to identify any problematic behaviors that could contribute to health problems." Patients should become better informed of some of the positive aspects of their original lifestyles and should be strongly discouraged from adopting unfavorable lifestyles t...

Pitt researchers find promising candidate protein for cancer prevention vaccines

...gery, mumps or mastitis, have a much lower risk for ovarian cancer," Dr. Finn said. "Cyclin B1 and MUC1 are part of a big family of self-proteins that become over-produced during cancer development, so they have great potential as targets in prevention vaccines." ...

Holding breath for several minutes elevates marker for brain damage

...Some divers routinely dive to depths of 90 feet on a single breath while others dive in the 15-30 foot range. More recently, breath-hold diving has become a competitive sport. Competitive events include how long divers can remain underwater, how far they can swim underwater and how deep they can dive. Pa...

La Jolla Institute discovers novel tumor suppressor

...of constant activation, causing the development of abnormal myeloid cells," said Dr. Kawakami. The abnormal cells, which are essentially tumor cells, become overactive and produce too many blood cells leading to myeloproliferative disease, he explained. The researchers also tested the finding by introd...

Protecting cells from their neighbors

...sed egg. In the first hours after fertilisation, the fate of its future development is determined. It is dictated by the separation of cells that will become sperm and ovules - germ cells-, from the remaining cells, which will be responsible for forming the body organs and tissues -, and that comprise the s...