destruction in Biological News

Researcher working on destruction of chemical weapons

COLLEGE STATION, Sept. 24, 2008 America's war on terror includes fighting the dark side of deadly chemical agents, and Texas A&M University chemist Dr. Frank Raushel is helping with the fight by developing an enzyme that might neutralize one such chemical agent, the organophosphates. Synthetic ...

Profound immune system discovery opens door to halting destruction of lupus

(New York, NY) A researcher funded by the Lupus Research Institute (LRI) has discovered an entirely new and powerful molecular switch that controls the inflammatory response of the immune system. The major finding, reported in the December 14th issue of the journal Cell, means that new methods can...

Natural product discovery by Cleveland medical researchers blocks tissue destruction

CLEVELAND Scientists at Case Western Reserve Universitys School of Medicine have published in the Journal of Inflammation a remarkable discovery with a natural product derived from the Amazon rainforest. The discoverys unique actions suggest a broad set of applications in various joint, skin and ...

A molecule impedes the destruction of the 'Brucella' bacteria

Research carried out with the participation of the University of Navarra has shown how a determinate molecule helps an important pathogen, Brucella abortus, escape destruction within the cells charged with eliminating infectious agents (macrophages). This research has been published in Nature Immun...

Ecological destruction fuels emerging diseases

The destruction of habitat by human activity and the extinction of species around the world is more than a looming environmental catastrophe, warns a Canadian zoologist. This ecological damage also endangers human health by turning parasites into "evolutionary land mines." Dr. Daniel (Dan) Brook...

Scientists open doors to diagnosis of emphysema

...rategy for testing the activity of MMP12, an enzyme known to be involved in the development of emphysema. Emphysema is characterised by the damage and destruction of the alveoli, the tiny air-sacs of the lungs that are crucial for respiration and uptake of oxygen from the air. Cigarette smoke and other irrita...

Genetic marker linked to problem behaviors in adults with developmental disabilities

...opmental/intellectual disabilities have problem behaviors. For this study, the researchers focused specifically on aggression, self-injury or property destruction and set out to determine if there was a genetic underpinning for these behaviors. They focused on the gene that encodes monoamine oxidize A or MAOA. M...

Life on Earth came from other planets

...ports published in prestigious scientific journals, Dr. Joseph concludes that innumerable microbes, and their DNA, survived the cataclysm that wrought destruction to the parent star which gave birth to our own. As only life can produce life, then life on Earth also came from life which may have originated on pla...

'Invisibility cloak' could protect against earthquakes

...urface waves which travel across it. The new technology controls the path of surface waves which are the most damaging and responsible for much of the destruction which follows earthquakes. The technology involves the use of concentric rings of plastic which could be fitted to the Earth's surface to divert s...

LSUHSC's Bazan awarded ARRA grant to preserve vision

.... Bazan's research project explores the mechanisms of inflammation and repair during corneal wound healing. Sustained corneal inflammation may lead to destruction and corneal ulceration, but inflammation is a component of the corneal wound healing process. There is a critical balance between signaling mechanisms...

New trigger for chronic inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis discovered

...uce tenascin-C had severe joint swelling with bone and cartilage destruction, but the mice that could not produce tenascin-C had no swelling or tissue destruction at all. In a subsequent study, the researchers injected the active part of the tenascin-C molecule into mice joints. They found it caused the joint...

Salt block unexpectedly stretches in Sandia experiments

...lt deformations also may lead to better understanding of sea salt aerosols, implicated in problems as broad as cloud nucleation, smog formation, ozone destruction and asthma triggers, the researchers write in their paper published in the May Nanoletters . The serendipitous discovery came about as researchers...

Coral face 'a stormy future'

...ures (SSTs), and hurricane winds are strengthened by warm surface waters." The high temperatures cause bleaching, while the storms inflict physical destruction on the corals as well as eroding the rocky platforms they need to grow on, or burying them in sand. "Maintaining coral reef populations in the face...

Scientists sequence genome of the N2-fixing, soil-living bacterium Azotobacter vinelandii

...amino acids that are the building blocks of proteins. For most bacteria, the nitrogenase enzymes involved in nitrogen fixation are very susceptible to destruction by oxygen. A. vinelandii is one of the few bacteria that can fix nitrogen in the presence of oxygen, using three distinct nitrogenase systems. ...

Tracking down the causes of multiple sclerosis

...une-system cells provide a kind of 'immediate response' to pathogens - they recognise the pathogens, activate the immune response and thus trigger the destruction of the harmful cells. In addition to T cells, the immune system also has B cells. These also react to the presence of a pathogen, are activated and st...

Climate change could drive vast human migrations

...ffects of climate are hard to sort from connected factors including political and economic conflicts, extreme weather events, population growth, human destruction of ecosystems and overuse of farmland. However, they say, climate change will eventually play a dominant role by exacerbating all of these problems, a...

U of Minnesota research reveals critical role of evolutionary processes in species coexistence

... "This basic understanding of the causes and consequences of community structure has never been more important." In the face of increasing habitat destruction around the world, these tools will prove critical to managing and restoring Earth's flora and fauna. ...

Double trouble for water life

...ication) to the extent that excessive production, including harmful algal blooms, contributes to the expansion of marine 'dead zones' and leads to the destruction of fisheries habitat. The negative consequences of eutrophication have been apparent in freshwater habitats for a long time and phosphorus has been...

Key protein regulating inflammation may prove relevant to controlling sepsis

...nzyme IκB kinase 2 (IKK2), which is known for causing inflammation through the activation of NFκB, is also responsible for "ordering" the destruction of the tumour suppressor protein p53. This discovery, published in the February 2009 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science...

Scientists urge world leaders to respond cooperatively to Pacific Ocean threats

...tement on the major threats facing the Pacific Ocean. The threats identified as the most serious and pervasive include overfishing, pollution, habitat destruction and climate change. "This is first time the scientific community has come together in a single voice to express urgency over the environmenta...

Admiral to discuss piracy on high seas at IEEE Homeland Security Conference

...of the nation's most-pressing national security problems. Accepted peer-reviewed papers will be presented in the following tracks: weapons of mass destruction detection; border & maritime; counter IED (improvised explosive device); disaster response; and critical infrastructure protection. Presenters come fr...

LSUHSC student awarded top national honor for diabetes research

...ancing pancreatic beta cell function. Beta cells are located in islet cell clusters throughout the pancreas. Diabetes mellitus type 1 results from the destruction or dysfunction of islets and their beta cells. Type 2 diabetes results from the body's inability to use insulin properly and a gradual decrease in the...

HIV dearms protective protein in cells

... the mechanisms of human cells that protect these against viral infections a special viral protein marks protective cellular proteins for their rapid destruction and thus diminishes the cell's supply. A team of researchers in Heidelberg under supervision of virologist Dr. Oliver Keppler demonstrated this mechan...

Alzheimer cell death in Zebrafish: Demise of neurons observed live for the first time

...ients can still not be defeated. Moreover, the death of neurons can only be truly confirmed after the death of the patient. Even in animal models, the destruction of nerve cells has only been observable to a very limited extent and with great difficulty. Professor Christian Haass and his two colleagues Dr. B...

SIRT1 takes down tumors

...nother anti-cancer effect of the "longevity" protein SIRT1. By speeding the destruction of the tumor promoter c-Myc, SIRT1 curbs cell division. The study will be p... of SIRT1 blocked tumor formation. How deacetylation of c-Myc sparks its destruction is still a mystery. The researchers say that the results don't necessarily ...

Smithsonian scientist warns that palm oil development may threaten Amazon

... Oil palm cultivation is a significant driver of tropical forest destruction across Southeast Asia. It could easily become a threat to the Amazon rainfo... absolutely critical that the transition be managed responsibly. Otherwise, destruction of the Amazon by industrial forces will continue apace." ...

Human adult testes cells can become embryonic-like

...umber of advantages over other strategies currently being explored, says Dym. The use of embryonic stem cells is controversial because it necessitates destruction of an embryo, and pushing fully mature cells, such as skin cells, back into a stem-like state requires use of cancer genes, and has therefore been vie...

Lancet study supports new, highly effective treatment for blood disorder

...ts equity ownership in GlaxoSmithKline. Immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) is an autoimmune disease in which anti-platelet antibodies accelerate destruction of platelets. ITP patients commonly have platelet counts of less than 30,000 per cubic millimeter, compared to normal platelet counts of between 150,0...

Metastatic bone disease patients can walk in Lazarus' footsteps

...re and spread. For the most part, the goal of treating bone tumors is not curative, but rather palliative by reducing pain, preventing additional bone destruction and improving function. ...

MIT student develops new innovations to selectively kill cancer cells

...atments that could precisely target and destroy tumor cells without affecting healthy tissue. Seeking to improve the specificity of cancer ablationthe destruction of tumors through the application of heatvon Maltzahn developed polymer-coated gold 'nano-antennas' that can target tumors and convert benign-infrared...

A worm-and-mouse tale: B cells deserve more respect

...r many years, scientists believed that the major job of B cells was to identify foreign invaders and tag them with antibodies, marking the microbe for destruction by the immune system. But scientists are discovering that B cells do much more, resulting in new information about our immune system that could be use...

QSGI Integrates Fujitsu Mag EraSURE Data Degausser into its Suite of Information Technology Security Services

... disposal is a valuable component to QSGI's comprehensive IT security services because many organizations do not have policies in place for the proper destruction of information and simply store thousands of old drives. By incorporating the Fujitsu Mag EraSURE degausser into our data eradication services, we can...

Abandon hope

...e have been hammered by the ceaseless thunder of messages predicting imminent environmental cataclysm: global climate change, air and water pollution, destruction of wildlife habitat, holes in the ozone. The response of environmentalistsfrom Al Gore to Jane Goodallto this persistent message of hopelessness has f...

When acute hepatitis develops into chronic hepatitis

...wn an immune reaction and cut off the effector T cells. They counteract any destruction of the tissue. The international team of research scientists examined h...an. The immune system's constant struggle against the virus leads to a slow destruction of the liver tissue. The researchers checked their observations with gene a...

Rise or fall of reef fish driven by both economy and ecology

... human welfare have been made," he said. The bottom line, he says: "While there are certainly some real challenges facing reefs, the path to their destruction is not inevitable. They can be sustained with the right combination of approaches, which includes promoting strategies such as fishery closures while ...

Molecule that suppresses immune response under study in type 1 diabetes

...eaving young patients unable to use glucose, a major fuel source for the body. MCG researchers think they may be able to delay or even prevent that destruction by boosting the body's levels of an enzyme fetuses uses to escape the mother's immune response or by packaging islet cell antigens, which get the immu...

DNA component can stimulate and suppress the immune response

...at IDO is a counter-regulatory mechanism that serves as a balance to prevent too much inflammation," Mr. Johnson says. "Too much inflammation leads to destruction of normal body tissue, and this shows IDO's importance in preventing this from occurring." The researchers already knew that IDO protects tumors fr...

Common soil mineral degrades the nearly indestructible prion

...ans. In addition to being perhaps the weirdest infectious agent know to science, the prion is also the most durable. It resists almost every method of destruction from fire and ionizing radiation to chemical disinfectants and autoclaving, which reduce prion infectivity but fail to completely eliminate it. Now, ...

How do cells count?

...stigious journals Current Biology and Science , in 2005 and 2007. Now, the group has discovered the player in the next level up: Slimb mediates the destruction of SAK, and in so doing, ultimately controls the number of centrosomes in a cell. Monica explains, 'We carried out these studies in the fruit fly,...

Lost in translation

...their further surprise, the ribosome lets go of error-laden proteins 10,000 times faster than it would normally release error-free proteins, a rate of destruction that Green says is "shocking" and reveals just how much of a stickler the ribosome is about high-fidelity protein synthesis. "These are not subtle ...