disrupt in Biological News

UT Southwestern researchers disrupt biochemical system involved in cancer, degenerative disease

DALLAS Jan. 30, 2009 Screening a chemical library of 200,000 compounds, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have identified two new classes that can be used to study and possibly manipulate a cellular pathway involved in many types of cancer and degenerative diseases. "The identific...

Rats on islands disrupt ecosystems from land to sea, researchers find

SANTA CRUZ, CA--Seabird colonies on islands are highly vulnerable to introduced rats, which find the ground-nesting birds to be easy prey. But the ecological impacts of rats on islands extend far beyond seabird nesting colonies, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Californ...

Climate gas could disrupt food chain

Levels of a climate cooling gas will change as carbon dioxide increases, affecting food webs along the way, said Dr Michael Steinke at a Science Media Centre press briefing today. Microbes in the ocean produce the gas dimethyl sulphide, or DMS. It causes clouds to form above the sea, which refl...

Currents could disrupt ocean food chain

If increased precipitation and sea surface heating from global warming disrupts the Atlantic Conveyer current ?as some scientists predict ?the effect on the ocean food chain in the Atlantic and other oceans could be severe, according to a new study just published in Nature. In a worst case scenar...

Sustainable agriculture at the ESA Annual Meeting

...composing dead organic matter. Some current farming practices, however, may disrupt the soil ecosystem and decrease the effectiveness of the microbe community.... lower bacterial diversity. Kumar says that conventional tillage systems disrupt soil particles and decrease soil pore size, which can lead to decreased wat...

UCSF researchers identify new drug target for Kaposi's sarcoma

...mer, but the herpes virus protease dimer has consistently eluded efforts to disrupt it at its active site, the researchers said. The UCSF team set out to fi...m of the protease, which responded well to a chemical inhibitor. "If you disrupt the protein-protein interactions, you don't need the key to a specific lock...

Stress signals link pre-existing sickness with susceptibility to bacterial infection

... Mitochondrial diseases disrupt the power generating machinery within cells and increase a person's susceptibility to bacterial infection, particularly in the lungs or respiratory tr...

Sticky protein helps reinforce fragile muscle membranes

...e integrity of the muscle membranes. LCMV is a member of a group of viruses that can cause hemorrhagic diseases. The study suggests that these viruses disrupt the dystroglycan basal lamina interaction, rendering the cell membrane susceptible to rupture. "Considering how essential cell membranes are for li...

Systems biology recommended as a clinical approach to cancer

...A more complete picture of the system's dynamic characteristics can help contribute to the development of improved diagnostics and techniques that can disrupt the progression of the disease. They discuss three case studies related to diagnostics, therapy, and drug development in detail to demonstrate how a s...

Further gene mutations linked to autism risk

...viduals in families. "We focused on changes in the exons of DNAprotein-coding areas in which deletions or duplications are more likely to directly disrupt biological functions," said study leader Hakon Hakonarson. "We identified additional autism susceptibility genes, many of which belong to the neuronal...

The SIB recognizes the next generation of bioinformaticians

...elopment must proceed correctly for an animal to survive, changes in evolution are constrained according to their effects on development. Changes that disrupt development too dramatically are thus rare in evolution." While this has been long observed at the morphological level, it has been more difficult...

TRAPping proteins that work together inside living cells

...fields of research are dedicated to teasing out which proteins work together to make cells function. For example, drug researchers seek chemicals that disrupt or otherwise change how proteins interact to combat diseases; environmental scientists need to understand how proteins collaborate in ecosystems to ma...

Specific genetic cause of fetal alcohol-related developmental disorders found

...l behaviors. "In light of our current finding, we can begin testing specific dietary supplements that could reverse the epigenetic alterations that disrupt the regulation of Dio3," Sittig said. "When given to the mother or newborn, this might correct the imprinting deficits induced by alcohol." "This i...

Omega fatty acid balance can alter immunity and gene expression

...tio has spiked to as high as 10:1. Since these omega fatty acids can be converted into inflammatory molecules, this dietary change is believed to also disrupt the proper balance of pro- and anti- inflammatory agents, resulting in increased systemic inflammation and a higher incidence of problems including as...

Skip this cocktail party

...icals studied include pesticides like DDT, which has been shown to cause cancer and reproductive toxicity, and PCBs, which are neurotoxicants known to disrupt the thyroid hormone system. The study also quantifies concentrations of polybrominated diphenyl ethers or PBDEs (a particular class of flame retardant...

Tree survival skills

...d on trucks or trailers for shipment. At each stage of the transplanting process, trees are exposed to mechanical shock and vibration that can further disrupt the root system and cause considerable injury. As if these issues are not harmful enough, trees are not usually watered during transport. If they ar...

MIT: Jeremy Nathans to deliver Scolnick Prize lecture

... In more recent studies, Nathans and his colleagues discovered how genes control the normal development of the retina, and how defects in these genes disrupt the function and survival of retinal cells. These studies have revealed several defects that lead to human retinal diseases including Stargardt diseas...

Sugar on bacteria surface serves as base for a web of resistance

... of the Pseudomonas biofilm matrix, he said. It's too early to tell whether strategies to block Psl in these lab experiments would be a safe way to disrupt the polysaccharide's actions in the human body, Wozniak noted. Surfaces to which bacterial biofilms can attach are key to their success, meaning t...

Changing climate will lead to devastating loss of phosphorus from soil

...ause high phosphorus concentrations in surface waters can lead to harmful algal blooms which can be toxic, cause lack of oxygen during their decay and disrupt food webs. This can also affect the quality of water for drinking and result in the closure of recreational water sport facilities." Under laborato...

New insights into progressive hearing loss

...to be associated with an inherited disorder." In the mouse, the precise role of the mutation can be examined. Mutation of the miR-96 gene seemed to disrupt development of intricate sensory hair cells in the mutant mice. Mice with two copies of the mutant gene had malformed hair cells from birth and the c...

Tiny but toxic: MBL researchers discover a mechanism of neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease

... WOODS HOLE, MATiny, toxic protein particles severely disrupt neurotransmission and inhibit delivery of key proteins in Alzheimer's disease, two separate studies by Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) researchers ...

MIT: Why we have difficulty recognizing faces in photo negatives

...l lighting condition, a person's eyes appear darker than the forehead and cheeks. He theorized that photo negatives are hard to recognize because they disrupt these very strong regularities around the eyes. To test this idea, Sinha and his colleagues asked subjects to identify photographs of famous people...

Research yields potential target for cancer, wound healing and fibrosis

... the ability of integrins to control the abundance of fibrillar fibronectin is of therapeutic interest. These beta-1 tail mutations are thought to disrupt the ability of the beta-tail to interact with their recruited proteins. The team found a defect in assembling fibronectin fibrils for the majority of ...

Pitt researchers describe molecular '2-step' leading to protein clumps of Huntington's disease

..., on the neighboring segments of amino acid sequence flanking the polyglutamine. They found that longer polyglutamine sequences have the ability to disrupt the structure of a neighboring region, 17 amino acids long, at the beginning of the protein known as the N-terminus. That sets the stage for new physi...

Pulmonary hypertension in children may result from reduced activity of gene regulator

...ey Fineman, a whole-animal physiologist and physician at the University of California, San Francisco, want to understand the molecular mechanisms that disrupt regulatory mechanisms of the inner lining of blood vessels, or endothelium, and put children at increased risk. Dr. Black is principal investigator on...

Cutting-edge amfAR grants fight HIV/AIDS in the lab and on the phone

...ysical structure of the virus. If, as he suspects, PIP2 is critical for the assembly of HIV, researchers may be able to devise therapeutics that could disrupt the formation of new viruses. Lee Ratner, M.D., Ph.D. Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO $120,000 Target of Vpr/Vpx rest...

No longer a gray area: Our hair bleaches itself as we grow older

...mes that normally serve this function (MSR A and B). Further complicating matters, the high levels of hydrogen peroxide and low levels of MSR A and B, disrupt the formation of an enzyme (tyrosinase) that leads to the production of melanin in hair follicles. Melanin is the pigment responsible for hair color, ...

Global warming threatens Antarctic sea life

...ge is about to cause a major upheaval in the shallow marine waters of Antarctica. Predatory crabs are poised to return to warming Antarctic waters and disrupt the primeval marine communities. "Nowhere else than in these ecosystems do giant sea spiders and marine pillbugs share the ocean bottom with fish ...

Research model may one day 'inoculate' elderly against slip-related falls

...ity of Illinois at Chicago carried out the study. Will training transfer? The researchers used a moveable platform which could be operated to disrupt a person's balance. Previous studies had shown that people could quickly learn to maintain balance and avoid a fall with a short training period on th...

Cancer-causing gene discovery suggests new therapies

...cancer, and the new findings show that Myc can cause these abnormalities through control of protein production. The research suggests that Myc may disrupt a number of genes "downstream" of its damage to DNA, the scientists say. "We discovered a previously unrecognized link between alterations in prote...

Rice University study finds possible clues to epilepsy, autism

...f ailments that include neurofibromatosis, and that a mutation in a glutamate receptor gene common to both the fruit fly and humans has the ability to disrupt that regulatory mechanism. Howlett found the Drosophila's metabotropic glutamate receptor (DmGluRA) gene, when mutated, increased the excitability ...

Progression of retinal disease linked to cell starvation

...online in Nature Neuroscience Dec. 7 suggest the cones are starving to death. As rods disappear, the structure of the retina breaks down. This might disrupt the connections between the cones and their source of nutrients. "This is the first study linking cone death in Retinitis Pigmentosa to a metabolic...

Maintaining the brain's wiring in aging and disease

...ginal, surviving from childhood. In Alzheimer's disease, axons swell dramatically, ballooning to 10 or 20 times their normal diameter. These swellings disrupt transport but not, it seems, completely. Enough material gets through the swellings to keep more distant parts of the axon alive for at least several...

BioScience tip sheet, December 2008

...as well as humans. Antiandrogens, which include some pharmaceuticals as well as constituents of synthetic materials and fungicides, have been shown to disrupt sexual development in mammals and fish. Some of these chemicals too are widespread in the environment. Roach, Sex, and Gender-Bending Chemicals: T...

Light pollution offers new global measure of coral reef health

...ch is needed on light's direct effects, but lab studies show that light can disrupt coral reproduction, which is timed to moonlight. "Light at levels that w...isms rely on darkness to maximize their odds of survival. Light can also disrupt migration patterns of birds. In fact, Shell and Philips recently teamed up ...

Scientists present 'moving' theory behind bacterial decision-making

... of how important bacterial proteins make life-and-death decisions that allow them to function, a finding that could provide a new target for drugs to disrupt bacterial decision-making processes and related diseases. In a study published this month in the journal Structure , the NC State scientists show ...

Hairspray is linked to common genital birth defect, says study

...that hairspray and hypospadias may be linked because of chemicals in hairspray known as phthalates. Previous studies have proposed that phthalates may disrupt the hormonal systems in the body and affect reproductive development. It is thought that hypospadias affects around 1 in 250 boys in the UK and in...

11,000 alien species invade Europe

...may have a profound impact on the environment and society as they can act as vectors for new diseases, alter ecosystem processes, change biodiversity, disrupt cultural landscapes, reduce the value of land and water for human activities and cause other socio-economic consequences. Alien species are plants, an...

American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- Nov. 19, 2008

...utated DNA in genes that encodes an erroneous message that RNA picks up and passes along. As a result, cells produce faulty proteins. Those proteins disrupt cells' activity and cause symptoms of the disease. Rather, MMD is caused by wayward or "toxic" strands of RNA. The researchers describe discovery ...

Jupiter's shrinking red spot

...research at Purdue University has shown that anyone -- a flight attendant or a passenger, for instance -- merely walking down an airliner's aisle will disrupt this carefully designed flow pattern by creating a wake of eddies that can spread contaminants as far as 10 rows away. Moreover, lead scientist Micha...