A puzzle piece found in unraveling the wiring of the brain
The complexity of the brain and, more specifically, how nerve cells form billions of contacts when there are fewer than 30,000 human genes is still a scientific mystery. A team headed by Drs. Robin Hiesinger and Hugo J. Bellen at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston have unraveled a piece of that puzzle by finding a gene that plays a key role in brain wiring. A report on their work appear...Unraveling a stomach cancer puzzle
It started several years ago with the observation that a large group of seemingly unconnected genes were behaving differently in patients with stomach cancer. Now a multi-national research team led by the Melbourne Branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR) has joined the proverbial dots and identified a potential new target for stomach cancer therapy, according to a paper publishe...Unraveling the mysteries of poison
Researchers from the Max Planck Institite for Biophysical Chemistry and other German and French colleagues have combined magnetic resonance spectroscopy (solid-state NMR) with special protein synthesis procedures to uncover how potassium channels and toxins combine and change in structure. This work could make it possible to develop medications for high blood pressure and many other diseases conn...Unraveling the viral mechanism
Using powerful computer tools and cryo-electron microscopes, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine unmasked the secrets of a tiny virus that infects bacteria and, in doing so, opened the door to a better understanding of a variety of viruses that infect people and animals. In a report that appears in and on the cover of the current issue of the journal Nature, Dr. Wah Chiu, professor i...Unraveling where chimp and human brains diverge
Six million years ago, chimpanzees and humans diverged from a common ancestor and evolved into unique species. Now UCLA scientists have identified a new way to pinpoint the genes that separate us from our closest living relative ?and make us uniquely human. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports the study in its Nov. 13 online edition. "We share more than 95 percen...A Step Towards Unraveling The Schizophrenia And Depression Mystery
In what can be considered as an important breakthrough in our still limited understanding of major mental illness, researchers have identified a new gene linked to major mental illness // that links back to a previously discovered gene known to increase the risk of schizophrenia and depression. Scientists from the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, together with scientists from the...Unraveling the Secrets of MHC in Human Genome
Seattle scientists are planning to study the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) of the human genome. They have developed a new method for doing the same.// MHC is a large region, found on chromosome 6. It encodes more than 400 known genes, the HLA genes governs tissue type and participate in the immune system by protecting people from infection or by governing susceptibility to autoimmune dis...Personalized Genetics: Unraveling the Secret Code to Good Health.
A path breaking research by American scientists in the area of personalized genetics will soon enable people with the esoteric knowledge of their distinct biological make-up. //This will be possible by scanning and deciphering the genome, and list out an individual’s complete genetic composition. This is indeed a major achievement that can bring about significant improvements in the li...Mobile Phone Messages Assists in Unraveling Murder Mystery
It was a well-planned honeymoon murder, worked out to the last detail. But the mobile phone messages proved their undoing and helped// nail a new bride and her lover in the crime. The murder last Sunday of 30-year-old Anantharaman amid the idyllic locales of this tourist resort in Kerala's Idukki district had been scripted by his wife, 24-year-old Vidyalakshmi, and her lover, before th...Unraveling the Secrets of the Seabed of Andaman off the Thai coasts
Bangkok – The devastation of Tsunami 2004 is still fresh in the memory. There are a whole lot of lessons to be learnt, of which ‘preparedness in adequate measure’ is considered extremely crucial.// It is better to be safe than sorry, and Thailand has extended this sentiment in evolving suitable strategies against a potential Tsunami onslaught. In the following week, Thai and German sc...