Scientists take aim at virulent bacteria by decoding machinery of key control enzyme
By deciphering the ingenious mechanism used by a particular enzyme to modify bacterial chromosome chemistry, scientists have come a step closer to designing a new kind of drug that could stop virulent bacterial infections in their tracks. Their research will be published in the May 6 issue of the journal Cell. Scientists have known for many years that an enzyme called Dam (DNA adenine meth...Gambling monkeys give insight into neural machinery of risk
Duke University Medical Center neurobiologists have pinpointed circuitry in the brains of monkeys that assesses the level of risk in a given action. Their findings -- gained from experiments in which they gave the monkeys a chance to gamble to receive juice rewards -- could give insights into why humans compulsively engage in risky behaviors, including gambling, unsafe sex, drug use and overeatin...Clearing jams in copy machinery
Bacteria and humans use a number of tools to direct perhaps the most important function in cells -- the accurate copying of DNA during cell division. New research published this week in Molecular Cell from the laboratory of Rockefeller University's Michael O'Donnell, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, now shows that one of these proteins, the beta sliding clamp, serves as a toolbelt...Machinery of the 'marijuana munchies'
Marijuana--or more specifically its active ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol--has a well-documented tendency to stimulate hunger. And while scientists have traced this property to cannabinoid receptors in the brain, they have had little understanding of the neural circuitry underlying this effect. Understanding this circuitry has important practical implications because blocking the cannabi...New insight into machinery of immune cells' 'tentacles'
Researchers have identified new molecular components of the machinery that regulates formation of the tentacle-like filaments by which immune system T cells grasp other cells. This embrace by such filaments is critical for the T cell to establish communication with cells called "antigen presenting cells" (APCs). Such communication enables the T cell to program itself to target invading microbes f...Wisconsin Manufacturing and the Machinery for Change
Wisconsin got a much-needed boost from a recent , in which I discussed some of the economic reasons for a Wisconsin...Protein acts as "Master Switch" that cuts off cells' Cancer-Growth machinery
A Washington University research team headed by Shrikant Anant, PhD, is mighty excited about their new discovery that was reported in the journal, Molecular Cell. They have found a "master switch" - a protein named CUBGP2(cytidine-uridine-guanosine binding protein) - that makes cancer cells self-destruct. The findings that were published// apply only to cancer cells grown in a test tube. Human st...