Face transplant woman has new graft

... last night. Surgeons carried out the delicate task using the latest microsurgery techniques last month. Isabelle’s lower face was ripped to shreds as her labrador Tania anxiously pawed at her to wake her after an overdose of tablets. But it will be six months before she gains full feeling an...

shreds in Biological News

Enzyme shreds Alzheimer's protein

An enzyme found naturally in the brain snips apart the protein that forms the sludge called amyloid plaque that is one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD), researchers have found. They said their findings in mice suggest that the protein, called Cathepsin B (CatB), is a key part of a prote...

A new cellular pathway linked to cancer is identified by NYU researchers

...yer in this pathway is the protein complex called APC/C, which is involved in multiple aspects of cell regulation through a trash disposal system that shreds proteins. In response to DNA damage, the cell targets Cdc14B, an enzyme that rips phosphate groups off of other proteins, to APC/C, an action which tu...

A common aquatic animal's genome can capture foreign DNA

... their habitats, readily reconstituting their genomes and their membranes. In the process of rebuilding their shattered DNA, though, they may adopt shreds of genetic material from other bdelloids in the same puddle, as well as from unrelated species. Meselson and co-authors Eugene A. Gladyshev and Ir...

New human retrovirus originated in mice

...iral-defense gene, RNASEL, had been mutated in a specific way. This mutation compromised the function of the enzyme produced by RNASEL, which normally shreds viral genetic material. Infected cells carrying the shredded viral genetic material are usually targeted for destruction by the immune system. While s...