'Exercise pill' switches on gene that tells cells to burn fat
By giving ordinary adult mice a drug - a synthetic designed to mimic fat - Salk Institute scientist Dr. Ronald M. Evans is now able to chemically switch on PPAR-d, the master regulator that controls the ability of cells to burn fat. Even when the mice are not active, turning on the chemical switch activates the same fat-burning process that occurs during exercise. The resulting shift in energy b...Switching to new anti-bacterial targets: Riboswitches
The recently emerged field of bacterial riboswitches may be a good hunting ground for effective targets against bacterial infection, according to a report by Yale researchers in the journal Chemistry and Biology. Rona...Nano machine switches between biological and silicon worlds
"Frankly, some researchers didn't think what we were attempting was possible," says Dr Keith Firman, at Portsmouth University and Mol-Switch project coordinator, funded under the European Commission's Future and Emerging Technologies initiative. "However, we got our molecular switch to work." The upshot is that the Mol-Switch project was far more successful than expected. The team's switch...Flick of a protein switches immune response
A single protein can turn on and off a key component of the immune system by changing partners in an elegant genomic dance, said researchers at the University of Southern California and Harvard Medical School. Because autoimmune diseases ?such as arthritis, allergies and dozens of other illnesses ?begin when the body's defenses respond at the wrong time or place, the on-off mechanism for...Light-sensitive photoswitches could restore sight to those with macular degeneration
A research center newly created by the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) aims to put light-sensitive switches in the body's cells that can be flipped on and off as easily as a remote control operates a TV. Optical switches like these could trigger a chemical reaction, initiate a muscle contraction, activate a drug or stimulate a nerve cell...Unusual Tumor-Suppressor Gene Switches Off in Lung Cancer
Researchers at Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, have found a tumor suppressor gene that could be of vital significance in the development of head and neck cancers as well as lung cancer. //Their study shows that activating this particular gene could slow up the development of the aforementioned ca...Nanotechnology at its best: Nanomotors And Mechanical Nanoswitches
Physics has been coupled and nanotechnology is spreading its wings to medicine and pharmaceuticals.// Julius Springer Prize for Applied Physics for 2006 will be awarded to Dr. Viola Vogel for her creative and pioneering work on bionanotechnology exploring single molecule mechanics and nanomotors for technical applications. Engineering principles of biological nanosystems f...Breast Cancer Treatment Switches to more Modern Therapy
Post Menopausal women with early breast cancer who have been receiving the 30-year-old tamoxifen treatment can now change to a more modern therapy with the drug, Arimidex// under a new European licence granted to drug firm AstraZeneca. The company AstraZeneca has stated that Arimidex, an aromatase inhibitor, will be made available to women who have already received a partial course of t...Master Switches Found for Adult Blood Stem Cells
Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center scientists have found a set of "master switches" that keep adult blood-forming stem cells in their primitive state//. Unlocking the switches' code may one day enable scientists to grow new blood cells for transplant into patients with cancer and other bone marrow disorders. The scientists located the control switches not at the gene level, but farther...Research Studies on Molecular Switches of Gene
A single molecular on switch triggers gene activity that cause effects ranging from learning and memory capabilities to glucose production in the liver was discovered by scientists of St.Jude Childrens Research hospital . The on switch, a protein called CREB, is a transcription factora molecule that binds to a section of DNA near a gene and triggers that gene to make the specific p...