Brain Protein "Rescues" Neurons From Atrophy
...heavily used. A central mystery, however, has been how such heavier use translates into stronger connecti...of chemical "language" that specifically regulates how different kinds of neurons develop. In their experiments, the scientists provided different neurotro...Bacterial Toxin Surprises Scientists
...ently, researchers have known little about how such membrane-piercing proteins work. ...tein College of Medicine are closing in on how one such protein operates. Their work may shed light not only on the deadly power of ...Duke Researchers Discover Central Role Of Nitric Oxide In Hemoglobin Action
...appearsto have solved the long-standing mystery of how blood carries oxygen tobody tissues and extracts w...der topromote oxygen transport. Hemoglobin detects how much NO has been removedfrom the bloodstream and compensates with SNO, the researchers believe.Still......orders and Parkinson's disease. It once againshows how our nation's commitment to research is needed to p...this apparent paradox, Jones and Wightman measured how long dopaminestays in the synapse after it is released. Their measurements showed thatin a normal mo...Enzyme's "Magic" May Hold Key to Anticancer and Antimicrobial Drugs
...hough it is difficult at the moment to see how these processes occur without everything getting ... Sciences (PNAS) , the researchers explain how the yeast enzyme unlinks two interlocked rings of double-stranded DNA. In humans, to...New Cancer Switch Discovered By Duke Medical Center Pharmacologists
...logy, the scientists reported new understanding of how cancer cells acquire the ability to avoid the natural death, called "apoptosis," that normal cells experience. Such capability allows cancer cells to survive chemotherapy treatments that would kill normal cells. Reporting the findings are assistant p...Key to Triplet Repeat Brain Diseases Open Door For New Way To Understand, Treat Genetic Diseases"
...'s disease, as well as discovering a new conceptof how mutant genes may produce disease. The scientists ...ber of genetic repeatsin these diseases determines how severe symptoms will be: More repeats producea protein that holds this "energy" enzyme more tightly,...Tumor Suppressor Gene Located In Liver Cancer Cells
... about liver tumor formation or having a handle on how one could detect these tumors when they're much smaller could have a significant impact on survival," he said. The protein receptor produced by M6P/IGF2r is an attractive target because it is present on the cell surface and in the plasma, Jirtle said...New 'Twist' In Proteins Offers Possible Route To Improved Antibiotics
...udy the effectsof those alterations, to understand how the natural enzyme works. Roderickis currently attempting to locate the active site by determining the X-raystructure of the enzyme with one of its bound substrates. In a first step toward developing antibiotics that would block the enzyme'sa...Second Breast Cancer Gene Located
...it makes it more important than ever that we learn how to counsel womenabout their options and how to develop clinics to provide support servicesfor the women who may carry breast cancer genes." ...Duke Geologists Explore Alternative Way To Measure Ice Age Sea Bottom Temperatures
... scientists with an unambiguous way to reconstruct how bottom sea water temperatures have changed during ...leagues from Duke and other institutions described how the fossilized remains of marine crustaceans called ostracods seem to provide more reliable measurem...Computer Program For Quicker, More Detailed Mapping
...eprint that contains all of the instructions about how tomake a human body, said Richard Myers, professor...trands into small pieces. Usingstatistics to count how often particular pairs of markers remain together,computers can measure the distances between them a...Duke Researchers Discover Candidate Susceptibility Gene For Autoimmune Disease
...matitis. "This research is a perfect example of how research in one area canoften lead to an understan...onse,Blackshear will continue studies to determine how TTP is involved in theinsulin response. "Right now we really don't have a good handle on what TTP...Heat-loving Microbe Repairs Its DNA With Light
...erials to decompose. So, Groganhas been looking at how this microbe managed to protect itself. "Since the precise structure of DNA is essential for life and reproduction, it would seem logical that the S. acidocaldarius cell should have particularly effective ways of repairing damageto its DNA," said ...Children Become Gorillas In VR Zoo
...s out, isactually a human student seeing firsthand how apes interact in the wild,through virtual reality. The experience is part of a unique educational program being testedby Zoo Atlanta and <AHREF="http://www.gatech.edu/">Georgia Institute of Technology . At apress conference May 15, researche...From Corn Rootworms To Art, Cornell's Reactor Is At The Core
...wing. And it's all totally non-invasive." Here is how it works: The TRIGA Mark II nuclear reactor at Ward Laboratory produces a beam of neutrons that is focused to a plate holding a sample. Behind the sample is film. The neutrons pass through the film (unlike X-rays, without activating the emulsion) ...Duke Researchers Find Second Gene Linked To Blood Vessel Disorder
...ng disorder -- a discovery that offers insightinto how blood vessels form and heal in response to injury....rare disorders, we are hoping to opena window into how the body's vascular system operates," Marchuk, assistantprofessor of genetics, said in an interview....New Discovery About Genes Has Implications For Genetic Therapy
... also believe the discovery provides a window into how some of the earliest organisms evolved several bil...o. "We were interested in the basic question of how these introns insert themselves into different genes," Lambowitz explained. "We wanted to know wher...Transgenic Rice Plants Resist Insects, Drought And Salt Damage
...e technologies. Now that molecular biologists know how to transfer the insect-resistance gene to rice, Wu predicted, it should work against any lepidopteran (or caterpillar type) insect that eats plants in the larval stage -- and that is about 70 percent of the known insect pests worldwide. Among crops ...Mutate Or Die: New Polymerase Gives Desperate Yeast An Option
...e of Science . The findings shed new light on how yeast and probably other organisms cope with damaged DNA, a constant,potentially dangerous problem for yeast and humans alike. Damaged DNA that is copied to other cells carries a muchgreater risk of causing cancer and other diseases than healthy DNA ...