EMBO Gold Medal 2004 goes to Spanish scientist
...ributions to the structure function of a viral DNA polymerase involved in the replication of DNA ends. Blasco's next move took her to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York City, where she investigated telomeres and telomerase. The scientist's research led to the landmark discovery of the mammalian telomera...Genetic differences might help distinguish thyroid cancers
...ting for the genetic differences can be done using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology, which is far more available and far less costly than microarray analysis. Other Ohio State researchers involved in the study were first author Micheala A. Aldred, Sandya Liyanarachchi, Natalia S. Pellegata, S...How an insidious mutation fools DNA replication
...the two strands unzip. A protein enzyme called DNA polymerase then works its way along one "template" strand add...uble-stranded DNA. In the replication process, the polymerase draws the DNA strand through a small "active site" -- somewhat like a spaghetti strand being drawn t...Scientists reinvent DNA as template to produce organic molecules
...s of these selections can then be copied using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The application of DNA-templated synthesis has enabled a collection of DNA strands to be transformed into a corresponding collection of sequence-programmed small macrocyclic molecules with potentially interesting chemical and b...Bad news for pathogenic bacteria: Scientists find protein essential for bacterial survival
...led ppGpp and an enzyme called RNA polymerase. RNA polymerase carries out transcription, the first step in gene ..."backdoor of gene expression," a cavity on the RNA polymerase molecule called the secondary channel. DksA squeezes through this narrow tunnel toward the site wher......ethod for DNA amplification that could replace the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), a technique that is invaluable for both medical diagnostics and basic research but which is confined to the laboratory. In the August issue of EMBO reports, Huimin Kong and colleagues at New England Biolabs (Beverly, MA, USA) de...UNC research accelerates discovery of novel gene function
...d in gene isolation and amplification, such as the polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, procedure. The method, designed by Kafri and gene therapy center researcher Hong Ma, enables scientists to rapidly screen cells for changes in a particular phenotype. They can easily isolate and identify the gene causing the c...Innovative efforts target epigenetics, molecular imaging
...cally, the Harvard center plans to further develop polymerase colony sequencing technologies for studying sequence variation in biological systems. In this highly parallel method of nucleic acid analysis, a sample of DNA is dispersed as many short fragments in a polyacrylamide gel affixed to a microscope slide....Molecule that 'blocks' key bacterial enzyme may lead to new antibiotics
...y blocks a "tunnel" into the bacterial enzyme, RNA polymerase (RNAP). The "tunnel" is used to bring raw materials for RNA synthesis into the enzyme and to expel byproducts of RNA synthesis. "Closing the crowded, two-way 'tunnel' starves RNAP, shuts it down and kills the bacteria," said Richard H. Ebri...Junk DNA yields new kind of gene
... new gene, one associated with both the active RNA polymerase and SER3 repression, Martens mutated it. "We no longer saw the RNA, and we found transcription of SER3 was de-repressed," he said. "That is when we thought, 'OK, we have got a new regulatory gene.'" After characterizing SRG1, which turned out to be 5...Pancreatic cancer blood test & gene studies show promise
... 89 samples were examined using quantitative rapid polymerase chain reaction RNA analysis. And, the same was true in blood samples from several dozen patients. More research is needed on the ability of CEACAM 1 serum tests to tell pancreatic cancer from pancreatitis, Simeone says, and a larger validation trial ...David Rosmarin wins 2004 Sarber Award from American Society for Microbiology
...ons in human tissue. Microbiologists often use the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay to amplify 16S ribosomal RNA genetic material to identify an organism. Rosmarin's innovation was to develop a new probe, the C-probe, to better detect these ribosomal genes after the PCR assay has been used. The C-probe has...Researchers describe long-perplexing 'magic spot' on bacteria
... of ppGpp and how it interacts with the enzyme RNA polymerase the main enzyme that controls gene expression in a cell the researchers were able to describe in detail the "magic" behind the magic spot, Artsimovitch said. "This study sheds a good deal of light on the inner workings of the molecular machinery th...A multi-institutional study may offer clues for the treatment of some autoimmune diseases
...atic assay and cellular dGTP was determined by DNA polymerase assay. Results Intravenous IV administration of 10, 26, 40, 60, or 90 mg/m 2 BCX-1777 to cancer patients results in a rapid elevation of plasma dGuo, going from ≤0.004 μM prior to dosing to 2.4—34 μM after dosing. In contras...USC awarded $3.5 million to study DNA enzyme
...r softwarehe's developed. When a cell divides, DNA polymerase copies the cell's DNA,using the sequence of DNA bases, the strong affinity betweenbases (A pairs with T; C with G), and, most importantly, theenzyme's exquisite catalytic selectivity, to add the correct base tothe growing strand. The enzyme adds the ...Gene-rich human Chromosome 19 sequence completed
...ors are proteins that need to be recognized by RNA polymerase in order to initiate the elaboration of nucleotides along the DNA molecule. Zinc finger proteins are chains of amino acids that capture a zinc ion and bind to RNA or DNA and play a critical role in a cells life cycle. These proteins regulate the expr...How DNA copying enzyme 'stops the presses' for repair synthesizing enzyme
... had conducted detailed structural analyses of DNA polymerase as it encountered each of the 12 possible kinds of...ible in DNA replication. In such replication, the polymerase sequentially attaches DNA units called bases along a single-stranded template DNA. The result is lik...RNA inner workings partly unveiled in Stanford study
...Along with more than a dozen helper molecules, RNA polymerase determines which proteins are produced within a ce...m the lab have shown that the machinery of the RNA polymerase system is in three layers. Kornberg's group published groundbreaking findings in 2001 outlining the ...New findings are a window into the late stages of 'Lou Gehrig's' disease
...-time, one-step quantitative reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (QRT-PCR) was performed multiple times on RNA isolated from whole spinal cord tissue. Results Highlights of the results include the following: a final set of informative discriminatory genes could be identified as the top 93 genes...Smallpox in 50-year-old tissues detected by integrated diagnostics approach
...ssays. These assays are based on a process called polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, that can be monitored in real time. Real-time PCR or TaqMan assays require just a fragment of genetic material that is amplified many times over to allow detection and identification of a biological agent. The technique is...