Sugar-coated sea urchin eggs could have sweet implications for human fertility
For many years scientists have believed they understood how closely related species that occupy the same regions of the ocean were kept from interbreeding. It turns out they were only seeing part of the picture.... ... New research from the University of Washington's Friday Harbor Laboratories shows that common assumptions about sea urchin reproduction don't hold true for all species of the inver...Sweet success in targeting sugar molecules to cells in living animals
Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have successfully targeted unnatural sugar molecules with chemically unique functional groups onto the surfaces of cells in living animals without altering the animals' physiology.... ...The achievement is a significant advance in the promising new field of metabolic engineering because it provides a new tool with which researchers can label specific ce...Researchers in UGA Vet School discover a mechanism that blocks replication of a retrovirus
A team of scientists led by University of Georgia researchers has discovered a naturally occurring mechanism that blocks a critical step late in retrovirus replication. In the long term, the results could lead to the design of new therapeutic strategies or drugs against retroviruses, which cause diseases such as AIDS and certain leukemias.... ...Studying a transmissible lung cancer of sheep, the...UGA named recipient of $5.6 million grant from NSF for corn improvement
Corn is by far the most important cereal grain grown in the United States, and a project at the University of Georgia that could one day lead to the development of artificial corn chromosomes has just been awarded a five-year grant by the National Science Foundation for $5.6 million. ... ...Artificial chromosomes could provide breakthroughs in corn production. For instance, genes protecting crops...UGA faculty of engineering researchers awarded $1 million NSF grant to develop nanoscale biosensors
The National Science Foundation has awarded $1 million to a team of University of Georgia researchers to study and develop 3-D nanoscale structures to address problems in biosensing. The increasing demand and interest in developing implantable glucose sensors for treating diabetes has led to notable progress in this area and the team plans to refine key issues of long-term calibration and other...Measuring blood sugar with a wave of the arm
People with diabetes could soon be waving goodbye to the pain and hassle of needles, thanks to a new under-skin sensor that monitors blood sugar levels with a simple wave of the arm....... , a peer-reviewed journal of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society, also shows promise for monitoring environmental toxins and terro...UGA professor Jeffrey Bennetzen named to National Academy of Sciences
Jeffrey L. Bennetzen, the Norman and Doris Giles/Georgia Research Alliance professor of molecular genetics at the University of Georgia, has been elected to membership in the prestigious National Academy of Sciences. Results of the election were made public this morning at the annual meeting of the National Academy in Washington, D.C.... ......Election to the National Academy represents the summi...Chicken litter harbors agents that generate antibiotic multi-resistance, according to UGA study
Scientists may need to reexamine assumptions about the ...spread of antibiotic-resistant genes, according to a new study by ...researchers at the University of Georgia. They found that poultry litter ... a ubiquitous part of large broiler operations harbors a vastly ...larger number of microbial agents that collect and express resistance ...genes than was previously known.... ...The study, pub...New study of land use effects on amphibian populations gets underway at UGA laboratory
ATHENS, Ga. Researchers at the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (SREL), the University of Missouri, the University of Maine and the State University of New YorkCollege of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF) have received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to investigate amphibian population dynamics in relation to forest alteration and fragmenta...Simple sugars make cell walls like steel
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Simple sugars apparently are the biological signals needed to maintain the steel-like strength of plant cell walls, according to Purdue University scientists.... ..."This is a really fundamental discovery in the mechanics of plant growth that eventually could have several practical applications," said Nick Carpita, a botany and plant pathology professor. "These could inclu...Candy canes, sugarplums or licorice for Christmas? Only one might stop cancer
NEW BRUNSWICK/PISCATAWAY, N.J. A novel molecule extracted from licorice root has the ability to stop some cancers dead in their tracks, according to a collaborative research study conducted at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. ...... Mohamed Rafi, assistant professor in the department of food science at Rutgers' Cook College, discovered the new molecule, -hydroxy-DHP (BHP), in common d...UGA researchers track greenhouse gases in forests
Monique Leclerc and Anandakumar Karipot don't just discuss global warming. They help measure the gases responsible for it. Specifically, they're building the tools to measure the flow of greenhouse gases. This month, they're starting a three-year study in Southeastern forest canopies with a $603,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.... ...Leclerc is a professor and Karipot an assistant r...Sugar coupled to protein causes kidneys to save water
Several new mechanisms that are important for the production and transport of water channels to the cell surface of kidneys have been identified by a Dutch researcher. The water channels ensure that water in the body is reused. If these fail to work properly, you urinate too much and dehydrate. The research was a collaborative project between the University Medical Centre Utrecht and the Universi...UGA scientist to study effect of air quality on unborn babies
A pregnant woman walks down the street of a large city. She doesn't know it, but the air she's breathing could be hurting her unborn baby. ...From recent studies in many countries, scientists suspect a relationship between exposure to air pollution and health problems like preterm births, low birth weights, poor fetal development and mortality, said Luke Naeher, an environmental epidemiologist wi...UGA researchers use transgenic trees to help clean up toxic waste site
Can genetically engineered cottonwood trees clean up a site contaminated with toxic mercury? A team of researchers from the University of Georgia - in the first such field test ever done with trees - is about to find out....... ...The results could make clearer the future of phytoremediation - a technique of using trees, grasses and other plants to remove hazardous materials from the soil. UGA sc...UGA receives $6.7 M grant that will add knowledge in fights against cancer, Parkinson's disease
The National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), a component of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded a five-year grant of $6.7 million to a team headed by scientists at the University of Georgia for research that could eventually help in the treatment of certain kinds of cancer and Parkinson's Disease....... The grant is cosponsored by the National Cancer Institute and thereby counts...UGA research team reveals molecular key to cell division
Anyone who made it to high school biology has learned about mitosis, or cell division. One cell divides into two, two into four and so forth in a process designed to pass on exact copies of the DNA in chromosomes to daughter cells. New research, by a University of Georgia team, shows how the genes that control this process are regulated....... The study is important for cancer research because...UGA scientists test less lethal means to determine contaminant uptake
When scientists need to determine how much of a contaminant in an environment actually remains in the animals that live there, traditionally they have had to sacrifice test animals to collect tissue for contaminant level testing. According to a paper just published in Environmental Science & Technology, scientists at the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (SREL) have used...UGA scientists discover gene that maintains genome integrity by limiting DNA replication
A team of cell biologists at the University of Georgia, led by Dr. Edward Kipreos, has discovered a gene that maintains genome stability by controlling the level of DNA replication.... ...The discovery, while still at the level of basic science, could have important implications in future studies of the genome instability present in cancer cells, and in particular, the gene- amplification "events...UGA researcher receives patent for remediation technologies
An Austrian patent for an invention that combines two remediation technologies - phytoextraction (a form of phytoremediation) and in-situ immobilization (a form of chemical sequestration) of heavy metals and radionuclides - has been awarded to Domy Adriano of the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (SREL); Judith Unterkoefler, formerly of SREL; and Walter Wenzel of the Unive...Mutated protein combination tied to excessive sugar production
BOSTONResearchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have traced runaway sugar production in the liver an important feature of diabetes to flaws in a two-protein combination at the heart of a molecular switch that responds to insulin.... ...The findings, to be posted by the journal Nature on its Web site on May 18, suggest that drugs designed to block the interaction of the two switch proteins mig...Groundbreaking research shows sugar to trigger growth
CLEMSON Science, a leading international research journal, reports today that a team of scientists, including Clemson University plant biochemist Brandon Moore, has found sugars not only serve as fuel for plants but also as signal compounds to genes critical to cell development and plant growth. ......The research is considered to be groundbreaking, providing insights into the fundamental import...High sugar blood levels linked to poor memory
An inability to quickly bring down high levels of sugar in the blood is associated with poor memory and may help explain some of the memory loss that occurs as we age, according to a new study by NYU School of Medicine researchers. The study raises the possibility that exercise and weight loss, which help control blood sugar levels, may be able to reverse some of the memory loss that accompanies...MIT sugars research affecting bypass patients, drug industry
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--A young MIT professor's basic research on complex sugars has led to a cascade of potential medical applications that could, for example, significantly improve outcomes for patients undergoing major operations such as heart bypass surgery and impact a multi-billion dollar drug industry. ...... In the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences for the w...UGA researcher comments on her team's discovery of the first 'jumping genes' in rice
University of Georgia researchers studying rice genomes, under a National Science Foundation Plant Genome award, have identified the species' first active DNA transposons or "jumping genes."... ...Dr. Susan Wessler, who headed the research team that published the findings in the journal Nature, made the following statements regarding the discovery: ... ..."This is of particular interest at this...New UGA study demonstrates bacterial pathogens use hydrogen as energy source in animals
A new study, just published in the journal Science, shows for the first time that some bacteria that cause diseases in humans use molecular hydrogen as an energy source. The research could point the way toward new treatment regimens for everything from ulcers and chronic gastritis to stomach cancer....... Microbiologists at the University of Georgia worked specifically in mice with the gastric ba...Tailor-made sugar coated proteins manufactured in novel E. coli system
The prospect of using bacteria to manufacture complex human proteins for use in therapeutic drugs is a step closer thanks to new research published today in Science. ......Researchers from Switzerland and the UK report they have engineered the bacterium Escherichia coli to carry a vital piece of cell machinery that adds sugar molecules to newly synthesized proteins by a process known as glycosyla...Sugar gene helps rice tolerate drought, salt, cold
.........ITHACA, N.Y. -- A new strategy to genetically engineer rice and other crops to make them more tolerant of drought, salt and temperature stresses, while improving their yields, is being reported by molecular biologists at Cornell University.... In releasing their research, the biologists emphasize that the technique, which involves adding genes to synthesize a naturally occurring sugar ca...UGA student questions why snakes cross roadways
ATHENS, Ga. -- Kimberly Andrews is no ordinary student. When challenged by University of Georgia ecology professor Whit Gibbons to come up with a research project that would add to the scientific literature on herpetology (the study of reptiles and amphibians), she came up with a twist on the old riddle: "Why do snakes cross the road?"... ...Gibbons -- a noted herpetologist who's also a senior r...Sugar-based therapies could prevent damage from kidney failure
Targeting sugars that occur naturally in the body could protect the kidneys or other organs from damage associated with disease or injury, according to a Johns Hopkins study.... ...The mouse study, published in the Sept. 1 issue of The Journal of Immunology, indicates that knocking out the normal function of certain enzymes can protect the kidney from damage and inflammation following blood flow...Genetic diversity necessary for optimal ecosystem functioning, according to UGA research
Though it has long been known by scientists that an ecosystem needs different kinds of plants and animals for optimal functioning, University of Georgia scientists have recently found that the genetic diversity of species within a habitat also affects ecosystem processes.... ..."It is not just the quantity of species diversity that matters, it is also the quality of genetic diversity," said lead...U.S. takes first step toward protecting endangered beluga sturgeon
(July 31, 2002) Conservation organizations today applauded the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's proposal to list beluga sturgeon the source of coveted beluga caviar as an endangered species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. If beluga sturgeon is listed as endangered, all importation of beluga caviar into the U.S. would be prohibited. The United States is the world's largest beluga caviar...Common bacteria kills elkhorn coral off Florida keys, says UGA research team
Populations of the shallow-water Caribbean elkhorn coral, Acropora palmata, are being decimated by white pox disease. Losses of living elkhorn coral in the Florida Keys typically average 85 percent. A team of scientific investigators, led by researchers from the University of Georgia, has identified the common fecal enteric bacteria, Serratia marcescens, as the cause of white pox. ......The sourc...Rushing fireball developed its own form of sugar digestion
Microbiologists from Wageningen have discovered a strange form of digestion in an exotic microorganism. The rushing fireball, Latin name Pyrococcus furiosus, has reinvented the wheel for several steps of sugar digestion.... ...Pyrococcus furiosus, which was discovered 15 years ago on an Italian volcanic island, digests sugar somewhat differently from humans, animals, plants and bacteria. All orga...New report documents dramatic decline in beluga sturgeon in the Caspian Sea
......(January 23, 2002) Citing a report released this week that documents the perilous state of beluga sturgeon in the Caspian Sea, three conservation organizations through the Caviar Emptor campaign reiterated their call for an immediate and sustained halt in international trade of caviar from the endangered beluga sturgeon. ......The survey released by the Caspian Environment Programme (CEP...Finding of key blood sugar controller could yield new diabetes drugs
BOSTONDana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers have discovered the long-sought molecular "switch" that regulates the livers production of glucose, the sugar that fuels the brain but which builds up dangerously in the bloodstream of diabetics because this switch doesnt turn off. The researchers say it may be possible to design new drug treatments for diabetes as a result of the work. ... The fin...UGA researcher unlocks links between complex carbohydrates and spread of cancer
Research at the University of Georgia may lead to a revolutionary breed of treatments aimed at preventing the spread of cancer. Michael Pierce, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, has discovered an enzyme that could help unravel the mystery of how cancer spreads in the human body. If he and his team of researchers can find an inhibitor of this enzyme that works in the body, they...Campaign to protect critically endangered beluga sturgeon
. Campaign to protect critically endangered beluga sturgeon and other. threatened sturgeon species announced by leading environmental groups . . . . WASHINGTON (December 6, 2000) Caviar, long a symbol of luxury, is emerging instead. as a sign of environmental mismanagement as Caspian Sea sturgeon populations -- source. of much of the world's caviar -- plummet.. . In response to the t...Study: too much sugar, not enough milk may damage U.S. teens' health
. CHAPEL HILL -- Between 1965 and 1996, a considerable shift occurred in the diets of U.S. teen-agers that could compromise the future health of the nation's people, a major new University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study shows. On the horizon, researchers say, are more strokes, heart disease, high blood pressure and cases of the bone-weakening condition known as osteoporosis.. Total milk...American Ginseng reduces blood sugar: implications for diabetes and herbal research
. . . . Researchers at St. Michael's Hospital and the University of Toronto have found that taking American ginseng before a meal reduces blood sugar in people both with and without diabetes. The study appears in the April 9 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, a publication of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). . . Dr. Vladimir Vuksan, lead investig...