Molecular motor shuttles key protein in response to light
...s with fruit flies, Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered how a key light-detecting molecule in the eye moves in response to changes in light intensity. Their finding adds to growing evidence that some creatures -- and probably people -- adapt to light not only by mechanically shrinking the pupil to physic...New genetic mechanism for evolution
...rom the Universitat Autnoma de Barcelona (UAB) has discovered that transposons, small DNA sequences that travel ...ible for this silencing of the genetic expression, discovered recently. The fact that this transposon is present only in the chromosomes with the inversion implie...Story tips from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, July 2004
...conventional film processing techniques. One newly discovered property, which will be reported in an upcoming issue of Applied Physics Letters, is that these oriented polymer nanostructures are very efficient at emitting single photons. This property could be useful in photonic quantum information processing ap...Genetic model for devastating form of paraplegia suggests new treatments
...erve communication in a living organism. They have discovered that spastin is highly enriched in nerve cells, especially in the synapses--the junctions between pairs of nerve cells and between nerve and muscle cells. Using advanced genetic engineering methods to manipulate gene dosage, their study showed that e...Cell study leap forward for tissue engineering, diseases
University of Toronto researchers have discovered a key mechanism in tissue formation that could have implications for tissue engineering, as well as for diseases such as spina bifida and cancer. U of T professor Rudolf Winklbauer and postdoctoral fellow Hiromasa Ninomiya, of the Department of Zoo...Carnegie Mellon neuroscientist develops tool to image brain function at the cellular level
...f neurons deprived of sensation. Specifically, she discovered that neurons in the sensory-stimulated area underwent changes that made them less likely to send a signal to surrounding neurons. "These changes are hypothesized to be part of a dynamic interplay between forces that maintain neural firing within an ...Cell death protein has surprising role in cell migration
...g fruit fly ovaries, Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered that a protein known to block cell death also has ...o make extra use of random genes, the Hopkins team discovered that a protein called "inhibitor of apoptosis-1" (or IAP) can restore the tightly choreographed cell...Oxygen sensing in worms may hold key to healthy blood pressure in humans
...fter Antoine Laurent Lavoisier and Joseph Priestly discovered oxygen, we're still finding out how organisms sens... organisms. A similar guanylate cyclase enzyme was discovered in Caenorhabditis elegans, the tiny primitive worm that has become a staple of biological investigat...'Anti-plume' found off Pacific Coast
...e most sensitive seismometers. The scientists also discovered that these quakes occurred daily, but every so often there would be a "swarm" of as many as a thousand quakes in a three-week period. "In the last 10 years, I've seen seven of these swarms," Dziak said. "The plate doesn't move in a continuous manner...Vollum scientists find new form of dopamine transmission
...ise, targeted manner than previously thought. They discovered that dopamine molecules are released as packages from stores, or vesicles, in branch-like extensions of neurons called dendrites. The dopamine travels to dopamine receptors on tiny terminals within milliseconds. Until now, scientists had only detecte...Scientists discover key step in the development of nerve cells controlling autonomic functions
...l Neurological Institute at McGill University have discovered a gene that is necessary for the correct developme...ersity School of Medicine for three years where he discovered novel proteins involved in the regulation of mammalian neural development. Dr. Stifani's research a...New research suggests previously unrecognized mechanism by which blood vessels are patterned
...of Health demonstrated the pathways that they have discovered are functional in diverse organisms, including fish. In the larger picture, the researchers suggest this work may be crucial in determining why blood vessels migrate to certain destinations in the body. The researchers engineered mice with an inacti...Secret behind hard exoskeletons, spreading wings revealed
A team of biologists has discovered the structure and genetic sequence of the hormone ... molt of an insect as it grows into adulthood, and discovered that it is also responsible for enabling developing insects to spread their wings. The research was ...LSU researcher discovers new bird
.... In 1996, while on another expedition in Peru, he discovered the Scarlet-banded Barbet, a small, colorful toucan-like bird. And besides, he says, it feels good to know that he was sane after all. ...UCSD biologists discover cell's defense mechanism against class of disease-causing bacterial toxins
...ts at the University of California, San Diego have discovered a new mechanism that allows cells to fight a class...zing fasciitis. Researchers in Aroian's laboratory discovered several years ago that the roundworm C. elegans and other nematodes can be killed or made seriously ...Molecular traffic cop directs cellular signals
...atically. These results demonstrate that the newly discovered inhibitor hSef is a signaling-dependent regulator of the Ras/ERK MAP kinase cascade that blocks MAP kinase influence on target genes by restricting where ERK activity is localized within the cell. The authors suggest that the next step will be to de...Genetic mutation found that is major contributor to type 1 diabetes
...llege of Georgia researchers have found. The newly discovered gene, SUMO-4, controls the activity of NFκB, a molecule that in turn controls the activity of cytokines, proteins that regulate the intensity and duration of the immune response, according to research that will be published in the August print i...Brain serotonin enzyme finding might explain psychiatric disorders
...(Tph2), is present in the brain, while the earlier discovered Tph1 is found primarily in peripheral nerves. The Duke team screened the brains of several mouse strains for the Tph2 gene. To their surprise, said Xiaodong Zhang, Ph.D., lead author of the study, they found not one version of the gene, but two. The ...Warren Pharmaceuticals publishes results of preclinical evaluation
...ted special interest recently because of its newly discovered role in protecting tissues from diverse injuries. The surprising discovery several years ago by Warren scientists that EPO crosses the blood brain barrier opened the way for development of protective compounds that can safely be administered by injec......PA-Penn State College of Medicine researchers have discovered the first molecular therapy to target cancer-causing components and thereby destroy a bona fide human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. "Our results suggest that targeting therapies to the RNA that encodes a specific pair of proteins in HPV may break a...