New Cancer Switch Discovered By Duke Medical Center Pharmacologists
...produced a short protein segment, or peptide, that mimics GRB-2 but jams the cell-growth machinery. The peptide is now being distributed by SUGEN for testing on tumors taken from humans, he said. In the October Molecular and Cellular Biology paper, Cortez, Pendergast and graduate student Lisa Kadlec also re...Researchers Corral Millions Of Microscopic Membranes
...es composed of an artificial membrane that closely mimics the surface of living cells. According to the researchers, the ability to work with these independent membranes that are uniform in size and fixed in space makes many new experiments possible. "We started out looking for better ways to study cell mem...Molecular Imposter Rebuts Long
...kers created a ring-like molecule that veryclosely mimics the shape of the base thymine in DNA.This thymine ...enetic expression. Kool also plansto examine shape mimics for the other three DNAbases. Kool was joined in the research by postdoctoral researchersSean M...Study: Hydrogen Bonds Aren't Key To DNA Pairing After All
...orotoluene, a ring-like molecule that very closely mimics thymine's shape but can't form hydrogen bonds, DNA-copying machinery nearly always inserts thymine's normal partner, adenine, opposite the molecular impostor. When critics pointed out that adenine is the base mostcommonly inserted when any templ......viding immune protection." Noting that Vpr mimics the actions of a class of steroidal drugs calledglucocorticoids, the researchers hypothesized that Vpr might act through thesame molecular pathway -- binding to the same receptors -- as those drugs.Glucocorticoids are used as chemotherapeutic agents ...Regulator Of Fat Thermostat Found
...iddexamethasone or a placebo. Dexamethasone, which mimics the hormone cortisol, iscommonly used to treat arthritis and other inflammatory conditions. The researchers tested blood samples taken before, during and after a four-daytreatment period for concentrations of insulin and other hormones as well asle......orant uses a special chamber at ColoradoState that mimics conditions the animals would experience in the wild. Thechamber is dark and cold--about 5 degrees--and is equipped with red lights,which the animals cannot see. Currently, about 20 marmots and a dozen groundsquirrels are spending the winter in Floran...3-D Structure of Human Tumor-Suppressor Protein Produced
...ed the study. “If we can develop a drug that mimics p16, that would be a potentiallygood approach for the treatment of cancer, which is the ultimate goal ofwork like this. “Determining the structure of the protein is the first major stepin developing such a drug,” said Tsai, a professor of ...Change In HIV May Precipitate AIDS
...that an animal model of HIV infection that readily mimics human AIDSdoes not exist. Scientists also lack readily available laboratory techniquesfor closely mimicking, in vitro, HIV infection in the body (in vivo). The NICHD scientists have overcome this limitation by culturing andinfecting pieces o...Molecular Defect Could Be Mysterious Cause Of Blood Disorder
...s of malignant disease. "Polycythemia vera mimics other cancerous and non-cancerous blooddiseases," says Jerry L. Spivak, M.D., professor of medicine and oncology atHopkins and senior author of the research report. "We now have a diagnostictool that we hope will identify patients earlier, perhaps i...ASU Scientists Make Major Breakthrough With Photosynthetic Energy
...Paris, France, have built a cell-like machine that mimics biological photosynthesis. Reported in Nature magazine April 2, the system duplicates the capture of light energy and harnesses this energy for human manipulation. The scientists made their breakthrough by using a spinach enzyme. Nature reported th...Duke Researchers Genetically Engineer Mice To Block Heart Enlargement
...a primary step to heart failure. The decoy mimics a small portion of a protein called Gq, a molecularswitch that causes heart cells to grow in response to high blood pressure.Flooding cells with non-working versions of Gq prevents the reception ofmolecular signals that normally would produce enlarge...Inhibitor Shows Potential To Protect Infant Brain
... palsy, which affects 500,000 Americans. Holtzman mimics the condition by interrupting the blood supply to one side of a newborn rat's brain and briefly lowering the oxygen content of the air. This procedure kills neurons, which results in loss of brain tissue. Holtzman and colleagues showed, however, that...Clusters, Computers And The Human Brain
...g aspects of the new algorithm is the fact that it mimics unassisted learning. Unlike most automated "sorting" processes, in which a computer must be informed of the relevant categories in advance, Domany's algorithm is analogous to human intuition: it doesn't need to be told how the data is structured or h...Molecular "Fossils" Of Early Life
...ld decay naturally,although the protein the enzyme mimics acts much faster still. No naturally occurring DNA enzymes have been found to date, but such adiscovery would not surprise Breaker. The discovery nearly two decades ago ofnaturally occurring RNA enzymes, or ribozymes, earned Yale biochemist...Newly Recognized Cell-Surface Receptor Protects Heart Tissue Against Damage
...ring exposure to ischemia. "Consequently,adenosine mimics could be given as drugs to alter the effect of a heart attack,"suggests cardiac biologist Bruce T. Liang, MD, an associate professor ofmedicine at Penn. "Potential drugs would attach in a lock-and-key fashion to theadenosine receptor, triggering mole...Dismantling Dangerous Genetic Codes With A Faster, More Flexible RNA Mimic
... WashingtonUniversity, has created a molecule that mimics the behavior of a kind ofnaturally occurring RNA (...iotechnology companies now are planningto test the mimics in live cell cultures, moving Bashkin's concept closer toclinical trials. "Dramatic Control" "We'v......ebenefits of TTP might be developed as a drug that mimics TTP action or thatstimulates TTP production, or as gene therapy to increase TTP production in apatient. The Food and Drug Administration recently approved a Crohn's diseasedrug, infliximab, that neutralizes TNF through another mechanism -- bu...Bat Sonar Sharper Than Thought; Much Better Than Man-Made Gear
...nformation to construct acomputer model that mimics those neural responses and produces sonar images. The research is of particular importance to the Navy, which relies onboth man-made sonar and the sonar of trained dolphins to detect distant orobscure objects, particularly mines. "...SFU Molecular Biologist Pursues 'Promising' New Way To Fight Disease
...ls against AIDSinfection. "We envision our peptide mimics as one component of a vaccine thatelicits both antibody and cell-mediated immunity -- a vaccine giving us the bestof both worlds."...