Prion disease may be caused by buildup of cellular trash, say Stanford researchers
...lls share a common trait: large clumps of proteins seemingly begging in vain for destruction. Prion diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob, scrapie (a fatal disease affecting the central nervous system of sheep and goats), or bovine spongiform encephalopathy are also associated with accumulation of a specific prot...Biologist unlocks secrets of winter survival
...rations the bustling landscape that lies under the seemingly quiet Maine woods he has studied since his boyhood. "He richly deserves comparisons to Thoreau," says the Washington Post of Heinrich, whose first book, "Bumblebee Economics," was nominated for a National Book Award. "Winter World: The Ingenuity of ...Research finds life 1000 feet beneath ocean floor
...t, in research that once more expands the realm of seemingly hostile or remote environments in which living organisms can apparently thrive. The research was done off the coast of Oregon near a sea-floor spreading center on the Juan de Fuca Ridge, by scientists from Oregon State University and several other i...Scientists find fully differentiated blood cells remain able to switch identity
...int edition in March 2003. "This work reveals that seemingly committed cells have more plasticity than we had thought," said senior author Andrei Thomas-Tikhonenko, assistant professor of pathobiology at Penn. "It appears there is at least a small window where terminally differentiated cells vacillate on whic...Algorithm predicts interactions between proteins whose structures are unsolved
...erhaps there are millions of these interactions, a seemingly intractable problem. But, he said, the process is greatly accelerated if you have a computational method that helps pinpoint the sites on the interacting proteins that will help scientists discover their role in biochemical pathways. "That's what o...When it comes to sperm competition, size can matterits the female who holds the aces
...here the rubber meets the road for speciation. The seemingly esoteric whimsy of female choosiness for longer sperm may have surprisingly important consequences for biodiversity."...Genetic variant protects people against malaria
...h higher risk for severe malaria. While malaria is seemingly a remote possibility in the heartland of America, the disease was once prevalent in the parts of the U.S. It was virtually eliminated by the 1940s through better mosquito control and improved living conditions, yet the disease periodically emerges in...Ancient defense mechanism may still be protecting us
...his work shows once again that basic research on a seemingly obscure topic--how a minute pond organism reproduces--can throw light on important medical issues such as viral infection." Martin Gorovsky, Rush Rhees Professor of Biology at the University of Rochester, and his post doctoral colleague Kazufumi Moch...Leading cancer research organization urges FDA to speed approval of drugs for precancers
...also worried about the risks of giving medicine to seemingly healthy people including those with precancers. However, this attitude clearly has changed with the treatment of other life-threatening conditions such as cardiovascular disease," Dr. Foti added. For example, strong evidence links the presence of co...Wrong proteins targeted in battle against cancer?
..., drug developers continue to largely ignore these seemingly universal molecules of cancer because, unlike other cancer-causing proteins called protein kinases, transcription factors do not posses "active sites" or pockets that can be easily fitted with small inhibitory drugs. Instead, drugs designed against ...Scientists discover genetic defect responsible for microcephaly
...ldren's other organs, such as the heart and liver, seemingly are not affected, even though they rely on energy production from mitochondria at a metabolic rate similar to the brain during development. MCPHA is inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern, which means that it is necessary for a baby to inherit ...After massive experiment, results favor wildlife corridors
...duction or recolonization.Finding support for this seemingly simple theory, however, is more difficult than might appear, said Doug Levey, a UF professor of zoology and one of the study's authors. Previous studies have shown that wild areas connected by corridors have more wildlife or greater biodiversity tha...Newer design of close-up computer monitors increases ease of use
... on a typical computer monitor. The seemingly greater distance makes for easier viewing, Sheedy said. But the image size in a near-eye display is about the size of an average computer screen. "Traditional displays are constrained by th...Researchers develop mouse model of Rett syndrome
...amilies with affected children because infants are seemingly normal at birth and achieve the usual developmental milestones for the first few months of life. Then, as the infant reaches toddlerhood, a sudden and dramatic decline in physical and mental capabilities takes hold, accompanied by onset of seizures, ...Rare childhood bone disorder linked to gene deletion in two Navajo patients
St. Louis, July 18, 2002 -- Two seemingly unrelated Native American children have one painfu...ition where bone formation and breakdown is rapid, seemingly similar to osteoporosis. The results were surprising. Neither patient had any trace of the gene for...Bacterial quorum-sensing structure solved
...d fact, Winans cautions. The presence of a second, seemingly redundant apparatus for quorum sensing in Pseudomonas bacteria "makes us wonder if something else also is going on," Winans says. Whatever the mechanism, it appears to be a vital pathway in a single, free-floating bacterium's attempt to collaborat...Ramoplanin beats antibiotic resistance by fighting the battle on its own terms
...ll, evolution has come up with clever solutions to seemingly intractable problems in the past. That is why McCafferty and his colleagues are exploring the mechanism of action and chemical synthesis of ramoplanin. Understanding how the antibiotic binds to peptidoglycan would allow us to build even better anti...Black raspberries a potentially powerful agent in fight against colon cancer
... One reason for the raspberries' seemingly stellar health advantage may be their richness in compounds such as anthocyanins, which give berries their almost-black pigment; phenols, such as ellagic, coumaric and ferulic acid; calcium;...Setting the stage for limb development
...genes are responsible for the development of these seemingly divergent structures. The Dll/Dlx gene family was originally identified in the Drosophila fruit fly, where it is required for proximal-distal axis formation in the legs and antennae. Members of the Dll/Dlx gene family encode transcription factors: DN...Common microbes survive pressures equal to those found at 50 kilometers inside the Earths crust
...d organisms they call extremophiles could exist in seemingly intolerable environments such as high-pressure, high-temperature oceanic hydrothermal vents or in the ice sheets of Antarctica. A study published in the February 22, 2002, issue of Science, however, shows that even common bacteria are viable under hi...