New drug lead fights bacteria that can be lethal by disrupting quorum sensing and biofilms
...en can mount an effective attack. The process gets switched on, he said, in response to the autoinducers that accumulate in bacterial cells as they begin reproducing. Once the cells "sense" that a quorum has been reached, they begin to communicate, a process that in turn "throws the switch" for manufacturi...Researchers achieve germline transmission of 'gene knockdown' in mice
... in specific tissues, and it can be designed to be switched on and off at any time during the development or adulthood of the animal. These and other features of the strategy, as well as combining it with drug discovery and other methods, should enable scientists to uncover a great deal of information about h...Expanding the genetic code--TSRI scientists synthesize 21-amino-acid bacterium
...red UAG. Furthermore, any codon in an mRNA that is switched to UAG will encode for the new amino acid in that place, giving Schultz and his colleagues a way to site-specifically incorporate novel amino acids into proteins. They just needed to add the novel amino acid to the culture and grow the cells. Using t...Acoustic technique could disinfect medical instruments without heat or harsh chemicals
... filled with foam that subsided when the power was switched off, Cunefare said. The cavitation was active for up to 60 seconds of the test period. Because acoustic disinfection could be carried out more quickly than existing heat and chemical techniques, Carter believes it could offer significant cost advant...Chest compression device outperforms manual CPR
...d around the chest, tightened and motorized. Once switched on, it contracts against the chest, stimulating blood flow. Researchers who tested the device on 20 pigs in cardiac arrest found that it restored blood flow four times better than manual compressions and returned the hearts to pre-arrest conditio...Another job discovered for a master metabolic off-switch
... In their initial experiment, using chemicals that switched on receptors, the scientists traced the movement of the PDE enzymes in cultured cells. They found that in such cells the enzymes did move from the cell's interior to its membrane. Also, further studies confirmed that the enzymes did, indeed, attach t...Chemical switch determines if healthy cells are killed by chemotherapy
... that when free triggers apoptosis. When Bcl-xL is switched off through deamidation, it releases the second protein, and apoptosis can proceed. The researchers also exposed a line of healthy, nondividing human fibroblasts and several lines of mouse fibroblasts to cisplatin. In some of the cells, the investiga...Sex-pheromone link to insect evolution
... glands of female borers. The gene can be suddenly switched on, changing the pheromone components that females use to attract males for mating. The entomologists have demonstrated that insects evolve chemical systems in leaps rather than in minute stages, as had been previously assumed. The researchers also ...Plant compound kills brain tumor cells
...rlier studies showed that the Hedgehog pathway was switched on when the function of one of the pathway's key g...to tumorigenesis, even when it is not specifically switched on by mutation." Although Beachy advocates immediate pre-clinical and clinical trials of cyclopamine...Protein transforms sedentary muscles into exercised muscles, researchers report
...otein in the mouse model, we found that the muscle switched from a type II muscle to a type I muscle. It visi... type I muscle. The presence of this protein alone switched the muscle type." The protein PGC-1Q, identified by a Harvard Medical School researcher, activates e......ed less than 25 per cent of rabbits. Now they have switched to the ZPC gene, with much better results. In two trials in May, New Scientist has learned, the latest transgenic myxoma virus sterilised 8 out of 11 female domestic rabbits, while a ninth carried only a single embryo- a success rate of over 70 per ...Low-carbohydrate, high-protein diets increase risk of kidney stones and may raise bone loss risk
...t phase. Levels were112 mEq per day when the group switched to a moderately carbohydrate-restricted diet. Chronic acid load suppresses the function of osteoblasts, bone-forming cells, and stimulates the function of osteoclasts, a cell associated with bone resorption. "This type of diet increases the propensit...Stanford researchers switch off cancer gene; trick cells to self desruct
...owth, the cells died. Mice that had their MYC gene switched off for 10 days survived four times longer than untreated mice with bone cancer. The cancer resurfaced in some of the treated mice, but went back into remission with another round of temporary MYC-disabling treatment. "You don't always need to shut t...Possible gene for form of mental retardation, brain development identified
...evelopment, two of her chromosomes broke, and then switched pieces. They suspected that this translocation resulted in a mutation in one of the genes on the broken X chromosome and that the mutation could have resulted in the patient's developmental disabilities. To test this hypothesis, they identified gene...Fluid forces within the body help invasive bacteria
...s you wonder how many more proteins exist that are switched mechanically that is a fascinating area for research." "We need to know how bacterial adhesion is altered by shear. FimH is the second adhesion protein, after fibronectin, for which we have established a structural mechanism for how nature uses me...Researchers identify genes associated with aging of the retina
...cell, only a portion of the genes are expressed or switched on. For example, a person's pancreas and retina have the same genes, but only the pancreas can turn on the genes that allow it to make insulin. Swaroop believes that the findings will help scientists understand whether age predisposes one to changes ...Research into rare disease leads to discovery of six new breast cancer-susceptibility genes
...d out the chain of events by which these genes are switched on. When a cell's DNA is damaged whether by exces...tner in DNA repair, BRCA2, are defective or aren't switched on properly, DNA damage can accumulate in cells, increasing their chances of malfunctioning and beco......rolled by whether a set of genes, called KNOX1, is switched on in the leaves, according to researchers led by ...ed KNOX1, is found in all plants. KNOX1 genes were switched on in the leaves of all plants with complex leaves, such as tomato, carrot, fennel, cycads and ferns...Penn State engineers boost hydrogen production from fermentation
...s were not recovered. However, the industry later switched to steam reformation of petroleum to produce these industrial solvents when oil was cheap. "Now, that oil has become more expensive, more efficient ways to generate hydrogen, for example the continuous fermentation processing method, may help us cros......archers saw no such progressive activity when they switched the animals to a random condition in which the cues were no longer related to the rewards. In this condition, the monkeys performed the task well regardless of cue brightness, but showed little activation of the anticipatory anterior cingulate circu...