Ability to capture large prey may be origin of army ants' cooperative behavior
...These teeth may serve to help Cheliomyrmex workers attach themselves to their prey's skin during attack O'Donnell, who was bitten and stung when he collected Cheliomyrmex specimens, said the ants' stings were particularly painful and itchy, comparable to the stings of fire ants. He and his colleagues belie...Bare metal stents deliver gene therapy to heart vessels with less inflammation in animal studies
...f Philadelphia have developed a novel technique to attach therapeutic genes to a stent's bare metal surface. This technique allows the genes to help heal the surrounding blood vessels, while avoiding the inflammation caused by polymer coatings. The research team reported their proof-of-principle study, usi...Bacterial protein mimics host to cripple defenses
...in ligase, an enzyme plant and animal cells use to attach the small protein ubiquitin to unneeded or defective proteins. Other enzymes then chew up and "recycle" the ubiquitin-tagged proteins. To confirm that AvrPtoB was a molecular mimic, Martin and Abramovitch altered parts of the protein that correspond...Tumor cells that border normal tissue are told to leave
...mor cells were shown to lose surface proteins that attach them to other cells and stabilize their position within tissues. The study demonstrated that it was the difference in Src activity that led to the change in the attachment proteins. When a high Src cell (tumor cell) was next to a low Src cell (normal...Berkeley scientists get first detailed look at Dicer
...double-stranded form of RNA into segments that can attach themselves to genes and block their activity. "With this crystal structure, we've learned that Dicer serves as a molecular ruler, with a clamp at one end and a cleaver at the other end a set distance away, that produces RNA fragments of an ideal siz...Absence of critical protein linked to infertility
...say, an embryo cannot survive in uterine tissue or attach to a mother's blood supply. Other genes also play roles, but C/EBPb is critical for implantation of an embryo, said Milan K. Bagchi, a professor of molecular and integrative physiology. C/EBPb is scientifically known as CCAAT/Enhancer Binding Protein...NJIT engineer poised to take stem cell research a step forward
...ffolds. Scaffolds are biomaterials that stem cells attach to and, with a bit of luck, grow into the cellular building material of tissue. Under a microscope, the nano-scaffolds look like infinitesimally small (400-500 nanometers in diameter) fiber meshes, said Arinzeh. "We are eager to see," said Arinzeh, "...Patterns in genome organization may partially explain how microbial cells work
...articular way inside the cell. New techniques that attach fluorescent "reporter" markers to predetermined spots on chromosomes have indicated that many bacterial genes tend to be found at specific cellular locations. Patterns are not obvious in the sequences of prokaryotic genomes, which led the team led by...Vaccine provides 100 percent protection against avian flu virus in animal study
...e of all influenza viruses, HA allows the virus to attach to the cell that is being infected and is, therefore, critical to the influenza virus' ability to cause illness and death. Since the late 1990s, a number of outbreaks of the avian influenza H5N1 in poultry have occurred in Cambodia, China, Indonesia,...Berkeley researchers lay groundwork for cell version of DNA chip
...nstrate that this adhesion system could be used to attach cells to a non-biological surface. Douglas is a student under Mathies, director of UCB's Center for Analytical Biotechnology. Chandra and Douglas used a commercial chemical handle, the sulfur-based thiolate ion, to anchor single-stranded DNA onto go...A cancer promoting protein shows up in an unexpected place in the cell
...esearchers expected that the dislodged K-Ras would attach to the membrane of organelles in the cell, such as the endoplasmic reticulum and the Golgi body. "But we were surprised to find that dislodged K-Ras also goes to the surface of the mitochondria -- the powerhouse of the cell, and one of the organelle...'Nano-keys' bind cell receptors and trigger allergic reactions
... and cause IgE-receptors to cluster when the cells attach to the surface. This activates the cell's inner machinery. Said Baird: "In this way, we can control what the cell sees. The cells are binding to the engineered surfaces and getting turned on. We can then see how the cell is organizing itself due to ...Anthrax spores may survive water treatment
...tional drinking water disinfection methods and can attach themselves to the inside surface of water pipes, s...e. Calomiris also tested the ability of spores to attach to the inside of pipes, by running contaminated water in a continuous loop through sections of pipe ...Cells in mucus from lungs of high-risk patients can predict tumor development
...is assay uses stretches of artificial DNA that can attach only to specific methylated genes. In this study, Belinsky worked with researchers at University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, Colo., to develop a blinded and nested case-control study within their Sputum Screening Cohort Study, which h...USC, Rice to develop bacteria-powered fuel cells
... understand how the bacteria Shewanella oneidensis attach to and interact with anode surfaces inside the fue...chnique to examine how the cigar-shaped Shewanella attach themselves to crystalline surfaces. The researchers found that Shewanella would lay flat and orient ...'Custom' nanoparticles could improve cancer diagnosis and treatment
...they have shown that the uniform nanoparticles can attach to specific cell targets, release important chemotherapy drugs inside cells, and hold MRI contrast agents. Animal studies began recently and human studies are anticipated, the researchers say. "I think this will transform the way one detects and tre...Prenatal genistein in soy reduces obesity in offspring
...nt prompts a quartet of atoms or "methyl group" to attach to the regulatory region of a gene, where it acts as a switch to activate or silence the gene. Such an effect is called "epigenetic" because it occurs over and above the gene sequence without altering any of the letters of the gene's four-unit code, ...New human retrovirus originated in mice
...ence, any viral gene sequences in the sample would attach themselves to corresponding viral sequences on the chip. The telltale fluorescence on spots on the chip signaled the presence of viral genetic material in the sample. Although the Virochip contains only sequences from known viruses, DeRisi said it ca...NJIT students present leading research during Provost's Student Research Showcase
...nodes. The circulating cancer cells can spread and attach to another interior part of the body, causing metastatic cancer. Shah worked on developing a method to analyze proteins found on the cell membrane of cancer cells; the proteins are different from those found on normal cells. By locating the cells wit......n't work." The scientists allowed C. crescentus to attach itself to the side of a thin, flexible glass pipette. They used a micromanipulator to trap the cell portion of the bacterium and pull it directly away from the pipette, measuring the force of strain. In 14 trials, the scientists found they had to app...