Cholesterol gets 'thumbs up' for role in digit development
...h only half of their Sonic hedgehog proteins could attach to cholesterol. Those mice developed normal digits 2 through 5 (index through pinkie), but had duplication of these digits anteriorly. The findings suggested that Sonic hedgehog without cholesterol traveled further than normal, triggering the anomal...Neurons find their place in the developing nervous system with the help of a sticky molecule
...ell adhesion molecule a protein enabling cells to attach to other surfaces, something that they must do either to move or sit still and elaborate connections. They also showed that MDGA1 is expressed on subpopulations of migrating neurons throughout the developing nervous system, including layer 2/3 neuron...Patent awarded for LSUHSC-developed peptide that blocks lethal toxins of anthrax
...e PA molecule, enabling the lethal factor toxin to attach to it. Lethal factor toxin cannot bind to PA that has not already been cut by furin; therefore, without cut PA, lethal factor toxin loses the ability to bind to and enter the cell, and becomes harmless. Working on the theory that if the action of f...Diverse sea 'bugs' revealed on landmark Atlantic cruise to census zooplankton
...le anglerfishes, which use their jaws and teeth to attach themselves like parasites to the much larger females. A "grossly overdeveloped nasal rosette" takes up much of the male's head and scientists theorize it is used to find females in the deep sea by smell, and that females may produce pheromones to at...Himalayan forests disappearing
...he government institutes. Thegovernment might also attach too much weight to projects aimed at stopping commercial logging and at replanting trees in more remote regions, while the more serious threat is deforestation by villagers, they suggest. These "miscalculations" in land-use decisions could have sever...MIT sheds light on how tumor cells form
...idual chromosomes in each pair of chromosomes must attach to a set of tiny structures called microtubules. If they attach correctly, the checkpoint proteins give them the go-ahead to divide. If they don't, the checkpoint p...Prion disease agent causes heart damage in mouse study
...ion protein still folded but was no longer able to attach in normal amounts onto the surface of cells. In contrast to scrapie-infected wild mice, which typically die after about 150 days, the engineered mice regularly lived for more than 600 days with minimal symptoms, ultimately dying of old age. In pri...Beyond lipids: understanding the mechanics of atherosclerosis
...en coated with a protein that allowed the cells to attach the way they do to underlying blood vessel tissue in the body. They then stretched endothelial cells 10 percent of their length 60 times per minute to simulate the rhythmic flexing of an artery in response to heart beats. Cells that were stretched ...Gene screen for breast cancer better than pathologist's 'eye'
...hylation within critical regions of DNA. The tags attach to the "on" switch of genes which starts the message-manufacturing process. Cancer cells have abnormal levels of methylation, which turns the gene switch off halting the assembly line of critical proteins found in normal cells. The Hopkins test, c...Structure determined for p53 tumor suppressor protein as bound to DNA for anti-cancer activity
...ick in which we modified a DNA base to allow it to attach directly to a part of the protein's core domain. That allowed us to trap the form of the p53 dimer that's compatible with DNA binding. And we solved the structure. We saw what it looked like." ...Study shows how protein raises antibody output
...sponse to infections. Antibodies are proteins that attach to viruses, bacteria and other infectious agents to disable them. The findings could lead to new ways of boosting the immune response against bacteria that cause pneumonia, a leading killer of people with weakened immunity such as cancer and HIV/A...Researchers devise new tools to help pinpoint treatments for heart failure
...eins called kinases. Each kinase is specialized to attach a phosphate molecule to a specific set of target proteins. These phosphorylation reactions switch targeted proteins from an inactive state to an active state. PKA actually activates other kinases, which in effect amplify the effect of PKA through a s...New light microscope sharpens scientists' focus
... Molecular biology techniques allow researchers to attach a label to each copy of a protein they wish to study. Ordinary optical microscopes can detect these molecules, although Hess describes their appearance under the microscope as "little fuzzy round balls." As Betzig's work in the early nineties had sho...Recombination protein dynamics observed with single monomer resolution
...lleagues developed. To use FRET, researchers first attach two dye molecules one green and one red to the molecule they want to study. Next, they excite the green dye with a laser. Some of the energy moves from the green dye to the red dye, depending upon the distance between them. The researchers then mea...New type of optical microscopy attains near-molecular resolution
...rophores to antibodies, which can be engineered to attach in turn to many types of biomolecules. Exposure of a fluorophore-bound biological sample to successive flashes of light of varying wavelengths activates different subsets of fluorophores, revealing their locations. After many such still images are ta...Research pinpoints West Nile virus antibody binding site
...in has a structure commonly seen in molecules that attach to proteins to perform a specific function in cells. The grasping antibody segment used in the study attaches only to the third domain of the E proteins. "One of the three E proteins in the triangular segment fails to be recognized by the antibody ...New light microscope may help unlock some of cells' secrets
...his lab. This technique allowed the researchers to attach a label to each copy of a protein they wished to study. Here's how the PALM technique works: The researchers label the molecules they want to study with a photoactivatable probe, and then expose those molecules to a small amount of violet light. Th...University of Pittsburgh receives $1.3 million from NIH to develop promising avian flu vaccine
...e of all influenza viruses, HA allows the virus to attach to and infect a cell, a critical step in the influenza virus' ability to cause illness and death. Because this vaccine contains a live virus, the Pitt investigators believe it may be more effective in stimulating a therapeutic immune response than ...CU, Scripps researchers provide evidence of how proteins fold
...g the polypeptide chain. These secondary folds may attach two or three hydrophobic pockets. These two methods were used together in this study to pinpoint where on a polypeptide chain the nonpolar segments occur and where initial folding takes place and then propagates to the final folded form....Protein folding physics, nanohandles, sunscreen for algae and classical quantum weirdness
...ths of a meter long. One solution is to chemically attach molecular handles to their sides to make them easi...icists at MIT have found a class of molecules that attach to nanotubes without damaging them. Instead of simply grabbing onto the nanotubes, the molecules lat...