ACS News Service Weekly PressPac -- March 21, 2007
...genes and other biological molecules. Chemists and biochemists may also use the scissors to precisely control the activity of proteins. Scientists have long sought ways to develop molecular-scale tools that operate in response to specific stimuli, such as sound or light. Biologists are enthusiastic about such te......nology at the University of Tokyo. Chemists and biochemists may also use the scissors to precisely control the activity of proteins, Aida says. He presented details of the new technique today at the 233rd national meeting of the American Chemical society, the worlds largest scientific society. Scientists h...Researchers create artificial enzyme that mimics the body's internal engine
...nto water-a process called steady turnover. "The biochemists that study the enzyme typically study single turnover," Collman said. "They let the enzyme have only one oxygen molecule and watch what happens." He said that single turnover is like taking a single photograph of an event, while steady turnover is li...Pitt professor contends biological underpinnings
...ecame a veritable scientific theory when, in 1962, biochemists Emil Zuckerkandl and Linus Pauling demonstrated species similarity through utilizing immunological activity between the blood's serum and a constructed antiserum. Upon observing the intensity of the serum and antiserum reactivity between human, goril...Molecular link between inflammation and cancer discovered
A team led by biochemists at the University of California, San Diego has found what could be a long-elusive mechanism through which inflammation can promote cancer. The findings may provide a new approach for developing cancer therapies. The study, published in the Ja...When it comes to gene transcription, random pauses arent quite so random, study finds
... important kind of pause, and the models that some biochemists have been using are just wrong." What causes pauses? The study also addresses a long-standing question about enzyme memory: If an enzyme pauses at one DNA site, will it alter its behavior when it encounters the same sequence again? "It turns out t...Discoveries should aid research into cause of ALS
...(ALS) at the molecular level. The neurologists and biochemists show how and why the mutated superoxide dismutase (SOD1) protein, which is associated with a familial form of ALS, becomes vulnerable and prone to aggregation and also provide evidence linking disease onset with the formation of intermolecular aggreg...Physics and biology team up to tackle protein folding debate
...he cell. For more than two decades, biologists and biochemists have debated how one of these chaperones, Hsp70, manages the mechanical job of unfolding protein aggregates and pulling proteins into the various compartments of the cell. Is it by a "Power Stroke", in which the chaperone would use leverage and produ...UC Davis, Lawrence Livermore researchers
... in a human subject. The team included nutritional biochemists Stephen R. Dueker and Colleen Carkeet at the School of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, who worked with microbiologists John Roth and Peter Anderson from the College of Biological Sciences to synthesize the new compound in Salmonella enterica...Chemical reaction yields ties that bind permanently
...r and at room temperature and is widely applied by biochemists to conjugate all kinds of molecules onto proteins to make haptens for antibody generation," said Crich. "It has many applications." But the disulfide ligation is not permanent, said Crich, which limits its usefulness in developing new medicines. Cric...Proteins' subtle 'backrub' motion could have important implications
...d their colleagues are already working with fellow biochemists who design proteins, to explore how their backrub model can improve design strategies....Membrane research opens window to benefits for plants, humans
...ications, the scientists say. First, Swedish plant biochemists and crystallographers at Lund University and Chalmers University of Technology, studying membrane proteins of spinach, solved the structure of a water-protein channel -- an aquaporin that opens and closes a gate that regulates water movement in and o...'Computer-chemistry' yields new insight into a puzzle of cell division
Duke University biochemists aided by Duke computer scientists and computational chemists have identified the likely way two key enzymes dock in an intricate three-dimensional puzzle-fit to regulate cell division. Solving the docking puzzle could lead to anticancer drugs to bloc...Scientist uses form to explain function of key building blocks of life
MADISON - University of Wisconsin-Madison biochemists have developed an approach that allows them to measure with unprecedented accuracy the strengths of hydrogen bonds in a protein. The scientists were then able to predict the function of different versions of the protein based on structural informati...Image of myosin-actin interaction revealed in cover story of Molecular Cell
...on of four years of work, this collaboration among biochemists and structural biologists was selected as the cover story for the September issue of the scientific journal Molecular Cell. The Burnham team, led by Dorit Hanein, Ph.D., was the first to reveal the 3D representation of myosin V "walking" along actin ...Structures of marine toxins provide insight into their effectiveness as cancer drugs
...arch findings from University of Wisconsin-Madison biochemists and their Italian colleagues. The research team has defined the structure of the toxins and provided a basic understanding that can be used to synthesize pharmaceuticals, according to a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Ac...UCSD discovery may provide novel method to generate medically useful proteins
A team led by University of California, San Diego biochemists has discovered the mechanism by which a simple organism can produce 10 trillion varieties of a single protein, a finding that provides a new tool to develop novel drugs. In the September 18 advance on-line publication of the journal Nature Structural...Computer modeling reveals hidden conversations within cells
University of California, San Diego biochemists have developed a computer program that helps explain a long-standing mystery: how the same proteins can play different roles in a wide range of cellular processes, including those leading to immune responses and cancer. Prior to the UCSD team's find...New study to explore cellular circuitry
...the principal grant recipient, will lead a team of biochemists and computer scientists in an attempt to diagram Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a type of yeast. Although a single-celled fungus, yeast shares many genetic traits with humans, making it a useful model. Researchers hope to build a computer model of gene a...New discovery blurs distinction between human cells and those of bacteria
UCLA biochemists reveal the first structural details of a family of...ch is the best-studied microcompartment." The UCLA biochemists also report 199 related proteins that presumably do similar things in 50 other bacteria, Yeates said...