News tips from the Journal of Neuroscience
...splaying low- and high-voltage activation and both fast and slow inactivation. Interestingly, the currents were sensitive to T-type but not L-type calcium channel blockers. Calcium entry through cac -encoded channels was required for calcium-activated potassium current (I K(Ca) ). In cac mutant neuron...Gene knockouts reveal FoxOs' vital functions in cancer defense, health of stem cells
... cells while also renewing themselves divided too fast and "burned out," said Gary Gilliland, MD, PhD, wh...at override maverick cells threatening to grow too fast and form tumors. When FoxOs are eliminated, it may allow cancer to develop. The mice lacking FoxO pr...Brown team finds crucial protein role in deadly prion spread
...n fragmentation we studied has a big impact on how fast prion diseases spread and may also play a role in the accumulation of toxic proteins in neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's," said Tricia Serio, an assistant professor in Brown's Department of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry ...The time it takes to reassemble the world
...eption (newer LCD monitors dont refresh the screen fast enough) and painstakingly calibrating the monitors to precisely control the activity of individual photoreceptors in the eye, the Salk researchers were ready to inch closer to answering an age-old and much-debated question: How do neurons communicate...ROV discovers Antarctic seafloor fauna
...selected. "Inspection ROVs like the Cherokee are fast to deploy and easy to recover" explains the chief scientist and marine ecologist Julian Gutt, who can draw upon 15 years of experience investigating Antarctica's seafloor fauna using ROVs.Already used on a previous expedition, the ROV carries one sti......ncubator. The US FDA has assured the company of a fast track to approval. If all goes well, Phase I clinical trials are planned for the near future. The method could potentially be used to treat such acute brain insults as head traumas and stroke, and prevent brain and nerve damage from bacterial men...New antibacterials being developed to tackle MRSA superbug
...fficult to treat. "The so-called superbug MRSA is fast becoming untreatable with the currently available antibiotics," says Dr Ted Bianco, Director of Technology Transfer at the Wellcome Trust. "We urgently need a new generation of antibacterial medicines to stop its spread through hospitals, nursing hom...Natural gut hormone offers hope for new obesity drug
...ly that if we are successful, the treatment may be fast tracked to meet the urgent demand to tackle the obesity crisis," she explains. "There is currently a lack of effective treatments and our proposed drug is based on a natural way of controlling the body's appetite, which makes it more attractive."...New study sheds light on 'dark states' in DNA
... quarter of an inch. Still, a picosecond is not so fast compared to the speed of some chemical reactions in living cells. In tests of single DNA bases, the dark state lasted for 10-150 picoseconds -- much longer than the bright state. The chemists reported their results in the Proceedings of the National...BioMed Central launches BMC Systems Biology, a new open access journal
...he post-genomic discipline of 'systems biology' is fast growing, with an exponential increase in PubMed abstracts including the term systems biology. The approach taken by systems biologists is qualitatively different to the reductive approach traditional in many fields, and often involves collaboration b...Annual plants may cope with global warming better than long-living species
...s in the Earth's plant life. "Some species evolve fast enough to keep up with environmental change," said Arthur Weis, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. "Global warming may increase the pace of this change so that certain species may have difficulty keeping up. Plants with longer life cycles...Roadworks on the motorways of the cell
...otubule behaviour. Controlling its presence allows fast switches between growth and shrinkage of microtubules, which are essential for rapid and flexible cellular transport. Mal3p's location along the microtubule seam is crucial, because here it can confer stability without obstructing the traffic of moto...Mayo researcher discovers target site for developing mosquito pesticides
...e. An active site is a pocket in an enzyme where a fast chemical reaction takes place to break down a molecule or build a new molecule. Previous studies by Dr. Pang and researchers elsewhere found that the cysteine residue acts as a hook that could tether a small molecule in the active site of an enzyme ...Sniffers show that humans can track scents, and that two nostrils are better than one
... their sniffing - just as with dogs, though not as fast as the six sniffs per second rate exhibited by dogs. The big question, however, was whether two nostrils allow scent localization in the same way that a human's two ears and eyes help locate sounds and sights. To further test this, the researcher...Phyloinformatics Hackathon at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center
.... "The face-to-face interaction allows for a very fast software development cycle", says Jason Stajich, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California Berkeley, "you can pose a problem and someone with the solution is sitting in the same room". In addition to the programmers, a number of biol...Experts advise world policies to cope with causes, rising consequences of creeping desertification
...or 50 years but we still do not know precisely how fast desertification is growing, much less how best to address it. Efforts to arrest the problem have been chronically under-funded, and the situation is getting demonstrably worse every year. This conference convenes experts to share policy experiences...Squid-inspired design could mean better handling of underwater vehicles
...ss precise, vehicle or a boxier one that is not as fast and more difficult to transport to work locations." Manned and unmanned underwater vehicles enable scientific researchers to explore ecosystems around the globe, from undersea volcanoes near Hawaii to the frigid depths beneath pack ice in the Nort...Researchers study role of natural organic matter in environment
...t when calcium is present, bio-fouling occurs very fast and filters clog quickly," Kalinichev said. "But when only magnesium or sodium is present, the filters clog more slowly, if at all." Using relatively simple but realistic molecular models of natural organic matter dissolved in ionic solutions, Kali......hat the benefits of telomerase expression, such as fast healing, weren't worth the cancer risk. Gorbunova points out that these findings raise another, perhaps far more important question: What, then, does this mean for animals that are far larger than humans? If a 160-pound human must give up telomerase ...