The Louis-Jeantet-Prize for Medicine 2005
...edicine, Svante Pääbo wants to study the function of genes which were positively selected in human evolution that show differences between humans and apes. One of these genes, FOXP2, is involved in speech and language development. To this end he will create transgenic mice that carry either the huma...In Nature paper, scientists at U.Va. health system crack part of 'histone' code
...n the complex chemical cascade that determines the function of a cell in the body. Their findings are publishe...he University of North Carolina, that DNA does not function in isolation. Rather, its' function can be dictated by this modification of histones, which can dete...UCSD medical researchers discover molecular pathway that turns a juvenile heart into an adult heart
...ine. ASF/SF2 are part of a family of proteins that function in a vital cellular process called alternative spl...n in calcium handling, which is a major regulatory function for muscle contraction. Additional findings pointed to an increase in the expression of genes relat...Anti-seizure drugs slow aging in worms
...sed longevity. The worms' mutated genes affect the function of sensory neurons that regulate the release of an...ow there is an important connection between neural function and longevity," Kornfeld says. "We're continuing this line of research to identify the precise funct...Scientists decipher genome of fungus that can cause life-threatening infections
...has formed a consortium to further investigate the function of C. neoformans genes. The sequence data also provides the foundation for a broader genome project that aims to define the molecular basis for the C. neoformans species cluster, which includes three related yet diverged species which diffe...NYU researchers simulate molecular biological clock
...h day. However, understanding how circadian clocks function has proven challenging to researchers. This is partly because the 24-hour rhythm is an emergent property of a complex network of many molecular interactions within a cell. Another complication is that molecular interactions are inherently random, wh...Research sheds light on how cancer cells become resistant to treatment
...at a protein transferred between cells retains its function long enough to allow the recipient cells to survive potentially toxic drug concentrations and ultimately develop intrinsic resistance. In other words, cells that would normally be sensitive to treatment can develop resistance to it by receiving P-g...Combination therapy boosts effectiveness of telomere-directed cancer cell death
...and the cell stops dividing. In a sense, telomeres function as a kind of counting mechanism that regulates how many times a cell can divide. In contrast to normal cells, cancer cells divide continuously and uncontrollably. Scientists know that cancer cells produce an enzyme, called telomerase, which prevents ...Fat deficiency gene also spurs obesity
...een attributed to alterations in the expression or function of distinct sets of genes," Reue said. "Lipin represents the first gene with the capacity to go both ways on the scale, modulating body fat content from one extreme to the other." Lipin is normally found in metabolically active tissues such as fat an...New cancer gene identified by Memorial Sloan-Kettering scientists
...ngineering.) A drug that could block the protein's function in the same way could be a powerful anticancer age...to mice. Pokemon does its damage by repressing the function of other proteins, including a tumor suppressor called ARF. The mice developed aggressive, fatal for...Researchers find how protein allows insects to detect and respond to pheromones
... trick insects like mosquitoes into traps or could function as repellents, said Dr. Dean Smith, associate prof...known about OBPs for 20 years, but until now their function and significance was unclear," said Dr. Smith, who works in the Center for Basic Neuroscience. Olfac...Research may speed development of new oral drugs for fertility treatments
...ll surface. Those studies indicated that FSH might function much like LH, CG and TSH. Of special note, according to Hendrickson, was the structure of FSH, which had been solved by Dias and colleagues at the Wadsworth Center of the New York State Department of Health. Receptors such as FSH are switches that ar...Powerful X-ray beams at Argonne, new electronic flight simulator
... the roles of various protein components in muscle function using mutant or genetically-engineered flies. The authors note that the many similarities between insect muscle and other oscillatory muscles including human cardiac muscle mean that the research may be adaptable for other uses. "The data collected ...Spleen may be source of versatile stem cells
...enerate precursors to many types of blood cells, a function shared by the bone marrow, but potentially to form such diverse organs as the small intestine, uterus, vascular system and lung. They theorize that a pocket of these uncommitted cells might remain in the spleen though adulthood. In addition to rege...Deciphering the genetic babel of brain cells
...ul to neuroscientists studying the development and function of the brain. For example, it will enable research...enetically tag, manipulate, and even knock out the function of specific subtypes of neurons to study their function. Also, by comparing genetic profiles of cell...Improved recipe for magnetic brain stimulation
...electrophysiological and behavioral changes in the function of the human motor system that outlast the period of stimulation by more than 60 minutes" concluded the scientists. "The method may prove useful not only in the motor cortex but also in other regions of the brain for both the study of normal human ph...Born to run? Capacity for aerobic exercise linked to risk of heart disease
...ion. Our hypothesis is that impaired mitochondrial function may be what links low aerobic capacity and disease...l of which are required for healthy cardiovascular function and the capacity for exercise. "After 11 generations of selective breeding, our low-capacity rats ha...Timing is everything: First step in protein building revealed
...utant ribosome parts, which likely affect ribosome function -- and change its timing. The authors on the study are Maag and Lorsch of Johns Hopkins; Christie Fekete of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; and Zygmunt Gryczynski of the University of Maryland School of Medicine....Priming embryonic stem cells to fulfill their promise
... fibronectin, and several kinds of collagen - that function as the extracellular matrix, or scaffolding, of most mammalian tissues. Until now, there has been no practical way to evaluate the daunting number of possible combinations of these proteins, any one of which could form the optimal "niche" for a desir......at if visual cortex recruitment bolstered auditory function in some individuals, then visual cortex activity would correlate with individual differences in performance, and the degree of activity should predict such differences. Nineteen people--seven sighted and twelve who lost their sight at an early age--w...