Computer simulation hints at new HIV drug target
...side, pinching the "cheek and "ear" together. That observation suggested to them that a small molecule might be able to wedge between the ear and cheek, blocking the flap opening. "Some drugs act by binding to the active site of a target molecule, such as the site that an enzyme normally uses to catalyze reacti...Inefficient immune killer cells abet HIV infection
...ction by CTL, often by abrogating HLA binding. The observation that these escape variants outgrow the wild type is much cited evidence that the CTL response exerts selective pressure on the virus. Asquith et al. have taken this argument one step further and quantified the rate at which escape variants grow out...Immunoblot agent misses altered heart cell kinase, points to possible therapeutic opening
...chnology (AfCS), where it has led to the empirical observation that a number of PSSAs, for unknown reasons, perform with the requisite sensitivity and/or specificity only in selected cellular backgrounds. This experience suggests that the problems in immunoblot analysis of PKC-delta that we have identified may n...Researchers convinced satellites are helpful in tracking epidemics
...kshop', on 8-10 March 2006, to report on how Earth observation (EO) has benefited the field of epidemiology. Ghislain Moussavou of the Gabon-based International Centre for Medical Research (CIRMF) began studying Ebola haemorrhagic fever, which can cause runaway internal and external bleeding in humans and apes,...Molecule by molecule, new assay shows real-time gene activity
... of protein production in live cells. Their direct observation of fluorescently tagged molecules in single cells -- providing striking real-time footage of the birth of individual new protein molecules inside -- greatly increases scientists' precision in probing genetic activity. Using the new assay, described t...Protecting endangered species helps reduce poverty
... the report, some ecotourism projects based on the observation of species in the wild--such as marine turtles, pandas and mountain gorillas--generate significant amounts of money for communities. Applying knowledge of species movements in and across habitats can help implement such sustainable land-use planning....New evidence questions the simple link between prion proteins and vCJD
...standing of prion diseases is enhanced by one more observation published in this same paper. The team pre-digested a mixture containing disease specific PrP with standard stomach contents, and then injected the resulting mixture into the gut. No PrP transferred into the villi. When they used a highly sensitive v...MSU researchers shake out basis for rice domestication
...ll the advances in technology, a careful firsthand observation proves to be essential for biological research." The researchers then developed a new method for rapid and cost-effective DNA isolation to clone a gene from the chromosomal region. Changbao Li, research associate in plant biology, invented a process...Biologists estimate the value of services provided by insects
...ional resource that supports hunting, fishing, and observation of wildlife valued at $50 billion. Losey and Vaughan stress that their assessment is conservative in that it includes only a fraction of the value of all the services insects provide. They suggest that their estimate implies that an annual investment...Lung surfactant: Host defense/surface tension, and linking innate/adaptive immune systems
...ctant in host defense evolved from the microscopic observation made by Voss and coworkers that surfactant protein SP-A was structurally homologous with complement component C1q, an immune protein. Thus an understanding of protein structure and function in one system complement led to new discoveries in another...16-Year follow-up study reinforces Betaseron long-term efficacy, safety and tolerability in MS
...eron 250 mcg or placebo, with a median duration of observation of 45 months. Analysis after two years demonstrated that significantly more patients receiving Betaseron were relapse-free, that those relapses that occurred were less frequent and that hospitalizations for MS were cut nearly in half. These results...Blood pressure medication may revolutionize treatment of Marfan syndrome
...dence of tissue destruction or inflammation." That observation led Dietz's group to a radical change in their thinking about the nature of Marfan syndrome. Instead of the disease being caused by loss of a structural protein that then places a burden on tissues that can be further weakened by stresses, such as bl...UC San Diego scientists chart rapid advances of fluorescent tools for life-science research
...l Science. "Fluorescent imaging is critical to the observation of dynamic processes in living systems," said lead author Ben Giepmans, a research scientist in the UCSD-based National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research (NCMIR). "Some of these techniques now also allow researchers to localize the responsib...New mechanism for essential genome-wide gene silencing identified
...nship with acetylation or ubiquitylation." Another observation made during the study was that slightly higher levels of sumoylation occur near the tips of the chromosomes, the telomeres, which are known to play a central role in maintaining genomic stability. Instability in the telomeres has been linked to aging...Caltech's Emmanuel Candes to receive $500,000 Waterman Award
...r analysis and processing. The term comes from the observation that multiple waves in a complex system--whether from outer space, a cell phone, the Internet or a DNA molecule--make up a chorus of individual "songs" singing in harmony with the others. Candes worked out the mathematics of wave snippets known as ri...Animal brains 'hard-wired' to recognize predator's foot movements, Queen's study suggests
...nt visual cue that another animal is nearby. "The observation that it is relatively easy to get close to wild animals in a car, a canoe, or a similar vehicle might be due to the absence of the typical movement of the feet," says Dr. Troje. Similarly, the creeping movement of a hunting cat can be interpreted in ...Diverse tropical forests defy metabolic ecology models
...as the consistency in the bigdiscrepancies between observation and prediction, even in very differentforests," articulates coauthor Richard Condit, STRI Staff Scientist, "For instance, diameter distribution always deviated by having far fewer large trees than the -2 slope predicts." Shedding light on the proces...'Banana-jawed' fossil mammal linked to rare sound-producing skill
...ated jaws had larger incisors, DeBlieux said. This observation led the researchers to infer that the animals were males. But what purpose did those weird jaws serve? According to Simons, today's hyraxes are relics of a time when Africa lacked most of the kinds of animals found there today. Current scientific tho...Bioportfolio: Life-long persistence of erythrovirus DNA genomes in human tissue
...ed wide circulation in the area during the 70-year observation period from the thirties to the present day. Thereby, the Bioportfolio constitutes at the individual level a new form of "medical record" for one's infectious encounters. At the global and epidemiological level, it provides a novel database for anal......sue, but also disease progression. "It's the first observation that there's fusion at the level of stem cells," said the study's corresponding author, Melissa Wong, Ph.D., assistant professor of dermatology, and cell and developmental biology. "Second, we're seeing cell fusion in tumors and we believe that this ...