Immune system contributes to evolution of a new fluorescent protein
...erent story. It was unknown whether we could do it until we tried," said Tsien. To explore whether SHM could create a broad array of mutations, the researchers introduced a gene for a red fluorescent protein into a human B cell cancer line, called Ramos, which mutates immunoglobulin genes through SHM. The ...'Casanova' field crickets - live fast, die young
...on low protein diets tended to delay their calling until later in adult life, thereby enabling them to gain or maintain their body weight for longer. "One thing that consistently prolongs lifespan in a range of species is a restricted diet. Now we know a bit more about how this occurs in male crickets by ...'Jumping gene' helps explain immune system's abilities
...gnizing a million immune-stimulating proteins. But until now, no jumping gene was known to behave just right. Writing in the Dec. 23 issue of Nature , the researchers show that a jumping gene called Hermes, still active in the common house fly, creates changes in DNA very much like those created by the pr...Needling chromosomes yields insights into cell division
...initially separate at their centers, zipping apart until they are entirely separate. Then, they can be drawn to the opposite poles of the dividing cell. The experiments also revealed that it is the erosion of linkages between the chromatids, and not any tension exerted by the spindle, that causes the chrom...Shedding feathers early may enhance sex appeal, new songbird study shows
...of feathers for this project. "What we didn't know until now is that birds' colours in any given year may be affected by what happened to them in the previous breeding season. "That's exciting because 'cost of reproduction' is a general, organism-wide problem of many species, not just birds." The other me...Animal experiments more stressful than previously recognized
...to routine laboratory procedures that have been up until now viewed as relatively benign. The findings come in a new report published in Contemporary Topics in Laboratory Animal Science, based on an extensive review of the scientific literature by ethologist Jonathan Balcombe, Ph.D., of Physicians Committe...$6.7 million for bionic war on disabilities
... his or her muscles," although that won't be tried until after pre-clinical feasibility studies. Another use would be to implant the array in nerves that control the bladder, with the array run by a switch. This could allow a paraplegic to regain control of urination. A $1.383 million grant for...AACR recognizes women in cancer research
... University School of Medicine, where she remained until she herself succumbed to cancer in 1994. This year's awardees attended the following AACR Conferences: The 95th Annual Meeting, March 27-31, Orlando, Fla.; Advances in Proteomics in Cancer Research, October 6-10, Key Biscayne, Fla.; Frontiers in C...JCI table of contents, 3 January 2005
...ents underlying this process have remained unknown until now. In the January 3 issue of the Journal of Clinical investigation, J.M. Pascussi and colleagues show that the level of CYP24 the enzyme that inactivates Vitamin D metabolites is increased via activation of the pregnane X receptor (PXR) following...Mothers speak: Physicians often fall short when delivering a down syndrome diagnosis
...n syndrome do not learn of their child's diagnosis until after they are born....Study pinpoints protein's role in heart failure prevention
... specific molecules involved have not been defined until now." Cardiologists consider cardiac hypertrophy as one of the most potent predictors for adverse cardiac outcomes, such as heart failure and arrhythmias, or abnormal heart rhythms. "It's as bad to have cardiac hypertrophy as it is to have had a hear...Pinatubo's rivers show the danger isn't over when volcanic eruption ends
...h mountains, the real disaster often doesn't start until the eruption has subsided and the world has stoppe...bris the volcano deposits and how much rain falls, until the sediment has either been cleaned off the mountain or has stabilized so that it doesn't erode eas...FDA approves ABRAXANE(TM) for metastatic breast cancer
...its water-insoluble nature, it has been necessary, until now, to use the toxic solvent Cremophor-EL to put the compound into solution in order to administer it intravenously to the patient. In patients, Cremophor is known to cause life-threatening allergic reactions despite premedication and lowering of t...Stowers researcher answers fundamental question of cell death
... been recognized as an inhibitor of apoptosis, but until now, its method of inhibition was not clear. Dr. Du analyzed Bruce mutant mice and found that Bruce regulates p53, a tumor suppressor gene, and the mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis. Bruce's primary function resides upstream of mitochondria. Loss o...In Nature paper, scientists at U.Va. health system crack part of 'histone' code
...in development and function. Grant said that, until his discovery, there have been very few proteins identified that recognize these methylation marks on histones. He said information has recently emerged about how genes can be turned off by histone methylation and how abnormal chemical modification o...Study finds more than one-third of human genome regulated by RNA
...NA are newcomers to biological research. It wasn't until 2000 that researchers even knew that microRNAs existed in humans. Now, in the January 14 edition of the journal Cell, Benjamin Lewis, a graduate student working jointly with Whitehead's Bartel and MIT associate professor of biology Christopher Burge,...K-State professors develop vaccine to prevent abscess in liver of cattle
...fflicted with abscesses, which can not be detected until the animals are slaughtered. While the organ is condemned and not used for sale, in most instances the remainder of the carcass is approved for sale. "If you look at the animal you can't tell if they're abscessed or not," Nagaraja said. "They look n...Combination therapy boosts effectiveness of telomere-directed cancer cell death
...h every cell division, telomeres get a bit shorter until eventually they become so short that the enzymes that copy DNA for cell division no longer work properly 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 c...Hebrew University professor wins Wolf Prize in Medicine for work in cancer research
...del' Castro's ambassador to Israel, where he lived until his death in 1981. Five annual Wolf Prizes have been awarded since 1978 to outstanding scientist and artists. The prizes are for $100,000 in each field.......he primary cause of Parkinson's disease. It wasn't until 1997 that the first gene associated with the disease was identified. The multi-site study under the direction of Dr. Foroud is an $8 million grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke designed to identify the genes causin...