Columbia University awards 2006 Horwitz Prize to biologist who explained gene transcription
...ften occurs when genes are turned on or off at the wrong moments, so a better understanding of what controls gene expression may eventually lead to better ways to improve human health. Dr. Kornberg's efforts to understand what controls gene expression have focused on the very first step in the transformat...Why don't all moles progress to melanoma?
...m build up in the membrane, or when something goes wrong with the folding process, the system gets bogged down. This can stress or even kill the cell. To prevent this, the ER sends out distress signals to activate what scientists call the unfolded protein response (UPR). This slows the protein productio...JCI table of contents: September 21, 2006
...is regulated (and therefore how or why it might go wrong in some instances, such as preeclampsia) because there has been no way to study it in vivo. Now, in a study appearing online on September 21, in advance of publication in the October print issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers f...Modern humans, not Neandertals, may be evolution's 'odd man out'
...ers have been looking at our ancient ancestors the wrong way. Trinkaus combed through the fossil record, i...hat. What I'm saying is that we've been asking the wrong questions." The most unusual characteristics throughout human anatomy occur in Modern Humans, argu......ere scrambled; pores were no longer built, and the wrong molecules were able to get access to DNA. Because MEL-28 remains attached to DNA during the entire process of cell division, the scientists believe it plays a crucial role early in the formation of the envelope. MEL-28 has a close relative in human ...Who gives stem cells their marching orders?
...we are to understand and perhaps correct what goes wrong when the chemical signaling system goes awry and stem cells become cancerous. Research has shown that the chemical soup in the developing embryo contains a protein factor called Nodal, a powerful "master chef" that controls the activity of a whole ...Hopkins develops online tool to aid research on certain 'orphan diseases'
..., will lead to a better understanding of what goes wrong when cilia don't function. "Having a good handle on genes may lead to future genetic tests that can help doctors better diagnose and treat these syndromes," he says. "Studying the genetics, heritability and molecular underpinnings of Bardet-Biedl s...Scientists uncover critical step in DNA mutation
...echanism and leaves the altered DNA coding for the wrong proteins. When the wrong proteins are produced, it can lead through a complicated chain of events to an abnormally high rate ...Study aims to identify schizophrenics at risk for type 2 diabetes
...r here and send communication over here; that goes wrong from the very beginning probably," says Dr. Kirkpa... percent of people. "It's kind of a subtle going wrong in the sense that if you look at the brain under a microscope, at first blush, it looks pretty norma...'Signature' of chromosome instability predicts cancer outcomes
...of DNA to be lost, duplicated or reshuffled to the wrong chromosomes. Cells have repair mechanisms that constantly fix this damage, but when the repair process breaks down, chromosomes become unstable and cancers are more likely to develop. Chromosomal instability leads to a condition known as aneuploi...Study reveals how cells destroy faulty proteins in cystic fibrosis
... this pathway gives us greater insight into what's wrong with the protein -- information that will help people design better therapeutics for the disease," Cyr said....Hunt for DNA amplified in cancers uncovers important target gene
...rakes at the same time, so that should anything go wrong during division, the car can very quickly be stopped, or the cell can be removed by cell death," says first author Michael Overholtzer, PhD, research fellow in cell biology at HMS. "Yki activation, on the other hand, is like stepping on the gas and d...... The quest for synthetic blood Transfuse the wrong blood type and the patient's immune system may destroy the new blood cells, in some cases leading to death. John Harrington, professor and dean of the School of Science and Engineering at SUNY-New Paltz, hopes to one day develop a red blood cell subs...Flick of a protein switches immune response
...ses begin when the body's defenses respond at the wrong time or place, the on-off mechanism for the immune system has been the subject of intense study for decades. The USC-Harvard team studied proteins critical to immune tolerance, a term for the healthy balance between a weak immune system and an over...When biology gets 'Quirky,' scientists turn to math
... might erroneously conclude that there's something wrong with the enzyme or that the gene responsible for manufacturing the enzyme had gone awry. In fact, the real culprit might be a chemical switch, intrinsic to the mathematics, that is triggered by the reactant supply rate, Feinberg said. The next step...Hopkins researchers develop new tool to watch real-time chemical activity in cells
... switch, because if the enzyme is turned on at the wrong time or at the wrong place within cells, it can lead to cells misbehaving, which ultimately can lead to heart disease. ...Study confirms males/females use different parts of brain in language & visuospatial tasks
... brains is essential for understanding what may go wrong during development." ...A protein complex that untangles DNA
...can gain a better position to understand what goes wrong in cancer", says Camilla Sjgren, who leads the research group. Central to both chromosome repair and distribution during cell division are three related protein complexes. "Quite a bit is known about two of these complexes. One of them, cohesin, ke...Major initiative proposed to address amphibian crisis
... ago. "These are bioindicators that something is wrong with the planet," he said. "But amphibians play a major role in many ecosystems, in some places the amphibian biomass is greater than that of all the other vertebrates. The long term ecological repercussions of their decline could be profound, and we...... very stable. But that might have been exactly the wrong thing to do, because prions that are too stable may be the ones that are not very infectious because the aggregates are hard to break up. "And from a therapeutic point of view, our findings suggest that effective treatment strategies for prion diseas...