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Some people are at higher risk of developing cancer as a result of DNA damage than others, and a team of investigators at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) believes it may have just discovered the mechanism behind this connection.
In the study, the group focused its attention on a class of molecules c... |
31 January 2012
16:31 GMT |
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Researchers at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) announce the discovery of a new role for ribonucleic acid interference (RNAi). The mechanism was until now known only for its role in ensuring that repetitive, super-compact clumps of DNA called heterochromatin are inherited from one cellular copy to the next. I... |
18 October 2011
05:02 GMT |
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An international collaboration of scientists has recently developed a new approach to treating diseases such as atherosclerosis and cancer. Their technique relies on the use of short RNA snippets, which can be used to shut down a very specific gene on immune cells, therefore reducing inflammation.
Scientists at t... |
10 October 2011
03:41 GMT |
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Decades ago, researchers discovered that ribonucleic acid (RNA) can act as a catalyst for certain chemical reactions in the cell. This led to a train of thought that ultimately showed the molecule to precede more-complex DNA by eons. Now, experts want to build a cell to prove this is true.
Howard Hughes Medical In... |
23 September 2011
16:31 GMT |
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University of British Columbia experts announce the development of an advanced microfluidic device, a lab-on-a-chip that could greatly improve the way genetic analysis are done today. The instrument could make the assessments cheaper, faster, and extremely sensitive. The silicone chip the UBC group developed allows i... |
27 July 2011
03:58 GMT |
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Over the past few years, experts have come to realize that malfunctions in the life cycle of ribonucleic acid (RNA) – one of the most important molecules in any organism – are the root cause of numerous diseases. In a new study, experts provide a new way of investigating RNA in great detail. For a rather ... |
26 April 2011
04:32 GMT |
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All living things manage to survive due to the action of genes, tiny snippets of genetic information that encode proteins and other useful molecules. This is why knowing what each genes does is of vital importance. An innovation recently brought to this field of research will make things a lot easier. Scientists in t... |
15 April 2011
08:02 GMT |
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Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in Cambridge, announce that they were recently able to gain more insight into the way cells respond to threatening situations, in which their very survival is at stake. A host of processes are triggered at that time, fulfilling multiple goals. Among these... |
17 December 2010
06:21 GMT |
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A group of scientists announces the creation of the first thee-dimensional model of telomerase, a special enzymes that plays a key role in regulating the life span of cells. The finding could aid the fight against cancer and aging.The main role that telomerase has is to maintain the quality and quantity of DNA locate... |
4 November 2010
04:55 GMT |
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A new research at St George's, University of London has shed some light on a new cause of the rare mitochondrial disease called spastic ataxia – a gene mutation mechanism.They believe that the same gene mutation could also trigger other neurological disorders that lead to growth, coordination, speech, visu... |
22 October 2010
10:58 GMT |
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Experts with a panel of biologists at the European Science Foundation recommend that the European Union create a large network of research laboratories focused solely on studying and making good use of the amazing properties of RNA.Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is one of the main compounds, alongside amino-acids, proteins a... |
11 October 2010
06:02 GMT |
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Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Center for Molecular Biophysics, are using the latest technology to find out the potential role of nucleic acids in the creation of life.Supercomputer simulations of molecular dynamics allowed team leader Jeremy Smith director of the ORNL&#... |
5 October 2010
04:23 GMT |
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A new research carried out by Esther Schnettler, for her doctorate at Wageningen University, Wageningen UR, suggests that besides antibodies and interferons, humans also might have an immune system that looks very much like that of plants.She worked with Professor Ben Berkhout's group, of the Academic Medical Ce... |
27 September 2010
08:12 GMT |
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In a study that could have significant repercussions for the field of cancer studies, researchers managed to produce a new type of molecule that unleashes its destructive power only on cells that have been diagnosed as cancerous. This is tremendously important, given the personal nature of cancer. The disease has som... |
8 September 2010
04:25 GMT |
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For the first time ever, researchers at the Rutgers University managed to shed light on a mechanism that ensures the quality of newly-produced proteins. Such a pathway is of tremendous importance for the good functioning of cellular life. The quality-control mechanism is especially important for yeast cells, which us... |
30 August 2010
08:58 GMT |
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The National Science Foundation granted $1.9 million to the University of Maryland, for the acquisition of a superconducting 800 MHz Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectrometer, that will help the investigations on biomolecular structure.The first to benefit from this new acquisition will be Kwaku Dayie, associate ... |
25 August 2010
08:47 GMT |
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Organelles called mitochondria are oftentimes referred to as the “power plants of the cell.” They are responsible for converting nutrients into ATP (adenosine triphosphate), the basic energy currency in all complex organisms. The mitochondrial genome is therefore extremely important, as is its replication... |
10 August 2010
03:07 GMT |
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Most cells in the human body can be conditioned to revert back to a state called pluripotent. This means that they can then be made to develop back into any kind of cells present in the organisms from which they were extracted. This ability is absolutely essential for developing all sorts of new treatments, given tha... |
26 July 2010
10:16 GMT |
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One of the fundamental truths about our bodies is that most cells need oxygen to survive. We inhale the chemical each breath we take, then take it to our lungs, where the precious molecules are then attached to hemoglobin, one of the most important proteins we have. Hemoglobin itself is housed on red blood cells, ele... |
1 June 2010
06:43 GMT |
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The human genetic code is a relatively simple and straightforward machinery. It features DNA letters, or nucleotides, which together combine in a number of 64 different ways. Once placed in a handy table, these combinations dictate which of the standard 20 amino-acids will be produced. These substances in turn combin... |
6 May 2010
04:12 GMT |
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The University of Montreal's Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC), in Canada, is proud to announce that it will host the country's first ribonucleic acid (RNA) engineering laboratory. The facility will play an instrumental part in learning how to influence the behavior of RNA, small pieces... |
30 April 2010
08:19 GMT |
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One of the most baffling questions related to how life evolved on the planet refers to how the first self-replicating chemicals managed to form more complex structures that also featured genetic material. These simple substances were a long way away from RNA and DNA, the nucleic acids that underlie life today, and th... |
23 April 2010
06:33 GMT |
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Researchers have recently discovered that the earliest complex sugar molecules may have employed the use of silicate ions in order to form even more complex configurations. The new finding could have significant implications for a number of theories on the origins of life, the US team behind the investigation says. I... |
19 February 2010
04:51 GMT |
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Scientists at the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have recently managed to decipher the structure and modus operandi of a remarkable class of ring-shaped protein motors. The team used the state-of-the-art protein crystallography beamline at the Advanced Light ... |
20 November 2009
08:46 GMT |
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Scientists were recently able to determine precisely how bacteria repaired their own RNA. This is the second such mechanism identified in any living thing, with the first having been found some time ago, in the T4 phage, a virus that attacks bacteria. The find was made by a team of scientists from the University of I... |
13 October 2009
05:58 GMT |
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For a long time, researchers have been fascinated with how complex life was able to evolve in the first place. From the primordial soup, a mix of amino-acids and basic RNA molecules, proteins, and eventually more complex structures developed, over millions and billions of years. Expert Stanley Miller was the first to... |
31 August 2009
16:41 GMT |
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Experts from Penn State and the University of Connecticut, in the US, and the University of Beijing, in China, have recently discovered the fact that a certain enzyme inside the human immune system is able to detect certain pairs of viral RNA belonging to infecting pathogens. The enzyme, known as protein kinase R (PK... |
5 August 2009
21:21 GMT |
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Experts at the University of Manchester have made an important breakthrough in studying the origins and evolution of life, when they synthesized the basic elements of ribonucleic acid (RNA), the connecting link between pre-biotic molecules and the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). The find is very important because, until... |
14 May 2009
03:56 GMT |
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The next step in administering antiviral drugs, especially for STDs, could be through the use of biodegradable nanoparticles, able to carry microRNA strands directly to the place of infection and deliver the tiny acid overtime. One day, the innovation, made possible by the efforts of a Yale research team, could resul... |
4 May 2009
10:01 GMT |
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According to two independent study teams, one focusing its efforts on mice, and the other on humans, a new type of gene, called a microRNA, is partially responsible for the onset and development of progressive hearing loss. This condition is a hearing deficit that affects millions around the world, especially the eld... |
13 April 2009
05:47 GMT |
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Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology (GIT) have developed a novel technique of peering inside living cells, which allows them to visualize single molecules of ribonucleic acid (RNA), with much more ease than existing methods. With the use of the new instrument, experts could gain even more access into t... |
7 April 2009
15:01 GMT |
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Researchers investigating the field of drug addiction may have just developed a new method of counteracting people's need for these substances. Rather than addressing the symptoms generated by the lack of the drug, or trying to replace it with something less harmful, the team from the University of Buffalo (UB)&... |
24 March 2009
07:13 GMT |
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Obtaining real molecules in an artificial environment has been a long-time dream for biology engineers, and one that was not short on difficulties that had to be surpassed to achieve it. But now, scientists at the Scripps Research Institute, in La Jolla, California, managed to create such a molecule, a tiny fragment ... |
9 January 2009
07:06 GMT |
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The area of genetics covering the alternate roles that various genes play in different cells and tissues has received too little attention over the years, partially because this phenomenon seemed exotic in nature and was not believed to be a regular occurrence. But now, MIT scientists found that alternative spicing i... |
3 November 2008
08:21 GMT |
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New scientific experiments analyzed the way in which hearts are formed in the small zebrafish, the animal model that is most similar to humans, from a genetic perspective. These creatures are virtually transparent, so they can be seen through. Their rapid multiplying rates allow for studies to go very fast and very s... |
28 October 2008
09:41 GMT |
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What the new vaccine platform basically does is combine the cure for the disease it's meant to treat with small strands of "silencing" RNA, a type of nucleic acid that is used to eliminate the response some proteins give off when foreign bodies are inserted into the cells. This allows for a more precise and even... |
9 October 2008
09:44 GMT |
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For some reason or another, all of us like to believe that Earth is special - after all, our planet is the only one able to sustain life that we know of. Indeed, Earth is special in its own way, but life would not have been possible without the significant contribution of material coming form space. In fact, a new st... |
14 June 2008
04:46 GMT |
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We all know that how we look, behave and function is a question of genes. And genes are made of DNA. But now, a team at Princeton's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, in a research to be published in the journal "Nature", challenges this.They have found an "epigenetic" pathway bypassing DNA, in a ty... |
7 January 2008
04:37 GMT |
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Besides its deadly or morbid side, breast cancer is disastrous for a woman's sex-appeal. Now one of the most common worldwide breast cancer types, locally advanced breast cancer (LABC), has been linked by a NYU School of Medicine team to a molecular switch in the protein synthesis. LABC represents over 50 % of b... |
9 November 2007
06:44 GMT |
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From the color of your hair, eyes, and skin, face shape to all your skills and the way you laugh - everything's a combination of genetics, and how the activity of your genes was shaped by the environment. You may have told your lover she has her father's big blue eyes and her mother's soft skin. Well, ... |
7 November 2007
14:06 GMT |
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Frogs are anything but intelligent; still, a synthetic version of a molecule coming from their eggs could save our big brains from cancer. The molecule called amphinase recognizes the sugary layer on the surface of tumor cell and binds to it before invading the cell and inactivating the RNA inside, killing the tumor.... |
27 June 2007
05:57 GMT |
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95 % of our genome has been thought to be just junk, or simply a useless desert. Up until now, as some scientists have started to disagree on this idea. One of them is Professor Alexandre Reymond, from the Center for Integrative Genomics, University of Lausanne, Switzerland and the Department of Genetic Medicine, Uni... |
20 June 2007
04:49 GMT |
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A newly designed type of DNA computer for human cells could one day lead to the development of a technology able to eliminate the diseased cells and separate them from the healthy ones. The technology is based on the process of RNA interference (RNAi) in which small RNA molecules stop a gene from synthesizing its pro... |
22 May 2007
04:34 GMT |
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Vehicles can vary from the size of a train to that of a ...bacterium. A team at Emory University has created a novel way of controlling the movement of the bacterium Escherichia coli in a chemical environment, opening the opportunity for new enhanced drug delivery, environmental cleanup and synthetic biology. The res... |
12 May 2007
04:32 GMT |
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They say a mother is more than a father. That is true, as a mother invests more of its biology in the offspring anyway. During egg development (oogenesis), the mother deposits in it large amounts of messenger RNAs (mRNAs) and proteins. These mRNAs take over after the sperm did its job to orchestrate the emergence of ... |
28 April 2007
08:46 GMT |
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