Medicine

Sticky is good. A University of California, San Diego bioengineer is the first author on an article in the journal Science that provides insights on the "stickiness of life." The big idea is that cells, tissues and organisms hailing from all limbs of the tree of life respond to stimuli using basic biological "modules." For example, the researchers outlined similar strategies across biology for fulfilling the tasks of "sticking together" (cell-cell interactions), "sticking to their surroundings" (cell-extracellular matrix [ECM] interactions), and responding to forces. Adam Engler, a…

St. Louis, April 6, 2009 — For years, microbiologist Stephen Beverley, Ph.D., has tried to get the disease-causing parasite Leishmania in the mood for love. In this week's Science, he and colleagues at the National Institutes of Health report that they may have finally found the answer: Cram enough Leishmania into the gut of an insect known as the sand fly, and the parasite will have sex. Some strains of the parasite are deadly and kill hundreds of thousands of people annually in developing countries. Offspring of the parasite's dalliances may hold the genetic key to neutralizing it. The…

PHILADELPHIA -– Biologists at the University of Pennsylvania have revealed a hidden code that determines the expression level of a gene, providing a way to distinguish efficient genes from inefficient ones. The new research, which involved creating hundreds of synthetic green-glowing genes, provides an explanation for how a cell "knows" how much of each protein to make, providing just the right amount of protein to maintain homeostasis yet not too much to cause cell toxicity. In the study, Penn biologists analyzed how protein levels are governed by synonymous, or silent, mutations within the…

LA JOLLA, Calif., April 9, 2009—Scientists at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) and the University of California San Diego (UC San Diego) School of Medicine have demonstrated in mice that transplanted pancreatic precursor cells are protected from the immune system when encapsulated in polytetrafluorethylene (PTFE). The study, which suggests a new approach to treating Type 1 diabetes, was published online on April 8 in the journal Transplantation. The team of scientists showed that after transplantation, the precursor cells mature into functional beta cells that are glucose-…

A new study reveals the importance of adenylylation in the regulation of cell signaling from bacteria to higher organisms. The research, published by Cell Press in the April 10th issue of the journal Molecular Cell, provides new insight into bacterial pathogenesis and opens intriguing avenues for exploring post-translational modifications in eukaryotic cells. Immunoglobulin binding protein A (IbpA) is a large fibrillar surface antigen that is produced by the respiratory pathogen Histophilus somni and has been implicated in virulence and host toxicity. One section of IbpA is similar to YopT, a…

Scientists have developed a new approach for surveying phosphorylation, a process that is regulated by critical cell signaling pathways and regulates several key cellular signaling events. The research, published by Cell Press in the April 10th issue of the journal Molecular Cell, describes the regulation of a previously uncharacterized protein and demonstrates that it plays an important role in cancer cell invasion. Many cancers, including melanoma, are associated with mutations in the gene encoding the protein kinase B-Raf. Kinases are proteins that regulate the function of other proteins…

Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have designed tiny RNA molecules that shut off the gene that causes Huntington's disease without damaging that gene's healthy counterpart, which maintains the health and vitality of neurons. Laboratory studies suggest that a single small interfering RNA could reduce production of the damaging Huntingtin protein in nearly half of people with the disease. Another 25 percent of patients might benefit from one of a set of four additional small interfering RNAs. Phillip D. Zamore, an HHMI investigator at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in…

RENO, Nev.— University of Nevada School of Medicine scientists in the Department of Physiology and Cell Biology have discovered insight into the reproductive workings of the male sex chromosome that may have significant implications for male infertility and contraception. This important discovery has been published in Nature Genetics, one of the highest-ranking journals in the field of biomedical research based upon the impact factor. The study findings indicate that the X chromosome in developing sperm cells encodes numerous tiny ribonucleic acids called microRNAs…

Amsterdam, 9 April 2009 – A recent special edition of the Elsevier journal Virology (www.elsevier.com/locate/viro), reviews the past, present, and future of the exciting field of small DNA tumor viruses. Many of the leaders in the field, including Dr Harald Zur Hausen, who was honored with the 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his discovery of the role of human papillomaviruses in cervical cancer, contributed to this comprehensive state-of-the-art publication. In the field of viral oncology, particularly the studies of the small DNA tumor viruses (the polyomaviruses, the adenoviruses and the…

AMES, Iowa -- Increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are a concern to many environmentalists who research global warming. The lack of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration, however, actually limits the growth of plants and their aquatic relatives, microalgae. For plants and microalgae, CO2 is vital to growth. It fuels their photosynthesis process that, along with sunlight, manufactures sugars required for growth. CO2 is present in such a limiting concentration that microalgae and some plants have evolved mechanisms to capture and concentrate CO2 in their cells to…