Microbiology

First In Adult Stem Cell Research- Heart Derived Cells Develop Into Heart Muscle

Dutch researchers at University Medical Center Utrecht and the Hubrecht Institute have succeeded in growing large numbers of stem cells from adult human hearts into new heart muscle cells. Prior to this, it was necessary to use embryonic stem cells. Their ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 23 2008 - 10:47am

Osteoglycin Gene Implicated In Heart Attacks

New heart research published inNature Genetics reveals how a gene called osteoglycin (Ogn), which had not previously been linked with heart function, plays a key role in regulating heart growth. The study suggests that the gene can behave abnormally in som ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 28 2008 - 3:10pm

Blood Pressure, Nutrition And The Secret Double Life Of Proteins

Scientists at The Australian National University are a step closer to understanding the rare Hartnup disorder after discovering a surprising link between blood pressure regulation and nutrition that could also help to shed light on intestinal and kidney fu ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 30 2008 - 11:09am

Silent Fungus Mechanism Could Lead To New Natural Products

Fungi produce a number of natural products. Some are potent toxins, like the amanitins primarily responsible for the toxicity of the death cap fungus. Others are life-saving drugs such as penicillin. Because of that diversity, the genetics of fungi have ge ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 30 2008 - 10:53am

Aspartic Acid- Why Bubonic Plague Is So Lethal

Bubonic plague has killed hundreds of millions of people during the course of history. It is the most devastating acute infectious disease known to man. Scientists remain uncertain about the molecular basis of its extraordinary virulence. Bacteria that cau ...

Article - News Staff - May 4 2008 - 6:56pm

Some Body Fat Reduces Insulin Resistance- Study

It has long been known that type 2 diabetes is linked to obesity, particularly fat inside the belly. Now, researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center have found that fat from other areas of the body can actually reduce insulin resistance and improve insulin ...

Article - News Staff - May 6 2008 - 11:58am

The Nucleosome Roadblock On The Path To Understanding Gene Expression

A team of scientists has provided, for the first time, a detailed map of how the building blocks of chromosomes, the cellular structures that contain genes, are organized in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. The work identifies a critical stop sign fo ...

Article - News Staff - May 8 2008 - 12:37pm

Myosin 2- Turkeys, Scallops And The Aneurism Connection

600 million years of evolution has taken two unlikely distant cousins, turkeys and scallops, down very different physical paths from their common ancestor but a motor protein, myosin 2, remains structurally identical in both creatures. Myosin molecules gen ...

Article - News Staff - May 12 2008 - 10:14am

Systems Biology- How Stem Cells Decide What They'll Be

How does a stem cell decide what specialized identity to adopt – or simply to remain a stem cell? A new study suggests that the conventional view, which assumes that cells are “instructed” to progress along prescribed signaling pathways, is too simplistic. ...

Article - News Staff - May 21 2008 - 11:48pm

The Secret Life Of Embryonic Stem Cells

In the contentious political debate over embryo stem (ES) cell research, both proponents and opponents begin with the premise that "embryos are destroyed for their cells," as President Bush claims and non-partisan journalists repeat frequently in ...

Article - Lee Silver - May 25 2008 - 9:18pm