Microbiology

A Step Closer To Understanding The Cause Of High Blood Pressure

Researchers know that high blood pressure causes blood vessels to contract and low blood pressure causes blood vessels to relax but no one had the tools to determine the exact proteins responsible for this phenomenon. By using atomic force microscopy and ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 18 2008 - 9:51am

Lipid-Based Hormone Begets The Notion Of Curing Obesity By Boosting Fat Production

A hormone found at higher levels when the body produces its own "home grown" fat comes with considerable metabolic benefits, according to a report in Cell. The newly discovered signaling molecule is the first example of a lipid-based hormone; mo ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 18 2008 - 1:52pm

Good Genes Gone Bad May Explain Type 1 Diabetes

New research from Stanford University scientists suggests that type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease that develops in children and young adults, may not be due to bad genes but rather to good genes behaving badly. Because type 1 diabetes typically runs i ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 19 2008 - 2:04pm

Cellular 'Trash' May Be Awesome Pirate Loot To Researchers

Identity thieves can learn a lot about you from your trash and so it goes that a cell's "trash" can yield treasures for biologists. Using a new technique they developed, scientists at University of Delaware's Delaware Biotechnology Ins ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 19 2008 - 4:24pm

Prebiotic Interstellar Discovery- Naphthalene From Space Could Have Helped Form Amino Acids

Naphthalene molecules, in combination with water, ammonia and ultraviolet radiation, produce many of the amino acids fundamental to the development of life. A team of scientists led by researchers from the Instituto Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has succee ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 19 2008 - 9:32pm

You Know You Want a Yeast Biochemical Pathways Wall Poster

Who wouldn't want a map of all the known yeast metabolic pathways on the wall? Download your copy here (PDF). The catch is you have to print it out yourself. This poster offers a birds-eye glance at some of the complexity that goes on inside just a si ...

Blog Post - Michael White - Oct 22 2008 - 10:28pm

Comorbidity- Ghrelin 'Hunger Hormone' Implicated In Alcohol Dependence

Ghrelin is a peptide, produced mainly in the stomach but also found in the brain, that is known to affect food intake by increasing feelings of hunger and the urge to eat. A new study has examined ghrelin's role in other addictive behaviors and findi ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 23 2008 - 4:44pm

GIF1 Gene Discovery May Mean Bigger Rice Grains (And More Food)

A team of scientists has identified a gene in rice that controls the size and weight of rice grains. The gene may prove to be useful for breeding high-yield rice and, thus, may benefit the vast number of people who rely on this staple food for survival. T ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 28 2008 - 1:30pm

Biology's Secret Police- Bacterial Crisis Command Center Revealed

Bacteria are everywhere and can survive in almost anything. Finding out exactly how bacteria respond and adapt to stresses and dangers will further our understanding of the basic survival mechanisms of some of the most resilient, hardy organisms on Earth. ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 2 2008 - 3:22pm

Mysterious 'Ultraconserved' Regions Of DNA Survive Eons Of Evolution

Small stretches of DNA with unknown utility harbor a big secret, say researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine, but they don't know what it is. Those secrets are always the biggest. Individual laboratory animals appear to live happily ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 1 2008 - 6:03pm