Microbiology

Recipe For Making Adult Stem Cells Behave Like Embryonic Just Got A Little Simpler

The simple recipe scientists earlier discovered for making adult stem cells behave like embryonic-like stem cells just got even simpler. A new report in the February 6th issue of the journal Cell shows for the first time that neural stem cells taken from a ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 5 2009 - 1:01pm

Saving Michelangelo- Biotech Takes On Microorganisms In Art

Many of the world's cultural treasures are creations made of organic materials such as paper, canvas, wood and leather which, in prolonged warmth and dampness, attract mold, micro-organisms and insects, causing decay and disintegration. ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 8 2009 - 11:37am

Fix A Broken Heart- Literally- With Adult Stem Cells

A little more than a year after University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists showed they could turn skin cells back into stem cells, they have pulsating proof that these "induced" stem cells can indeed form the specialized cells that make up heart ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 15 2009 - 10:53am

Disease Blueprint- The Genome Sequences For 99 Strains Of Common Cold Virus

A multi-institutional team of researchers has reported the sequences for all of the 99 known strains of cold virus, nature's most ubiquitous human pathogen. The feat exposes, in precise detail, all of the molecular features of the many variations of t ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 17 2009 - 12:42am

Microbe Evolution 2.5 Billion Years Ago Began The Aerobic Nitrogen Cycle

As we mark the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, there is much focus on evolution in animals and plants. But new research shows that for the countless billions of tiniest creatures – microbes – large-scale evolution was completed 2.5 billio ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 20 2009 - 12:14am

Reverse Ecology- Reconstructing Bacterial Environments From Millions Of Years Ago

We learn a lot from genes but it turns out we can learn even more- like where you lived or even who you spent time with.   It just requires knowing where and how to look. Researchers from Stanford and Tel-Aviv University are using a technique called " ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 25 2009 - 2:38pm

How Cells Survive Starvation: Self-Digestion

In times of starvation, cells tighten their belts: they start to digest their own proteins and cellular organs. The process- known as autophagy- takes place in special organelles called autophagosomes. It is a strategy that simple yeast cells have develope ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 27 2009 - 10:50am

Old Cells Work Differently Than Young Ones

The agglutination and accumulation of proteins in nerve cells are major hallmarks of age-related neurodegenerative illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease. Cellular survival thus depends on a controlled removal of excessive protein. Scientists at Johann ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 28 2009 - 12:12pm

Protein Folding- Reverse Engineering Nature's Origami

Sometimes known as "nature's origami", the way that proteins fold is vital to ensuring they function correctly. But researchers at the University of Leeds have discovered this is a 'hit and miss' process, with proteins potentially ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 2 2009 - 10:47am

Building Frankentissue With Inside-Out Cells

 Cells keep up with the Joneses.  The peer pressure of signals from complementary cells tells a stem cell how and when to differentiate and grow.  Dr. Carolyn Bertozzi and her team at Lawrence Berkeley laboratory are using molecular self-organization tend ...

Article - Stephanie Pulford - Mar 7 2009 - 11:27am