Genetics & Molecular Biology

Duplex Separation- Unwinding DNA In Cell Replication

Georgia State University researchers are manipulating individual atoms in DNA and forming unique molecules in hopes of understanding the mechanisms of DNA replication and transcription, and perhaps leading to new treatments for diseases. Chemistry and chem ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 18 2009 - 12:08pm

Will Standards Advance Microbial Genomics?

Over 60 percent of the nearly 5,000 genome projects reported in the Genomes OnLine Database involve microbes.   It's no surprise.   Microbes are important in everything from bioenergy to agriculture and medicine and are involved in Earth’s biogeochemi ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 19 2009 - 11:49am

Labyrinthulomycetes: Crude Oil-Eating Organisms To Get Genomes Sequenced

Labyrinthulomycetes, single-celled marine decomposers that eat non-living plant, algal, and animal matter, are ubiquitous and abundant, particularly on dead vegetation and in salt marshes and mangrove swamps. Although most labyrinthulomycetes species are n ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 19 2009 - 12:13pm

Photolithography Technique Measures Cellular Forces Of Living Cells During Tissue Development

A new micro-tool allows researchers to measure and manipulate cellular forces as assemblies of living cells reorganize themselves into tissues.  The new technique allows researchers to gauge how cells' minute mechanical forces affect cellular behavior ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 19 2009 - 12:47pm

Sox17 Genetic Toggle Switch A Step Toward Diabetes Cure?

Scientists writing in Developmental Cell say they have identified a master regulator gene for early embryonic development of the pancreas and other organs, putting researchers closer to coaxing stem cells into pancreatic cells and then a possible cure for ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 20 2009 - 11:34am

Vertebrate Genome Reorganization: Sea Lamprey Embryo Discards Millions Of Units Of Its DNA

Researchers writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences say they have discovered that the sea lamprey, which emerged from jawless fish first appearing 500 million years ago, dramatically remodels its genome. Shortly after a fertilized lampre ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 20 2009 - 4:29pm

Extreme Cell Behavior, Coming To A Video Near You

How do individual cells survive conditions that should kill them?  It's long been a mystery of nature but a team of researchers recently tracked the chemical changes in Desulfovibrio vulgaris, which is a single-cell bacterium that normally can only ex ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 21 2009 - 9:08am

Stem Cells Come Full Circle- Used To Create Skin

In all the talk about using skin cells to create pluripotent stem cells that don't need human embryonic destruction,  dental and tissue engineering researchers at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 21 2009 - 10:08am

Win A $25,000 Life Science Prize From GE

I assume all of you know this but, if not, here is the blurb I keep getting from the kind marketing folks at Science. The upside: $25,000 The catch: The topic is limited to molecular biology.    The criteria: This is for 'early career life scientists& ...

Blog Post - Hank Campbell - Jul 21 2009 - 10:50pm

Physical Chemistry Makes Us Different

One of my recently developed rules: avoid the last minute rush. I don't run to catch the Metro train, and I don't scramble to put my data into some sort of coherent form when I have to give a lab meeting presentation on short notice. So I'm ...

Article - Michael White - Jul 22 2009 - 4:24pm