Microbiology

Nastiest Bacteria LOV Sunlight

Certain types of bacteria have sunlight-sensing molecules similar to those found in plants, according to a new study. Surprisingly, at least one species—responsible for causing the flu-like disorder Brucellosis—needs light to maximize its virulence. The wo ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 23 2007 - 10:26pm

First Finding Of Entire Enzyme In Only One Sex

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have discovered a chemical compound in male blue crabs that is not present in females-- the first time in any species that an entire enzyme system has been found to be activated in only one sex. The rese ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 25 2007 - 1:31am

Follistatin Makes Mice Mighty

The Johns Hopkins scientist who first showed that the absence of the protein myostatin leads to oversized muscles in mice and men has now found a second protein, follistatin, whose overproduction in mice lacking myostatin doubles the muscle-building effect ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 29 2007 - 2:35am

Understanding How Obese Fat Cells Work

In obese individuals, fat cells are bloated and inflamed because they receive too many nutrients, including lipids. In these cells, various components cannot work properly anymore and, instead, they activate new proteins to cope with the situation. One of ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 30 2007 - 10:55am

The Self-Assembling Armor Of The Clostridium Superbug

A common hospital superbug called Clostridium has a protective coat of armor that can self assemble when put into a test tube on its own, which may have important commercial uses in nanotechnology, according to scientists. Like many other micro-organisms, ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 5 2007 - 5:42pm

Adult Stem Cell Research Produces Key Insight Into Fragile X Syndrome (FXS)

An important finding has been made by McMaster researchers about Fragile X Syndrome (FXS), a sex-linked genetic disorder that affects approximately one in 4,000 males and one in 6,000 females. FXS is the most common genetic disorder associated with mental ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 10 2007 - 4:10pm

ITPR2 Strongly Associated With ALS

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a disease that breaks down tissues in the nervous system. ALS is a disease of the motor neurons leading to a progressive loss of the ability to move virtually any of the muscles in the body. The ALS research team at U ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 12 2007 - 3:27pm

Voltage Sensing And Transduction In Ci-VSP Protein

The voltage sensor of voltage-gated ion channels is a conserved protein domain that senses millivolt changes in transmembrane potential, to regulate ion permeation through the channel. A recently discovered protein, Ci-VSP, has a voltage sensor that is cou ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 14 2007 - 8:52pm

Pinpointed: When A Cell Is Ready To Reproduce

For more than 100 years, scientists have tried to figure out the cell size problem: How does a cell know when it is big enough to divide? In research conducted in budding yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), scientists at Rockefeller University have now ident ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 23 2007 - 10:17am

Getting Republicans Behind Stem Cells- Use Them To Fight Terrorism

For more than a decade, University of Georgia researcher Steve Stice has focused on using embryonic stem cells to improve the lives of people with degenerative diseases and debilitating injuries. His most recent discovery, which produces billions of neural ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 25 2007 - 12:29pm