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Monday, 30 March 2009 10:03 |
 Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered a new energy-making biochemical twist in determining the lifespan of yeast cells, one so valuable to longevity that it is likely to also functions in humans. |
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Monday, 30 March 2009 09:43 |
 A ghostly property of matter, called quantum tunneling, may aid the quest for accurate, low-cost genomic sequencing, according to a new paper in Nature Nanotechnology Letters by Stuart Lindsay and his collaborators at the Biodesign Institute of Arizona State University. Tunneling implies that a particle, say an electron, can cross a barrier, when, according to classical physics, it does not have enough energy to do so. |
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Saturday, 28 March 2009 18:04 |
 A research team at the Scripps Research Institute has obtained the first glimpse of a protein that keeps certain substances, including many drugs, out of cells. The protein, called P-glycoprotein or P-gp for short, is one of the main reasons cancer cells are resistant to chemotherapy drugs. Understanding its structure may help scientists design more effective drugs. |
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Friday, 27 March 2009 17:26 |
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 Cholesterol crystals can disrupt plaque in the cardiovascular system and trigger clot formation, report researchers from Michigan State University (MSU).
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Saturday, 07 March 2009 20:04 |
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 (March 7, 2009) Amphiphilic molecules, which have one water-friendly (hydrophilic) end and one water-repellant (hydrophobic) end, spontaneously aggregate in aqueous solutions to make superstructures like capsules or bilayers. This phenomenon is responsible for the effects of detergents and soaps. Dirt is enclosed in little capsules of surfactant, which makes it water-soluble.
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Saturday, 07 March 2009 19:46 |
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(March 7, 2009) University of Washington (UW) researchers are helping to write the operating manual for the nano-scale machine that separates chromosomes before cell division. The apparatus is called a spindle because it looks like a tiny wool-spinner with thin strands of microtubules or spindle fibers sticking out. The lengthening and shortening of microtubules is thought to help push and pull apart chromosome pairs. |
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Monday, 30 March 2009 09:57 |
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Chemists at the University of Illinois have created a simple and inexpensive molecular technique that replaces an expensive atomic force microscope for studying what happens to small molecules when they are stretched or compressed. |
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Saturday, 28 March 2009 18:08 |
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No doubt proteins are complex. Most are “large” and full of interdependent branches, pockets and bends in their final folded structure. This complexity frustrates biochemists and protein engineers seeking to understand protein structure and function in order to reproduce or create new uses for these natural molecules to fight diseases or for use in industry. |
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Saturday, 28 March 2009 17:56 |
 A tiny genetic mutation is the key to understanding why nicotine--which binds to brain receptors with such addictive potency--is virtually powerless in muscle cells that are studded with the same type of receptor. That's according to California Institute of Technology (Caltech) researchers, who report their findings in the journal Nature. |
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Saturday, 07 March 2009 20:17 |
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(March 7, 2009) Scientists have created a strain of HIV that is able to infect and multiply in monkeys, leading to the possibility that researchers would be able to test HIV/AIDS drugs and vaccines in monkeys before testing them in humans, according to a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Reuters UK reports. |
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Saturday, 07 March 2009 20:00 |
 (March 7, 2009) Revered in India as "holy powder," the marigold-colored spice known as turmeric has been used for centuries to treat wounds, infections and other health problems. In recent years, research into the healing powers of turmeric's main ingredient, curcumin, has burgeoned, as its astonishing array of antioxidant, anti-cancer, antibiotic, antiviral and other properties has been revealed. |
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Saturday, 07 March 2009 19:27 |
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(March 7, 2009) The function of a protein is determined both by its structure and by its interaction partners in the cell. Until now, proteins had to be isolated for analyzing them. An international team of researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University, Goethe University, and the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) has, for the first time, determined the structure of a protein in its natural environment, the living cell. |
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