Tag Archives: cell

Study of the machinery of cells reveals clues to neurological disorder

By Guest PostMay 16, 2013Sciencebiogenesis, cell, charcot, common neurological disorder, crop plants, cross talk, disease causing mutations, embo reports, energy factories, eth zurich, fatty acids, fragmentation of mitochondria, function, humans, kate mcintosh, marie, metabolism, michael schrader, mitochondria, organelles, organelles peroxisomes, peroxisomal division, peroxisomes, reactive oxygen species, researcher, sofia guimaraes, symptoms, tooth disease, touch sensation, uk, university of exeter, yeast

Investigation by researchers from the University of Exeter and ETH Zurich has shed new light on a protein which is linked to a common neurological disorder called Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.

The team has discovered that a protein previously identified on mitochondria – the energy factories of the cell – is also found on the fat-metabolising organelles peroxisomes, suggesting a closer link between the two organelles.

Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease is currently incurable and affects around one in every 2,500 people in the UK, meaning that it is one of the most common inherited neurological disorders, thus understanding the molecular basis of the disease is of great importance. Symptoms can range from tremors and loss of touch sensation in the feet and legs to difficulties with breathing, swallowing, speaking, hearing and vision. (more…)

How Do Cells Tell Time? Scientists Develop Single-Cell Imaging to Watch the Cell Clock

By Guest PostNovember 18, 2012Science24 hour, activity, biological noise, cell, cell division, circadian clock, cyclic gene, cyclic protein, cyclical behavior, embryonic segmentation, embryonic segments, emilie delaune, gene, gene activation, life, lifespan, mesoderm, mitosis, molecular clock, muscle, nathan shih, nervous system, notch signaling pathway, oscillating pattern, oscillation, paul françois, phase, protein, sharon amacher, signal, signal reception, single cell, somites, synchronization, tissue segments, vasculature, vertebrae, visualization, visualize, zebrafish embryos

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new way to visualize single-cell activity in living zebrafish embryos has allowed scientists to clarify how cells line up in the right place at the right time to receive signals about the next phase of their life.

Scientists developed the imaging tool in single living cells by fusing a protein defining the cells’ cyclical behavior to a yellow fluorescent protein that allows for visualization. Zebrafish embryos are already transparent, but with this closer microscopic look at the earliest stages of life, the researchers have answered two long-standing questions about how cells cooperate to form embryonic segments that later become muscle and vertebrae. (more…)

Researchers Report Potential New Treatment to Stop Alzheimer’s Disease

By Guest PostNovember 16, 2012Health, Sciencealzheimer, amyloid beta, blood brain barrier, brain, brain pathology, cell, clr01, disease, disorders, gal bitan, inhibitor, mammalian animal model, memory, molecular compound, molecular tweezer, mouse model, neuron, parkinsons disease, pathologic feature, process specific, radioactive label, tau, toxic protein, ucla

Molecular ‘tweezers’ break up toxic aggregations of proteins in mouse model

Last March, researchers at UCLA reported the development of a molecular compound called CLR01 that prevented toxic proteins associated with Parkinson’s disease from binding together and killing the brain’s neurons.

Building on those findings, they have now turned their attention to Alzheimer’s disease, which is thought to be caused by a similar toxic aggregation or clumping, but with different proteins, especially amyloid-beta and tau. (more…)

Study Reveals Declining Influence of High Impact Factor Journals

By Guest PostNovember 12, 2012Sciencearticle citations, articles, bibliometrics, calculation error, cell, digital technology, discipline, eugene garfield, function, george lozano, google scholar, jama, journal impact factor, montreal, Nature, predictive power, publication, scholarly journals, Science, scientific texts, university, vincent lariviere, yves gingras

The most prestigious peer-reviewed journals in the world, such as Cell, Nature, Science, and the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), have less and less influence amongst scientists, according to a paper co-authored by Vincent Larivière, a professor at the University of Montreal’s School of Library and Information Sciences. He questions the relationship between journal “impact factor” and number of citations subsequently received by papers.

“In 1990, 45% of the top 5% most cited articles were published in the top 5% highest impact factor journals. In 2009, this rate was only 36%,” Larivière said. “This means that the most cited articles are published less exclusively in high impact factor journals.” The proportion of these articles published in major scholarly journals has sharply declined over the last twenty years. His study was based on a sample of more than 820 million citations and 25 million articles published between 1902 and 2009. The findings were published in the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. (more…)

Compound in Grapes, Red Wine Could be Key to Fighting Prostate Cancer

By Guest PostNovember 10, 2012Healthaggressive tumor, animal model, cancer, cardiovascular health, cell, chemotherapy, clinical trials, compound, granzyme b, grape skins, grocery stores, human health, michael nicholl, missouri, perforin, prostate cancer, prostate tumor, proteins, radiation therapy, radiation treatment, red wine, resveratrol, stroke prevention, therapeutic agent, university

MU researcher finds that prostate tumor cells are more susceptible to treatment after being exposed to resveratrol, a compound found in grape skins and red wine.

Resveratrol, a compound found commonly in grape skins and red wine, has been shown to have several beneficial effects on human health, including cardiovascular health and stroke prevention. Now, a University of Missouri researcher has discovered that the compound can make prostate tumor cells more susceptible to radiation treatment, increasing the chances of a full recovery from all types of prostate cancer, including aggressive tumors.

“Other studies have noted that resveratrol made tumor cells more susceptible to chemotherapy, and we wanted to see if it had the same effect for radiation therapy,” said Michael Nicholl, an assistant professor of surgical oncology in the MU School of Medicine. “We found that when exposed to the compound, the tumor cells were more susceptible to radiation treatment, but that the effect was greater than just treating with both compounds separately.” (more…)

Folding Funnels Key to Biomimicry

By Guest PostNovember 9, 2012Scienceafm, archaea, array, atomic force microscopy, babak sanii, bacteria, berkeley lab, biomimicry, biomolecular nanomachines, bones, carolyn bertozzi, cell, collagen matrices, collagen monomers, concept, fabrication, folding funnel, free energy, function, humans, jim deyoreo, key, kinetic traps, luis comolli, mica surface, molecular foundry, molecule level, molecules, multiple proteins, nanoscale synthesis, Nature, ordered structure, organic scaffolds, properties, protein folding, protein structure, proteins, pseudohexagonal symmetry, s layer, self assemble, seong ho shin, sungwook chung, surface layer, teeth

Berkeley Lab Finding that Protein Folding Funnels Also Apply to Self-Assembly Should Benefit Biomimicry and Nanosynthesis

Proteins are able to self-assemble into a wide range of highly ordered structures that feature a diverse array of properties. Through biomimicry – technological innovation inspired by nature – humans hope to emulate proteins and produce our own version of self-assembling molecules. A key to accomplishing this is understanding how protein-folding – a process critical to the form and function of a protein – is extended from individual proteins to complex assemblies.

Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have now shown that a concept widely accepted as describing the folding of a single individual protein is also applicable to the self-assembly of multiple proteins. Their findings provide important guidelines for future biomimicry efforts, particularly for device fabrication and nanoscale synthesis. (more…)

A Welcome Predictability

By Guest PostOctober 9, 2012Scienceadam arkin, adaptor, advanced phase, bacteria, bacterial, berkeley lab, carbon, cell, chang liu, code, composability, computer hardware, criteria, denise wang, dna nucleotides, element, energy fuel, Environment, escherichia coli, fluorescence microscopy, function, gene, genetic engineering, global cycle, higher order, image, julius lucks, lei qi, medical drug, microbial component, molecules, non coding, plasmid pair, radioactive waste, rna, sustainable production, synthesize protein, synthetic biology, synthetic circuit, thomas segall shapiro, toxic, transcriptional elongation, translational regulator, utrs, vivek mutalik

Berkeley Lab Researchers Develop New Tool for Making Genetic Engineering of Microbial Circuits Reliably Predictable

Synthetic biology is the latest and most advanced phase of genetic engineering, holding great promise for helping to solve some of the world’s most intractable problems, including the sustainable production of energy fuels and critical medical drugs, and the safe removal of toxic and radioactive waste from the environment. However, for synthetic biology to reach its promise, the design and construction of biological systems must be as predictable as the assembly of computer hardware.

An important step towards attaining a higher degree of predictability in synthetic biology has been taken by a group of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) under the leadership of computational biologist Adam Arkin. Arkin and his team have developed an “adaptor” that makes the genetic engineering of microbial components substantially easier and more predictable by converting regulators of translation into regulators of transcription in Escherichia coli. Transcription and translation make up the two-step process by which the coded instructions of genes are used to synthesize proteins. (more…)

Omega-3 Supplements May Slow a Biological Effect of Aging

By Guest PostOctober 5, 2012Healthaging, alzheimer's disease, american, arthritis, balance, beom seuk hwang, biological process, blood, blood cell, cardiovascular system, cell, coronary, daily intake, dha, diabetes, diet, DNA, docosahexaenoic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid, elissa epel, elizabeth blackburn, epa, f2 isoprostanes, fatty acid, fish oil, free radical, good fat, heart, heart disease, il 6, immune system, inflammation, inflammatory marker, interleukin 6, jan kiecolt glaser, jue lin, martha belury, ohio state, oil, omega 6, omega-3, oxidative stress, placebo group, polyunsaturated fatty acid, ratio, rebecca andridge, reduce, ron glaser, segment, supplement, telomeres, type 2, white, william malarkey

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Taking enough omega-3 fatty acid supplements to change the balance of oils in the diet could slow a key biological process linked to aging, new research suggests.

The study showed that most overweight but healthy middle-aged and older adults who took omega-3 supplements for four months altered a ratio of their fatty acid consumption in a way that helped preserve tiny segments of DNA in their white blood cells. (more…)