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Can thermodynamics help us better understand human cancers?

By Guest PostOctober 18, 2013Scienceavinoam ben shaul, better understand, biomarker, cellular process, chemistry, francoise remacle, gene array analysis, human cancer, mechanisms of disease, physical dynamics, raphael levine, sohila zadran, surprisal analysis, thermodynamic signature, thermodynamics, war on cancer, wolf prize

When the “war on cancer” was declared with the signing of the National Cancer Act in 1971, identifying potential physical traits, or biomarkers, that would allow doctors to detect the disease early on was a significant goal. To this day, progress in the battle against cancer depends on understanding the underlying causes and molecular mechanisms of the disease.

In a new study, UCLA researchers analyzed the gene-expression profiles of more than 2,000 patients and were able to identify cancer-specific gene signatures for breast, lung, prostate and ovarian cancers. The study applied an innovative approach to gene-array analysis known as “surprisal analysis,” which uses the principles of thermodynamics — the study of the relationship between different forms of energy — to understand cellular processes in cancer. (more…)

Reading the Human Genome

By Guest PostMarch 10, 2013Scienceautomated data collection, berkeley lab, biomolecular machinery, biophysicist eva nogales, cellular process, central dogma, cryo electron microscopy, cryo em, DNA, dna promoter complex, dylan taatjes, gene sequence, genetic information, human genome, jie fang, malfunctions, molecular biology, paula flicker, pre initiation complex, rna, rna polymerase, rna transcription, structural data, tata binding protein, tbp, transcription, transcription factors, yuan he

Berkeley Lab Researchers Produce First Step-by-Step Look at Transcription Initiation

Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have achieved a major advance in understanding how genetic information is transcribed from DNA to RNA by providing the first step-by-step look at the biomolecular machinery that reads the human genome.

“We’ve provided a series of snapshots that shows how the genome is read one gene at a time,” says biophysicist Eva Nogales who led this research. “For the genetic code to be transcribed into messenger RNA, the DNA double helix has to be opened and the strand of gene sequences has to be properly positioned so that RNA polymerase, the enzyme that catalyzes transcription, knows where the gene starts. The electron microscopy images we produced show how this is done.” (more…)

Making Blood-Sucking Deadly for Mosquitoes

By Guest PostJuly 17, 2011Scienceaedes aegypti, biochemical processes, blood feeding, blood meal, cellular process, coatomer protein 1, copi, copi system, dengue fever, dengue hemorrhagic fever, dengue viruses, digestive enzymes, egg production cycle, jun isoe, molecular process cells, mosquitoes, protein complex, proteins, rnai, roger miesfeld, secretion of enzymes, sub tropical, tablespoons of sugar, the university of arizona, toolbox, tropical regions of africa, vesicle transport, warm blooded animals

*Inhibiting a molecular process cells use to direct proteins to their proper destinations causes more than 90 percent of affected mosquitoes to die within 48 hours of blood feeding, a UA team of biochemists found.*

Mosquitoes die soon after a blood meal if certain protein components are experimentally disrupted, a team of biochemists at the University of Arizona has discovered.

The approach could be used as an additional strategy in the worldwide effort to curb mosquito-borne diseases like dengue fever, yellow fever and malaria. (more…)

Tag Archives: cellular process

Can thermodynamics help us better understand human cancers?

Reading the Human Genome

Making Blood-Sucking Deadly for Mosquitoes