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How a Shape-shifting DNA-repair Machine Fights Cancer

By Guest PostMarch 2, 2014Scienceals beamline, berkeley lab, broken dna, cancer, cancer cells, dna repair functions, dna repair machine, fight, fix, john tainer, mre11 rad50, mutation, protein complex, shape shifting, sybils, tanya paull, university of texas

Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source reveals inner-workings of essential protein found throughout life.

Maybe you’ve seen the movies or played with toy Transformers, those shape-shifting machines that morph in response to whatever challenge they face. It turns out that DNA-repair machines in your cells use a similar approach to fight cancer and other diseases, according to research led by scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).

As reported in a pair of new studies, the scientists gained new insights into how a protein complex called Mre11-Rad50 reshapes itself to take on different DNA-repair tasks. (more…)

Engineering Bacterial Live Wires

By Guest PostMarch 13, 2013Sciencebacterial species, berkeley lab, bioelectronic systems, biological wire, caroline ajo franklin, cell membranes, cheryl goldbeck, common language, e coli, electron, electronic communication systems, energy, energy conversion techniques, guillaume cambray, heather jensen, information transfer, largus angenent, living cell, matt hepler, metabolic pathways, michaela teravest, molecular foundry, mr 1, mtrcab pathway, nanocrystalline iron oxide, nicole beedle, protein complex, shewanella oneidensis, strain, synthesis, university of california, vivek mutalik, yancey appling

Berkeley Lab scientists discover the balance that allows electricity to flow between cells and electronics

Just like electronics, living cells use electrons for energy and information transfer. Despite electrons being a common “language” of the living and electronic worlds, living cells cannot speak to our largely technological realm. Cell membranes are largely to blame for this inability to plug cells into our computers: they form a greasy barrier that tightly controls charge balance in a cell. Thus, giving a cell the ability to communicate directly with an electrode would lead to enormous opportunities in the development of new energy conversion techniques, fuel production, biological reporters, or new forms of bioelectronic systems. (more…)

A Dual Look at Photosystem II Using the World’s Most Powerful X-Ray Laser

By Guest PostFebruary 27, 2013Sciencealgae, berkeley lab, carbon dioxide, catalytic activities, cryogenic temperatures, cyanobacteria, data, earth, energy, free electron laser, green plants, jan kern, junko yano, laser pulses, lcls, light source, linac coherent, living cells, manganese calcium, metal ion, metalloenzyme crystal, metalloenzymes, mn4ca, molecular oxygen, most powerful, natural photosynthesis, nicholas sauter, nitrogen fixation, oxidation states, photo reduction, photon step cycle, photon steps, photosystem, protein complex, proteins, radiation damage, roberto alonso mori, s1 to s4, sensitive to radiation, simulate solar photons, slac, software tools, sunlight, uwe bergmann, vital to life, vittal yachandra, water, water molecules, world, xes, xfel, xray beams, xray diffraction, xray emission spectroscopy, xray laser, xrd

Berkeley Lab and SLAC Researchers Demonstrate Room Temperature Simultaneous Diffraction/Spectroscopy of Metalloenzymes

From providing living cells with energy, to nitrogen fixation, to the splitting of water molecules, the catalytic activities of metalloenzymes – proteins that contain a metal ion – are vital to life on Earth. A better understanding of the chemistry behind these catalytic activities could pave the way for exciting new technologies, most prominently artificial photosynthesis systems that would provide clean, green and renewable energy. Now, researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have taken a major step towards achieving this goal.

Using ultrafast, intensely bright pulses of X-rays from SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), the world’s most powerful X-ray laser, the researchers were able to simultaneously image at room temperature the atomic and electronic structures of photosystem II, a metalloenzyme critical to photosynthesis. (more…)

Tiny Capsule Effectively Kills Cancer Cells

By Guest PostFebruary 19, 2013Healthbiliang hu, cancer cells, cancer treatment, cancerous cells, chapel hill, chemotherapy, functional form, gene therapies, genetic mutation, growth of tumors, healthy cells, human breast cancer, kills, laboratory mice, muxun zhao, nano today, non cancerous cells, north Carolina, nucleus, pin wang, polymer shells, protein complex, proteins, reversible polymer encapsulation, risk, self destruction, signals, strategy, tiny capsule, university, water soluble polymer, yi tang, zhen gu

Scientists create nanoscale vehicle to battle cancer without harming healthy cells

A tiny capsule invented at a UCLA lab could go a long way toward improving cancer treatment.
Devising a method for more precise and less invasive treatment of cancer tumors, a team led by researchers from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science has developed a degradable nanoscale shell to carry proteins to cancer cells and stunt the growth of tumors without damaging healthy cells.

In a new study, published online Feb. 1 in the peer-reviewed journal Nano Today, a group led by Yi Tang, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and a member of the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA, reports developing tiny shells composed of a water-soluble polymer that safely deliver a protein complex to the nucleus of cancer cells to induce their death. The shells, which at about 100 nanometers are roughly half the size of the smallest bacterium, degrade harmlessly in non-cancerous cells. (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…)

Discovery of a Mechanism that Controls the Expression of a Protein Involved in Numerous Cancers

By Guest PostOctober 22, 2010Health, Sciencecancer, cancers, colon, cures to cancer, ejc, institute for research in immunology and cancer, iric, lung, mapk protein, marc therrien, mechanism controlling the transmission of an abnormal signal, melanomas, pancreatic, protein complex, signalling pathway, université de montréal

Marc Therrien. Image credit: University of Montreal

Researchers at the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) of the Université de Montréal have identified a new mechanism controlling the transmission of an abnormal signal at the origin of several cancers. In an article published in the journal Cell, Marc Therrien’s team explains the recent discovery of a protein complex that controls the RAS/MAPK signalling pathway, responsible for some of the deadliest cancers, including pancreatic, colon and lung cancers, and melanomas. This regulating mechanism could prove to be a promising therapeutic target for the treatment of these diseases. The study conducted on the drosophila model organism is to be verified in humans in a forthcoming step. (more…)

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