Tag Archives: protein

University of Toronto Study Demonstrates Impact of Adversity on Early Life Development

By Guest PostOctober 28, 2012Sciencebehavioural geneticist, biology, british columbia, childhood adversity, chris reaume, cifar, dna sequence, drosophila melanogaster, ebbd, Environment, enzyme, evidence, evolutionary biology, food, for, foraging gene, fruit fly, gene, gene robinson, human development, illinois, interaction, james burns, kindergartener, larvae, marla sokolowski, molecular genetics, Nature, neuroscience, pkg, pnas, pre programmed, protein, reproductive fitness, rna, rovers, sitters, tom boyce, toronto, transgenic manipulation, university

Study part of growing body of knowledge surrounding gene-environment interplay

TORONTO, ON – It is time to put the nature versus nurture debate to rest and embrace growing evidence that it is the interaction between biology and environment in early life that influences human development, according to a series of studies recently published in a special edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

“Biologists used to think that our differences are pre-programmed in our genes, while psychologists argued that babies are born with a blank slate and their experience writes on it to shape them into the adults they become. Instead, the important question to be asking is, ‘How is our experience in early life getting embedded in our biology?’” says University of Toronto behavioural geneticist Marla Sokolowski. She is co-editor of the PNAS special edition titled “Biological Embedding of Early Social Adversity: From Fruit Flies to Kindergarteners” along with professors Tom Boyce (University of British Columbia) and Gene Robinson (University of Illinois). (more…)

How Silver Turns People Blue

By Guest PostOctober 27, 2012Scienceabsorb, acidic environment, agnes kane, antimicrobial, argyria, base membrane, bioavailable salt, bloodstream, brown researcher, brown university, charged ions, disorder, electron, environmental impact, exposure scenario, frances liu, germs, gi tract, grayish blue, health tonics, jingyu liu, medical treatment, nanoparticle, particle, photochemical reaction, protein, robert hurt, salt ion, silver, silver atom, silver salt, skin, toxic, toxicity, zhongying wang

Ingesting silver — in antimicrobial health tonics or for extensive medical treatments involving silver — can cause argyria, condition in which the skin turns grayish-blue. Brown researchers have discovered how that happens. The process is similar to developing black-and-white photographs, and it’s not just the silver.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Researchers from Brown University have shown for the first time how ingesting too much silver can cause argyria, a rare condition in which patients’ skin turns a striking shade of grayish blue.

“It’s the first conceptual model giving the whole picture of how one develops this condition,” said Robert Hurt, professor of engineering at Brown and part of the research team. “What’s interesting here is that the particles someone ingests aren’t the particles that ultimately cause the disorder.” (more…)

Analysis of Dinosaur Bone Cells Confirms Ancient Protein Preservation

By Guest PostOctober 26, 2012Scienceancient dinosaur, antibodies, backbone, bone cell, brachylophosaurus canadensis, cellular structure, collagen, dinosaurian, DNA, dna molecule, evolutionary change, fibrous material, fibrous matrix, histochemistry, marshall bern, mary schweitzer, mass spectrometry, microbe, microscopy, north Carolina, origin, osteocytes, ostrich osteocytes, palo alto, parc, phex, protein, reactivity, research center, sample contamination, state university, tyrannosaurus rex, vertebrate, wenxia zheng

A team of researchers from North Carolina State University and the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) has found more evidence for the preservation of ancient dinosaur proteins, including reactivity to antibodies that target specific proteins normally found in bone cells of vertebrates. These results further rule out sample contamination, and help solidify the case for preservation of cells – and possibly DNA – in ancient remains.

Dr. Mary Schweitzer, professor of marine, earth and atmospheric sciences with a joint appointment at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, first discovered what appeared to be preserved soft tissue in a 67-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus Rex in 2005. Subsequent research revealed similar preservation in an even older (about 80-million-year-old)Brachylophosaurus canadensis. In 2007 and again in 2009, Schweitzer and colleagues used chemical and molecular analyses to confirm that the fibrous material collected from the specimens was collagen. (more…)

The Best of Both Catalytic Worlds

By Guest PostOctober 13, 2012ScienceBerkeley, berkeley lab, biochemistry, biomolecule, california, cancer, catalysis program, catalyst, catalytic reactivity, chemical reaction, cholesterol medicine, complex reaction, cyclopropanation reaction, cyclopropane, dean toste, dendrimers, elad gross, enzyme, gabor somorjai, gold nanocluster, heterogeneous, homogeneous, industrial catalyst, metal catalysts, metal nanocluster, molecule, palladium, pamam, platinum, product selectivity, property, protein, recyclability, rhodium, substance, university

Berkeley Lab Researchers Develop New Technique for Heterogenizing Homogenous Nano Catalysts

Catalysts are substances that speed up the rates of chemical reactions without themselves being chemically changed. Industrial catalysts come in two main types – heterogeneous, in which the catalyst is in a different phase from the reactants; and homogeneous, in which catalyst and the reactants are in the same phase. Heterogeneous catalysts are valued for their sustainability because they can be recycled. Homogeneous catalysts are valued for their product selectivity as their properties can be easily tuned through relatively simple chemistry.

Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have combined the best properties of both types of industrial catalysts by encapsulating nanoclusters of a metallic heterogeneous catalyst within the branched arms of the molecules known as dendrimers. (more…)

Sticky Paper Offers Cheap, Easy Solution for Paper-Based Diagnostics

By Guest PostOctober 4, 2012Scienceacidity, antibodies, arthur yu, biological molecule, chemical trick, daniel ratner, diabetes, diagnostic, disease, divinyl sulfone, DNA, fluorescent ricin, galactose, george whitesides, global, harvard university, health research, immune system, industrial solvent, jing shang, malaria, medical test, nitrocellulose, oldest technology, paper, paper stick, paul yager, plain paper, poison, pregnancy test, protein, rodrigo andrade, sticky membrane, university, Washington, ziploc bag

A current focus in global health research is to make medical tests that are not just cheap, but virtually free. One such strategy is to start with paper – one of humanity’s oldest technologies – and build a device like a home-based pregnancy test that might work for malaria, diabetes or other diseases.

A University of Washington bioengineer recently developed a way to make regular paper stick to medically interesting molecules. The work produced a chemical trick to make paper-based diagnostics using plain paper, the kind found at office supply stores around the world. (more…)

Berkeley Lab Scientists Create First 3-D Model of a Protein Critical to Embryo Development

By Guest PostSeptember 21, 2012Science3d model, aebp2, alessio maiolica, angstroms, arm1, arm2, berkeley lab, birth defect, cancer, chromatin environment, claudio ciferri, complex, complex 2, crystal structure, DNA, electron microscopy, eva nogales, franz herzog, function, gabriel lander, human, mass spectrometry, mechanism, model, molecular architecture, nucleosome, polycomb, prc2, progression, protein, protein biochemistry, repressive, ruedi aebersold, therapeutic drug

The first detailed and complete picture of a protein complex that is tied to human birth defects as well as the progression of many forms of cancer has been obtained by an international team of researchers led by scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). Knowing the architecture of this protein, PRC2, for Polycomb Repressive Complex 2, should be a boon to its future use in the development of new and improved therapeutic drugs.

“We present a complete molecular organization of human PRC2 that offers an invaluable structural context for understanding all of the previous biochemical and functional data that has been collected on this complex,” says Berkeley Lab biophysicist Eva Nogales, an electron microscopy expert who led this research. “Our model should also be an invaluable tool for the design of new experiments aimed at asking detailed questions about the mechanisms that enable PRC2 to function and how those mechanisms might be exploited.” (more…)

Researchers Come a Step Closer to Finding HIV Vaccine

By Guest PostSeptember 18, 2012Healthgenetic signature, heterosexual, hiv, hiv 1 vaccine, hiv research, immune response, men, morgane rolland, program, protein, strain, us military, v2 region, women

Scientists used genetic sequencing to discover that the vaccine used in the RV144 HIV vaccine trial, involving 16,000 men and women in Thailand, did offer some protection against certain HIV viruses. The results were published Sept. 10 in the online edition of Nature.

James Mullins, UW professor of microbiology, medicine and laboratory medicine, leads one of the two laboratories that did genetic analyses of the virus. He said the study proved that an HIV vaccine is within reach. (more…)

Relieving Plant Stress Could Eventually Help Humans Relax

By Guest PostSeptember 14, 2012Scienceanimal model, arabidopsis mutant, biologist, biotechnology, cell, cell material, coal mine, disease, Environment, federica brandizzi, human growth, humans, ire1, michigan, multifunctional protein, plant, protein, state university, stress

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Humans could learn from how plants handle stress.

Federica Brandizzi, Michigan State University plant biologist, is using a grant from the National Institutes of Health to study how plants overcome stress as they grow. These pathways used to overcome stress are a key to growth. Without them plants, and animals, would die.

“When cells grow, they undergo trauma as growth is quite stressful,” Brandizzi said. “Since it’s very likely that these pathways have much in common between humans and plants, we should be able to gain insights into how plants and animals overcome stress and continue to grow as well.” (more…)