New Clue to Chemical Origins of Life (TNA----- DNA, RNA)

Organic chemists at the University of York have made a significant advance towards establishing the origin of the carbohydrates (sugars) that form the building blocks of life. A team led by Dr Paul Clarke in the Department of Chemistry at York has re-created a process which... (full story)

Membrane Fusion A Mystery No More

The many factors that contribute to how cells communicate and function at the most basic level are still not fully understood, but researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have uncovered a mechanism that helps explain how intracellular membranes fuse, and in the process ... (full story)

Nanoparticles For More Accurate Delivery Of Cancer Drugs

A new class of nanoparticles, synthesized by a UC Davis research team to prevent premature drug release, holds promise for greater accuracy and effectiveness in delivering cancer drugs to tumors. The work is published in the current issue of Angewandte Chemie, a leading international chemistry journal ... (full story)

Elusive Z- DNA Found On Nucleosomes

New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Cell & Bioscience is the first to show that left-handed Z-DNA, normally only found at sites where DNA is being copied, can also form on nucleosomes.The structure of DNA which provides the blueprint for life has famously been described as a double ... (full story)

Mutation in 1 copy of U2 snRNA Causing Neurodegeneration

A Jackson Laboratory research team led by Professor and Howard Hughes Medical Investigator Susan Ackerman, Ph.D., has discovered a defect in the RNA splicing process in neurons that may contribute to neurological disease. The researchers found that a mutation in just one of the many copies of a gene known as U2 snRNAs, which is involved in the intricate ... (full story)

Polar Growth at the Bacterial Scale Reveals Potential New Targets for Antibiotic Therapy

An international team of microbiologists led by Indiana University researchers has identified a new bacterial growth process -- one that occurs at a single end or pole of the cell instead of uniform, dispersed growth along the long axis of the cell -- ... (full story)

Important Gene-Regulation Proteins Pinpointed By New Method

A novel technique has been developed and demonstrated at Penn State University to map the proteins that read and regulate chromosomes -- the string-like structures inside cells that carry genes. The specific order in which these proteins attach DNA-containing nucleosomes along the chromosome determines whether a brain cell ... (full story)

Gender Differences In Liver Cancer Risk Explained By Small Changes In Genome

Men are four times more likely to develop liver cancer compared to women, a difference attributed to the sex hormones androgen and estrogen. Although this gender difference has been known for a long time, the molecular mechanisms by which estrogens prevent ... (full story)

Why Cholesterol-Lowering Statins Might Treat Cancer

Cholesterol-lowering statins seem to keep breast cancer at bay in some patients. Now researchers reporting in the January 20th issue of the journalCell, a Cell Press publication, provide clues about how statins might yield those unexpected benefits. The findings also suggest that mutations in a single gene could be used to identify tumors likely to respond to statin therapy ... (full story)

Boost for Health? Researchers Isolate Protein Linking Exercise to Health Benefits

A team led by researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has isolated a natural hormone from muscle cells that triggers some of the key health benefits of exercise. They say the protein, which serves as a chemical messenger, is a highly promising candidate for development as a novel treatment for diabetes, obesity and perhaps other disorders, including cancer ... (full story)

Energy-Saving Chaperon Hsp90

A special group of proteins, the so-called chaperons, helps other proteins to obtain their correct conformation. Until now scientists supposed that hydrolyzing ATP provides the energy for the large conformational changes of chaperon Hsp90. Now a research team from the Nanosystems Initiative Munich could ... (full story)

Chemotherapy May Influence Leukemia Relapse

The chemotherapy drugs required to push a common form of adult leukemia into remission may contribute to DNA damage that can lead to a relapse of the disease in some patients, findings of a new study suggest ... (full story)

New Insights Into an Ancient Mechanism of Mammalian Evolution

Researchers in the UK have found a simple and widespread way in which DNA is remodeled in six mammalian species, including humans. The study, published in the journal Cell, sheds light on an ancient mechanism of evolution that is still at work in our genome ... (full story)

UNC Scientists Collaborate To Find First Major Genetic Mutation Associated With Hereditary Prostate Cancer Risk

Chapel Hill - After a 20-year quest to find a genetic driver for prostate cancer that strikes men at younger ages and runs in families, researchers have identified a rare, inherited mutation linked to a significantly higher risk of the disease ... (full story)

Did An Earlier Genetic Molecule Predate DNA And RNA?

In the chemistry of the living world, a pair of nucleic acids—DNA and RNA—reign supreme. As carrier molecules of the genetic code, they provide all organisms with a mechanism for faithfully reproducing themselves as well as generating the myriad proteins ... (full story)

New Gene, New Mechanism For Neuron Loss In Hereditary Spastic Paraplegias

Hereditary spastic paraplegias (HSPs) are a group of inherited neurodegenerative disorders characterized by progressive weakness and spasticity (stiffness) of the legs. Mutations ... (full story)

Researchers Map Potential Genetic Origins, Pathways Of Lung Cancer In Never-Smokers

Researchers have begun to identify which mutations and pathway changes lead to lung cancer in never-smokers — a first step in developing potential ... (full story)

Nanoparticles Hold Promise as Potential Vehicle for Drug Delivery in Brain

In the images of fruit flies, clusters of neurons are all lit up, forming a brightly glowing ... (full story)

Tracking Genes' Remote Controls: New Method for Observing Enhancer Activity during Development

As an embryo develops, different genes are turned on in different cells, to form muscles, neurons and other bodily parts. Inside each cell's nucleus, genetic sequences known as enhancers act like ... (full story)

World’s First Primate Chimeric Offspring Produced: Research Demonstrates Not All Embryonic Stem Cells Are Equal

Newly published research by scientists at Oregon Health & Science University provides significant new information about how early embryonic stem cells develop and take part in formation of the primate species. The research, which ... (full story)