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Proteins are complex molecules that are made up of amino acids. They can be found in every cell in the body, and carry out vital processes that keep human beings alive. Mutations in proteins can lead to a multitude of diseases, the most common being cancer.

HZI professor selected as recipient of 2015 Louis-Jeantet-Prize for Medicine

Prof Emmanuelle Charpentier from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Braunschweig is one of the two recipients of the 2015 Louis-Jeantet-Prize for Medicine. The prize money of 700,000 Swiss francs is mostly attributed for the continuation of the awardees work.

21 Jan 2015

UChicago researchers awarded NIH grants to develop novel medications for sleep apnea, asthma

Two research teams based at the University of Chicago have received prestigious grants from the National Institutes of Health to develop novel medications to treat sleep apnea and asthma.

21 Jan 2015

Changes in current Ebola virus epidemic could potentially interfere with experimental treatments

Researchers have tracked the genetic mutations that have occurred in the Ebola virus during the last four decades. Their findings, published in mBio, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology, identified changes in the current West African outbreak strain that could potentially interfere with experimental, sequence-based therapeutics.

21 Jan 2015

Understanding heart mutations that cause sudden cardiac arrest

New biosciences research at the University of Kent could point the way to greater understanding of the heart mutations that cause sudden cardiac arrest.

20 Jan 2015

MET amplified in NSCLC irrespective of type, genetic background

A third of non-small-cell lung cancers show low- to high-level amplification of the MET gene, according to a German study, with no significant difference in frequency across different types of cancer and genetic backgrounds.

20 Jan 2015

Researchers explore how M6P deficiency affects different kinds of immune cells

A group of white blood cells known as B cells, which play a key role in the human immune response, need a protein-targeting signal called mannose 6-phosphate (M6P) in order to proliferate, differentiate, and present immune cell-activating antigens, according to a study in The Journal of Cell Biology.

20 Jan 2015

FDA removes partial clinical hold on CytRx's aldoxorubicin clinical trials

CytRx Corporation, a biopharmaceutical research and development company specializing in oncology, today announced that the United States Food and Drug Administration has removed the partial clinical hold on the Company's aldoxorubicin clinical trials.

20 Jan 2015

QMUL researchers develop new 'microcapsule' method to treat osteoarthritis

A new 'microcapsule' treatment delivery method developed by researchers at Queen Mary University of London could reduce inflammation in cartilage affected by osteoarthritis and reverse damage to tissue. The research was funded by Arthritis Research UK and the AO Foundation.

20 Jan 2015

Researchers identify novel life-preserving circuit responsible for recognizing threats

Our existence depends on a bit of evolutionary genius aptly nicknamed "fight or flight." But where in our brain does the alarm first go off, and what other parts of the brain are mobilized to express fear and remember to avoid danger in the future?

20 Jan 2015

Research opens door to potential new cancer biomarkers

A new analysis opens the door to discovery of thousands of potential new cancer biomarkers.

20 Jan 2015

Researchers identify novel signaling pathway that triggers allergic asthma response

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, with collaborators in Korea and Scotland, have identified a novel signaling pathway critical to the immune response of cells associated with the initiation of allergic asthma.

20 Jan 2015

Tiny lumps of calcium phosphate may trigger age-related macular degeneration

New research from scientists at the University of Maryland School of Medicine has found that tiny lumps of calcium phosphate may be an important triggering factor for age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a degenerative eye disease that can cause severe vision loss and blindness.

20 Jan 2015

Study leads to discovery of rare genetic disorder

Recently, a grassroots effort initiated by families and clinicians led to the discovery of a human genetic disorder with severe consequences that is linked to a mutation in the human NGLY1 gene. In a big step towards understanding the effects of this mutation, research by scientists at the RIKEN-Max Planck Joint Research Center in Japan implicates the enzyme ENGase as the factor responsible for deficient protein degradation that occurs in the absence of mouse Ngly1 gene expression.

19 Jan 2015

Using breath tests to diagnose liver diseases: an interview with Larry Cohen

It was back in the 1960s that scientists first started to understand that breath could be used to find out different things about diseases and other factors. I’m sure you’re familiar with alcohol breath testing, which was patented back in the ‘50s and has been used since the ‘60s.

19 Jan 2015

Chromatrap announce solid state ChIP kits

Chromatrap®, a business unit of Porvair Sciences, has an announced solid state ChIP kits which rapidly improve chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) through a unique patented technology that streamlines the process, ensuring chromatin preparation to qPCR analysis can be performed in under five hours.

From Chromatrap® - Porvair Sciences Ltd 19 Jan 2015

Modelling the biological mesoscale: an interview with Professor Art Olson

The biological mesoscale range includes biological structures that range from 10 to 100 nanometers (billionths of a meter). Structures in this size range include viruses, cellular organelles, large molecular complexes, and any other internal cellular environments within that range.

18 Jan 2015

Iron accumulation in human tissues may contribute to the aging process

It's been known for decades that some metals, including iron, accumulate in human tissues during aging and that toxic levels of iron have been linked to neurologic diseases, such as Parkinson's. Common belief has held that iron accumulation happens as a result of the aging process.

17 Jan 2015

Abnormal attachment of sugar to BACE1 enzyme leads to formation of Aβ plaques in the brain

Researchers at the RIKEN-Max Planck Joint Research Center in Japan have demonstrated that hallmark symptoms of Alzheimer's disease can be reduced when sugars are prevented from binding to one of the key enzymes implicated in the disease. The new findings, reported in EMBO Molecular Medicine, show that abnormal attachment of a particular sugar to the enzyme BACE1 is a critical factor leading to the formation of Aβ plaques in the brain, and that plaques were reduced and cognitive performance improved when this action was prevented in mice through loss of the enzyme GnT-III.

17 Jan 2015

Researchers gain new insight into fragile X syndrome

Scientists have gained new insight into fragile X syndrome -- the most common cause of inherited intellectual disability -- by studying the case of a person without the disorder, but with two of its classic symptoms.

17 Jan 2015

Researchers reveal how melanoma becomes resistant to promising new drug combo therapy

In a new study led by UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center member Dr. Roger Lo, researchers have uncovered how melanoma becomes resistant to a promising new drug combo therapy utilizing BRAF+MEK inhibitors in patients after an initial period of tumor shrinkage.

16 Jan 2015