Biochemistry News and Research

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Renowned biotech researcher to receive TJU's Lennox K. Black International Prize

Thomas Jefferson University will honor the renowned biotech researcher whose discoveries led to a slew of innovative drugs that revolutionized treatment including Herceptin-one of the first gene-based medications for breast cancer-with its prestigious Lennox K. Black International Prize for Excellence in Biomedical Research.

27 Nov 2012

California researchers develop new strategy to find novel antibiotics for bacterial infections

Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have developed a new strategy for finding novel antibiotic compounds, using a diagnostic panel of bacterial strains for screening chemical extracts from natural sources.

27 Nov 2012

Paper illuminates importance of PKM2 in cancer development and progression

Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have tracked down a cancer-promoting protein's pathway into the cell nucleus and discovered how, once there, it fires up a glucose metabolism pathway on which brain tumors thrive.

26 Nov 2012

Max Planck scientists identify unknown proteins of the herpesvirus

The genome encodes the complete information needed by an organism, including that required for protein production. Viruses, which are up to a thousand times smaller than human cells, have considerably smaller genomes. Using a type of herpesvirus as a model system, the scientists of the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried near Munich and their collaboration partners at the University of California in San Francisco have shown that the genome of this virus contains much more information than previously assumed.

26 Nov 2012

Elsevier announces launch of Leukemia Research Reports journal

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and solutions, is pleased to announce the launch of a new open access, online journal, Leukemia Research Reports.

26 Nov 2012

Avermectin family of drugs shows promise against TB

A well-established family of drugs used to treat parasitic diseases is showing surprising potential as a therapy for tuberculosis (TB), according to new research from University of British Columbia microbiologists.

26 Nov 2012

Study shows how MCUR1 protein helps regulate movement of calcium into mitochondria

A team of scientists from Temple University School of Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania has moved another step closer to solving a decades-long mystery of how the all-important flow of calcium into the cell's power source, the mitochondria, is controlled.

26 Nov 2012

Research reveals surprisingly complex protein-coding capacity of human cytomegalovirus

New findings reveal the surprisingly complex protein-coding capacity of the human cytomegalovirus, or HCMV, and provide the first steps toward understanding how the virus manipulates human cells during infection. The genome of the HCMV was first sequenced over 20 years ago, but researchers have now investigated the proteome-the complete set of expressed proteins-of this common pathogen as well.

23 Nov 2012

Researchers create 3D map of rod sensory cilium architecture affected by mutation

Using a new technique called cryo-electron tomography, two research teams at Baylor College of Medicine (www.bcm.edu) have created a three-dimensional map that gives a better understanding of how the architecture of the rod sensory cilium (part of one type of photoreceptor in the eye) is changed by genetic mutation and how that affects its ability to transport proteins as part of the light-sensing process.

23 Nov 2012

Crucial link between protein synthesis and autism spectrum disorders

Researchers from McGill University and the University of Montreal have identified a crucial link between protein synthesis and autism spectrum disorders (ASD), which can bolster new therapeutic avenues.

22 Nov 2012

UH professor named American Mathematical Society fellow for 2013

From a field of mathematical scientists from more than 600 institutions around the world, University of Houston (UH) professor Roland Glowinski has been named a fellow of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) for 2013, the program's inaugural year. The prestigious program recognizes AMS members who have made outstanding contributions to the creation, exposition, advancement, communication and utilization of mathematics.

21 Nov 2012

Hsp104 protein switches mechanism to break up amyloid versus disordered clumps

Several fatal brain disorders, including Parkinson's disease, are connected by the misfolding of specific proteins into disordered clumps and stable, insoluble fibrils called amyloid. Amyloid fibrils are hard to break up due to their stable, ordered structure. For example, α-synuclein forms amyloid fibrils that accumulate in Lewy Bodies in Parkinson's disease. By contrast, protein clumps that accumulate in response to environmental stress, such as heat shock, possess a less stable, disordered architecture.

20 Nov 2012

UBC microbiologist receives Prix Galien 2012 Research Award

UBC microbiologist Robert E.W. Hancock has received the Prix Galien 2012 Research Award, widely considered the most prestigious honour in Canadian pharmaceutical research and innovation. Hancock is being recognized for pioneering work unravelling the complex interactions between antibiotics and bacteria.

20 Nov 2012

New way to stimulate transplanted human stem cell-derived neurons into a rodent hippocampus

Researchers and patients look forward to the day when stem cells might be used to replace dying brain cells in Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative conditions. Scientists are currently able to make neurons and other brain cells from stem cells, but getting these neurons to properly function when transplanted to the host has proven to be more difficult.

17 Nov 2012

HCV medications' side effects can now be replicated and observed in Petri dishes and test tubes

The adverse side effects of certain hepatitis C medications can now be replicated and observed in Petri dishes and test tubes, thanks to a research team led by Craig Cameron, the Paul Berg Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Penn State University.

17 Nov 2012

Possible link between mind wandering and aging

Scientific studies have suggested that a wandering mind indicates unhappiness, whereas a mind that is present in the moment indicates well-being. Now, a preliminary UCSF study suggests a possible link between mind wandering and aging, by looking at a biological measure of longevity.

17 Nov 2012

UiO researchers discover enzyme critical for spread of cancer

Enzyme hunters at UiO have discovered the function of an enzyme that is important in the spreading of cancer. Cancer researchers now hope to inhibit the enzyme.

15 Nov 2012

MRSA outbreak tracked and contained using DNA sequencing

Scientists have used DNA sequencing for the first time to effectively track the spread of, and ultimately contain, an outbreak of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), according to new research published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

14 Nov 2012

Medulloblastomas that arise from different cell types might require personalized treatments

Cancers arise when a normal cell acquires a mutation in a gene that regulates cellular growth or survival. But the particular cell this mutation happens in-the cell of origin-can have an enormous impact on the behavior of the tumor, and on the strategies used to treat it.

14 Nov 2012

Cardiac arrhythmias: an interview with Dr Andrew Grace

Cardiac arrhythmias are disturbances of the heartbeat. The heart can either go too slowly, which might make people collapse or exhausted; or too quickly.

8 Nov 2012

Biochemistry News and Research

Renowned biotech researcher to receive TJU's Lennox K. Black International Prize

California researchers develop new strategy to find novel antibiotics for bacterial infections

Paper illuminates importance of PKM2 in cancer development and progression

Max Planck scientists identify unknown proteins of the herpesvirus

Elsevier announces launch of Leukemia Research Reports journal

Avermectin family of drugs shows promise against TB

Study shows how MCUR1 protein helps regulate movement of calcium into mitochondria

Research reveals surprisingly complex protein-coding capacity of human cytomegalovirus

Researchers create 3D map of rod sensory cilium architecture affected by mutation

Crucial link between protein synthesis and autism spectrum disorders

UH professor named American Mathematical Society fellow for 2013

Hsp104 protein switches mechanism to break up amyloid versus disordered clumps

UBC microbiologist receives Prix Galien 2012 Research Award

New way to stimulate transplanted human stem cell-derived neurons into a rodent hippocampus

HCV medications' side effects can now be replicated and observed in Petri dishes and test tubes

Possible link between mind wandering and aging

UiO researchers discover enzyme critical for spread of cancer

MRSA outbreak tracked and contained using DNA sequencing

Medulloblastomas that arise from different cell types might require personalized treatments

Cardiac arrhythmias: an interview with Dr Andrew Grace

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