Biochemistry News and Research

RSS

Scheduled high-fat diet can reset circadian metabolism and reduce body weight

New research from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem shows that a carefully scheduled high-fat diet can lead to a reduction in body weight and a unique metabolism in which ingested fats are not stored, but rather used for energy at times when no food is available.

13 Sep 2012

Novel method could help advance fight against persistent 'HIV latency'

Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have gotten us one step closer to understanding and overcoming one of the least-understood mechanisms of HIV infection-by devising a method to precisely track the life cycle of individual cells infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

12 Sep 2012

Two National University of Singapore scientists win Lasker Awards for medical research

Two scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) - Professor Michael Sheetz, Director of the Mechanobiology Institute of Singapore; and Professor Roy Calne, Visiting Professor with the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine's Department of Surgery - have been conferred the prestigious Lasker Awards for making great advances in medical research.

11 Sep 2012

Yale University professor receives 2012 Vanderbilt Prize in Biomedical Science

The 2012 Vanderbilt Prize in Biomedical Science has been awarded to Yale University professor Joan Steitz, Ph.D., whose pioneering work has helped reveal and clarify the complexities of RNA and the roles that RNA molecules play in health and disease.

11 Sep 2012

RNA researcher to receive 2012 Pearl Meister Greengard Prize from The Rockefeller University

Joan A. Steitz, Ph.D., a pioneer in the field of RNA biology whose discoveries involved patients with a variety of autoimmune diseases, will be awarded the 2012 Pearl Meister Greengard Prize from The Rockefeller University. The prize, which honors female scientists who have made extraordinary contributions to biomedical science and carries an honorarium of $100,000, will be presented at a ceremony on Thursday, November 29 at Rockefeller University's Caspary Auditorium.

11 Sep 2012

UH lecture to explore hormones in health and disease

While estrogen is essential for many of the body's normal processes in both men and women, it also plays a role in diseases such as breast, ovarian and prostate cancer. The impact of this hormone on such diseases will be addressed during a lecture Sept. 25 at the University of Houston (UH).

10 Sep 2012

Simple low-cost biosensor to detect contaminated drinking water

Diarrheal disease is the second leading cause of death in children under five years old - killing as many as 1.5 million children worldwide every year. These startling statistics from the World Health Organization (2009) point to the reason why a group of undergraduate students from Arizona State University is working to develop a low-cost biosensor - a simple device that would detect contaminated drinking water.

7 Sep 2012

Drug discovery solutions from SPT Labtech to be demonstrated at MipTech

SPT Labtech will be offering delegates at MipTec 2012 (24th-27th September, Basel, Switzerland) the opportunity to experience their innovative automated solutions for effortless drug discovery first-hand.

From SPT Labtech 7 Sep 2012

BCAA supplementation may treat autism and/or epilepsy

An international team of researchers, led by scientists at the University of California, San Diego and Yale University schools of medicine, have identified a form of autism with epilepsy that may potentially be treatable with a common nutritional supplement.

7 Sep 2012

DNA synthesis methods: an interview with Clemens Richert

Automated DNA synthesis has been around for almost three decades. The key difference between the established methodology for making oligodeoxynucleotides (short stretches of single-stranded DNA) and our method is the template strand.

7 Sep 2012

Eliminating jnk3 enzyme leads to 90% reduction in Alzheimer's plaque-forming compounds

Scientists have found that eliminating an enzyme from mice with symptoms of Alzheimer's disease leads to a 90 percent reduction in the compounds responsible for formation of the plaques linked to Alzheimer's disease.

6 Sep 2012

UC Davis plans to open West Coast Metabolomics Center

With a $9.3 million startup grant from the National Institutes of Health, the University of California, Davis, has announced plans to open the West Coast Metabolomics Center, a high-tech consortium of research and service laboratories that will help scientists better understand and develop more effective treatments for complex diseases like diabetes, cancer and atherosclerosis.

6 Sep 2012

Regular Fanconi anemia cells aren't sensitive to resveratrol

Fanconi anemia is a recessive genetic disorder affecting 1 in 350,000 babies, which leaves cells unable to repair damaged DNA. This lack of repair puts Fanconi anemia patients at high risk for developing a variety of cancers, especially leukemias and head and neck cancer.

5 Sep 2012

Scientists identify master regulator essential for progression and relapse of deadly brain cancer

A*STAR scientists have identified a biomarker of the most lethal form of brain tumours in adults- glioblastoma multiforme. The scientists found that by targeting this biomarker and depleting it with a potential drug, they were able to prevent the progression and relapse of the brain tumour.

5 Sep 2012

Data from ESTEVE’s S1RA E-52862 Phase I trial programme on pain

ESTEVE announces the recent publication of data from the Phase I clinical trial programme of a novel, highly potent and selective, once-daily, S1RA E-52862, developed by the ESTEVE R&D team, in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.

4 Sep 2012

DEAD-box proteins function as recycling nanopistons when unwinding RNA

AUSTIN, Texas-Molecular biologists at The University of Texas at Austin have solved one of the mysteries of how double-stranded RNA is remodeled inside cells in both their normal and disease states. The discovery may have implications for treating cancer and viruses in humans.

3 Sep 2012

Study explains why some cancer vaccines are not as effective as hoped

A research report published in the September 2012 issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology offers a possible explanation of why some cancer vaccines are not as effective as hoped, while at the same time identifies a new therapeutic strategy for treating autoimmune problems. In the report, scientists suggest that cancer, even in the very early stages, produces a negative immune response from dendritic cells, which prevent lymphocytes from working against the disease.

31 Aug 2012

Glaucoma and cell death: an interview with Dr. Vivek Gupta

Glaucoma is normally caused by increased pressure of aqueous humour fluid in the eye. A defining feature of this disease is destruction of a particular type of cells in the retina called retinal ganglion cells and excavation of the optic disc region.

31 Aug 2012

Researchers discover how tamoxifen-resistant breast-cancer cells grow and proliferate

A study by researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC - James) has discovered how tamoxifen-resistant breast-cancer cells grow and proliferate.

31 Aug 2012

Stowers investigators define factors that regulate size of cellular fat pools

As the national waistline expands, so do pools of intra-cellular fat known as lipid droplets. Although most of us wish our lipid droplets would vanish, they represent a cellular paradox: on the one hand droplets play beneficial roles by corralling fat into non-toxic organelles. On the other, oversized lipid droplets are associated with obesity and its associated health hazards.

30 Aug 2012