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Researchers develop computational model to accurately simulate complex twists of RNA

A computational model developed by researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is the first to accurately simulate the complex twists of a short sequence of RNA as it folds into a critical hairpin structure known as a "tetraloop."

17 Sep 2013

New research explains how DNA strands repair themselves

Researchers have discovered the details of how cells repair breaks in both strands of their DNA, a potentially devastating kind of DNA damage.

12 Sep 2013

Chemists Find New Way To Put The Brakes On Cancer

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10 Sep 2013

Scientists prove 50-year-old hypothesis of RNA 'higher-order' structure

When Francis Crick and James Watson discovered the double helical structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in 1953, it began a genetic revolution to map, study, and sequence the building blocks of living organisms.

27 Aug 2013

Prion proteins responsible for Mad cow disease, Creutzfeld-Jakob disease

Mad cow disease and its cousin Creutzfeld-Jakob disease cause fatal spongy changes in brain tissue. Today, we know that these diseases are caused by prions, proteins that are folded incorrectly. A team of German researchers have now been able to follow how the diseased proteins aggregate and "infect" healthy ones on the atomic scale. Their report appears in the journal Angewandte Chemie.

16 Aug 2013

Findings may allow lower doses of chemotherapy, limit toxic side effects

In research recently published in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Alessandro Vindigni, Ph.D., associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Saint Louis University, discovered how cancer cells respond to the damage caused by an important class of anti-cancer drugs, topoisomerase I inhibitors.

7 Aug 2013

New method can pinpoint DNA mutations that could help treat cancer, tuberculosis

The slightest variation in a sequence of DNA can have profound effects. Modern genomics has shown that just one mutation can be the difference between successfully treating a disease and having it spread rampantly throughout the body.

29 Jul 2013

Technique for developing more targeted drugs using molecular "robots"

Many drugs such as agents for cancer or autoimmune diseases have nasty side effects because while they kill disease-causing cells, they also affect healthy cells. Now a new study has demonstrated a technique for developing more targeted drugs, by using molecular "robots" to hone in on more specific populations of cells.

29 Jul 2013

Law of physics can be demonstrated by collection of individual protein molecules

Experiments by biochemists at the University of California, Davis show for the first time that a law of physics, the ergodic theorem, can be demonstrated by a collection of individual protein molecules -- specifically, a protein that unwinds DNA. The work will be published online by the journal Nature on July 14.

16 Jul 2013

Scientists discover new details of biochemical interactions necessary for cell division

Building on earlier work exploring the complex choreography by which intricate cellular proteins interact with and copy DNA prior to cell division, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborators have captured a key step-molecular images showing how the enzyme that unwinds the DNA double helix gets drawn to and wrapped around its target.

15 Jul 2013

Researchers fabricate nanotweezers that could be used to control and regulate enzymes

In new research, Hao Yan and his colleagues at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute describe a pair of tweezers shrunk down to an astonishingly tiny scale. When the jaws of these tools are in the open position, the distance between the two arms is about 16 nanometers-over 30,000 times smaller than a single grain of sand.

5 Jul 2013

Stephen J. Lippard to receive 2014 Priestley Medal from American Chemical Society

Stephen J. Lippard, Ph.D., Arthur Amos Noyes Professor of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and associate editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society, will receive the 2014 Priestley Medal from the American Chemical Society.

11 Jun 2013

Mid-Atlantic Crossroads announces launch of Double HELIX

Mid-Atlantic Crossroadsannounces the launch of Double HELIX (Health, Education, Life Sciences, and Internet eXchange), the new high-performance point of presence located at the Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research in Rockville, Maryland.

4 Jun 2013

New approach to battle prostate cancer

Dr. Jung-Mo Ahn, associate professor of chemistry at The University of Texas at Dallas, has designed and synthesized a novel small molecule that might become a large weapon in the fight against prostate cancer.

29 May 2013

New TGT method helps detect and measure mechanics of single-molecule interaction

Cells in the human body do not function in isolation. Living cells rely on communication with their environment-neighboring cells and the surrounding matrix-to activate a wide range of cellular functions, including reproduction of new cells, differentiation of stem cells into distinct cell types, cell adhesion, and migration of white blood cells to fight bodily infections.

24 May 2013

CNIO researcher captures panoramic photo of proteins that take part in human DNA replication

The Genomic Instability Group led by researcher -scar Fern-ndez-Capetillo at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), has for the first time obtained a panoramic photo of the proteins that take part in human DNA division, a process known as replication.

26 Apr 2013

GeneCapture developing new device with one-hour pathogen testing capabilities

A company hatched as a partnership between The University of Alabama in Huntsville and chemical engineering professor Dr. Krishnan Chittur is in the design phase for a device that can provide physicians one-hour pathogen testing capabilities.

23 Apr 2013

Researchers report progress on non-invasive method to assess kidney function

Researchers may have found a way to block kidney-destroying inflammation and help damaged kidney cells recover.

17 Apr 2013

Research may offer clues to why esophageal adenocarcinomas rates have increased rapidly

During the past 30 years, the number of patients with cancers that originate near the junction of the esophagus and stomach has increased approximately 600 percent in the United States. The first extensive probe of the DNA of these esophageal adenocarcinomas has revealed that many share a distinctive mix-up of letters of the genetic code, and found more than 20 mutated genes that had not previously been linked to the disease.

25 Mar 2013

Mini-chromosome maintenance protein can change DNA topology: Study

A team of USC scientists has identified a protein that can change DNA topology, making DNA twist up into a so-called "supercoil."

12 Mar 2013