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Researchers identify protein structure linked to pain and heat perception

Touch a hot stove, and your fingers will recoil in pain because your skin carries tiny temperature sensors that detect heat and send a message to your brain saying, "Ouch! That's hot! Let go!"

19 Jan 2016

UGA study helps solve mystery of how African trypanosomes communicate

While scientists have known for years that African trypanosomes cause sleeping sickness, they've been left scratching their heads as to how these tiny single-celled organisms communicate. A University of Georgia study, published Jan. 14 in the journal Cell, helps solve this mystery.

18 Jan 2016

Determining Ectopeptidase Activity: An Interview with Professor Stephen Weber, University of Pittsburgh

The scope of the activity of neuropeptides is remarkably broad. For example, neuropeptides are involved in pain control, mood/depression/eating disorders, social and emotional behaviour, body weight, drug abuse, stress, reproduction, motor control, memory, and in maintaining neuronal health when they are stressed.

From Pittcon 14 Jan 2016

Discoveries could lead to development of novel therapies to prevent C. diff infection

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have obtained the crystal structure of a toxin from the bacterium Clostridium difficile ("C. diff") -- the leading cause of hospital-acquired diarrhea in the United States.

12 Jan 2016

Clontech Laboratories launches Guide-it CRISPR/Cas9 Gesicle Production System

Clontech Laboratories, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Takara Bio Inc., today announced the launch of the Guide-it CRISPR/Cas9 Gesicle Production System. This system provides an innovative method to deliver Cas9/single guide RNA (sgRNA) ribonucleoprotein complexes to a broad range of cell types.

11 Jan 2016

Study illuminates ways to better treat knee meniscus tears, other injuries

Fibrocartilage tissue in the knee is comprised of a more varied molecular structure than researchers previously appreciated, according to a new study by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Delaware.

11 Jan 2016

ORNL's cell-free protein synthesis system can help save lives of soldiers injured in remote locations

Lives of soldiers and others injured in remote locations could be saved with a cell-free protein synthesis system developed at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

30 Dec 2015

Genetic modification in esophagus can lead to esophageal cancer

A genetic modification in the mucous membrane of the esophagus, the Barrett esophagus, can lead to esophageal cancer. If certain biomarkers are contained in these tissue alterations, so-called miDNA, these are extremely short DNA strands, it could be an indication that this preliminary stage of esophageal cancer indeed leads to cancer.

28 Dec 2015

Microencapsulation method can help overcome challenges in pancreatic islet transplantation

A microencapsulation method, developed by OIST researchers, can help to overcome major challenges in pancreatic islet transplantation.

26 Dec 2015

Ultrafast near-infrared lasers deliver gene therapy to treat macular degeneration

Millions of adults over age 50 struggle each year with vision loss caused by damage to the retina or common macular degeneration.

24 Dec 2015

Drugs approved for various conditions also have antibiotic properties

A number of drugs already approved to treat parasitic infections, cancers, infertility and other conditions also show promise as antibiotic agents against staph and tuberculosis infections, according to a new study by University of Illinois chemists and collaborators. Because these agents act against multiple targets within the bacteria, it may be harder for bacteria to develop resistance.

23 Dec 2015

Forge Therapeutics obtains exclusive license to patent rights related to novel metalloprotein inhibitors

Forge Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company developing innovative medicines using a breakthrough drug discovery platform targeting metalloproteins, announced today it has obtained an exclusive license from the University of California San Diego to patent rights related to novel metalloprotein inhibitors discovered in the laboratory of Forge Therapeutics scientific co-founder Professor Seth Cohen, Ph.D.

22 Dec 2015

Scientists uncover novel strategy to block cancer's spread, restore tumor vulnerability to chemotherapy

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists have discovered how an aggressive tumor of the muscle and soft tissue hijacks an export pathway in cells to lay the groundwork for cancer progression and resistance to chemotherapy.

22 Dec 2015

Scientists outline molecular blueprints of tiny cellular 'nanomachine'

Scientists have drawn up molecular blueprints of a tiny cellular ‘nanomachine’, whose evolution is an extraordinary feat of nature, by using one of the brightest X-ray sources on Earth.

21 Dec 2015

Research opens door to validation studies in multiple tumor types of liquid biopsy

Pancreatic cancer tumors spill their molecular secrets into the blood stream, shedding their complete DNA and RNA wrapped inside protective lipid particles that make them ripe for analysis with a liquid biopsy, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center report online at the Annals of Oncology.

18 Dec 2015

CRCHUM researchers find mechanism responsible for rejection of organ transplants

A new cellular structure responsible for previously unexplained rejection of organ transplants has been identified by researchers at the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre.

17 Dec 2015

UMMS researchers identify new life cycle stage in HIV infection

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School have identified a new life cycle stage in HIV infection, thanks to a novel technique they developed to take images of intact infected cells.

17 Dec 2015

Study offers new view of how cancer cells transform normal cells through 'metastatic hijacking'

Metastasis - or the spread of cancer from one part of the body to other parts - accounts for more than 90 percent of cancer-related deaths. Although the cells that seed metastasis and the sites that they tend to travel to have been increasingly studied over the years, little has been known about how cancer migrates from a primary site, such as breast tissue, to a secondary site, such as the brain or bone marrow.

16 Dec 2015

U of T researchers find another clue in understanding the cause of MS

Researchers at the University of Toronto have found another clue in understanding the cause of what drives Multiple Sclerosis (MS) disease. Their findings were published today in Immunity.

16 Dec 2015

Light-driven protein has potential to become key tool for optogenetics

Biophysicists have developed a hypothesis to explain the function of a light-driven protein which pumps sodium ions across a cell membrane, and they have revealed the key structural feature of these pumps. The scientists see these sodium pumps as being highly promising tools in using light signals to control nerve cells – which is exactly what is involved in the new scientific field of optogenetics.

15 Dec 2015