Molecular Biology News and Research

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Molecular biology is the study of biology at a molecular level. The field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly genetics and biochemistry. Molecular biology chiefly concerns itself with understanding the interactions between the various systems of a cell, including the interactions between DNA, RNA and protein biosynthesis as well as learning how these interactions are regulated.

Scientists convert the sequence of proteins into music

UCLA molecular biologists have turned protein sequences into original compositions of classical music.

17 May 2007

New findings on microRNAs

Over 30% of our genes are under the control of small molecules called microRNAs.

17 May 2007

New compounds promising candidates for neurodegenerative disease drug development

Scientists have developed a novel strategy for tackling neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington's disease: encouraging an individual's own cells to "eat" the malformed proteins that lead to the disease.

8 May 2007

Scientists work out mechanism underlying asymmetric cell division in nematode worms

When a cell divides, normally the result is two identical daughter cells. In some cases however, cell division leads to two cells with different properties. This is called asymmetric cell division and plays an important role in embryonic development and the self-renewal of stem cells.

4 May 2007

Nanoparticles found near plaque-filled arteries

Scientific evidence increasingly links arterial calcification to the presence of nanosized particles so small that some scientists question whether a nanoparticle can live and, if so, play a viable role in causing disease.

1 May 2007

Scientists find last unknown enzyme in the synthesis of vitamin C in plants

Vitamin C is possibly the most important small molecule whose biosynthetic pathway remained a mystery.

30 Apr 2007

The convergence of embryonic and cancer signaling pathways: role in tumor cell plasticity

In earlier work, Northwestern University scientist Mary J.C. Hendrix and colleagues discovered that aggressive melanoma cells (but not normal skin cells nor less aggressive melanoma cells) contain specific proteins similar to those found in embryonic stem cells.

30 Apr 2007

Exercise pill switches on master regulator that controls the ability of cells to burn fat

By giving ordinary adult mice a drug - a synthetic designed to mimic fat - Salk Institute scientist Dr. Ronald M. Evans is now able to chemically switch on PPAR-d, the master regulator that controls the ability of cells to burn fat.

30 Apr 2007

Chinese herb Lei Gong Teng stops formation of cysts in polycystic kidney disease in lab

Using a compound from a centuries-old Chinese traditional medicine, Yale University researcher Dr. Craig Crews has been able to prevent the formation of kidney-destroying cysts in a mouse model of polycystic kidney disease.

30 Apr 2007

After hours gene appears to interfere with normal regulation of the body clock on a cellular level

Wheel-running mice have helped scientists to identify an altered body clock gene that can make a normal day up to three hours longer.

27 Apr 2007

Johns Hopkins team stops form of blood cancer in its tracks

A Johns Hopkins team has stopped in its tracks a form of blood cancer in mice by engineering and inactivating an enzyme, telomerase, thereby shortening the ends of chromosomes, called telomeres.

26 Apr 2007

First online models of biological molecules

A University of Massachusetts Amherst biochemist is creating the first online models of biological molecules like enzymes and proteins customized to figures in scientific research articles.

26 Apr 2007

Origin of the brain lies in a worm

The rise of the central nervous system (CNS) in animal evolution has puzzled scientists for centuries.

21 Apr 2007

Discovery may change thinking on how viruses invade the brain

A molecule thought crucial to ferrying the deadly rabies virus into the brain, where it eventually kills, apparently isn't.

20 Apr 2007

Eradicating polio a better option than extended control of the disease

Concerns about the high perceived costs of eradicating the relatively low number of polio cases worldwide have led to recent suggestions that it is time to shift from a goal of eradication to control—abandoning eradication and allowing wild poliovirus to continue to circulate, which proponents of control believe can sustain the low number of cases.

15 Apr 2007

Macaque genome analysis will improve scientists' ability to identify human genes involved in diseases

Cornell experts in computational biology and bioinformatics have made key contributions to the analysis of the genome of the rhesus macaque, better known as the rhesus monkey.

15 Apr 2007

Link between immune system and high plasma lipid levels

Researchers at the University of Chicago have found an unsuspected link between the immune system and high plasma lipid levels (cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood) in mice.

15 Apr 2007

Analysis of Rhesus monkey genome provides new clues to primate biology

An international consortium of researchers has published the genome sequence of the rhesus macaque monkey and aligned it with the chimpanzee and human genomes.

12 Apr 2007

Breakthrough in photoswitchable fluorescent protein science

University of Oregon scientists have identified molecular features that determine the light-emitting ability green fluorescent proteins, and by strategically inserting a single oxygen atom they were able to keep the lights turned off for up to 65 hours.

11 Apr 2007

Scientists at Johns Hopkins discover Solitary protein

Working with fruit flies, scientists at Johns Hopkins have discovered a protein required for two neighboring cells to fuse and become one "super cell."

11 Apr 2007