Biochemistry News and Research

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Zinc key to formation of hospital-acquired infections

Hospital-acquired infections that are resistant to traditional antibiotic treatment have become increasingly common in recent years, confounding health care professionals and killing thousands of Americans.

5 Dec 2008

Prototype blood scanner detects even faint indicators of cancer

A team led by Stanford researchers has developed a prototype blood scanner that can find cancer markers in the bloodstream in early stages of the disease, potentially allowing for earlier treatment and dramatically improved chances of survival.

3 Dec 2008

Intradigm issued new RNAi therapeutics patent

Intradigm Corporation has announced the issuance of United States patent 7,459,547, entitled "Methods and Compositions for Controlling Efficacy of RNA Silencing."

3 Dec 2008

Scientists discover possible mechanism for chirality in biological molecules

The basic molecules that make up all living things have a predetermined chirality or "handedness," similar to the way people are right- or left-handed.

1 Dec 2008

NSF grant puts talented undergraduates into research labs

Thirty undergraduate college students from around the nation will have the chance to spend a summer getting paid to explore the world of biological research, thanks to the efforts of scientists at the University of Rochester's Medical Center and River Campus.

26 Nov 2008

Defective calcium metabolism in nerve cells contributes to neurological disorder

Defective calcium metabolism in nerve cells may play a major role in a fatal genetic neurological disorder that resembles Huntington's disease, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found in a mouse study.

26 Nov 2008

New understanding of processes that regulate genes

Scientists at Penn State have shed light on some of the processes that regulate genes -- such as the processes that ensure that proteins are produced at the correct time, place, and amount in an organism -- and they also have shed light on the evolution of the DNA regions that regulate genes.

25 Nov 2008

Scientists present 'moving' theory behind bacterial decision-making

Biochemists at North Carolina State University have answered a fundamental question of how important bacterial proteins make life-and-death decisions that allow them to function, a finding that could provide a new target for drugs to disrupt bacterial decision-making processes and related diseases.

24 Nov 2008

Discovery of novel approach to suppress prostate cancer progression

Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) have found that inactivating a specific biomarker for aggressive prostate cancer blocks the development of prostate cancer in animal models.

24 Nov 2008

Researchers reveal a new aspect of tumor development

The DNA in our cells is constantly under assault from oxygen, the sun's radiation and environmental stresses.

20 Nov 2008

Light drinking has certain health benefits, researchers look at why

While the physiological damage and social havoc created by alcohol abuse and dependency are well-known, it is also true that light-to-moderate drinking has certain health benefits.

20 Nov 2008

New compounds break up cancer-causing protein STAT3 and destroy breast cancer tumors.

Two new compounds created by a University of Central Florida professor show early promise for destroying breast cancer tumors.

19 Nov 2008

A new Institute for Nanotechnology

The George Washington University has announced the establishment of the GW Institute for Nanotechnology.

19 Nov 2008

Enzyme discovery may lead to better heart and stroke treatments

A Queen's University study sheds new light on the way one of our cell enzymes, implicated in causing tissue damage after heart attacks and strokes, is normally kept under control.

19 Nov 2008

Scientists discover new compounds to target muscular dystrophy

Using a drug-discovery technique in which molecules compete against each other for access to the target - the strand of toxic RNA that causes the most common form of muscular dystrophy in adults - a team at the University of Rochester Medical Center has identified several compounds that, in the laboratory, block the unwanted coupling of two molecules that is at the root of the disease.

19 Nov 2008

Expert calls on government to increase recommended daily vitamin D intake

Today, the Indoor Tanning Association (ITA) asked Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, why he is suing a local tanning salon owner for claiming that tanning provides vitamin D, when Vitamin D experts at the University of California Riverside are saying the same thing?

17 Nov 2008

Scientists establish completely new route to cancer development

CANCER RESEARCH UK scientists have linked cancer clues in faulty cells to provide a new route to cancer development, reveals a study published in Developmental Cell.

17 Nov 2008

Without enzyme, biological reaction essential to life takes 2.3 billion years

All biological reactions within human cells depend on enzymes. Their power as catalysts enables biological reactions to occur usually in milliseconds. But how slowly would these reactions proceed spontaneously, in the absence of enzymes - minutes, hours, days? And why even pose the question?

12 Nov 2008

Discovery of mechanism that regulates the development of stem cells into neurons

Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) have identified a novel mechanism in the regulation and differentiation of neural stem cells.

11 Nov 2008