Protein Synthesis News and Research

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Discovery of important drug target for influenza

Influenza is and remains a disease to reckon with. Seasonal epidemics around the world kill several hundred thousand people every year.

5 Feb 2009

Amino acid arginine could help fight human obesity

A Texas AgriLife Research scientist and fellow researchers have discovered that arginine, an amino acid, reduces fat mass in diet-induced obese rats and could help fight human obesity.

5 Feb 2009

Rare amino acid helps establish how proteins evolve

Three billion years ago, a "new" amino acid was added to the alphabet of 20 that commonly make up proteins in organisms today.

29 Jan 2009

New tools that spotlight individual cellular molecules are transforming biomedical research

Remarkable new tools that spotlight individual cellular molecules are transforming biomedical research.

27 Jan 2009

Slices of living human brain tissue are helping scientists identify new stroke therapies

Slices of living human brain tissue are helping scientists learn which drugs can block the waves of death that engulf and engorge brain cells following a stroke.

21 Jan 2009

E. coli persists against antibiotics through HipA-induced dormancy

Bacteria hunker down and survive antibiotic attack when a protein flips a chemical switch that throws them into a dormant state until treatment abates, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the Jan.16 edition of Science.

19 Jan 2009

Odors can alter gene expression in an olfactory neuron

New research from University of California, Davis, shows why a species of tiny worm can learn to ignore an odor – information that could have implications for how human memories are formed.

15 Jan 2009

Discovery of better treatment for bacterial pneumonia

Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have demonstrated a more effective treatment for bacterial pneumonia following influenza.

9 Jan 2009

Biologist finds plant polymerases IV and V are really variants of polymerase II

It's a little like finding out that Superman is actually Clark Kent. A team of biologists at Washington University in St. Louis has discovered that two vital cellular components, nuclear RNA Polymerases IV and V (Pol IV and V), found only in plants, are actually specialized forms of RNA Polymerase II, an essential enzyme of all eukaryotic organisms, including humans.

6 Jan 2009

Brain deletion of FK506-binding protein enhances repetitive behaviors in mice

A new study reveals a link between dysregulation of a common signaling pathway and repetitive behaviors similar to those associated with multiple neurological and neurodegenerative disorders including, autism spectrum disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, and Huntington's disease.

10 Dec 2008

Scientists uncover new RNA processing mechanism and a new class of small RNAs

A very small fraction of our genetic material - about 2% - performs the crucial task scientists once thought was the sole purpose of the genome: to serve as a blueprint for the production of proteins, the molecules that make cells work and sustain life.

26 Nov 2008

Neuroscientists discover a critical early step of memory formation

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine report in the July issue of Neuron how nerve cells in the brain ensure that Arc, a protein critical for memory formation, is made instantly after nerve stimulation. Paradoxically, its manufacture involves two other proteins - including one linked to mental retardation - that typically prevent proteins from being made.

14 Sep 2008

Receptor activation protects retina from diabetes destruction

A drug known for it pain-relieving power and believed to stimulate memory appears to prevent this retinal damage that leads to vision loss, researchers say.

9 Sep 2008

Evolution in the ribosome

A new study of the ribosome, the cell's protein-building machinery, sheds light on the oldest branches of the evolutionary tree of life and suggests that differences in ribosomal structure between the three main branches of that tree are "molecular fossils" of the early evolution of protein synthesis.

18 Aug 2008

Cell mechanism discovery may lead to new treatments for cystic fibrosis, other inherited diseases

Researchers in Japan and Canada have discovered a key component of the quality control mechanism that operates inside human cells - sometimes too well. The breakthrough has significant implications for the development of new treatments for cystic fibrosis (CF) and some other hereditary diseases, the researchers say. Their results were published July 25 in the journal Science.

29 Jul 2008