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Researchers describe crucial initial steps taken by measles virus attachment proteins with receptors

Mayo Clinic researchers have shown that proteins on the surface of a cell twist a viral protein into position, allowing the virus to start infection and cause disease, all in a movement as graceful as a ballroom dance. The findings appear in the current online issue of Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.

10 Jan 2011

Professor Puchta receives ERC's Advanced Researcher Grant

Tomatoes that resist pests and extreme weather while still tasting like tomatoes are among Professor Holger Puchtas long-term research goals. The molecular biologist develops techniques that will allow him to control inheritance in plants to selectively improve the properties of different species through nature's existing gene pool. For his fundamental research, Puchta now is awarded an Advanced Researcher Grant by the European Research Council.

10 Jan 2011

Single cellular crisis shatters chromosomes in cancer causation

Remarkable new research overthrows the conventional view that cancer always develops in a steady, stepwise progression. It shows that in some cancers, the genome can be shattered into hundreds of fragments in a single cellular catastrophe, wreaking mutation on a massive scale.

7 Jan 2011

Chromosome shattering seen in two to three percent of all cancers

Most of the time cancer seems to creep up gradually over time; cells become premalignant, then increasingly abnormal before they become cancerous. But sometimes cancers seem to pop up as if out of nowhere. Now, researchers reporting in the January 7th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, have new evidence to explain how that can happen.

7 Jan 2011

Researchers discover specific genetic abnormalities in hESC, iPSC lines

A multinational team of researchers led by stem cell scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Scripps Research Institute has documented specific genetic abnormalities that occur in human embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cell lines.

7 Jan 2011

GT Life Sciences and BGI complete CHO-K1 genome sequencing

GT Life Sciences, a privately held biotechnology company that utilizes a proven metabolic modeling and experimental platform to drive the discovery and design of new products and processes for the life sciences field, and BGI, the largest genomics organization in the world, announced that they have successfully completed for the first time the sequencing of the Chinese hamster ovary genome.

6 Jan 2011

Columbia research team identifies bacteria may play a key role in atherosclerosis

Dr. Emil Kozarov and a team of researchers at the Columbia University College of Dental Medicine have identified specific bacteria that may have a key role in vascular pathogenesis, specifically atherosclerosis, or what is commonly referred to as "hardening of the arteries" - the number one cause of death in the United States.

6 Jan 2011

First whole genome sequence of Parsi breast cancer woman

Avesthagen Limited has yet again established its position as a leader in the successful application of next gen technologies as it announces the completion of the first Parsi breast cancer whole genome sequence of a 74-year-old Parsi woman with a heritable form of breast cancer. The incidence of breast cancer in most populations is strongly linked to a genetic basis but little is known about the variants at the present time.

4 Jan 2011

Fondation Leducq awards Penn Medicine researcher $6M grant for cardiovascular disease study

An international team of researchers led by Daniel J. Rader, MD, associate director of Penn Medicine's Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, has received a $6 million grant from the Paris-based Fondation Leducq to study the molecular genetics of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. The team's proposal, "Molecular Mechanisms of Novel Genes Associated with Plasma Lipids and Cardiovascular Disease," was selected to receive the award through the Fondation's Transatlantic Networks of Excellence Program.

4 Jan 2011

Study: Multitude of genes are linked to adult height

As much as 90 percent of variation in adult height may be caused by genetic inheritance, but a multitude of genes are involved. Most of these have yet to be discovered.

4 Jan 2011

Fungus may provide clue about human response to changes in circadian rhythm

Humans are not the only species ruled by a circadian rhythm. Even simple organisms like moulds are governed by an inner clock. Studying red bread mould may teach us how our own internal clock works. This is exactly what the Centre for Organelle Research at the University of Stavanger, Norway is doing.

30 Dec 2010

Researchers to identify gene variants that cause ischemic stroke

Researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine are coordinating an international team of scientists working to identify genes or gene variants that may make a person more likely to have a particular type of stroke called an ischemic stroke.

30 Dec 2010

Molecular interaction between structural HCV protein and protein critical to viral replication identified

Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have identified a molecular interaction between a structural hepatitis C virus protein (HCV) and a protein critical to viral replication. This new finding strongly suggests a novel method of inhibiting the production of the virus and a potential new therapeutic target for hepatitis C drug development.

29 Dec 2010

Turns mortal heart attacks into non-mortal heart attacks -- NIH study

Three weeks of oral resveratrol or Longevinex- ingestion prior to an induced heart attack returned microRNA activity close to their pre-event levels in excised animal hearts. Among thousands of microRNA's studied, just six were attributed to exerting the majority of the gene-switching effects measured in the animal heart study - four microRNA optimally regulated by Longevinex- and two optimally by plain resveratrol.

28 Dec 2010

Near-complete data sets from fruit fly and roundworm genomes

An Ontario researcher has played a key role in the development of a new resource that will help genomics researchers around the world find new ways to prevent and treat cancer.

24 Dec 2010

Molecular-level insights into how physical activity influences the heart

Everyone knows that exercise comes with metabolic and cardiovascular benefits, but scientists understand surprisingly little about how physical activity influences the heart itself. Now, a new study in the December 23rd issue of Cell, a Cell Press publication, offers some of the first molecular-level insights.

24 Dec 2010

Sequestering GSK3 enzyme leads to stabilization of proteins in cells

The cell signaling pathway known as Wnt, commonly activated in cancers, causes internal membranes within a healthy cell to imprison an enzyme that is vital in degrading proteins, preventing the enzyme from doing its job and affecting the stability of many proteins within the cell, researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have found.

24 Dec 2010

Paternal diet affects lipid metabolizing genes in offspring

Scientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and the University of Texas at Austin have uncovered evidence that environmental influences experienced by a father can be passed down to the next generation, "reprogramming" how genes function in offspring. A new study published this week in Cell shows that environmental cues-in this case, diet-influence genes in mammals from one generation to the next, evidence that until now has been sparse.

24 Dec 2010

Catalogs of fruit fly and roundworm's functional genomic elements

Scientists today published catalogs of the fruit fly and roundworm's functional genomic elements: DNA sequences in the genome that carry the instructions and determine which genes are turned on and off at various times in different cells.

23 Dec 2010

TMEM106B gene appears to protect against frontotemporal lobar degeneration

Neuroscientists had assumed that a mutation in the progranulin gene, which makes the progranulin protein and supports brain neurons, was sufficient to produce a kind of dementia known as frontotemporal lobar degeneration. But now an international team of scientists led by researchers at Mayo Clinic's campus in Florida have found another genetic factor they say appears to protect against the disorder in progranulin mutation carriers.

23 Dec 2010