Yeast News and Research

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Research reveals that large non-coding RNA in mammals play an important role in telomere maintenance

A team of researchers from The Wistar Institute have shown that a large non-coding RNA in mammals and yeast plays a central role in helping maintain telomeres, the tips of chromosomes that contain important genetic information and help regulate cell division. Since this RNA also facilitates the formation of DNA at telomeres-a process that can protect aging cells and destabilize tumor cells-manipulating its expression may be useful in treating cancer and other diseases.

1 Sep 2009

Mid-career scientists receive the 2009 Julie Martin Mid-Career Awards in Aging Research

Charleen T. Chu, MD, PhD, associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh and David M. Sabatini, MD, PhD, associate professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, received the 2009 Julie Martin Mid-Career Awards in Aging Research. Sponsored by The Ellison Medical Foundation, the grants provide funding of $550,000 to mid-career scientists whose research has great potential in advancing understanding of basic aging and its impact on age-related diseases.

26 Aug 2009

Scientists to discuss effective treatments for serious diseases at Functional Genomics/Chemical Biology conference

A cure for cystic fibrosis, HIV-fighting 'Trojan horses', new pharmaceuticals from the ocean. Chemical biologists use new and innovative approaches to discover medications of the future. On 24 August, some of the field's most prominent researchers will attend an international conference in Gothenburg, Sweden.

24 Aug 2009

First batch of cancer vaccine from Cancer Vaccine Collaborative goes into trial

The first batch of NY-ESO-1 recombinant protein produced in a facility supported entirely by non-profit entities has successfully cleared regulatory review and has entered clinical testing. The clinical trials are part of the Cancer Vaccine Collaborative, a joint program of the Cancer Research Institute, Inc. (CRI) and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research Ltd. (LICR).

13 Aug 2009

Same-sex mating found in most common human fungal pathogen Candida albicans

Brown University researchers have discovered that Candida albicans, a human fungal pathogen that causes thrush and other diseases, pursues same-sex mating in addition to conventional opposite-sex mating.

12 Aug 2009

Discovery of possible mechanisms to protect against genetic alterations, diseases

Peering into the DNA of tiny yeast, researchers at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego and the San Diego Branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research have pinpointed a large number of genes that can prevent a type of genetic rearrangement that may lead to cancer and other diseases.

6 Aug 2009

Common food additive lecithin may help control blood lipids and reduce disease risk

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a substance in the liver that helps process fat and glucose. That substance is a component of the common food additive lecithin, and researchers speculate it may one day be possible to use lecithin products to control blood lipids and reduce risk for diabetes, hypertension or cardiovascular disease using treatments delivered in food rather than medication.

31 Jul 2009

Autophagy helps HIV to proliferate

Not satisfied with simply thwarting its host's defensive maneuvers, HIV actually twists one to its advantage, based on new findings from Kyei et al. in the July 27, 2009 issue of the Journal of Cell Biology. Vojo Deretic and colleagues suggest that autophagy - a stress response process - helps HIV to proliferate and that conversely, blocking autophagy lessens HIV production.

27 Jul 2009

Tamoxifen kills fungus cells and may prevent them from causing disease

An FDA-approved drug used for preventing recurrence of breast cancer shows promise in fighting life-threatening fungal infections common in immune-compromised patients, such as infants born prematurely and patients with cancer. Some scientists suspected that tamoxifen has antifungal properties; now new research from the University of Rochester Medical Center shows that it actually kills fungus cells and stops them from causing disease.

20 Jul 2009

New discovery on DNA repair mechanism

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shed new light on a process that fixes breaks in the genetic material of the body's cells. Their findings could lead to ways of enhancing chemotherapy drugs that destroy cancer cells by damaging their DNA.

17 Jul 2009

New perspectives in the treatment of disease

The team, led by Professor Matthias Mann of Novo Nordisk Center for Protein Research at the University of Copenhagen and the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Germany, have detected 3,600 acetylation switches in 1,750 different proteins.

17 Jul 2009

Scientists create new way to study brain function

Scientists at Duke University and the University of North Carolina have devised a chemical technique that promises to allow neuroscientists to discover the function of any population of neurons in an animal brain, and provide clues to treating and preventing brain disease.

15 Jul 2009

Novel drug discovery tool could bring new therapies for Parkinson’s

Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have turned simple baker?s yeast into a virtual army of medicinal chemists capable of rapidly searching for drugs to treat Parkinson's disease.

13 Jul 2009

Research suggests core nuclear pore elements shared by all eukaryotes

For perhaps 1.8 billion years after life first emerged on Earth, a sort of evolutionary writer's block stalled the development of organisms more complicated than single cells. Then, a burst of experimental creativity about 1.7 billion years ago brought the cell nucleus onto the scene, stashing the cell's genetic material inside a protective inner membrane and setting the stage for the evolution of more sophisticated creatures from yeast, say, to plants and human beings.

12 Jul 2009

Breakthrough in combating adverse side-effects associated with quinine

Discovered back in the 1600s quinine was the first effective treatment in the fight against malaria - and it continues to be a commonly used treatment against this devastating disease. But the drug is associated with a long list of side effects which can range from sickness and headaches to blindness, deafness and in rare cases death - and until now no one knew why.

29 Jun 2009

Discovery of the cell's water gate may lead to new cancer drugs

The flow of water into and out from the cell may play a crucial role in several types of cancer. Scientists at the University of Gothenburg have now found the gate that regulates the flow of water into yeast cells.

17 Jun 2009

Yeast 'DNA damage sensor' provides chemotherapy resistance clue

Cancer Research UK scientists have been part of an international collaboration that has revealed the structure of a protein found in simple yeast cells and shown how it flags up damaged DNA for repair. The results of their study are published in Nature*. The finding may provide clues as to how some cancer cells become resistant to certain chemotherapy drugs.

11 Jun 2009

Discovery of proteins underlying devastating brain diseases

Scientists at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute have discovered a set of brain proteins responsible for some of the most common and devastating brain diseases.

19 May 2009

Quantitative single cell analysis using optical tweezers and microfluidics

Researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have developed a new method to study single cells while exposing them to controlled environmental changes.

15 May 2009

Scientists develop tool to study a deadly parasite’s histone code

In the Japanese art of paper folding, a series of folds can make the same sheet of paper into a ballerina or baby elephant. But try unfolding the baby elephant and making it into a ballerina. It's like trying to make a neuron from a kidney cell. Epigenetics, it turns out, isn't much different from this old Japanese art: Each fold, or epigenetic crease, both limits and permits further potential folds in a way that mirrors how epigenetic changes seal a cell's fate.

13 May 2009