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Researchers identify mutation that causes inflammatory bowel disease

A team of scientists at The Scripps Research Institute has linked a mouse mutation to an increased susceptibility for developing inflammatory bowel disease -- represented in humans as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, which together are estimated to affect more than a million people in the United States.

10 Feb 2009

Long-sought protein structure may help reveal how ‘gene switch’ works

The bacterium behind one of mankind's deadliest scourges, tuberculosis, is helping researchers at the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) move closer to answering the decades-old question of what controls the switching on and off of genes that carry out all of life's functions.

10 Feb 2009

Scientists identify protein key to Lyme disease

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have identified a protein that may help give Lyme disease its bite.

9 Feb 2009

Scientists create first crystal structure of an intermediate particle in virus assembly

The structure, described February 8 in an advance online publication of the journal Nature , provides fresh insights into the elegant dance that viral proteins perform to create the infectious structure that causes all manner of misery and disease, say researchers.

8 Feb 2009

Medicines sold in Sweden cause serious environmental harm in India

Many of the substances in our most common medicines are manufactured in India and China.

8 Feb 2009

Long-sought protein structure may help reveal how 'gene switch' works

8 Feb 2009

Discovery of direct link between vitamin D and MS susceptibility 'gene'

Researchers have found evidence that a direct interaction between vitamin D and a common genetic variant alters the risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS).

8 Feb 2009

Research links photosynthesis genes to marine virus fitness

A recent Northeastern University study has shown, for the first time, the effect of individual genes on the fitness of a marine species at the ecosystem level.

5 Feb 2009

Super-fine oil-and-water emulsion protects against superbugs that kill cystic fibrosis patients

University of Michigan scientists report highly encouraging evidence that a super-fine oil-and-water emulsion, already shown to kill many other microbes, may be able to quell the ravaging, often drug-resistant infections that cause nearly all cystic fibrosis deaths.

5 Feb 2009

Bacteria are models of efficiency

The bacterium Escherichia coli, one of the best-studied single-celled organisms around, is a master of industrial efficiency.

5 Feb 2009

Researchers find pathway and enzyme unique to tularemia organism

Researchers are closer to developing therapies to combat the deadly tularemia infection, according to a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences' online Early Edition.

3 Feb 2009

Quantum dot hazards

Quantum dots have the potential to bring many good things into the world: efficient solar power, targeted gene and drug delivery, solid-state lighting and advances in biomedical imaging among them.

2 Feb 2009

Rapid new technique for detection of Salmonella

In the hours following an outbreak of Salmonella , there are many questions.

2 Feb 2009

Discovery fleshes out metabolism of key environmental and energy bacteria

An international collaboration of researchers has discovered a new enzyme in a species of bacteria with potential environmental cleanup and energy roles.

2 Feb 2009

New genetic clues on molecular evolution of Q fever pathogen

Scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Texas A&M Health Center, and the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech have uncovered genetic clues about why some strains of the pathogen Coxiella burnetii are more virulent than others.

2 Feb 2009