Biochemistry News and Research

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Researchers hunt for a hi-tech vaccine against Helicobacter pylori

Almost half of the world population is infected with bacteria Helicobacter pylori which colonizes stomach, causing gastritis and ulcers and is recognized by WHO as a type I carcinogen.

10 Dec 2008

Researchers study virus with unusual properties

A team of researchers from Penn State University and the University of Chicago has uncovered clues that may explain how and why a particular virus, called N4, injects an unusual substance -- an RNA polymerase protein -- into an E. coli bacterial cell.

8 Dec 2008

Non-invasive glucose monitoring system

Solianis has just finalised a test series in which patients with diabetes have worn the first configuration of the multisensor system for non-invasive Continuous Glucose Monitoring at home and at work.

8 Dec 2008

An Achilles heel in cancer cells

A protein that shields tumor cells from cell death and exerts resistance to chemotherapy has an Achilles heel, a vulnerability that can be exploited to target and kill the very tumor cells it usually protects, researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago show in a new study published in the Dec. 9 issue of Cancer Cell.

8 Dec 2008

New approaches to prevent blood clots

The largest study ever to examine the preventive use of blood-thinning medication to help prevent deadly blood clots in patients with cancer undergoing chemotherapy presented December 7 during the 50th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology in San Francisco, CA.

8 Dec 2008

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