Biochemistry News and Research

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Green tea may reduce the risk of skin cancer

Green tea just keeps getting better. To add to the abundance of health-improving qualities of the beverage, UAB Researcher Santosh Katiyar, Ph.D., associate professor of dermatology, claims that it can reduce the risk of skin cancer.

9 May 2007

New vitamin extends lifespan in yeast cells

Imagine taking a vitamin for longevity! Not yet, but a Dartmouth discovery that a cousin of niacin prolongs lifespan in yeast brings the tantalizing possibility a step closer.

4 May 2007

New view of photosynthesis

During the remarkable cascade of events of photosynthesis, plants approach the pinnacle of stinginess by scavenging nearly every photon of available light energy to produce food.

4 May 2007

11 percent of American women smoke during pregnancy

The negative effects of nicotine exposure to their fetuses and newborns are significant.

2 May 2007

New way to target and potentially treat tumors

Research teams at Yale University and the University of Rhode Island have demonstrated a new way to target and potentially treat tumors using a short piece of protein that acts like a nanosyringe to deliver tags or therapy to cells, according to a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

2 May 2007

Nanoparticles found near plaque-filled arteries

Scientific evidence increasingly links arterial calcification to the presence of nanosized particles so small that some scientists question whether a nanoparticle can live and, if so, play a viable role in causing disease.

1 May 2007

Scientists find new way to analyze the moving parts of large proteins

Scientists from Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) and Rice University have discovered a new way to analyze the moving parts of large proteins , a breakthrough that will make it easier for structural biologists to classify and scrutinize the active sites of proteins implicated in cancer and other diseases.

1 May 2007

Scientists find last unknown enzyme in the synthesis of vitamin C in plants

Vitamin C is possibly the most important small molecule whose biosynthetic pathway remained a mystery.

30 Apr 2007

Exercise pill switches on master regulator that controls the ability of cells to burn fat

By giving ordinary adult mice a drug - a synthetic designed to mimic fat - Salk Institute scientist Dr. Ronald M. Evans is now able to chemically switch on PPAR-d, the master regulator that controls the ability of cells to burn fat.

30 Apr 2007

Chinese herb Lei Gong Teng stops formation of cysts in polycystic kidney disease in lab

Using a compound from a centuries-old Chinese traditional medicine, Yale University researcher Dr. Craig Crews has been able to prevent the formation of kidney-destroying cysts in a mouse model of polycystic kidney disease.

30 Apr 2007

First online models of biological molecules

A University of Massachusetts Amherst biochemist is creating the first online models of biological molecules like enzymes and proteins customized to figures in scientific research articles.

26 Apr 2007

Important step towards a spatially and temporally quantifiable model of the cell

Cell membranes are like two-dimensional fluids whose molecules are distributed evenly through lateral diffusion.

26 Apr 2007

Discovery may change thinking on how viruses invade the brain

A molecule thought crucial to ferrying the deadly rabies virus into the brain, where it eventually kills, apparently isn't.

20 Apr 2007

New hope for people with therapy-resistant depression

A study at the University Clinics of Bonn and Cologne gives people with therapy-resistant depression reason for hope.

19 Apr 2007

Method of mass-producing disease-fighting antibodies entirely within bacteria

The group led by Dr. George Georgiou developed the new antibody-production approach to improve upon processes used previously to identify new drugs.

19 Apr 2007

Astrocytes may contribute to Lou Gehrig's disease

Two papers by Columbia and Harvard researchers report for the first time that astrocytes (the most abundant non-neuronal cells in the central nervous system), which carry a mutated gene known to cause some cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS/Lou Gehrig's disease), induce motor neuron death.

16 Apr 2007