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The Achilles heel of APC-mutated colon tumors identified

In almost all cases of colon cancer, a specific gene is mutated – this offers opportunities to develop broadly effective therapeutic approaches. Research teams in Würzburg have taken this a step further.

5 Nov 2019

Researchers find genes from 'fossil' virus in human DNA to be active

Genes from a virus that was stitched into the human genome thousands of years ago are active, producing proteins in the human brain and other tissues, according to researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine and the Laval University School of Medicine in Quebec, Canada.

5 Nov 2019

New technique uses light to control lifetime of protein inside the cell

Researchers report they have developed a new technique that uses light to control the lifetime of a protein inside the cell. This method will allow scientists to better observe how specific proteins contribute to health, development and disease.

4 Nov 2019

Scientists capture elusive cancer-related protein in action

Scientists have for the first time seen how the MYC protein, which plays a central role in cancer, binds to a key protein and controls important functions in the cell.

4 Nov 2019

Protein may help predict, prevent and treat brain metastases

A protein that breast, lung and other cancers use to promote their spread--or metastasis--to the brain, has been identified by a team led by Weill Cornell Medicine and New York-Presbyterian investigators. The protein, CEMIP, will now be a focus of efforts to predict, prevent and treat brain metastases, which are a frequent cause of cancer deaths.

4 Nov 2019

How venom from marine cone snails can be used in pain therapy

Conotoxins are bioactive peptides found in the venom that marine cone snails produce for prey capture and defense.

4 Nov 2019

Properties of spider silk proteins could be selectively modified to synthesize novel biomaterials

Spider silk consists of fiber-forming proteins, stored by the spider in a specialized gland. When the spider needs silk, for instance to build a web, it extrudes the silk proteins through a long duct in which they are exposed to specific mechanical and chemical influences and assembled to form silk.

4 Nov 2019

Researchers make major breakthrough in cell signalling

Researchers at the University of Liverpool have made a major breakthrough in the field of cell signalling.

4 Nov 2019

RCSB Protein Data Bank at Rutgers receives $34.5 million funding

The RCSB Protein Data Bank headquartered at Rutgers University-New Brunswick has been awarded $34.5 million in grants over five years from three U.S. government agencies.

4 Nov 2019

New, open-source database improves genomics research collaboration

Sharing datasets that reveal the function of genomic variants in health and disease has become easier, with the launch of a new, open-source database developed by Australian and North American researchers.

3 Nov 2019

Research could address lingering quandaries about how life began

A research team at The University of Tokyo has reproducibly synthesized staircase-like supramolecules of a single handedness, or chirality, using standard laboratory equipment.

2 Nov 2019

Researchers develop new way to 3D print living skin with blood vessels

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a way to 3D print living skin, complete with blood vessels. The advancement, published online today in Tissue Engineering Part A, is a significant step toward creating grafts that are more like the skin our bodies produce naturally.

1 Nov 2019

UI scientists are developing new delivery tools for gene editing

News of advances in gene-editing technology raises the prospect of actually using this approach to treat disease in patients. But one of the hurdles that remains is how to deliver these tools to the right cells in the patients safely and efficiently.

31 Oct 2019

NJIT biologist explores ant colonies to better understand human mass migrations

Can ants help predict the complex dynamics of future humanitarian crises, such as when and where large populations might move during disease outbreaks or armed conflicts?

31 Oct 2019

Varied diets may be the cause for differences in human and non-human primate saliva

The study, published recently in Molecular Biology and Evolution, describes the discovery that human saliva is much more watery than the saliva of chimpanzees and gorillas.

31 Oct 2019

Risky strategy allows malaria parasite to quickly respond to unpredictable changes

The parasite that causes malaria expresses genes that code for the proteins it will need in later life stages, using two separate schemes to prevent these proteins from actually being made until they are needed, according to new research.

31 Oct 2019

Study provides a first look into black box of embryonic development

Little is known about the molecular and cellular events that occur during early embryonic development in primate species.

31 Oct 2019

New signaling systems discovered in human cells

The human cell has a wide variety of receptors on its surface that many molecules and therapeutic drugs can bind to in order to activate signals inside the cell to regulate different physiological functions. GPCRs are the largest - and a very important - family of receptors on human cells.

31 Oct 2019

Mutated version of DNA repair protein may illuminate its role in preventing cancer

Two trillion times each day, the cells in a typical human divide to replace old, damaged or dead cells. Before a cell divides, though, it makes an exact copy of its DNA, which will be passed on to the new cells.

31 Oct 2019