A new way to stimulate cellular recycling process

18-May-2018 - Brown University researchers studying the biology of aging have demonstrated a new strategy for stimulating autophagy, the process by which cells rebuild themselves by recycling their own worn-out parts. In a study the researchers show that the approach increased the lifespans of worms and flies, ...

How pathogenic bacteria prepare a sticky adhesion protein

10-Apr-2018 - Researchers at Harvard Medical School, the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of Georgia have described how the protein that allows strep and staph bacteria to stick to human cells is prepared and packaged. The research could facilitate the development of new ...

Surprise finding points to DNA's role in shaping cells

12-Feb-2018 - As a basic unit of life, the cell is one of the most carefully studied components of all living organisms. Yet details on basic processes such as how cells are shaped have remained a mystery. Working at the intersection of biology and physics, scientists at the University of California San Diego ...

Genome architecture caught in motion

12-Oct-2017 - Researchers at The Wistar Institute have uncovered new aspects of the three-dimensional organization of the genome, specifically how the genetic material is compacted and de-compacted in a timely fashion during the different phases of the cell cycle. "We are just starting to appreciate that the ...

X-ray footprinting solves mystery of metal-breathing protein

04-Sep-2017 - Scientists have discovered the details of an unconventional coupling between a bacterial protein and a mineral that allows the bacterium to breathe when oxygen is not available. The research, conducted by a team of scientists at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory ...

How estrogen regulates gene expression

28-Aug-2017 - Estrogen hormones regulate gene expression. They achieve this by first binding to estrogen receptor in the cell nucleus, which triggers the recruitment of different molecules called coactivators in specific order. In a study a team of researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, the University of ...

Viral protein transforms as it measures out DNA

31-Jan-2017 - To generate swarms of new viral particles, a virus hijacks a cell into producing masses of self-assembling cages that are then loaded with the genetic blueprint for the next infection. But the picture of how that DNA is loaded into those viral cages, or capsids, was blurry, especially for two of ...

Breaking new territory analyzing DNA modifications in glioblastoma

28-Nov-2016 - Using state-of-the-art molecular biology and statistical approaches, researchers at Dartmouth's Norris Cotton Cancer Center (NCCC) have identified the functional role of two distinct DNA modifications in glioblastoma (GBM) tissues. The signature of one of these pattern disruptions in particular, ...

Scientists Develop the First Atomic View of Key Genetic Processes

26-Aug-2010 - In a landmark study published in Nature, scientists have been able to create the first picture of genetic processes that happen inside every cell of our bodies. Using a 3-D visualization method called X-ray crystallography, Song Tan, an associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at ...

The Porcine microRNAome is revealed

Results blaze a trail for advancement in pig biology as well the use of pigs as model organism for human biological and biomedical studies

20-Aug-2010 - Researchers from LC Sciences LLC and a collaboration of universities have established a porcine microRNAome, a complete catalog of all microRNAs expressed in the species Sus scrofa. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small regulatory RNA molecules known to control a wide array of cellular functions such as ...