Troy, N.Y. - A few snippets of protein extracted from the fossil of an extinct species of giant beaver are opening a new door in paleoproteomics, the study of ancient proteins. Ancient proteins can be used to place animals on the evolutionary tree, and could offer insights into how life and Earth's environment have evolved over time. Typically, paleoproteomics relies on fossils collected for the purpose.
Body
From a virus's point of view, invading our cells is a matter of survival. The virus makes a living by highjacking cellular processes to produce more of the proteins that make it up.
From our point of view, the invasion can be a matter of survival too: surviving the virus. To combat viral diseases like HIV-AIDS, Ebola, and Zika, scientists need to understand the "life cycle" of the virus and design drugs to interrupt it. But seeing what virus proteins do inside living cells is extremely difficult, even with the most powerful imaging technologies.
COLUMBIA, Mo. (June 15, 2016) -- As men and women grow older, their chances for coronary heart disease also increase. Atherosclerosis is a condition in which plaque builds up inside the arteries, which can lead to serious problems, including heart attacks, strokes or even death. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have found that Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1), a protein that is naturally found in high levels among adolescents, can help prevent arteries from clogging.
LA JOLLA--When the body is fighting an invading pathogen, white blood cells--including T cells--must respond. Now, Salk Institute researchers have imaged how vital receptors on the surface of T cells bundle together when activated.
This study, the first to visualize this process in lymph nodes, could help scientists better understand how to turn up or down the immune system's activity to treat autoimmune diseases, infections or even cancer. The results were published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Women who put in long hours for the bulk of their careers may pay a steep price: life-threatening illnesses, including heart disease and cancer.
Work weeks that averaged 60 hours or more over three decades appear to triple the risk of diabetes, cancer, heart trouble and arthritis for women, according to new research from The Ohio State University.
The risk begins to climb when women put in more than 40 hours and takes a decidedly bad turn above 50 hours, researchers found.
Geneticists from KU Leuven, Belgium, have shown that tumour protein TP53 knows exactly where to bind to our DNA to prevent cancer. Once bound to this specific DNA sequence, the protein can activate the right genes to repair damaged cells.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Cancer cells and normal cells both divide and move, but with cancer cells it's like they're on steroids: everything is bigger, faster, more.
A new study explains how cancer cells use energy to fuel this switch between motion and proliferation. The researchers identified for the first time a connection between a cancer gene that controls motility and how cancer cells metabolize energy to move and divide so quickly.
Shells of California mussels collected from the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Washington in the 1970s are on average 32 percent thicker than modern specimens, according to a new study published by University of Chicago biologists.
Shells collected by Native Americans 1,000 to 1,300 years ago were also 27 percent thicker than modern shells, on average. The decreasing thickness over time, in particular the last few decades, is likely due to ocean acidification as a result of increased carbon in the atmosphere.
Light microscopes based on scattering, reflection and absorption, or a combination of these, have been a key enabling technology for the study of objects invisible to our eyes, especially in the field of biology. Many improvements have been made in the past to create state-of-the-art techniques capable of achieving unprecedented resolution and sensitivity albeit their cost, which drastically increases with quality and versatility, making them quite unavailable for general applications.
PHILADELPHIA, PA - Imagine you're ordering lunch from your favorite online delivery spot, and just before submitting your order, you notice that the club sandwich in your cart is marked with a red stop light signifying high calorie content. Would you keep it in your cart? New research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania suggests you might switch to a lower-calorie option.
Bioengineers at the University of California, San Diego have developed an electrical graphene chip capable of detecting mutations in DNA. Researchers say the technology could one day be used in various medical applications such as blood-based tests for early cancer screening, monitoring disease biomarkers and real-time detection of viral and microbial sequences. The advance was published June 13 in the online early edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
A team of researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the Rowland Institute at Harvard University have used a specialized nanoprobe developed by the Harvard/Rowland investigators to directly measure levels of key proteins within living, cultured cells. As described in the journal Nano Letters, the investigators used the device to track levels of the Alzheimer's-disease-associated proteins amyloid-beta (A-beta) and tau in neurons and other cells exposed to an anesthetic known to produce Alzheimer's-like changes in the brains of mice.
Blood safety researchers say it is highly likely that the mosquito-borne Zika virus can be transmitted through blood transfusions and are calling for an evidence-based approach to protecting the blood supply from the threat of Zika virus according to a commentary in the journal Transfusion.
The researchers say among several possible steps that could be taken to mitigate safety concerns: deferring blood donors who have symptoms of the infection, developing better blood screening tests, and finding ways to reduce the pathogen.
DARIEN, IL - A new study found that the NFL, NBA and NHL teams traveling from west to east had a higher winning percentage compared to teams traveling in the opposite direction.
The results of this study highlight the importance of the direction of the circadian disadvantage on the probability of success.
URBANA, Ill. - Diabetes continues to be a global health problem, with the number of cases projected to rise from 285 million in 2010 to nearly 400 million by the year 2030. Diabetes is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide.
Though medications have been developed to manage diabetes there is no therapy that can cure the disease. Long-term, the disease can cause complications affecting the eyes, heart, kidneys, and nerves.