Biology

Here's my cool biology class. And some biology news:

Biology News Net - Molecular&Cell Biology

  • Surprise finding redraws'map'of blood cell production


    Drs Maria Kauppi (left) and Ashley Ng from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, Australia, study blood 'progenitor' cells     A study of the cells that respond to crises in the blood system has yielded a few surprises, redrawing the 'map' of how blood cells are made in the body.

  • Biological time-keeper linked to diabetes

    Researchers in Lille and Paris demonstrated that mutations in the melatonin receptor gene (melatonin or the "hormone of darkness" induces sleep) lead to an almost sevenfold increase in the risk of developing diabetes. This research, which was published in Nature Genetics on 29 January 2012, could contributed to the development of new drugs for the treatment or prevention of this metabolic disease.

  • Membrane fusion a mystery no more

    The many factors that contribute to how cells communicate and function at the most basic level are still not fully understood, but researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have uncovered a mechanism that helps explain how intracellular membranes fuse, and in the process, created a new physiological membrane fusion model.

  • Life discovered on dead hydrothermal vents

    Scientists at USC have uncovered evidence that even when hydrothermal sea vents go dormant and their blistering warmth turns to frigid cold, life goes on.

  • New discoveries in cell aging

    A group of researchers led by the Institute of Biotechnology and Biomedicine (IBB) and Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) have achieved to quantify with precision the effect of protein aggregation on cell aging processes using as models the Escherichia coli bacteria and the molecule which triggers Alzheimer's disease. Scientists demonstrated that the effect can be predicted before it occurs. Protein aggregation is related to several diseases, including neurodegenerative diseases.

  • How cells dispose of their waste


    The "regulatory particle " (in blue) detects the proteins tagged with ubiquitin and prepares them for degradation. The "core particle " (in red) breaks the proteins down into their single components.     Defective proteins that are not disposed of by the body can cause diseases such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) of Biochemistry recently succeeded in revealing the structure of the cellular protein degradation machinery (26S proteasome) by combining different methods of structural biology. The results of collaboration with colleagues from the University of California, San Francisco and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zürich) represent an important step forward in the investigation of the 26S proteasome. The findings have now been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

  • Defective cell'battery'plays central role in neurodegenerative disease

    A devastating neurodegenerative disease that first appears in toddlers just as they are beginning to walk has been traced to defects in mitochondria, the 'batteries' or energy-producing power plants of cells. This finding by a team of researchers, led by investigators from the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital – The Neuro- at McGill University, was published in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS). The research, which was highlighted as "Novel & Newsworthy" by the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB), significantly increases understanding of the disease and reveals an important common link with other neurodegenerative diseases, providing renewed hope and potential new therapeutic strategies for those affected around the world.

  • Ultra short telomeres linked to osteoarthritis

    Telomeres, the very ends of chromosomes, become shorter as we age. When a cell divides it first duplicates its DNA and, because the DNA replication machinery fails to get all the way to the end, with each successive cell division a little bit more is missed. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Arthritis Research & Therapy shows that cells from osteoarthritic knees have abnormally shortened telomeres and that the percentage of cells with ultra short telomeres increases the closer to the damaged region within the joint.

  • Receptor for tasting fat identified in humans

    Why do we like fatty foods so much? We can blame our taste buds.

  • Brain glia cells increase their DNA content to preserve vital blood-brain barrier

    The blood-brain barrier is essential for maintaining the brain's stable environment—preventing entry of harmful viruses and bacteria and isolating the brain's specific hormonal and neurotransmitter activity from that in the rest of the body.