Copyright 2012 Medical News TodayLatest Health News and Medical News posted throughout the day, every day.http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/biology-biochemistry/admin@medicalnewstoday.com (MNT Admin)editors@medicalnewstoday.com (MNT Editors)en-us Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241456.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241456.phpScientists at the University of California, San Diego have developed a new method for making scaffolds for culturing tissue in three-dimensional arrangements that mimic those in the body...Biology / Biochemistry Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241537.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241537.phpNew research led by Nottingham University in the UK suggests abnormal levels of seven proteins in spinal fluid could be markers for the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, raising hopes of a test for a disease that is difficult to diagnose at the beginning. The researchers write about their findings in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease...Alzheimer's / Dementia Fri, 10 Feb 2012 01:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241394.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241394.phpScientists have developed a new community resource that may act as a Rosetta stone for revealing the genetic basis of traits and disease. A paper in the Feb. 9 issue of Nature describes the Drosophila Genetic Reference Panel (DGRP), which provides the highest-resolution view to date, of the genome structure and variation in a population of 192 fruit flies with diverse traits...Genetics Fri, 10 Feb 2012 01:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241412.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241412.phpIndividual cells modified to act as sensors using fluorescence are already useful tools in biochemistry, but now they can add good timing to their resume, thanks in part to expertise from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)...Biology / Biochemistry Fri, 03 Feb 2012 01:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241086.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241086.phpA photograph of a polar bear in captivity, no matter how sharp the resolution, can never reveal as much about behavior as footage of that polar bear in its natural habitat. The behavior of cells and molecules can prove even more elusive...Medical Devices / Diagnostics Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241065.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241065.phpA defective operating system is never a good thing. Like computers, our cells depend on operating systems to drive normal functions. Gene expression programs comprise the software code our cells rely on, with each cell type controlled by its own program. Corrupted programs can trigger disease...Genetics Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/240943.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/240943.phpBypassing the stem cell stage, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine in California converted mouse skin cells directly into neural precursor cells, the cells that go on to form the three main types of cell in the brain and nervous system. They write about their findings in the 30 January early online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences...Stem Cell Research Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/240979.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/240979.phpCells rely on purines, which are types of molecules that make up half of the DNA and RNA building blocks, and are a key component of the chemicals that store a cell's energy in order to perform many vital functions. The purine supply is strictly controlled by the cells, with any disruption likely to cause serious potential consequences...Genetics Mon, 30 Jan 2012 01:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240930.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240930.phpCells trying to keep pace with constantly changing environmental conditions need to strike a fine balance between maintaining their genomic integrity and allowing enough genetic flexibility to adapt to inhospitable conditions...Cancer / Oncology Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240873.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240873.phpLike a magician employing sleight of hand, the protein mitoNEET - a mysterious but important player in diabetes, cancer and aging - draws the eye with a flurry of movement in one location while the subtle, more crucial action takes place somewhere else...Diabetes Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240853.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240853.phpIn a study that holds major implications for breast cancer research as well as basic cell biology, scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have discovered a rotational motion that plays a critical role in the ability of breast cells to form the spherical structures in the mammary gland known as acini...Breast Cancer Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240838.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240838.phpAll living organisms are made up of cells, behind these intricate life forms lie complex cellular processes that allow our bodies to function. Researchers working on protein secretion - a fundamental process in biology - have revealed how protein channels in the membrane are activated by special signals contained in proteins destined for secretion...Biology / Biochemistry Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/240891.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/240891.phpA three-dimensional study of how enzymes in the malaria parasite Plasmodium synthesize essential vitamins, could help develop new drugs to combat the disease. Using electron microscopy, a team of scientists from Germany and the UK studied how the enzymes synthesize Vitamin B6, which has already been proposed as a target for new drugs...Tropical Diseases Thu, 26 Jan 2012 03:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/240781.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/240781.php Scientists studying ocean microorganisms have encountered something they have never seen before. A marine virus that cons certain photosynthetic bacteria into letting it come inside because it appears to offer a "helping hand" by bringing resources very like their own to help them acquire phosphorus, a nutrient they are desperately short of...Biology / Biochemistry Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240746.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240746.phpThe 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. The findings appear in the current edition of the journal PLoS Biology...Cancer / Oncology Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240698.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240698.phpA recent Van Andel Research Institute (VARI) study published in the journal Science investigating the molecular structure and function of an essential plant hormone could profoundly change our understanding of a key cell process, and might ultimately lead to the development of new drugs for a variety of diseases...Biology / Biochemistry Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240686.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240686.phpDefective 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...Neurology / Neuroscience Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240688.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240688.phpA group of researchers led by the Institute of Biotechnology and Biomedicine (IBB) and Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB) can now quantify with precision the effect of protein aggregation on cell aging processes using Escherichia coli bacteria and the molecule which triggers Alzheimer's disease as models. Scientists demonstrated that the effect can be predicted before it occurs...Genetics Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/240525.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/240525.php Based on the knowledge that cancer cells grow indefinitely, the general belief is that senescence could act as a barrier against tumor growth and has the potential of being used as a cancer treatment...Melanoma / Skin Cancer Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240301.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240301.phpSince the discovery of the microscope, scientists have tried to visualize smaller and smaller structures to provide insights into the inner workings of human cells, bacteria and viruses...Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240336.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240336.phpA special group of proteins, the so-called chaperons, helps other proteins to obtain their correct conformation. Until now scientists supposed that hydrolyzing ATP provides the energy for the large conformational changes of chaperon Hsp90...Biology / Biochemistry Sun, 15 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/240325.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/240325.phpAn international team of scientists has isolated a natural hormone or chemical messenger in muscle cells that triggers some of the important health benefits of exercise. They have named it "irisin", after the Greek messenger goddess, and believe it is a promising candidate for developing drugs to treat diabetes, obesity and maybe even cancer...Diabetes Sat, 14 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/240324.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/240324.phpA new study led by the University of Reading in the UK that examined breast tissue samples from 40 women who underwent mastectomies for breast cancer, found they contained widespread traces of parabens, preservatives commonly used in deodorants, make-up, body lotions, moisturisers and many other cosmetic products...Breast Cancer Fri, 13 Jan 2012 01:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240253.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240253.phpNew research demonstrates that previous models used to examine cancer may not be complex enough to accurately mimic the true cancer environment...Cancer / Oncology Fri, 13 Jan 2012 01:00:00 PSThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240258.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/240258.phpImportant new information on one of the most critical protein machines in living cells has been reported by a team of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley...Biology / Biochemistry