Biology Net: Molecular & Cell Biology

Biology News Net - Molecular & Cell Biology

• Researchers identify key enzyme in DNA repair pathway
  

  Researchers have discovered an enzyme crucial to a type of DNA repair that also causes resistance to a class of cancer drugs most commonly used against ovarian cancer.

  
  
  
• Memory's master switch
  

  Neuroscientists have long wondered how individual connections between brain cells remain diverse and "fit" enough for storing new memories. Reported in the prestigious science journal Neuron, a new study led by Dr. Inna Slutsky of the Sackler School of Medicine at Tel Aviv University describes what makes some memories stick.

  
  
  
• Researchers discover how key enzyme repairs sun-damaged DNA
  

  Researchers have long known that humans lack a key enzyme -- one possessed by most of the animal kingdom and even plants -- that reverses severe sun damage.

  
  
  
• Scientists tap into Antarctic octopus venom
  

  Australian and international researchers have collected venom from octopuses in Antarctica for the first time, significantly advancing our understanding of the properties of venom as a potential resource for drug-development.

  
  
  
• Supercharged proteins enter biology's forbidden zone
  

  Scientists are reporting discovery of a way to help proteins such as the new generation of protein-based drugs -- sometimes heralded as tomorrow's potential "miracle cures" -- get past the biochemical "Entrance Forbidden" barrier that keeps them from entering cells and doing their work. The new technique, described in the monthly journal, ACS Chemical Biology, represents a new use for an engineered form of green fluorescent protein, the topic of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry that is one of the most important research tools in biosciences.

  
  
  
• 'Mahjong' gene is key player when cancer, normal cells compete
  

  A landmark study by Florida State University biologists, in collaboration with scientists in Britain, is the first to identify a life-or-death "cell competition" process in mammalian tissue that suppresses cancer by causing cancerous cells to kill themselves.

  
  
  
• Gene knockout makes female mice masculine
  

  The mammalian fucose mutarotase enzyme is known to be involved in incorporating the sugar fucose into protein. Female mice that lack the fucose mutarotase (FucM) gene refuse to let males mount them, and will attempt copulation with other female mice. Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Genetics created the FucM mouse mutants in order to investigate the role of this enzyme in vivo.

  
  
  
• Small molecule boosts production of brain cells, protects new cells from dying
  

  UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found a compound that preserves newly created brain cells and boosts learning and memory in an animal study.

  
  
  
• Biologists identify a new clue into cellular aging
  

  The ability to combat some age-related diseases, such as cancer and diabetes, may rest with scientists unlocking clues about the molecular and cellular processes governing aging. The underlying theory is that if the healthy portion of an individual's life span can be extended, it may delay the onset of certain age-related diseases. In the search to understand these molecular processes, researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School have uncovered an important new DAF-16 isoform – DAF-16d/f – that collaborates with other DAF-16 protein isoforms to regulate longevity.

  
  
  
• Key component indentified that helps plants go green
  

  A team of researchers from Duke University and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies has found a central part in the machinery that turns plants green when they sense light.