From the category archives:

Chemistry

A recently devised method of imaging the chemical communication and warfare between microorganisms could lead to new antibiotics, antifungal, antiviral and anti-cancer drugs, said a Texas AgriLife Research scientist.
The new article was published Nov. 8 in Nature Chemical Biology. It describes a technique developed by a collaborative team that includes Dr. Paul Straight, AgriLife Research [...]

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NASA scientists studying the origin of life have reproduced uracil, a key component of our hereditary material, in the laboratory. They discovered that an ice sample containing pyrimidine exposed to ultraviolet radiation under space-like conditions produces this essential ingredient of life.
Pyrimidine is a ring-shaped molecule made up of carbon and nitrogen and is the basic [...]

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Good news for heterogeneous catalysis and the hydrogen economy: computers can now be used to make accurate predictions of the reactions of (hydrogen) molecules with surfaces. An international team of researchers, headed by Leiden theoretical chemist Geert-Jan Kroes, published on this subject this week in the journal Science.
Hydrogen on copper
The team developed a new method [...]

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Unlocking Mysteries Of The Brain With PET

by mokosam on November 10, 2009

Inflammatory response of brain cells — as indicated by a molecular imaging technique — could tell researchers more about why certain neurologic disorders, such as migraine headaches and psychosis in schizophrenic patients, occur and provide insight into how to best treat them, according to two studies published in the November issue of The Journal of [...]

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Using an unconventional approach that they designed, University of Pittsburgh drug discoverers and their collaborators at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research have identified compounds that hold promise for treating leishmaniasis, a parasitic infection that many consider one of the world`s most overlooked diseases. The findings are available online today in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.
These [...]

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The immune system`s T cells have the unique responsibilities of being both jury and executioner. They examine other cells for signs of disease, including cancers or infections, and, if such evidence is found, rid them from the body. Precisely how T cells shift so swiftly from one role to another, however, has been a mystery.
In [...]

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A NASA spacecraft gliding over the battered surface of Mercury for the second time this year has revealed more previously unseen real estate on the innermost planet. The probe also has produced several science firsts and is returning hundreds of new photos and measurements of the planet`s surface, atmosphere and magnetic field.
The MErcury Surface, Space [...]

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A University of Colorado at Boulder team has developed the first atlas of bacterial diversity across the human body, charting wide variations in microbe populations that live in different regions of the human body and which aid us in physiological functions that contribute to our health.
The study showed humans carry "personalized" communities of bacteria around [...]

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A novel method of detection of cervical cancer cells has been developed by Clarkson University Professor Igor Sokolov`s group, an affiliate of the University`s Nanoengineering and Biotechnology Laboratories Center (NABLAB).
The group`s paper is published in Small.
Methods for detection of cancer cells are mostly based on traditional techniques used in biology, such as visual identification of [...]

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Researchers at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) at Virginia Tech and Montana State University have discovered a fungal protein that plays a key role in causing disease in plants and animals and which also shields the pathogen from oxidative stress.
The researchers have found that the fungal protein TmpL is critical for the infection of host [...]

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