Monthly Archives: November 2009

RNA Interference Technology Will Improve Pharmaceutical Production

By jyaron | Published: November 22, 2009
RNA interference, or RNAi, has become a novel and useful tool for silencing gene expression in both cells and organisms as well as in developing therapies for diseases. A new study out of Taiwan has recently been published outlining how RNAi technology can be used to vastly increase the quantity and quality of recombinant protein [...]
Posted in Biology, Cell Biology, Genetics, Genomics, Health & Medicine, Proteomics | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 962 Comments

New Insight About Why Chimpanzees Can’t Speak, But We Can

By jyaron | Published: November 13, 2009
Why is it that humans can speak, but chimpanzees, with their >98% genetic identity to humans, can’t? For almost a decade scientists have known that the FOXP2 gene is responsible for the mendelian development of language in humans. Theories abound about how a mere 2 amino acid change may have been all that was needed [...]
Posted in Biology, Evolutionary Biology, Zoology | Tagged , , , , , , | 2050 Comments

Visualize the Unbelievably Small Scale of the Cell (and other Biological Structures)

By jyaron | Published: November 11, 2009
Single cells are small. Really, REALLY small. When you read that a suspended cell is approximately 10-15 microns in diameter it all seems fine and well; you’ll write it down or take note of it, then move along. However, if you stop to think about how small 10-15 microns is, it begins to baffle your [...]
Posted in Cell Biology, Genetics, Microbiology, Web Resources | Tagged , , , | 2199 Comments

First Synthetic Cellulosome In Yeast Created

By jyaron | Published: November 2, 2009
ScienceDaily (Nov. 2, 2009) — A team of researchers led by University of California, Riverside (UCR) Professor of Chemical Engineering Wilfred Chen has constructed for the first time a synthetic cellulosome in yeast, which is much more ethanol-tolerant than the bacteria in which these structures are normally found.
Posted in Biology, Cell Biology, Microbiology | Tagged , , , | 1967 Comments