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Recent discovery of a food allergy candidate gene on chromosome 5q22.1
Allergies are a broad category of disorders that all have one common trait, immune reactions to normally non-harmful substances. They are chronic diseases (ranked 5th on the list among chronic diseases in the US) that can dramatically degrade the lifestyle of those affected depending on the degree of severity. About 55% of the population has an [...]
Also posted in Biology, Genetics, Microbiology 2184 Comments
Mitochondria, Efficient Energy Production with Dangerous Side Effects?
Scientists from Harvard Teaching Medical Hospital have discovered that Mitochondria respond to trauma by creating patient inflammation and a response not unlike bacterial infection. Best known as the energy producing powerhouses of the cell (being home of the Citric Acid Cycle and oxidative phosphorylation), Mitochondria have long been recognized as ancient symbiots – not originally [...]
Also posted in Biology, Evolutionary Biology, Health & Medicine 2889 Comments
Nature’s Exciting Expectations for the New Year
It seems that Nature magazine has high hopes (and don’t we all) for research progress in 2010. Among goals such as glimpsing the origins of the universe and other Earth-like planets, the biological topics expected to make big impacts are: Stopping/preventing species loss globally Synthetic genome from pioneers such as Craig Venter A surge in [...]
Also posted in Biology, Ecology and Environmental Biology, Genetics, Genomics, Lists Tagged Climate, Craig Venter, HIV, Nature, Stem cells 1944 Comments
More Proof That Smoking Leads to Small-Cell Lung Cancer
In a Nature article published earlier this week, UK and US researchers have provided more proof that smoking has a direct effect on the development of small-cell lung cancer. This study describes 22,910 somatic mutations characterized by massively parallel sequencing technology (including 134 in highly important exon coding regions) in the small-cell lung cancer cell [...]
Also posted in Biology, Genetics, Genomics, Health & Medicine Tagged Cancer, Cell Biology, Genetics, Genomics, Lung Cancer, Mutations, Nature 3399 Comments
RNA Interference Technology Will Improve Pharmaceutical Production
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 [...]
Also posted in Biology, Genetics, Genomics, Health & Medicine, Proteomics Tagged Biotechnology Advances, Chinese Hamster Ovary Cells, Genetics, Genomics, Pharmaceuticals, Proteomics, Recombinant Proteins, RNA interference, RNAi 962 Comments
Visualize the Unbelievably Small Scale of the Cell (and other Biological Structures)
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 [...]
Also posted in Genetics, Microbiology, Web Resources Tagged Cell Biology, Genetics, Microbiology, Web Resources 2200 Comments
First Synthetic Cellulosome In Yeast Created
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.
New Fluorescence Microscopy Techniques Directly Image Drug Delivery
X Sunney Wei and others at Harvard University recently demonstrated a new technique for stimulated emission microscopy that allows high resolution imaging of generally non-fluorescent chromophores (such as drugs). This imaging technique relies on pumped laser sources and new techniques for obtaining the fluorescent emission streams. Use of this sort of microscopy could lead to [...]
Also posted in Biology, Microbiology, Microscopy Tagged Harvard, Microscopy, Nature, Pharmaceuticals, STED 2135 Comments
BioImage of the Week #2
The BioImage for this week comes to us from GPMatthews’ personal website. The site contains a large collection of fascinating images and articles, particularly on the pages that contain images of diatoms. These unicellular organisms are like biology’s snowflakes and often offer some of the most interesting and complex patterns that can be visualized under [...]
Also posted in BioImage of the Week, Microbiology, Microscopy Tagged Cell Biology, Dark Field, Diatom, Microbiology, Microscopy 2593 Comments
Forget World of Warcraft… CellCraft: a Fantastic and Informational Cell Biology Flash Game