Modern proteins exhibit an impressive degree of structural diversity, which has been well characterized, but very little is known about how and when over the course of evolution 3D protein structures arose. In a study published by Cell Press August 8 in Structure, researchers resurrected 4-billion-year-old Precambrian proteins in the laboratory and gained novel insights into protein evolution by analyzing their X-ray crystal structures. This method has revealed a remarkable degree of structural similarity among proteins since life first evolved on this planet, and it represents ...

Engineered rice protects against rotavirus For children and immune compromised adults in developing countries, diarrheal disease induced by rotavirus can be life threatening. Current rotaviral vaccines are highly effective in the Western world, but are not as effective in developing countries. Additionally, these vaccines are not appropriate for use outside of a very narrow age window or in immune compromised individuals. In the current issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation Yoshikazu Yuki and colleagues at the University of Tokyo report the development of ...

TITLE: Rice-based oral antibody fragment prophylaxis and therapy against rotavirus infection AUTHOR CONTACT: Daisuke Tokuhara The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, UNK, JPN Phone: 81-3-5449-5271; Fax: 81-3-5449-5411; E-mail: tokuhara@ims.u-tokyo.ac.jp View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/70266?key=de80321a713532149b56 END ...

Cancer progression is aided by the ability of tumors to evade recognition by the immune system. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Gerard Blobe and colleagues at Duke University identify a mechanism by which tumors evade detection. Using mouse models of breast cancer and melanoma, they show that loss of the Type III TGF-β receptor (TGFBR3) in tumors promotes cancer progression by altering signaling in tumor-associated immune cells. This study supports the use of TGF-β inhibitors to enhance the efficacy of therapies that promote immune-mediated ...

India experienced a demographic transformation several thousand years ago, from a region in which mixture between highly different populations was common to one in which mixture even between closely related groups became rare. The finding, which will be published online on August 8, 2013 in the American Journal of Human Genetics, published by Cell Press, provides new information about the peopling of India and improves our understanding of the changes that led to the present-day structure of Indian populations. "Prior to the population mixture and as recently as a few ...

IDAHO FALLS — Modernizing nuclear power plants to help extend their operating lifetimes is no small task. But the endeavor offers an opportunity to improve control-room design and layout. The Department of Energy's new Human System Simulation Laboratory (HSSL) at Idaho National Laboratory is a full-scale virtual nuclear control room that can test the safety and reliability of proposed technology replacements before they are implemented in commercial nuclear control rooms. The facility is now helping Duke Energy embark on an upgrade project for several of its nuclear ...

Scientists from Harvard Medical School and the CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad, India, provide evidence that modern-day India is the result of recent population mixture among divergent demographic groups. The findings, published August 8 in the American Journal of Human Genetics, describe how India transformed from a country where mixture between different populations was rampant to one where endogamy—that is, marrying within the local community and a key attribute of the caste system—became the norm. "Only a few thousand years ago, the ...

KANSAS CITY, MO—A little-studied factor known as the Little Elongation Complex (LEC) plays a critical and previously unknown role in the transcription of small nuclear RNAs (snRNA), according to a new study led by scientists at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research and published in the Aug. 22, 2013, issue of the journal Molecular Cell. "We have found that LEC not only has a role in this process—it is like the "Swiss Army knife" of snRNA transcription," says Stowers Investigator Ali Shilatifard, senior author of the study. "LEC does it all." The findings shed new ...

LA JOLLA, Calif., August 8, 2013 — Scientists at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute have identified a key factor that regulates the autophagy process, a kind of cleansing mechanism for cells in which waste material and cellular debris is gobbled up to protect cells from damage, and in turn, modulates aging. The findings, published in Nature Communications today, could lead to the development of new therapies for age-related disorders that are characterized by a breakdown in this process. Malene Hansen, Ph.D., associate professor in Sanford-Burnham's Del E. Webb ...

Hidden in the tangled, repetitious folds of DNA structures called centromeres, researchers from Harvard Medical School and the Broad Institute have discovered the hiding place of 20 million base pairs of genetic sequence, finding a home for 10 percent of the DNA that is thought to be missing from the standard reference map of the human genome. Mathematician Giulio Genovese, a computational biologist in genetics at HMS and at the Broad Institute, working in the lab of geneticist Steven McCarroll, HMS assistant professor of genetics and director of genetics for the Stanley ...

Scientists used fruit flies to show for the first time that a new class of genetically engineered proteins can be used to watch nerve cell electrical activity in live brains. The results, published in Cell, suggest these proteins may be a promising new tool for mapping brain cell activity in multiple animals and for studying how neurological disorders disrupt normal nerve cell signaling. Understanding brain cell activity is a high priority of the President's Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative. Brain cells use electricity ...

The current systems for the production of chemicals, fuels and materials heavily rely on the use of fossil resources. Due to the increasing concerns on climate change and other environmental problems, however, there has been much interest in developing biorefineries for the production of such chemicals, fuels and materials from renewable resources. For the biorefineries to be competitive with the traditional fossil resource-based refineries, development of high performance microorganisms is the most important as it will affect the overall economics of the process most significantly. ...

SAN FRANCISCO, CA and COLLEGE STATION, TX—August 8, 2013—An enzyme is a tiny, well-oiled machine. A class of proteins that are made up of multiple, interlocking molecular components, enzymes perform a variety of tasks inside each cell. However, precisely how these components work together to complete these tasks has long eluded scientists. But now, a team of researchers has found a way to map an enzyme's underlying molecular machinery, revealing patterns that could allow them to predict how an enzyme behaves—and what happens when this process disrupted. In the latest ...

HOUSTON – (Aug. 8, 2013) – Female mice who were growth restricted in the womb were born at a lower birth weight, but were less active and prone to obesity as adults, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine and the USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center (CNRC) at BCM and Texas Children's Hospital in a report that appears online in the International Journal of Obesity. "Given that human studies also show female-specific obesity following early growth restriction," said Dr. Robert Waterland, associate professor of pediatrics – nutrition at BCM, and a member ...

Vitamin B12 is pieced together as an elaborate molecular jigsaw involving around 30 individual components. It is unique amongst the vitamins in that it is only made by certain bacteria. In the early 1990's it was realised that there were two pathways to allow its construction – one that requires oxygen and one that occurs in the absence of oxygen. It is this so-called anaerobic pathway, which is the more common pathway, that proved so elusive as the components of the pathway are very unstable and rapidly degrade. However, as explained in a paper published by PNAS (Proceedings ...

Using a technique called Raman spectroscopy, which detects laser light, forensic investigators will be able to analyse lipstick marks left at a crime scene, such as on glasses, a tissue, or cigarette butts, without compromising the continuity of evidence as the sample will remain isolated. Analysis of lipstick traces from crime scenes can be used to establish physical contact between two individuals, such as a victim and a suspect, or to place an individual at a crime scene. The new technique is particularly significant for forensic science as current analysis of lipstick ...

Children who came into the world by Caesarean section are more often affected by allergies than those born in the natural way. The reason for this may be that they have a less diverse gut microbiota, according to a study by universities in Sweden and Scotland. The researchers have followed gut macrobiota development in 24 children up to the age of two in the Swedish provinces of Östergötland and Småland, nine delivered through Caesarean and 15 delivered naturally, through vaginal birth. They used a type of molecular biology analysis, which gives a broad overview of the ...

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Chemists at Indiana University Bloomington have produced detailed descriptions of the structure and molecular properties of human folate receptor proteins, a key development for designing new drugs that can target cancer and inflammatory diseases without serious side effects. The researchers, from the lab of Charles Dann III, assistant professor of chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences, published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Dann said the results should help chemists create more effective antifolate ...

PITTSBURGH—For almost 20 years, it has been a wide-held belief that talking on a cellphone while driving is dangerous and leads to more accidents. However, new research from Carnegie Mellon University and the London School of Economics and Political Science suggests that talking on a cellphone while driving does not increase crash risk. Published in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, the study uses data from a major cellphone provider and accident reports to contradict previous findings that connected cellphone use to increased crash risk. Such findings ...

The UK fashion industry is famous all over the world and worth around £37 billion to the economy. However, it is estimated that counterfeit clothing and footwear costs designer brands and retailers around £3.5 billion each year. Recently, new powers were given to customs officers to seize and destroy fake goods but in order to act on these powers they need to be able to tell whether or not a particular item of clothing is the genuine article. Scientists from the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) have published research in Applied Optics that demonstrates how a technique ...

In what is the biggest study of its kind to date, researchers from Technische Universität München (TUM) have identified over 10,000 different proteins in cancer cells. "Nearly all anti-tumor drugs are targeted against cellular proteins," says Prof. Bernhard Küster, Head of the TUM Chair of Proteomics and Bioanalytics. "Identifying the proteome the protein portfolio of tumor cells increases our chances of finding new targets for drugs." The scientists investigated 59 tumor cell lines from the US National Cancer Institute. The "NCI-60" cell lines represent the most common ...

Free-electron lasers are extremely versatile research tools because their intense, super short light flashes permit a closer look at new materials and even biological molecules; thus, allowing effects to be observed that had not been known previously. For pulsed lasers in the far infrared range, the so-called terahertz range, scientists at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) have developed a robust and fast detector which can measure the arrival of a terahertz pulse with great accuracy. The results were published in the scientific journal Applied Physics Letters ...

A new study in the journal Cancer that tracked survival of more than 2,200 adults over the last decade with a highly aggressive form of lymphoma finds that with notable exceptions, medicine has made substantial progress in treating them successfully. To help doctors and researchers better understand who responds well to treatment and who doesn't, the study authors used their findings to create a stratified risk score of patient prognosis. Burkitt Lymphoma is not a common lymphoma but it is especially aggressive. The apparent progress doctors have made over the last two ...

The 8th issue of the open access Biorisk journal is devoted to the topic of development and standardization of monitoring of genetically modified plants (GMP). The new issue, compiled by professionals under the umbrella of the Association of German Engineers (VDI), provides up-to-date research on the issue of developing VDI guidelines for GMP monitoring; now also capturing new faunal species groups as indicators. Each application for approval of GM plants must contain a tailored monitoring plan. However, in Germany current experience with the cultivation of insect-resistant ...

Butterflies and moths were the first biological indicators considered for the purpose of GMO monitoring within the VDI guidelines series. The European community stipulates a monitoring plan in order to trace and identify any harmful effects on human health or the environment of GMO after they have been placed on the market. Butterflies and moths are widely accepted as relevant protection goals and have often been suggested and applied as suitable indicators for the monitoring of environmental quality and changes as one of the major indicators to monitor and assess biodiversity ...