Biology posts
- May 1, 2013
- 12:17 PM
- 60 views
Patterned Hearts
by Perikis Livas in Tracing Knowledge
A team of bioengineers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) is the first to report creating artificial heart tissue that closely mimics the functions of natural heart tissue through the use of human-based materials. Their work will advance how clinicians treat the damaging effects caused by heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States.... Read more »
BWH Media Relations. (2013) Patterned Hearts . Brigham and Women's Hospital. info:/
- May 1, 2013
- 09:27 AM
- 82 views
The Craptastic Conversations of the Black Rhinoceros
by Miss Behavior in The Scorpion and the Frog
What are you saying with your smells? Image by freedigitalphotos.net.Animals communicate in all kinds of ways: with vocalizations, body language, vibrations, and even odors. In fact, compared to most species, we are pathetic in our abilities to communicate with body odor. With just a whiff of eau de crotch, many animals can decipher that individual’s species, sex, age, health status, reproductive status, emotional state, and dietary history. Some species can go so far as to make out that indiv........ Read more »
Linklater, W., Mayer, K., & Swaisgood, R. (2013) Chemical signals of age, sex and identity in black rhinoceros. Animal Behaviour, 85(3), 671-677. DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2012.12.034
- May 1, 2013
- 09:24 AM
- 54 views
Fill the tank, please. With bacteria!
I apologize if you've already heard about this, but the paper is really cool and I couldn't resist discussing it here.Escherichia coli, or E. coli for brevity, is a bacterium normally associated with "bad" things like food poisoning. Even though most strains are actually harmless, even the CDC has a page dedicated to E. coli outbreaks. Since it's part of our gut flora, the lower intestines in particular, it's usually not a good sign when E. coli is found in places like restaurants and cafeterias........ Read more »
Howard, T., Middelhaufe, S., Moore, K., Edner, C., Kolak, D., Taylor, G., Parker, D., Lee, R., Smirnoff, N., Aves, S.... (2013) Synthesis of customized petroleum-replica fuel molecules by targeted modification of free fatty acid pools in Escherichia coli. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1215966110
Schirmer, A., Rude, M., Li, X., Popova, E., & del Cardayre, S. (2010) Microbial Biosynthesis of Alkanes. Science, 329(5991), 559-562. DOI: 10.1126/science.1187936
- May 1, 2013
- 09:17 AM
- 62 views
Video Tip of the Week: My Cancer Genome
There are a lot of cancer database resources out there. Most of the ones we’ve focused on have been the data repository types. TCGA, ICGC, CaBIG, COSMIC, Cancer Genome Workbench, UCSC Cancer Genomic Browser, and of course big repositories like GEO. Researchers will need these sources of data to locate key alterations in cancer cells [...]... Read more »
Swanton, C. (2012) My Cancer Genome: a unified genomics and clinical trial portal. The Lancet Oncology, 13(7), 668-669. DOI: 10.1016/S1470-2045(12)70312-1
Yeh, P., Chen, H., Andrews, J., Naser, R., Pao, W., & Horn, L. (2013) DNA-Mutation Inventory to Refine and Enhance Cancer Treatment (DIRECT): A Catalog of Clinically Relevant Cancer Mutations to Enable Genome-Directed Anticancer Therapy. Clinical Cancer Research, 19(7), 1894-1901. DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-12-1894
- May 1, 2013
- 08:59 AM
- 50 views
New gene therapy could treat devastating heart failure
by Perikis Livas in Tracing Knowledge
Heart failure, when the heart is unable to pump blood adequately, affects more than 750,000 people in the UK, causing breathlessness and hindering day-to-day activities.
The therapy is designed to increase the levels of SERCA2a protein in heart muscle cells by using a harmless virus to insert extra genes into the cells.... Read more »
Sam Wong. (2013) New gene therapy could treat devastating heart failure. London Imperial College of London. info:/
- May 1, 2013
- 08:10 AM
- 68 views
Venomous Plants – A Hairy Situation
by Mark Lasbury in As Many Exceptions As Rules
There are many thousands of poison plants, but not too many are venomous. The nettles and the dendrocnidaes have hollow spines that deliver neurotoxins when they stab you. Recent research has shown that nettle toxin is beneficial in liver regeneration. It stimulates cell proliferation and reduces apoptosis. In an opposite effect, the dendrocnidae toxin called moroidin is a mitotic spindle inhibitor. It may prove useful as an anticancer drug.... Read more »
Oguz, S., Kanter, M., Erboga, M., Toydemir, T., Sayhan, M., & Onur, H. (2013) Effects of Urtica dioica on oxidative stress, proliferation and apoptosis after partial hepatectomy in rats. Toxicology and Industrial Health. DOI: 10.1177/0748233713480211
Hammond-Tooke, G., Taylor, P., Punchihewa, S., & Beasley, M. (2007) Urtica ferox neuropathy. Muscle , 35(6), 804-807. DOI: 10.1002/mus.20730
- May 1, 2013
- 07:52 AM
- 53 views
How petals shape up
by Jane Alfred in PLOS Biologue
Have you ever marveled at a summer meadow in full bloom? And maybe even wondered how it is that flowers and their petals come in so many beautiful and different shapes?
Well, new findings published in PLOS Biology reveal…... Read more »
Susanna Sauret-Güeto, Katharina Schiessl, Andrew Bangham, Robert Sablowski, Enrico Coen. (2013) JAGGED Controls Arabidopsis Petal Growth and Shape by Interacting with a Divergent Polarity Field. PLOS Biology, 11(4). info:/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001550
- May 1, 2013
- 05:12 AM
- 49 views
Scripps Research Institute Scientists Discover How a Protein Finds Its Way
by Perikis Livas in Tracing Knowledge
Proteins, the workhorses of the body, can have more than one function, but they often need to be very specific in their action or they create cellular havoc, possibly leading to disease.... Read more »
TSRI Office of Communications. (2013) Scripps Research Institute Scientists Discover How a Protein Finds Its Way. The Scripps Research Institute. info:/
- April 30, 2013
- 07:19 PM
- 42 views
Leave aphids on your plants to preserve your children!
by Mauro Mandrioli in The aphid room
Aphids are frequently controlled by chemical compounds so that it could be not so unusual that you may interact with insecticides, for instance, after a general treatment of your home for spiders, insects or termites. A new study published by Elizabeth Milne et al. in the journal Cancer Causes & Control reveals that women exposed within a year of [...]... Read more »
Greenop KR, Peters S, Bailey HD, Fritschi L, Attia J, Scott RJ, Glass DC, de Klerk NH, Alvaro F, Armstrong BK.... (2013) Exposure to pesticides and the risk of childhood brain tumors. Cancer causes . PMID: 23558445
- April 30, 2013
- 06:05 PM
- 60 views
Lyme and soda: hold the autism risk?
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
I've talked about the mighty tick previously on this blog and some speculation on how a tick harbouring the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi (or a close relation) bites and transmits said bacteria to humans which can lead to Lyme disease and whether this might be implicated in some cases of autism. Tickety boo @ Wikipedia The suggestion from that post was that whilst the data was speculative and relatively sparse at that time on whether Lyme disease is common in cases of autism........ Read more »
Mary Ajamian, Barry E. Kosofsky, Gary P. Wormser, Anjali M. Rajadhyaksha, & Armin Alaedini. (2013) Serologic Markers of Lyme Disease in Children With Autism. JAMA, 309(17), 1771-1773. info:/
- April 30, 2013
- 05:55 PM
- 69 views
David Goodsell like images
by Ragothamanyennamalli in Getting to know Structural Bioinformatics
Almost all of us visiting PDB would have looked at the image shown below that attract us like moths attracted to a light. I am talking about the aesthetically pleasing protein images created by David Goodsell. In case you didn’t know, he is the author of Molecule of the Month series. Since the images look anything like the ones we usually keep looking at, one is attracted to the level of abstraction the image projects due to which, the reader understands the big picture. And, of course, th........ Read more »
Sanner MF. (1999) Python: a programming language for software integration and development. Journal of molecular graphics , 17(1), 57-61. PMID: 10660911
Sanner MF, Olson AJ, & Spehner JC. (1996) Reduced surface: an efficient way to compute molecular surfaces. Biopolymers, 38(3), 305-20. PMID: 8906967
Goodsell, D. (2002) p53. RCSB Protein Data Bank. DOI: 10.2210/rcsb_pdb/mom_2002_7
- April 30, 2013
- 01:32 PM
- 62 views
Down the Drain? 1MNA Acts as a Potent ‘Methylation Sink’ in Cancer Cells
The cancer field consistently proves to be one of the most critical areas for investigations into mechanisms governing tight epigenetic regulation, as nearly all types of cancers demonstrate misregulated epigenetic patterns. Most studies focus on the final epigenomic landscape in terms of histone and DNA modifications and methylomes; relatively few, however, have placed as much ...... Read more »
Ulanovskaya OA, Zuhl AM, & Cravatt BF. (2013) NNMT promotes epigenetic remodeling in cancer by creating a metabolic methylation sink. Nature chemical biology, 9(5), 300-6. PMID: 23455543
- April 30, 2013
- 01:18 PM
- 67 views
Whale Turns Down Its Hearing When Expecting Loud Sounds
by Elizabeth Preston in Inkfish
We can knit sweaters for oiled penguins, but it's harder to protect whales and dolphins from the harm of having us as neighbors. Loud underwater sounds from activities like sonar and drilling may damage these animals' hearing and even lead to mass strandings. Though we can't chase cetaceans around with homemade earmuffs, we might be able to teach them to tune us out.
Like squinting or letting one's pupil shrink in bright light, some animals can adjust how sensitive their ears are. When we're........ Read more »
Nachtigall, P., & Supin, A. (2013) A false killer whale reduces its hearing sensitivity when a loud sound is preceded by a warning. Journal of Experimental Biology. DOI: 10.1242/jeb.085068
- April 30, 2013
- 12:30 PM
- 56 views
The Climatic Origins of the Malaysian Nipah Virus Outbreak
by Rebecca Kreston in BODY HORRORS
One of the hardest questions to answer in an infectious disease outbreak investigation is "Why?"
Why then? Why there? These questions can be almost impossible to answer - not only because of their heady metaphysical nature but also because of the difficulty of assessing the minute interactions between microbe, environment and human host. Public health officials are often left shrugging their shoulders, half-heartedly admitting to an unsatisfied public that they just don't know ........ Read more »
Chua KB, Chua BH, & Wang CW. (2002) Anthropogenic deforestation, El Niño and the emergence of Nipah virus in Malaysia. The Malaysian journal of pathology, 24(1), 15-21. PMID: 16329551
- April 30, 2013
- 10:56 AM
- 55 views
New and improved – the next generation of GFP?
by Gal Haimovich in Green Fluorescent Blog
A new and improved green fluorescent protein, named mNeonGreen, was developed. It was engineered from a Yellow fluorescent protein (LanYFP) that was isolated from the cephalochordate Branchiostoma lanceolatum. Therefore, LanYFP is genetically unrelated to the commonly used Aequorea victoria GFP. LanYFP has … Continue reading →... Read more »
Shaner NC, Lambert GG, Chammas A, Ni Y, Cranfill PJ, Baird MA, Sell BR, Allen JR, Day RN, Israelsson M.... (2013) A bright monomeric green fluorescent protein derived from Branchiostoma lanceolatum. Nature methods, 407-409. PMID: 23524392
- April 30, 2013
- 10:11 AM
- 23 views
Whose Planet Is It Anyway?
by Moselio Schaechter in Small Things Considered
This is the title my friend Fred Neidhardt recently used for a talk, and a good question it is. I suppose that most microbiologists and the readers of this blog would split the answer down the middle, the biomass of this planet and the chemical transactions therein being about half microbial, half everything else. However, it’s safe to say that most people, many scientists included, are unaware of the colossal importance of the microbial half, not only in biology and medicine but in geology, m........ Read more »
McFall-Ngai, M., Hadfield, M., Bosch, T., Carey, H., Domazet-Loso, T., Douglas, A., Dubilier, N., Eberl, G., Fukami, T., Gilbert, S.... (2013) Animals in a bacterial world, a new imperative for the life sciences. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(9), 3229-3236. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1218525110
- April 30, 2013
- 10:10 AM
- 22 views
E. coli Cells Face FACS and Get Back into Shape
by Moselio Schaechter in Small Things Considered
There’s no question that variation in size and shape has conferred selective advantages over the course of evolutionary time. One of the most obvious examples are the long neck and legs of the giraffe, which allow it to snatch foliage that is unreachable by vertically challenged competitors. The variable beak shapes and sizes of Darwin’s finches represent the diverse tool set that evolved when only certain food sources became available. And the appearance of the opposable thumb, a simple cha........ Read more »
Laubacher ME, Melquist AL, Chandramohan L, & Young KD. (2013) Cell sorting enriches Escherichia coli mutants that rely on peptidoglycan endopeptidases to suppress highly aberrant morphologies. Journal of bacteriology, 195(4), 855-66. PMID: 23243305
- April 30, 2013
- 06:01 AM
- 74 views
Discovery could revolutionize immunization
by Perikis Livas in Tracing Knowledge
Immune cells in newborns appear to be more ready to do battle than previously thought. New Cornell research shows that small populations of preprogrammed immune cells can fight specific pathogens that they have never encountered. The findings, say the researchers, have the potential to revolutionize how and when people are immunized.... Read more »
Carly Hodes. (2013) Discovery could revolutionize immunization. Cornell Chronicle. info:/
- April 29, 2013
- 12:52 PM
- 102 views
Potential Diabetes Breakthrough
by Perikis Livas in Tracing Knowledge
Researchers at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) have discovered a hormone that holds promise for a dramatically more effective treatment of type 2 diabetes, a metabolic illness afflicting an estimated 26 million Americans. The researchers believe that the hormone might also have a role in treating type 1, or juvenile, diabetes.... Read more »
B.D. COLEN. (2013) Potential Diabetes Breakthrough. Harvard Medical School. info:/
- April 29, 2013
- 11:26 AM
- 78 views
'Invasive Blastocystis' in ECCMID 2013
by Christen Rune Stensvold in Blastocystis Parasite Blog
A post on a Blastocystis abstract submitted for oral presentation in the category 'Emerging Infectious Diseases' at the ECCMID 2013 conference in Berlin.... Read more »
Alfellani MA, Stensvold CR, Vidal-Lapiedra A, Onuoha ES, Fagbenro-Beyioku AF, & Clark CG. (2013) Variable geographic distribution of Blastocystis subtypes and its potential implications. Acta tropica, 126(1), 11-8. PMID: 23290980
Stensvold CR. (2013) Comparison of sequencing (barcode region) and sequence-tagged-site PCR for Blastocystis subtyping. Journal of clinical microbiology, 51(1), 190-4. PMID: 23115257
Stensvold CR, Suresh GK, Tan KS, Thompson RC, Traub RJ, Viscogliosi E, Yoshikawa H, & Clark CG. (2007) Terminology for Blastocystis subtypes--a consensus. Trends in parasitology, 23(3), 93-6. PMID: 17241816
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