Whenever you choke on acrid cigarette smoke, feel like you’re burning up from a mouthful of wasabi-laced sushi, or cry while cutting raw onions and garlic, your response is being triggered by a primordial chemical sensor conserved across some 500 million years of animal evolution, report Brandeis University scientists in a study in Nature this week…

Research led by Wayne L. Backes, PhD, Professor of Pharmacology and Associate Dean for Research at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Medicine, has found that drug metabolism depends not only upon which enzymes are present in an individual, but also how they interact, and that can be the difference in whether a drug is safely eliminated from the body or is converted into a toxic or carcinogenic byproduct. The paper will be published in the March 19, 2010 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry. Dr. Backes and his LSUHSC research colleagues - J…

Researchers in Ireland have gained new understanding of the role played by the cilial protein Arl13b in Joubert syndrome (JS), a rare disorder characterized by developmental delay, mental retardation, and low muscle tone, among other symptoms. The findings were published online March 15 in the Journal of Cell Biology . Although Arl13b - which is required for cilium biogenesis and embryo development - is known to be mutated in patients with JS, the specific cilial and molecular basis of Arl13b function has been poorly understood…

Researchers at the Department of Chemistry, Technische Universitat Munchen (TUM) have developed a method that allows the observation of local movements in proteins on a time scale of nanoseconds to microseconds. Upon examining movements of the protein villin using this method they found two structures that were otherwise barely distinguishable from one another. Quick nanosecond-scale structure changes essential for the protein function can take place in the one, while the other remains rigid…

A University academic who left school early with dreams of being a rock star has been recognised for his internationally outstanding work in microbiology and his studies into the social lifestyle of the opportunistic bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa - the leading cause of death in Cystic Fibrosis patients and an important cause of hospital acquired infections…

Elsevier, the world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services has announced that the prestigious journal Current Opinion in Cell Biology (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ceb) will host a Cellular Host-Pathogen Interactions Conference, in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, on 5-7 September 2010 (http://conferences.current-opinion.com)…

In the long evolutionary road from bacteria to humans, a major milestone occurred some 1.5 billion years ago when microbes started building closets for all their stuff, storing DNA inside a nucleus, for example, or cramming all the energy machinery inside mitochondria…

RegeneRx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE Amex:RGN) announced that a university research team has published an article ahead of print in FASEB Journal, a high-impact scientific journal, describing novel biological properties of several Thymosin beta 4 (Tβ4) peptide fragments. The researchers summarize related published studies and report on their work showing that Tβ4 and these smaller peptides were able to block inflammation, reduce fibrosis, promote cell survival and block apoptosis, stimulate stem/progenitor cell differentiation, induce angiogenesis, and promote cell migration…

RegeneRx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE Amex:RGN) announced that a university research team has published an article ahead of print in FASEB Journal, a high-impact scientific journal, describing novel biological properties of several Thymosin beta 4 (Tβ4) peptide fragments. The researchers summarize related published studies and report on their work showing that Tβ4 and these smaller peptides were able to block inflammation, reduce fibrosis, promote cell survival and block apoptosis, stimulate stem/progenitor cell differentiation, induce angiogenesis, and promote cell migration…

Researchers at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center have figured out how ATP is broken down in cells, providing for the first time a clear picture of the key reaction that allows cells in all living things to function and flourish. Discovered some 80 years ago, adenosine triphosphate is said to be second in biological importance only to DNA. Each cell in the human body contains about a billion ATP molecules, and the power derived from the breakdown of them is used to deliver substances to their cellular homes, build needed complex molecules and even make muscles contract…