Microbiology

Estrogen Again: Chemicals In Municipal Wastewater Devastating Fish

While most people understand the dangers of flushing toxic chemicals into the ecosystem through municipal sewer systems, one potentially devastating threat to wild fish populations comes from an unlikely source: estrogen. After an exhaustive seven-year res ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 17 2008 - 1:36am

Metabolic Stress Makes Proteins Fluorescent- And Can Detect Eye Disease

Scientists at the University of Michigan have shown that their new metabolic imaging instrument can accurately detect eye disease at a very early stage. Such a device would be vision-saving because many severe eye diseases do not exhibit early warning sign ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 22 2008 - 11:04am

Researchers Reveal How Development Of Nervous System Is Coordinated

The human nervous system consists of the brain and spinal marrow, which constitute the central nervous system (CNS), and sensory nerve cells that comprise the peripheral nervous system (PNS). Information from our surroundings-sight, smell, hearing, etc.-ar ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 23 2008 - 8:30am

The Structure Of Antibiotic Resistance

A team of scientists from the University Paris Descartes has solved the structure of two proteins that allow bacteria to gain resistance to multiple types of antibiotics, according to a report in EMBO reports this month. This work provides new clues as to ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 23 2008 - 6:28pm

Analysis: The 'Genetic Reassortment' Of Deadly Influenza Resulted In Hybrid Viruses

It has been a mystery why unusually severe epidemics of influenza occur from time to time, such as in 1947 and 1951, when illness and mortality rates exceeded standard epidemic levels. The standard model of human influenza virus evolution holds that major ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 29 2008 - 12:30am

Neuron Signaling: GABA Is A Trigger For Glycine Receptors

Researchers have discovered that neurons can use two different neurotransmitters that target the same receptor on a receiving neuron to shape the transmission of a nerve impulse. Although the researchers’ experiments identified the “co-release” of the two ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 27 2008 - 10:09pm

Prehistoric AIDS? HIV-Blocking Monkey Gene Evolved More Than Once

Researchers at Harvard Medical School have identified a gene in Asian monkeys that may have evolved as a defense against lentiviruses, the group of viruses that includes HIV. The study suggests that AIDS is not a new epidemic. The gene, called TRIM5-CypA, ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 29 2008 - 2:00am

Challenged: Claim That Amniotic Fluid-Derived Stem Cells Can Produce Nervous System Cells

In the latest issue of Nature Biotechnology, EuroStemCell scientist Elena Cattaneo from University of Milano along with Mauro Toselli from University of Pavia, Elisabetta Cerbai from the University of Florence and Ferdinando Rossi of University of Torino h ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 7 2008 - 9:34pm

Weight Gain Prevention Naturally- Two Cell Proteins May Keep Stomach From Expanding

Two cell proteins that relax the gut and help accommodate a big meal have been identified by UCL (University College London) scientists. The proteins could offer a future drug target against weight gain, by preventing the stomach from expanding. In a Journ ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 3 2008 - 3:09pm

Thermophilic Cyanobacteria: Picky Pool Dwellers

Slimeball… a derogative term to be sure, from the modern usage, but before it was ever dragged down to the world of insults and verbal nastiness we know it for today, the scum of which we speak and the small bacteria that form them were simply the catalys ...

Blog Post - Heidi Henderson - Nov 14 2009 - 2:01am