Microbiology

PERK And The Molecular Pathway Underlying Sleep Apnea

Sleep apnea is a condition characterized by temporary breathing interruptions during sleep, in which disruptions can occur dozens or even hundreds of times a night. According to the National Institutes of Health, it affects more than twelve million America ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 19 2008 - 11:05am

Ant Guts And Antibiotics

Gram-negative bacteria, like E. coli and salmonella, destroy pathogenic bacteria by disabling the mechanism that produces their protective coating. Scientists have discovered two key proteins that guide one of the two groups of bacteria to make their hardy ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 26 2008 - 9:43am

Is AIDS An Evolutionary Accident?

AIDS may partly be the consequence of an evolutionary accident, said Professor Frank Kirchhoff from the University of Ulm in Germany. at the Society for General Microbiology’s 162nd meeting being held this week at the Edinburgh International Conference Cen ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 31 2008 - 8:58pm

How The Influenza Virus Is Like An M&M

In the Northern hemisphere, winter is the time for the flu. Every year 5% to 20% of us catch "the bug". So predictable is the influenza virus that " flu season " has entered the vernacular. This year, flu cases peaked around the end of ...

Article - John Dennehy - Apr 2 2008 - 10:09pm

Mouse Noises During Sex May Point To Genes For Emotion

Scientists have long known that emotions and other personality traits and disorders run together in families but finding which genes are most important in controlling emotions has proven difficult. Humans and mice have similar numbers of genes, but mice ar ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 2 2008 - 12:47am

Group II Intron Images Visualize The Machinery Of MRNA Splicing

Recent research at Yale provided a glimpse of the ancient mechanism that helped diversify our genomes; it illuminated a relationship between gene processing in humans and the most primitive organisms by creating the first crystal structure of a crucial sel ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 5 2008 - 1:02am

Fighting Superbugs... With Alligator Blood

Biochemists at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society have described how proteins in alligator blood may provide a source of powerful new antibiotics to help fight infections associated with diabetic ulcers, severe burns, and “superbugs” tha ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 6 2008 - 9:51pm

Nature Versus Nurture In Yeast Gene Expression

The nature vs. nurture debate is familiar to most people, and modern conclusions usually predict a balance between the two. A new paper shows that there is a similar balance between inherited genes- nature- and the environment- nurture- in determining thou ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 14 2008 - 12:26am

Using Baby-Friendly Bacteria To Battle Eczema

Eczema is a distressing condition for both parents and babies – the raw, red skin is painful to see and it is difficult to stop small children from scratching it. At worst, it can mean having to wet wrap wriggly toddlers each day with bandages soaked in mo ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 22 2008 - 3:55pm

Menstrual Blood For Multipotential Stem Cells, Period

Researchers seeking new and more abundant sources of stem cells for use in regenerative medicine have identified a potentially unlimited, noncontroversial, easily collectable, and inexpensive source – menstrual blood. Stromal stem cells- cells that are pre ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 22 2008 - 11:08pm