Life Sciences and Chemistry

A series of experiments reported on this week in the journal Science shows for the first time that novel biosensor dyes can directly reveal activation of proteins in individual living cells.

The research, led by Dr. Klaus M. Hahn, professor of pharmacology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Medicine, demonstrated that at least one of the dyes Hahn developed makes it possible to dramatically visualize the changing activation and intracellular location

Mosquito abatement usually means one thing: blasting the pesky critters with pesticides. Those pesticides, although highly effective, can impair other organisms in the environment.

Que Lan, insect physiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and her colleagues in the entomology department are working on a new, more targeted approach to mosquito control: inhibiting their ability to metabolize cholesterol.

Cholesterol, the sticky substance that accumulates on the lini

Researchers have developed a new genetic test that can help predict whether parents who have one child with the “isolated” form of cleft lip or palate are likely to have a second child with the same birth defect. Isolated clefts account for 70 percent of all cleft lip and palate cases.

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences provided funding for the st

For many years scientists have believed they understood how closely related species that occupy the same regions of the ocean were kept from interbreeding. It turns out they were only seeing part of the picture.

New research from the University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Laboratories shows that common assumptions about sea urchin reproduction don’t hold true for all species of the invertebrate creature. The work could lead to better understanding of fertilization among mammals,

There may be new treatments for stroke, migraine, Alzheimer’s and other brain disorders, thanks to the discovery of a mechanism for regulating brain blood flow made by researchers at the University of British Columbia.

Scientists found that astrocytes — cells that surround nerve cells and all blood vessels in the brain — have a primary role in regulating blood flow within the brain, and hold promise as a target for new therapies. The findings of the two-year study funded by the Ca

A large number of diseases − including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and mad cow disease − are the result of proteins that erroneously assume the wrong shape, causing them to stick to each other. This phenomenon is perceptible, but up to now it has been difficult to predict. Researchers from the Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology (VIB) at the Free University of Brussels (VUB), in collaboration with a German research group, have developed TANGO − a