Life Sciences and Chemistry

Scientists have churned out genome sequences for everything from fungi to dogs to chimps, and they won’t be letting up any time soon. However, because a genome sequence is little more than a static list of chemicals–like, say, a parts list for a 747 airplane–scientists are increasingly turning their attention to figuring out how living organisms put their genes to work. Using yeast as a testing ground, researchers at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research have for the first time reveal

Researchers attempting to understand the stunningly complex machinery by which genes give rise to the brain often find invaluable clues in genetic disorders that affect brain structure and function.

Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg and his colleagues have gained just such clues by studying the brain function of sufferers of Williams syndrome (WS). This rare disorder, caused by the deletion of a specific chromosome segment, can cause mental retardation, physical abnormalities, and perso

A mini-antibody bearing a payload of tumor-busting radiation thwarts the growth of human breast cancer in laboratory animals, according to research published in the September 1 issue of the journal Cancer Research.

The research shows that a diabody, an antibody surrogate just one third the size of native antibodies, can be used effectively as a targeting vehicle for radioimmunotherapy, said Gregory Adams, Ph.D., associate member of the Medical Science Division, Fox Chase Cancer

Using brain imaging, neuroscientists at the NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) have pinpointed the site of a defect in a brain circuit associated with a specific thinking deficit. Their study demonstrates how a rare genetic disorder, Williams Syndrome, can offer clues as to how genetic flaws may translate into cognitive symptoms in more common and complex major mental disorders. Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, M.D., Karen Berman, M.D., and colleagues, traced the thinking deficit to a circ

An international team of researchers has identified a family of proteins that are involved in HIV-1 budding from host cells, and are therefore likely to be essential for the spread of the virus. Targeting these proteins and the proteins they interact with could lead to potential new therapies for HIV-1 as well as other viruses that use the same budding mechanism .

The research appears as the “Paper of the Week” in the August 20 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, an America

An antioxidant, a type of compound that prevents certain types of damage to living cells, appears to allow some kinds of plants to thrive on metal-enriched soils that typically kill other plants, says a Purdue University scientist.

This finding, published in the current issue of The Plant Cell, provides an important new insight for the development of plants that could be used to help clean polluted sites. The work also answers a fundamental question for researchers studying how