Life Sciences and Chemistry

Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have found an unexpected way to turn off a cellular enzyme involved in the progression of several types of human cancers.

The enzyme, focal adhesion kinase (FAK), is known to promote cellular movement and survival. Its over-activity promotes cancer cell growth and metastasis. The new study demonstrates for the first time that one segment of FAK called the FERM domain plays a crucial role in activating FAK.

Subtle changes

A research team at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SLU, has succeeded in isolating a novel gene that regulates cell death in plant embryos. This is a world first.

The team consists of scientists from the Department of Plant Biology and Forest Genetics, headed by Peter Bozhkov and Sara von Arnold. The team has discovered programmed cell death in plant embryos and has recently identified the first gene that regulates this cell death. This research has been conducted in collab

Scientists from the University of Aberdeen, the Aberdeen-based Rowett Research Institute and the Medical Research Council (MRC) in Cambridge have made a major breakthrough in understanding how metabolism affects lifespan.

In a seven-year study of mice they found that those with the highest metabolic rate lived the longest, raising the prospect that the effect could be mimicked in humans.

Scientists have long thought that a high metabolic rate was linked to a shortened life-span. The

Surprising find may be new genus

A team of American and Filipino biologists has discovered a new species –or perhaps a new genus – of mouse in the Philippines that took them quite by surprise.

The tiny mouse was captured on Mount Banahaw, a national park in the south-central portion of Luzon Island, only about 50 miles from Manila.

The bright-orange animal has a large head, heavily muscled jaws and powerful teeth that can open hard nuts. It weighs about 15 grams, a

Scientists at the Karolinska Institute have found that changes in the “powerhouse” of cells, the mitochondria, play a key role in aging. The findings are being published in this week’s issue of the journal Nature.

Mitochondria, which provide energy to cells, have their own set of DNA. Mutations of mitochondrial DNA increase with age, but until now no one knew whether this is a result of aging or a cause of aging. New research findings now indicate that the latter is the case.

Mice w

Finding overturns long held ideas about how cells build proteins

Writing in the May 28 issue of Cell, Johns Hopkins researchers report that four critical components of cells’ protein-building machine don’t do what scientists had long assumed.
The machine, called the ribosome, is a ball of RNA (DNA’s cousin) surrounded by proteins. In the RNA center, genetic instructions are read, the right protein building block is added onto a growing chain, and at the appropriate