Life Sciences and Chemistry

High quality outcomes allow researchers to identify cancer-related genetic changes that span years

For the first time, Fox Chase Cancer Center researchers have demonstrated the ability to extract RNA from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue samples archived for up to five years. What’s more, the technology used retrieves high-quality samples, allowing researchers to identify cancer-related genetic changes. Accepted as a “late-breaking” abstract, the research was presented to

Ordinarily, the cell membrane prevents invasion by foreign genetic material, which is why genetic engineers often have to use a pipette and forced air to jab a new piece of a gene through the cell wall into the genome in order to carry out gene therapy or introduce particular attributes into a crop or organism.

But an undergraduate student at Virginia Tech has figured out how to chaperone DNA across cell membranes. Amanda Rudisin of Lucinda, Pa., a senior in biology, will present her team&#

New storage method amplifies cells available for science

Like many other kinds of cells used in biomedical research, human embryonic stem cells are stored and transported in a cryopreserved state, frozen to -320 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature of their liquid nitrogen storage bath.

But when scientists thaw the cells for use in the lab, less than 1 percent awake from their frigid slumber and assume their undifferentiated state. This ’blank slate’ form is charact

Neurobiologists have discovered that a nearly identical version of a gene whose mutation produces an inherited language deficit in humans is a key component of the song-learning machinery in birds.

The researchers, who published their findings in the March 31, 2004, issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, said that their finding will aid research on how genes contribute to the architecture and function of brain circuitry for singing in birds.

Among the lead researchers was neurobiol

Scientists from the New Jersey University of Medicine and Dentistry have discovered a whole new class of enzymes which may represent a major advance in understanding the way bacterial cells self destruct under stress, researchers will hear on Wednesday, 31 March 2004, at the Society for General Microbiology’s meeting in Bath.

“These enzymes, called messenger RNA interferases, attack extremely accurately targeted sequences in bacterial messenger RNA”, says Professor Masoyori Inouye of th

How do you know if a stranger will be nice or nasty? Professor Cliff Summers’ group at the University of South Dakota has found that you can predict the social status of male lizards before they fight. What is more, green Anolis lizards show their fighting fitness through a colour signal on their face.

Wayne Korzan has discovered that how fast you recover from stress, to participate in feeding and courtship, can also foreshadow dominant social rank. Fast lizards are dominant lizards. As in