Life Sciences and Chemistry

The aim of this PhD is to study the retention of transition metals by humic substances. Transition metals are essential for life but, depending on their concentration in the environment, they can prove to be toxic and provoke serious environmental impact.

Humic substances are, on the other hand, macromolecules arising from the physical, chemical and microbiological transformation (humification) of biomolecules, explains Álvarez Puebla. Their importance is fundamental as they make up the mos

Scientists at the University of Michigan Medical School have identified two genes responsible for an important, yet often overlooked difference between the sexes.

One of the less evident physiological differences between males and females resides in the liver. Male and female livers express different subsets of genes, which affect the organ’s ability to metabolize certain drugs and hormones. This in turn impacts numerous processes, such as reproduction. While the sexual dimorphism of t

Rare find on central Florida beaches

More than 500 remnants of prehistory – fossilized ghost crabs – have been found in the sand between Melbourne Beach and Satellite Beach. Although picked up for decades by beachcombers, these specimens were taken between 1992 and 2000. The find has been documented by Richard Turner, biological sciences, and published in the Journal of Crustacean Biology.

The Holocene and Pleistocene specimens, between 7,000 and 110,000 years-old, had been

In 1998, scientists found the mammalian version of a gene, known as timeless, which in flies is crucial for the biological clock. However, all but one of the research groups involved determined that timeless did not have such a role in mammals. Now that research group says timeless is indeed a key timekeeper in mammals.

In a new complex molecular study of rats, published in the Oct. 17 issue of Science, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign blocked the functional abi

After having demonstrated how “molecular motors” move within cells, a team of researchers led by a Duke University Medical Center scientist now believe they have discovered the power stroke that drives these motors.

Molecular motors are proteins made up of amino acids like any other protein in a cell. Unlike other proteins, however, they move along cellular highways of tiny filaments, called microtubules, as they transport nutrients around the cell or herd chromosomes during cell division.

Using high-tech robots and old-fashioned hard labor, Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have measured the abundance and pinpointed the cellular locations of more than 4,000 proteins in yeast.

Proteins are the workhorse molecules of the cell. They catalyze reactions, transport molecules within the cell and switch genes on and off. Measuring the abundance of and identifying the cellular locations of yeast proteins will be invaluable in helping to understand the complex biology of a re