Life Sciences and Chemistry

A newly developed polymer surface could improve the interface between electronic implants and living tissue, helping to advance a technology that may one day enable the blind to see and the paralyzed to walk. The findings were described today at the 34th Central Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society. The meeting is being held at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti.

David C. Martin, Director of the Macromolecular Science and Engin

A study at Ohio State University is probing the nature of a unique sulfur-containing molecule — one that scientists consider a “missing link” in its chemical family.

The molecule, hydrogen thioperoxide, or HSOH for short, is related to the common bleaching and disinfectant agent hydrogen peroxide. Because HSOH contains sulfur, it could eventually help scientists understand how pollutants form in Earth’s atmosphere, and how similar molecules form in outer space.

Scientists

It’s a wonder cells make it through the day with the barrage of cues and messages they receive and transmit to direct the most basic and necessary functions of life. Such cell communication, or signal transduction, was at least thought to be an “automatic” cascade of biochemical events.

Now, however, a study reported in a recent issue of Nature by Johns Hopkins and Harvard scientists has found that even before a message makes it through the outer cell membrane to the inner nucleus, the

University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center researchers have found that the aging of the human retina is accompanied by distinct changes in gene expression.

Using commercially available DNA slides, a team of researchers directed by Anand Swaroop, Ph.D., have established the first-ever gene profile of the aging human retina, an important step in understanding the mechanisms of aging and its impact on vision disorders.

In the August issue of Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Scie

The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) launched a totally redesigned Web site today with a new Internet address – genome.gov . The streamlined Web site address makes it easy for users to access a comprehensive and authoritative government site focused on genomic research, including the international Human Genome Project slated for completion in April 2003. The new Web site supports ongoing scientific studies by researchers inside and outside

You may feel different at the dreary hour of 4 a.m. than you do mid-afternoon at 4 p.m. Now, researchers might understand why. A study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis helps explain how genes dictate our biological clock.

Nearly all living things have a natural rhythm that influences their behavior and physiology. This rhythm typically is “circadian”, following a near 24-hour cycle. Driven by an internal clock, a creature’s natural rhythm is synchronized to th