Women with poorly controlled diabetes during early pregnancy run an increased risk of their baby being malformed, finds a study in this week’s BMJ.

Researchers in Norwich identified 158 first pregnancies in women with type 1 diabetes. They defined adverse pregnancy outcome as spontaneous abortion, major congenital malformation (potentially life threatening or associated with serious long term disability), stillbirth, or infant death.

The women were divided into two groups acc

Metabolic and biochemical reactions are basically the same in all living beings, or at least comparable. The genetic codes of all living beings, that is to say of bacteria, plants, fungii and animals, are made up of the same set of building blocks. Human genes are therefore correctly translated into the corresponding proteins even by bacteria. The features that both bacteria and higher forms of life (so-called eukaryotes) have in common end, however, with the synthesis of «raw proteins» since unlike

The prospect of using bacteria to manufacture complex human proteins for use in therapeutic drugs is a step closer thanks to new research published today in Science.

Researchers from Switzerland and the UK report they have engineered the bacterium Escherichia coli to carry a vital piece of cell machinery that adds sugar molecules to newly synthesized proteins by a process known as glycosylation.

The finding opens up the possibility of producing complex human proteins
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Scientists are to go below ground in seven tropical countries to search for the largest source of untapped life left on Earth.

Experts know that, millimetres below the surface in the twilight, subterranean world, of the earthworm and the nematode, tens of thousands of new species of tiny organisms including bacteria, fungi, insects, mites and worms await discovery.

Scientists are also convinced that unraveling the secrets of how they operate may be the key to restoring the fe

Novel Method of Creating New Species Observed in Laboratory Yeast

The sex life of yeast has University of Houston biologists fermenting new ideas about evolution and beer.

Researchers studying yeast reproductive habits have for the first time observed a rapid method for the creation of new species, shedding light on the way organisms evolve and suggesting possible ways to improve yeast biotechnology and fermentation processes used in beer and wine-making.

“Most mod

A group of researchers from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have solved the structure of an enzyme that modulates central nervous system (CNS) functions such as pain perception, cognition, feeding, sleep, and locomotor activity.

The enzyme, described in the latest issue of the journal Science, is called fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH), and it breaks down certain fatty signaling molecules that reside in the lipid membranes of CNS cells. The TSRI group reports that FAAH modulates the