Newark, DE (Scicasts) – Cut your toe, and platelets -- those disc-shaped cells circulating in your blood -- rush to the scene, clumping together to plug the leak.
But when an unwanted clot forms in an artery, and an overaccumulation of platelets blocks blood flow, a heart attack or stroke occurs, too often with fatal results.
Santa Barbara, CA (Scicasts) – An international team of researchers has reported a new understanding of a little-known process that happens in virtually every cell of our bodies.
Berkeley, CA (Scicasts) - The gold standard for nanotechnology is nature's own proteins. These biomolecular nanomachines – macromolecules forged from peptide chains of amino acids - are able to fold themselves into a dazzling multitude of shapes and forms that enable them to carry out an equally dazzling multitude of functions fundamental to life.
La Jolla, CA (Scicasts) - Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have reported that they have identified a class of proteins that detect "painful touch."
Indianapolis, IN (Scicasts) - One of the frustrations for scientists working on HIV/AIDS treatments has been the human immunodeficiency virus' ability to evade the body's immune system. Now an Indiana University researcher has discovered a compound that could help put the immune system back in the hunt.
Jupiter, FL (Scicasts) - Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have identified a single prion protein that causes neuronal death similar to that seen in "mad cow" disease, but is at least 10 times more lethal than larger prion species.
La Jolla, CA (Scicasts) - One of the big mysteries in biology is why cells age. Now scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies report that they have discovered a weakness in a component of brain cells that may explain how the ageing process occurs in the brain.
Jupiter, FL (Scicasts) - Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have identified a compound that can help repair a specific type of defect in RNA, a type of genetic material.
St. Louis, MO (Scicasts) - A biology lab at Washington University has just cracked the structure and function of a protein that plays an essential role in the life of a parasite that killed 655,000 people in 2010.
Champaign, IL (Scicasts) - Clinical gene therapy may be one step closer, thanks to a new twist on an old class of molecules.
Chapel Hill, NC (Scicasts) – Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have identified a cellular protein that plays a central role in the formation of new blood vessels. The molecule is the protein Shc (pronounced SHIK), and new blood vessel formation, or angiogenesis, is seriously impaired without it.
New York, NY (Scicasts) – According to a report by researchers from Rockefeller University, poor recycling of a protein-slicing enzyme could promote Alzheimer's disease.
Memphis, TN (Scicasts) - Research led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists has identified an unexpected mechanism facilitating some protein interactions that are the workhorses of cells and, in the process, identified a potential new cancer drug development target.
Ann Arbor, MI (Scicasts) - A University of Michigan Health System laboratory study reveals a key trigger for producing normal red blood cells that could lead to a new treatment for those with sickle cell disease.
Montreal, Quebec (Scicasts) - Protein folding has nothing to do with laundry. It is, in fact, one of the central questions in biochemistry. Protein folding is the continual and universal process whereby the long, coiled strings of amino acids that make up proteins in all living things fold into more complex three-dimensional structures. By understanding how proteins fold, and what structures they are likely to assume in their final form, researchers are then able to move closer to predicting their function.
Houston, TX (Scicasts) - A research team headed by a scientist at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has reported in an advance online publication of Nature Cell Biology that protein known as WWP2 appears to play a key role in tumour survival.
Durham, NC (Scicasts) – A major discovery about an enzyme's structure has opened a window on understanding DNA repair. Scientists at Duke University Medical Center have determined the structure of a nuclease that will help scientists to understand several DNA repair pathways, a welcome development for cancer research.
Davis, CA (Scicasts) - An international team of researchers headed by a UC Davis scientist has described how a component of a potential HIV vaccine opens like a flower, undergoing one of the most dramatic protein rearrangements yet observed in nature. The finding, they believe, could reveal new targets for vaccines to prevent HIV infection and AIDS.