Press monitoring

How ocean bacterium turns carbon into fuel

Researchers have uncovered details about how cyanobacteria, one of the most abundant organisms on earth, digest carbon. These bacteria build miniature factories inside themselves that turn carbon into fuel. A new study shows the bacteria organize these factories spatially, lining them up in a neat row, revealing a structural sophistication not often seen in single-celled organisms.
[10.3.2010]  

Secret Weapon of Retroviruses That Cause Cancer

Oncogenic retroviruses are a particular family of viruses that can cause some types of cancer. Thierry Heidmann and his colleagues in the CNRS-Institut Gustave Roussy-Université Paris Sud 11 "Rétrovirus endogènes et éléments rétroïdes des eucaryotes supérieurs" Laboratory have studied these viruses. They have identified a "virulence factor" that inhibits the host immune response and allows the virus to spread throughout the body. This factor is a sequence of amino acids that is located in the envelope protein of the virus.
[3.3.2010]  

Skin Cells Turned into Brain Cells

A simple approach shows that cells might be more flexible than once thought.
[24.2.2010]  

How bioelectrics research could make us healthier

Imagine a technology that, in a few controlled zaps, could cure cancer, purify water, boost alternative-energy production and wrangle agricultural pests — without harmful side effects for humans.
[17.2.2010]  

Microbes produce fuels directly from biomass

A collaboration led by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy's Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) has developed a microbe that can produce an advanced biofuel directly from biomass. Deploying the tools of synthetic biology, the JBEI researchers engineered a strain of Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria to produce biodiesel fuel and other important chemicals derived from fatty acids.
[10.2.2010]  

Sleep with the Fishes

There's a new guinea pig in the search for sleep-related drugs: the zebrafish. Researchers at Harvard University have developed a screening tool that tests the effects of thousands of compounds on zebrafish behavior in an effort to discover new pathways that govern sleep. The research, published this week in the journal Science, may result in new drugs to treat insomnia and other sleep-related disorders.
[3.2.2010]  

Deadly Scorpion Provides Safe Pesticide

Scorpions deliver a powerful, paralyzing venom -- a complex cocktail of poisonous peptides -- that immobilize animal prey on the spot. Some of the toxins in this cocktail damage only insects, which is why a Tel Aviv University researcher is harnessing them to create a safe and ecologically sound pesticide.
[27.1.2010]  

Lecithin nanoparticles show promise as vaccine adjuvant

A team at Oregon State University has developed a new adjuvant, a substance that can increased the immune response when used in combination with a vaccine, based on lecithin nanoparticles. Currently only one adjuvant, aluminium hydroxide (alum), is approved for human use in the US because of safety concerns and is comparatively weak as well as only working with certain diseases.
[20.1.2010]  

Artificial Red Blood Cells for Drug Delivery

In research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a group specializing in drug delivery has found a way to create biodegradable, biocompatible particles with the size, shape, and flexibility of red blood cells. The group believes these artificial cells might be particularly effective not just for carrying oxygen but also as therapeutic and imaging agents.
[13.1.2010]  

Researchers develop 'nano cocktail' to target and kill tumors

A team of researchers in California and Massachusetts has developed a "cocktail" of different nanometer-sized particles that work in concert within the bloodstream to locate, adhere to and kill cancerous tumors.
[6.1.2010]