(Phys.org)—The parasites that cause schistosomiasis, one of the most common parasitic infections in the world, are notoriously long-lived. Researchers have now found stem cells inside the parasite that ...

Biology - Cell & Microbiology

Feb 23, 2013 4.3 / 5 (9) 1 |

(Phys.org)—The plasma membranes that give cells their shapes are typically upheld by linear meshworks of the protein actin. In contrast, Howard Hughes Medical Institute scientists have now discovered that ...

Biology - Cell & Microbiology

Jan 28, 2013 5 / 5 (3) 0 |

(Phys.org)—Every minute of its existence, a living cell must assess and analyze myriad bits of information—everything from the temperature of its environment to the chemical makeup of its surroundings. Sometimes, these ...

Biology - Cell & Microbiology

Jan 25, 2013 5 / 5 (1) 0 |

(Phys.org)—Using new software developed at HHMI's Janelia Farm Research Campus, a computer can be trained to recognize characteristic animal behaviors like an experienced biologist. Rather than scrutinizing hours of video ...

Biology - Other

Dec 10, 2012 5 / 5 (2) 0 |

(Phys.org)—A new DNA sequencing technique has enabled researchers to map for the first time the influential chemical modifications known as methylation marks throughout the genome of a pathogenic bacterium. By comparing ...

Biology - Biotechnology

Nov 19, 2012 4.5 / 5 (2) 1

(Phys.org)—It's not just a few key genes and proteins that cycle on and off in humans in a 24-hour circadian pattern as the sun rises and falls. Thousands of genes in organs throughout the body show predictable daily fluctuations, ...

Biology - Cell & Microbiology

Sep 03, 2012 5 / 5 (2) 0 |

(Phys.org) -- With the first-ever three-dimensional image of an isolated kinetochore – the bulky molecular machine that connects a chromosome to the long, thin microtubules that tug it to one end of a dividing cell -- ...

Biology - Cell & Microbiology

Aug 21, 2012 5 / 5 (1) 0 |

Beneath the surface of the earth, an influential community of microbes mingles with plant roots. In the first large-scale analysis of those communities, scientists have now catalogued and compared the hundreds ...

Biology - Biotechnology

Aug 01, 2012 3 / 5 (1) 0 |

(Medical Xpress) -- The transformation of a fertilized egg into a functioning animal requires thousands of cell divisions and intricate rearrangements of those cells. That process is captured with unprecedented ...

Biology - Cell & Microbiology

Jun 03, 2012 4.6 / 5 (5) 2 |

Howard Hughes Medical Institute scientists have determined the three-dimensional structure of two proteins that help keep the body's clocks in sync. The proteins, CLOCK and BMAL1, bind to each other to regulate ...

Biology - Cell & Microbiology

May 31, 2012 5 / 5 (3) 0 |

(Phys.org) -- As plants began to transition from aquatic habitats to dry land some 500 million years ago, their needs changed. Those primitive ancestors of modern plants were ill-equipped to survive in a dry, sunlight-blasted ...

Biology - Biotechnology

May 13, 2012 5 / 5 (4) 0 |

For most plants, staying alive means adapting quickly to a constantly changing environment. In a drought, staving off water loss is vital. On a sunny day, absorbing carbon dioxide to generate energy through ...

Biology - Biotechnology

Jan 13, 2012 4.3 / 5 (3) 0 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- If a fruit fly gets a whiff of a rotting banana, it does everything it can to get to the location of the potential feast. That includes not only beating its wings faster, but overriding its ...

Biology - Plants & Animals

Oct 20, 2011 5 / 5 (2) 1 |

(Medical Xpress) -- New research from Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) scientists pinpoints a biological barrier that has thus far slowed progress in creating disease-specific stem cell lines using a technique known ...

Biology - Cell & Microbiology

Oct 06, 2011 5 / 5 (2) 0 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- By recalling landmarks in the environment, a leopard can return to the tree where it stashed its kill and a shopper can find her car in the mall’s parking lot. Fruit flies also commit details of their ...

Biology - Plants & Animals

Jun 22, 2011 5 / 5 (1) 1 |