Salk Institute

Exercise in a Pill

Trying to reap the health benefits of exercise? Forget treadmills and spin classes, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies may have found a way around the sweat and pain. They identified ...

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Jul 31, 2008 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (40) | comments 7

New master switch found in the brain that regulates appetite and reproduction

Body weight and fertility have long known to be related to each other – women who are too thin, for example, can have trouble becoming pregnant. Now, a master switch has been found in the brain of mice that controls both, ...

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Aug 31, 2008 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (30) | comments 3

Are genes our destiny? 'Hidden' code in DNA evolves more rapidly than genetic code, scientists discover

A "hidden" code linked to the DNA of plants allows them to develop and pass down new biological traits far more rapidly than previously thought, according to the findings of a groundbreaking study by researchers ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Sep 16, 2011 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (27) | comments 26 | with audio podcast

Food for thought -- regulating energy supply to the brain during fasting

If the current financial climate has taught us anything, it's that a system where over-borrowing goes unchecked eventually ends in disaster. It turns out this rule applies as much to our bodies as it does to economics. Instead ...

Biology /

created Oct 05, 2008 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (24) | comments 0

Can you hear me now?

When it comes to cellular communication networks, a primitive single-celled microbe that answers to the name of Monosiga brevicollis has a leg up on animals composed of billions of cells. It commands a signaling ...

Biology /

created Jul 07, 2008 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (20) | comments 2

Perfect Vision But Blind To Light

Mammals have two types of light-sensitive detectors in the retina. Known as rod and cone cells, they are both necessary to picture their environment. However, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological ...

Biology /

created Jun 11, 2008 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (20) | comments 7

Ticking of cellular clock promotes seismic changes in the chromatin landscape associated with aging

Like cats, human cells have a finite number of lives-once they divide a certain number of times (thankfully, more than nine) they change shape, slow their pace, and eventually stop dividing, a phenomenon called ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Oct 03, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (19) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Reprogramming Adult Stem Cells in the Brain

In recent years, stem cell researchers have become very adept at manipulating the fate of adult stem cells cultured in the lab. Now, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies achieved the same ...

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Jun 30, 2008 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (18) | comments 0

Fruit fly intestine may hold secret to the fountain of youth

One of the few reliable ways to extend an organism's lifespan, be it a fruit fly or a mouse, is to restrict calorie intake. Now, a new study in fruit flies is helping to explain why such minimal diets are ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Nov 02, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (17) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Researchers successfully reprogram keratinocytes attached to a single hair

The first reports of the successful reprogramming of adult human cells back into so-called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which by all appearances looked and acted liked embryonic stem cells created a media stir. But ...

Biology /

created Oct 17, 2008 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (17) | comments 0

The pre-history of life: Elegantly simple organizing principles seen in ribosomes

With few exceptions, all known forms of life on our planet rely on the same genetic code to specify the amino acid composition of proteins. Although different hypotheses abound, just how individual amino acids ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Apr 12, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (17) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

On the move: 'Jumping genes' create diversity in human brain cells

Rather than sticking to a single DNA script, human brain cells harbor astonishing genomic variability, according to scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. The findings, to be published in ...

Medicine & Health / Genetics

created Aug 05, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (15) | comments 3

What drives our genes? Researchers map the first complete human epigenome

Although the human genome sequence faithfully lists (almost) every single DNA base of the roughly 3 billion bases that make up a human genome, it doesn't tell biologists much about how its function is regulated. Now, researchers ...

Medicine & Health / Genetics

created Oct 14, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (14) | comments 0

Discovery of extremely long-lived proteins may provide insight into cell aging

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 ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Feb 03, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (13) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Seeing without looking

Like a spotlight that illuminates an otherwise dark scene, attention brings to mind specific details of our environment while shutting others out. A new study by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Dec 28, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (14) | comments 2