http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Molecular chaperones have emerged as exciting new potential drug targets, because scientists want to learn how to stop cancer cells, for example, from using chaperones to enable their uncontrolled growth. Now a team of biochemists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst led by Lila Gierasch have deciphered key steps in the mechanism of the Hsp70 molecular machine by "trapping" this chaperone in action, providing a dynamic snapshot of its mechanism. http://phys.org/news274005130.html Chemistry Thu, 06 Dec 2012 12:00:20 EST news274005130 Researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology and the Weizmann Institute of Science identify a means of controlling biological processes that could help treatments for immune disease, neurological disorders and cancer. http://phys.org/news270976507.html Biology Thu, 01 Nov 2012 08:15:14 EST news270976507 (Phys.org)—Biomedical scientists collaborating on translational research at two Buffalo institutions are reporting the discovery of a novel, and heretofore unrecognized, set of genes essential for the growth of potentially lethal, drug-resistant bacteria. The study not only reveals multiple, new drug targets for this human infection, it also suggests that the typical methods of studying bacteria in rich laboratory media may not be the best way to identify much-needed antimicrobial drug targets. http://phys.org/news266860021.html Biology Fri, 14 Sep 2012 16:47:15 EST news266860021 (Phys.org)—Purdue University scientists have determined that a gene long known to be involved in cancer cell formation and chemotherapy resistance is key to proper RNA creation, an understanding that could one day lead to new therapies and drug targets. http://phys.org/news266658956.html Chemistry Wed, 12 Sep 2012 08:56:10 EST news266658956 (Phys.org)—Scientists on the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have designed a compound that shows promise as a potential therapy for one of the diseases closely linked to fragile X syndrome, a genetic condition that causes mental retardation, infertility, and memory impairment, and is the only known single-gene cause of autism. http://phys.org/news265996050.html Chemistry Tue, 04 Sep 2012 16:47:39 EST news265996050 A trawl of the genome of the deadly bacterium Bacillus anthracis has revealed a clutch of targets for new drugs to combat an epidemic of anthrax or a biological weapons attack. The targets are all proteins that are found in the bacteria but not in humans and are involved in diverse bacterial processes such as metabolism, cell wall synthesis and bacterial persistence. The discovery of a range of targets might bode well for creating a drug cocktail that could preclude the emergence of drug resistance. http://phys.org/news264685497.html Biology Mon, 20 Aug 2012 12:45:55 EST news264685497 For millennia, mankind has discovered new drugs either through educated guesswork or blind luck. But with the proliferation of advanced computing, a new paradigm has emerged whereby one can find drug targets through simulation and modeling. http://phys.org/news258131981.html Biology Tue, 05 Jun 2012 16:21:39 EST news258131981 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have cracked the genetic code and predicted some high priority drug targets for the blood parasite Schistosoma haematobium, which is linked to bladder cancer and HIV/ AIDS and causes the insidious urogenital disease schistosomiasis haematobia in more than 112 million people in Africa. http://phys.org/news246088939.html Biology Wed, 18 Jan 2012 06:02:34 EST news246088939 Against the backdrop of the growing epidemic of obesity in the United States, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have made an important new discovery regarding a specific gene that plays an important role in keeping a steady balance between our food intake and energy expenditure. The study may help scientists better understand the keys to fighting obesity and related disorders such as diabetes. http://phys.org/news241285171.html Chemistry Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:39:40 EST news241285171 Scientists have developed a new method to make proteins form crystals using 'smart materials' that remember the shape and characteristics of the molecule. The technique, reported today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, should assist research into new medicines by helping scientists work out the structure of drug targets. http://phys.org/news227792882.html Chemistry Mon, 20 Jun 2011 15:00:21 EST news227792882 Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have developed a new computational method that will help streamline the analysis of gene expression experiments and provide scientists with a better mechanistic understanding of the differences between diseased and normal cells. The new database and software, called ChIP Enrichment Analysis (ChEA), will revolutionize how researchers identify drug targets and biomarkers. http://phys.org/news203762282.html Medicine & Health Wed, 15 Sep 2010 10:00:01 EST news203762282 The first study of Ewing's sarcoma that screened hundreds of genes based on how they affect cell growth has identified two potential anti-cancer drug targets, according to a scientific paper by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) published this month in the journal Molecular Cancer. http://phys.org/news202552562.html Medicine & Health Wed, 01 Sep 2010 09:50:04 EST news202552562 A new discovery about selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) suggests that these drugs, which are used to treat mental health disorders like depression and anxiety, have multiple effects on our cells. In a research report published in the August 2010 issue of GENETICS, researchers used yeast cells to identify secondary drug targets or pathways affected by SSRIs. Such secondary pathways could help explain why different people taking the same drug may experience different effects, and could also lead to new types of drugs altogether. http://phys.org/news201194248.html Medicine & Health Mon, 16 Aug 2010 16:30:01 EST news201194248 An important Brandeis study appearing in the December 3 issue of Nature raises the curtain on the hidden lives of proteins at the atomic level. The study reports that for the first time, researchers used x-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques to directly visualize protein structures essential for catalysis at the rare high-energy state. The study also showed how the motions of these rare, or hidden, structures collectively, directly contribute to enzyme catalysis. http://phys.org/news178987418.html Chemistry Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:30:01 EST news178987418 Scientists from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR) have found two new genes that together double a person's risk of developing melanoma. http://phys.org/news166098212.html Medicine & Health Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:23:56 EST news166098212 Most cellular processes are carried out by molecular machines that consist of many interacting proteins. These protein complexes lie at the heart of life science research, but they are notoriously hard to study. Their abundance is often too low to extract them directly from cells and generating them with recombinant methods has been a daunting task. http://phys.org/news160662977.html Chemistry Mon, 04 May 2009 13:36:51 EST news160662977 An experimental agent has shown promising results in people with advanced biliary cancer, according to a multi-institutional clinical trial led by cancer researchers at the Ohio State University. http://phys.org/news159461766.html Medicine & Health Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:56:30 EST news159461766