(Phys.org) —Like picking a career or a movie, cells have to make decisions – and cancer results from cells making wrong decisions.

Biology - Cell & Microbiology

May 03, 2013 4.4 / 5 (5) 0 |

RNA, once considered a bit player in the grand scheme by which genes encode protein, is increasingly seen to have a major role in human genetics. In a study presented in the April 25 issue of the journal Cell, researchers from T ...

Biology - Cell & Microbiology

May 01, 2013 not rated yet 0 |

(Phys.org) —Like musicians in an orchestra who have the same musical score but start and finish playing at different intervals, cells with the same genes start and finish transcribing them at different ...

Biology - Cell & Microbiology

Apr 25, 2013 4 / 5 (1) 0 |

Modern medicine is largely based on treating patients with "small-molecule" drugs, which include pain relievers like aspirin and antibiotics such as penicillin.

Nanotechnology - Bio & Medicine

Mar 11, 2013 5 / 5 (3) 0

(Phys.org)—Machines don't always run smoothly – phone calls drop, computers crash and cars stall.

Biology - Cell & Microbiology

Mar 01, 2013 3.7 / 5 (3) 0 |

Whitehead Institute researchers have determined that DNA transcription, the process that produces messenger RNA (mRNA) templates used in protein production, also runs in the opposite direction along the DNA to create corresponding ...

Biology - Cell & Microbiology

Feb 04, 2013 not rated yet 0 |

Histone proteins are the proteins that package DNA into chromosomes. Every time the cell replicates its DNA it must make large amounts of newly made histones to organize DNA within the nucleus.

Biology - Cell & Microbiology

Jan 17, 2013 5 / 5 (2) 0 |

(Phys.org)—A research team of scientists from EMBL Grenoble and the IGBMC in Strasbourg, France, have, for the first time, described in molecular detail the architecture of the central scaffold of TFIID: the human protein ...

Biology - Cell & Microbiology

Jan 07, 2013 4.5 / 5 (4) 0 |

Sperm give new embryos more than just a copy of their genes: they also contribute RNAs, molecules similar to DNA that play many essential roles in switching genes on or off, and in regulating how much protein ...

Biology - Cell & Microbiology

Jan 04, 2013 5 / 5 (2) 0

When genes were first discovered, the canonical view was that each gene encodes a unique protein. However, biologists later found that segments of genes can be combined in different ways, giving rise to many ...

Biology - Evolution

Dec 21, 2012 5 / 5 (2) 0 |

Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have developed a new approach to alter the function of RNA in living cells by designing molecules that recognize and disable RNA targets. As a proof ...

Chemistry - Biochemistry

Dec 20, 2012 5 / 5 (1) 0 |

For a tiny embryo to grow into an entire fruit fly, mouse or human, the correct genes in each cell must turn on and off in precisely the right sequence. This intricate molecular dance produces the many parts of the whole ...

Biology - Cell & Microbiology

Dec 20, 2012 5 / 5 (3) 0 |

It is well known that many mammals are able to adjust the ratio of male and female young depending on the surrounding conditions at the time of conception. A recent study in the group of Christine Aurich ...

Biology - Plants & Animals

Dec 18, 2012 5 / 5 (1) 2 |

At crucial points in the metabolism of all organisms, a protein with the unwieldy name of Translation Elongation Factor P (EF-P, for short) takes center stage. What it actually does during protein synthesis has only now been ...

Biology - Cell & Microbiology

Dec 14, 2012 5 / 5 (2) 0 |

(Phys.org)—The nucleic acid RNA is an essential part of the critical process by which the cells in our bodies manufacture proteins. But noncoding RNAs also exist whose sequences, while not converted into ...

Biology - Cell & Microbiology

Nov 21, 2012 5 / 5 (2) 0 |