The technology used to sequence SARS-CoV-2 at record speed early in the COVID-19 pandemic has been successfully tested as a technique to monitor arboviruses and diseases transmitted mainly by mosquitoes.
Biotechnology
14 hours ago
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8
The rise of RNA viruses like SARS-CoV-2 highlights the need for new ways to fight them. RNA-targeting tools like CRISPR/Cas13 are powerful but inefficient in the cytoplasm of cells, where many RNA viruses replicate.
Biotechnology
Apr 12, 2024
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99
Only recently, a new era in medicine began with the first RNA vaccines. These active substances are modified RNAs that trigger immune responses of the human immune system. Another approach in RNA medicine targets the body's ...
Biochemistry
Apr 10, 2024
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65
RNA—in the form of messenger RNA (mRNA), ribosomal RNA (rRNA), and transfer RNA (tRNA)—transforms the genome coded by DNA into proteins that form the backbone of all cellular functions. However, biochemical modifications ...
Cell & Microbiology
Apr 8, 2024
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25
Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have discovered a mechanism by which a bacterial virus undermines the virulence of Salmonella, allowing the host a chance to rehabilitate.
Cell & Microbiology
Apr 5, 2024
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31
After two decades in the United States, Martin Hetzer returned home to Austria in 2023 to become the 2nd President of the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA). A year into his new role, the molecular biologist ...
Cell & Microbiology
Apr 4, 2024
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47
One of the most striking features of human genes is that genetic information required to produce proteins is stored in a discontinuous form, wherein the coding information (exons) is punctuated with non-coding segments known ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Apr 4, 2024
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10
Researchers from Aarhus University and the Italian Institute of Technology have discovered how certain proteins can attach to special structures in RNA, called G-quadruplexes. Additionally, they have developed computational ...
Cell & Microbiology
Apr 3, 2024
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38
Messenger RNA became a household term when it was used as the backbone of the first COVID-19 vaccines, especially after the Nobel Prize was awarded to two mRNA pioneers at the University of Pennsylvania.
Biotechnology
Apr 3, 2024
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6
A fungus devastating frogs and toads on nearly every continent may have an Achilles heel. Scientists have discovered a virus that infects the fungus, and that could be engineered to save the amphibians.
Plants & Animals
Apr 3, 2024
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77
Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a biologically important type of molecule that consists of a long chain of nucleotide units. Each nucleotide consists of a nitrogenous base, a ribose sugar, and a phosphate. RNA is very similar to DNA, but differs in a few important structural details: in the cell, RNA is usually single-stranded, while DNA is usually double-stranded; RNA nucleotides contain ribose while DNA contains deoxyribose (a type of ribose that lacks one oxygen atom); and RNA has the base uracil rather than thymine that is present in DNA.
RNA is transcribed from DNA by enzymes called RNA polymerases and is generally further processed by other enzymes. RNA is central to the synthesis of proteins. Here, a type of RNA called messenger RNA carries information from DNA to structures called ribosomes. These ribosomes are made from proteins and ribosomal RNAs, which come together to form a molecular machine that can read messenger RNAs and translate the information they carry into proteins. There are many RNAs with other roles – in particular regulating which genes are expressed, but also as the genomes of most viruses.
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