An enzyme called telomerase plays a significant role in aging and most cancers, but until recently many aspects of the enzyme's structure could not be clearly seen.
Biochemistry
Oct 15, 2015
0
358
With the aid of physics and a minuscule magnet, researchers have discovered a new structure of telomeric DNA. Telomeres are sometimes seen as the key to living longer. They protect genes from damage but get a bit shorter ...
Cell & Microbiology
Sep 15, 2022
0
4014
(PhysOrg.com) -- For hundreds, if not thousands of years scientists have been seeking clues to explain why we humans, and all other animals for that matter, age. But it’s been only recently that some real clues have ...
Half a century ago, scientists Jim Watson and Alexey Olovnikov independently realized that there was a problem with how our DNA gets copied. A quirk of linear DNA replication dictated that telomeres that protect the ends ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Feb 28, 2024
0
244
Once thought incapable of encoding proteins due to their simple monotonous repetitions of DNA, tiny telomeres at the tips of our chromosomes seem to hold a potent biological function that's potentially relevant to our understanding ...
Cell & Microbiology
Feb 20, 2023
0
536
A flamingo lives 40 years and a human being lives 90 years; a mouse lives two years and an elephant lives 60. Why? What determines the lifespan of a species? After analyzing nine species of mammals and birds, researchers ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 8, 2019
1
1675
As the rope of a chromosomes replicates, it frays at the ends. No problem: A chromosome's ends have extra twine so that fraying doesn't reach into the body of the rope where the important information resides. This extra twine ...
Cell & Microbiology
Aug 18, 2016
0
1548
Scientists at Hollings Cancer Center at the Medical University of South Carolina have found that human lung cancer cells resist dying by controlling parts of the aging process, in results published online May 10th in the ...
Biochemistry
Jun 27, 2018
0
629
In the hunt for better knowledge on the aging process, researchers from Lund University have now enlisted the help of small birds. A new study investigates various factors which affect whether chicks are born with long or ...
Cell & Microbiology
Dec 11, 2014
0
0
One of the hallmarks of cancer is cell immortality. A Northwestern University organic chemist and his team now have developed a promising molecular tool that targets and inhibits one of cell immortality's underlying gears: ...
Biochemistry
Mar 3, 2020
2
962
