the study is directed by Erwin Wagner head of the BBVA Foundation-CNIO Cancer cell Biology Program.
In recent years a number of biochemical processes involved in the differentiation of keratinocytes have been identified.
The high penetration of X-rays is favoured for three-dimensional tomographic imaging of objects such as biological cells
a team of biomedical engineering undergraduates has developed a kit to teach front-line health care workers in developing countries how to implant contraceptives.
a team of Johns hopkins university biomedical engineering undergraduates has developed a teaching set called the Contraceptive Implant Training Tool kit or CITT Kit, for short.
"The student inventors showcased their device recently at the annual Johns Hopkins Biomedical engineering Design Day event, organized by the university's Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design.
directed by Robert H. Allen, a lecturer in the Department of Biomedical engineering, which is shared by the university's Whiting School of engineering and its School of medicine.
Mutations or imbalances in the noncoding RNA repertoire within the body can therefore cause a variety of diseases such as cancer.
hyperactive mutations of which are often found in acute myeloid leukemia. Dr. Hirano and his collaborators at the School of medicine in Juntendo University showed that CCDC26 transcript levels are high in the nuclear fraction of human myeloid leukemia cell lines.
The scientists obtained fragments of the viral genetic material from the insect samples and joined these fragments together like a puzzle,
thus reconstructing the entire genome sequence.""That alone took four years,"reported lead authors Marco Marklewitz and Florian Zirkel.
During the comparison of the genetic information with other viruses, it was found that Jonchet and Ferak viruses are two phylogenetically independent bunyavirus lineages.
#Intelligent bacteria for detecting disease Another step forward has just been taken in the area of synthetic biology.
Since the advent of biotechnology, researchers have modified bacteria to produce therapeutic drugs or antibiotics. In this novel study, they have actually become a diagnostic tool.
This is where biological systems come into play. Living cells are real nanomachines that can detect and process many signals
Jérôme Bonnet's team in Montpellier's Centre for Structural Biochemistry (CBS) had the idea of using concepts from synthetic biology derived from electronics to construct genetic systems making it possible to"programme"living cells like a computer.
The electrical signals used in electronics are replaced by molecular signals that control gene expression. It is thus now possible to implant simple genetic"programmes"into living cells in response to different combinations of molecules.
a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UC Santa cruz and corresponding author of the paper, the connection between clock disruption and cancer is still unclear."
Several clock gene mutations have been identified in people with disorders that involve the timing of the biological clock,
'said Chien Ho, the alumni rofessor of biological sciences at Carnegie mellon.''When the drugs collect in those organs,
Professor Thomas is working on a delivery technology with Dendright Pty Ltd (a Uniquest start-up company) in collaboration Janssen Biotech Inc,
#Planarian regeneration model discovered by artificial intelligence Arrayin order to bioengineer complex organs, scientists need to understand the mechanisms by which those shapes are produced normally by the living organism.
shape and orientation, said the paper's senior author, Michael Levin, Ph d.,Vannevar bush professor of biology and director of the Tufts Center for Regenerative and Developmental biology."
"Most regenerative models today derived from genetic experiments are arrow diagrams, showing which gene regulates which other gene.
and developmental biology, said the paper's first author, Daniel Lobo, Ph d, . postdoctoral fellow in the Levin lab. To address this challenge,
Tufts biologists devloped an algorithm that used evolutionary computation to produce regulatory networks able to"evolve"to accurately predict the results of published research on planarian regeneration.
and bring an unusual perspective to the field of developmental biology. Levin majored in computer science and biology at Tufts before earning his Ph d. in genetics.
Lobo earned a Ph d. in the field before joining the Levin lab. The paper represents a successful application of the growing field of"robot science
which is still the gold standard in the health care industry for making a definitive diagnosis. Also routinely used today is a newer method for rapidly identifying bacteria based on a DNA-analysis technique called quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qpcr),
The researchers analyzed microarray data of samples from German patients and from an IPF cohort of the Lung Tissue Research Consortium in the U s. The analysis revealed elevated levels of the protein FKBP10
specialists in biomedical engineering, have developed a device which will allow bacterial meningitis to be diagnosed in babies in seconds with a high-resolution ultrasound of the fontanelle.
"says co-senior study investigator and NYU Langone cell biologist Susan Schwab, Phd. Schwab, an assistant professor at NYU Langone and its Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine, says similar laboratory test plans are underway for more potent CXCR4 antagonists, most likely in combination with established chemotherapy regimens.
She notes that anti-CXCR4 drugs are already in preliminary testing for treating certain forms of myeloid leukemia,
Co-senior study investigator and cancer biologist Iannis Aifantis, Phd, says the study offers the first evidence that"drugs targeting
"The ability to precisely control droplets using fluidic computation could have a number of applications in high-throughput biology and chemistry,
#Stem cell discovery paves way for targeted treatment for osteoarthritis Researchers in the Departments of Biology and Physics at York,
It is made from gelatin-based biomaterials reinforced with nanoparticles and seeded with cells, and it mimics the anatomical microenvironment of lymphoid tissue.
#'Chromosome shattering'seen in plants, cancer Plants can undergo the same extreme'chromosome shattering'seen in some human cancers and developmental syndromes,
UC Davis researchers have found. Chromosome shattering, or'chromothripsis,'has until now only been seen in animal cells.
A paper on the work is published in the online journal elife. The process could be applied in plant breeding as a way to create haploid plants with genetic material from only one parent,
said Ek Han Tan, a postdoctoral researcher in the UC Davis Department of Plant Biology and first author on the paper.
Although plants don't get cancer it might also allow cancer researchers to use the laboratory plant Arabidopsis as a model to study chromosome behavior in cancer.
Chromothripsis involves slicing chromosomes into apparently random pieces, and reassembling it like a broken vase,
often with pieces completely missing or in the wrong place. Generally speaking, this is not a good thing,
which chromosomes are moved and allocated to daughter cells during cell division. They discovered that when a variant of the model plant Arabidopsis with weakened centromeres is crossed to a plant with normal centromeres,
the cut-and-reassembly process leading to'shattered chromosomes
#Single protein causes Parkinson's disease and multiple system atrophy Typical of neurodegenerative disorders is disrupted the communication between brain cells together with a loss of cells in specific brain regions.
"says Professor Veerle Baekelandt from the Research Group for Neurobiology and Gene therapy.""You could compare it to the construction of a house,
and biological systems at the atomic level with high efficiency is a current roadblock to solving many of today's greatest scientific challenges in energy,
"explained Professor Andreas Diefenbach of the Department of Medical microbiology and Hygiene of the Mainz University Medical center.
inspired by biological chromatophores, which creates patterns that change and morph over time and mimic biological patterning.
Arraythe researchers have shown the artificial skin, made from electroactive dielectric elastomer, a soft, compliant smart material, can effectively copy the action of biological chromatophores.
Chromatophores are pigmented small cells embedded on cephalopods skin which can expand and contract and that work together to change skin colour and texture.
"said Lee Kerkhof, a professor of marine and coastal sciences in the School of Environmental and Biological sciences."
"His research team has completed sequencing its genome to support future research into the genetic elements that allow the bacterium to grow on uranium.
"Biology is a way to solve this contamination problem, especially in situations like this where the radionuclides are diluted highly
'said Simon Gayther, Ph d.,professor in preventive medicine, Keck School of medicine of USC, corresponding author of the international genome-wide association study (GWAS).'
'By finding these genetic markers, we begin to understand more about the biology of the disease itself.
This study tells us more about the biology of ovarian cancer from the early development stage than most research has.'
'Ovarian cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer in American women and seventh most common cancer in women throughout the world (World health organization.
'By using a genome-wide scan, we could identify genetic variants that were significantly more common in women with MOC compared to those without ovarian cancer.'
#Bacterial genome scalpel can identify key gene regions Arraybacteria use CRISPR-Cas as a self-cleansing defense mechanism and immune system against unwanted DNA invaders such as viruses,
Cutting out one of the islands--the one that contained the milk-utilization genes--reduced the genome by about 5 percent.
Overall, elimination of all four areas reduced the genome by 7 percent.''We did not expect that magnitude of reduction in a relatively small genome,
'Barrangou said.''When you use pinpointed targeting of a specific portion of the genome, you expect a smaller deletion to occur.'
'The researchers say that that the same techniques can be used as a template to study essential and nonessential genomic regions in any bacterium of interest
''This work represents a stunning discovery of the grand and expansive genome rearrangements that occurred in beneficial bacteria that evolved to preserve foods,
to see how seasonal differences in exposure to ultraviolet B radiation, dietary Vitamin d, genetics, and pigmentation affected Vitamin d levels,
genetics and other variables played very small roles in Vitamin d status, although some genetic variations did influence the success of supplementation.
To test how Vitamin d status affected the immune system and HIV-1 in particular the researchers exposed blood samples from Xhosa and Cape mixed participants taken during the summer
The international team of researchers co-led by Dr Natalie Borg from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular biology at Monash University,
enabling in-situ measurements in various security and health relevant fields including biology, medicine, food control, and pharmacy.
and will lead to new candidates for biological and medical applications, and new production routes for enzymes of industrial use."
DHFR is a small enzyme that plays an essential role in the building of genetic material and proteins,
and ink-jet printing of biomolecules has been proposed previously by scientists. However, the heat-sensitive nature of these unstable compounds means printed materials rapidly lose functionality,
Benedetto Marelli, Miaomiao Yang and Bo An, of the Department of Biomedical engineering at Tufts University;
and David Kaplan, of the Department of Biomedical engineering and Department of Chemical and Biological engineering at Tufts University.
'said Barbour, Senior Lecturer in Biomaterials in the School of Oral and Dental Sciences.''Our initial focus will be in the dental market,
"We believe we have identified a mechanism that seizes the cancer's biological engine and could potentially stop it in its tracks."
and pollen, are thought to activate entirely different parts of the same bee genome--converting one larva into the queen while others,
Cancer researchers had known that mutations in AIM2 were frequently found in patients with colorectal cancers.
And a study by other researchers had found that more than half of small bowel tumors had AIM2 mutations.
especially in those who have mutations in the AIM2 gene, by simply giving them'good'microbiota.''
scientists estimate as many as 500,000 cruciform-forming sequences may exist on average in a normal human genome.
Small cruciforms enable DNA replication and gene expression, essential for human life. But scientists have suspected also these small cruciforms--a structure of DNA itself--to be linked to mutations that can elevate cancer risk.
DNA cruciforms are created by short inverted repeats of the nucleotides Adenine-Thymine-Cytosine-Guanine that form the bases of DNA structure.
and under in a reference database of mutations in human cancer that are somatic, meaning not inherited.
'We found that short inverted repeats are enriched indeed at translocation breakpoints in human cancer genomes,
Bacolla is a research associate in the Vasquez Lab.'What we found in our study was that the sites of chromosome breaks are not random along the DNA double helix;
built by the short inverted repeats, mark the spots for chromosome breaks, mutations, and potentially initiate cancer development.'
According to Paul Okano, program director at the Division of Cancer Biology of the National Cancer Institute,
'The focus of Dr. Vasquez'research on the mechanisms of alternate DNA structure-induced mutations, DNA breaks,
and chromosome translocations is a novel and significant aspect of NCI grant supported studies on mechanisms of genomic instability.
'COSMIC is maintained a database by the Sanger Institute in the U k. of mutations found in human somatic, or noninheritable cancer.'
'Our next steps are to go forward with a mouse model that can detect mutations and translocations in the mouse genome using human sequences from these cancer breakpoints,
'Vasquez said. Does this really occur now in the context of chromosomes in living organisms?
Is it tissue specific? Does aging make a difference? These are the types of questions that the researchers will ask.'
which are regulated mainly at the protein level rather than the gene expression level. Instead, the researchers developed a sophisticated protein-tracking technique based on the presence of a hypoxia-responsive protein called Hif-1alpha.
"This fate-mapping approach, based on protein stabilization rather than gene expression, is an important tool for studying hypoxia in the whole organism.
'Extra'DNA base found to be stable in mammals Array'This modification to DNA is found in very specific positions in the genome--the places which regulate genes,
but the fact that we've demonstrated it can be stable in living tissue shows that it could regulate gene expression and potentially signal other events in cells.'
The way these bases are ordered determines the makeup of the genome. In addition to G, C a and T, there are also small chemical modifications,
or epigenetic marks, which affect how the DNA sequence is interpreted and control how certain genes are switched on or off.
The study of these marks and how they affect gene activity is known as epigenetics. 5fc is one of these marks,
making it likely that it plays a key role in the genome. Using high-resolution mass spectrometry,
its position in the genome suggests that it has a key role in the regulation of gene expression.'
'The research was supported by Cancer Research UK, the Wellcome Trust and the Biotechnology and Biological sciences Research Council UK K
a biological feature used to measure the presence or progress of a disease. To take the test,
In collaboration with Pr Véronique Del Marmol (Department of Dermatology, Erasme Hospital, ULB) and the group of Pr François Fuks (Laboratory of cancer epigenetics, Faculty of medicine, ULB), Larsimont and colleagues demonstrated that
"explained Herr, a Phd in the Department of Cell biology.""You want to know which molecules are located precisely where,
#Biomanufacturing of Cds quantum dots A team of Lehigh University engineers have demonstrated a bacterial method for the low-cost, environmentally friendly synthesis of aqueous soluble quantum dot (QD) nanocrystals at room temperature.
along with a team of chemical engineering, bioengineering, and material science students present this novel approach for the reproducible biosynthesis of extracellular,
water-soluble QDS in the July 1 issue of the journal Green Chemistry. This is the first example of engineers harnessing nature's unique ability to achieve cost effective and scalable manufacturing of QDS using a bacterial process.
This biosynthetic approach provides a viable pathway to realize the promise of green biomanufacturing of these materials.
the biomanufacturing technique cuts that cost to about $1-$10 per gram. The substantial reduction in cost potentially enables large-scale production of QDS viable for use in commercial applications."
"While biosynthesis of structural materials is established relatively well, harnessing nature to create functional inorganic materials will provide a pathway to a future environmentally friendly biomanufacturing based economy.
We believe that this work is the first step on this path
#ick and mixsmart materials for robotics Researchers have combined successfully multiple functions into a single smart lifelike material for the first time.
"says lead investigator Agneta Richter-Dahlfors, professor of cellular microbiology.""The sensing component of the artificial neuron senses a change in chemical signals in one dish,
"says first author Alphonsus Ng who recently graduated with a Phd from the U of T Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical engineering (IBBME) and Donnelly Centre,
or macromolecules promises intriguing potential for many areas of biology, chemistry, and nanoscience. Spectroscopic measurements on large ensembles of nanoparticles suffer from the fact that individual differences in size, shape,
from the characterization of nanomaterials and biological nanosystems to spectroscopy of quantum emitters. e
#Nanostructure design enables pixels to produce two different colors depending on polarization of incident light Through precise structural control,
"explained Ting Lu, an assistant professor of bioengineering at Illinois."Simultaneously, it provides a powerful tool for guiding strain design and protocol optimization,
It typically involves complex biochemical processes implemented through the orchestration of metabolic reactions and gene regulation,
and Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology at Illinois."The complexity and systems nature of the process have been largely underappreciated,
More broadly, by using the ABE fermentation as an example, the work further sheds light on systems biology toward an integrated and quantitative understanding of complex microbial physiology
#RNASEH1 mutations impair mtdna replication, cause adult-onset mitochondrial encephalomyopathy Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology offers an incredible opportunity for the rapid and relatively low-cost characterization of individual genomes,
giving us a chance to make a substantial leap ahead in the molecular dissection of all mitochondrial disorders in humans.
This technology has led to the identification for the first time of pathological mutations in the RNASEH1 gene in six subjects from three unrelated families.
The identification of a new mitochondrial disease gene not only provides valuable basic information about the biological function
A biological element? Arrayclark Johnson, a professor of geoscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,
Biologists say this process"is really deep in the tree of life, but we've had little evidence from the rock record until now,
that early biological molecules may have been based iron.""NASA has made the search for life in space a major focus and sponsors the UW-Madison Astrobiology Institute,
"In my introductory geochemistry textbook from 1980, there is no mention of biology, and so every diagram showing
Researchers at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) of A*STAR have developed a drug-delivering hydrogel to treat chronic diseases such as hepatitis C a liver disease that kills around 500,000 people worldwide every year."
The study was published recently in the leading journal, Biomaterials, and conducted in collaboration with the Institute of Molecular and Cell biology of A*STAR.
Up to 150 million people globally suffer from chronic hepatitis C infections according to the World health organization.""I believe that our method can pave the way for more effective and safe treatment of hepatitis C. We are also testing the microstructured gel for the treatment of other chronic diseases besides hepatitis C,"added Dr Kurisawa.
Biomaterials, 2015; 63: 146 DOI: 10.1016/j. biomaterials. 2015.06.00 0
#Mechanism of T cell self/non-self'education'The immune system discriminates between self and non-self and responds specifically to remove non-self pathogens invading our body.
T cells play a central role in the immune response to non-self pathogens. The T-cell repertoire is shaped by"education"that occurs in the thymus.
The Food safety and Technology Research Centre under the Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology of The Hong kong Polytechnic University (Polyu) has developed a new method for rapid authentication of edible oils and screening
the UNC School of medicine Department of Microbiology and Immunology and the Department of Genetics. e found that AIM2 inhibits tumorigenesis in multiple animal models of colorectal cancer by restricting the pro-survival signaling molecule, Akt,
Distinguished Professor in the UNC School of medicine Department of Genetics and a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center member.
the bioplastic known as polylactic acid (PLA) is already a part of our everyday lives. And yet, PLA is considered not yet a full alternative to traditional petroleum-based plastics, as it is costly to produce.
The bioplastic PLA is derived from renewable resources, including the sugar in maize and sugarcane. Fermentation turns the sugar into lactic acid,
and biotechnology can join forces
#Fundamental beliefs about atherosclerosis overturned"The leading cause of death worldwide is complications of atherosclerosis,
or DNA molecule representing a genome of a virus--an action that leads to a massive,
"explains Yingfu Li, a professor in the Departments of Biochemistry and Biomedical sciences, Chemistry and Chemical Biology."
"A next step could be to study the affected heart tissue to find abnormal biochemical reactions in the cellular pathways involved in glycated proteins and severe coronary disease.
and the Wellcome Trust--used state-of-the-art methods to dissect the biochemical pathways involved in keeping the malaria parasite alive.
This included an approach called chemical genetics where synthetic chemicals are used in combination with introducing genetic changes to the DNA of the parasite.
"Cell death due to mutations in CEP63 is the main cause of the brain defects. When we prevent cell death by removing p53 from developing embryos,
Bat expert Michael Yartsev, a newly hired UC Berkeley assistant professor of bioengineering and member of the Helen wills said Neuroscience Institute
high throughput single-cell gene expression and time-lapse imaging simultaneously in the same human embryo.
Through single cell gene expression profiling--the measurement of the activity of hundreds of genes at once--Chavez
and research to improve a couple's chances of having a biological child of their own. This discovery can potentially increase those chances."
online genetic research tool"This work actually started mainly because of the demand of MU scientists, "said Jianlin Cheng, an associate professor of computer science in the MU College of Engineering."
The process has increased the speed that researchers can note the differences in gene expression among genomes
"Cheng and doctoral students Jilong Li and Jie Hou partnered with members of the MU Center for Botanical Interaction Studies, the Division of Biological sciences, the Department of chemistry, the Department of Biochemistry,
analyze it through as many as five steps against the complete genomes of five species: human, mouse, Drosophila melanogaster (a type of fly), TAIR10 arabidopsis (a small flowering plant) and Clostridium perfringens (a type of bacterium.
The team achieved three advances in the development of semiconductor and biological materials. One advance was the demonstration, by strictly chemical means, of three-dimensional lithography.
The testing showed that the synthetic silicon spicules displayed stronger interactions with collagen fibers--a skin-like stand-in for biological tissue--than did currently available silicon structures.
#Gene therapy restores hearing in deaf mice Using gene therapy, researchers at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical school have restored hearing in mice with a genetic form of deafness.
Their work, published online July 8 by the journal Science Translational Medicine, could pave the way for gene therapy in people with hearing loss caused by genetic mutations."
"Our gene therapy protocol is not yet ready for clinical trials--we need to tweak it a bit more
The researchers tested gene therapy in two types of mutant mice. One type had the TMC1 gene completely deleted,
and is a good model for recessive TMC1 mutations in humans: Children with two mutant copies of TMC1 have profound hearing loss from a very young age, usually by around 2 years.
The other type of mouse, called Beethoven, has a specific TMC1 mutation--a change in a single amino acid
In this form, less common than the recessive form, a single copy of the mutation causes children to gradually go deaf beginning around the age of 10 to 15 years.
or AAV1, together with a promoter--a genetic sequence that turns the gene on only in certain sensory cells of the inner ear known as hair cells.
In the recessive deafness model, gene therapy with TMC1 restored the ability of sensory hair cells to respond to sound--producing a measurable electrical current--and also restored activity in the auditory portion of the brainstem.
"Mice with TMC1 mutations will just sit there, but with gene therapy, they jump as high as a normal mouse,
"says Holt. The force of their jump was measured by a plate on the floor underneath them;
In the dominant deafness model, gene therapy with a related gene, TMC2, was successful at the cellular and brain level,
and is already in use in human gene therapy trials for blindness, heart disease, muscular dystrophy and other conditions.
Holt hopes to partner with clinicians at Boston Children's Department of Otolaryngology and elsewhere to start clinical trials of TMC1 gene therapy within 5 to 10 years."
"Holt believes that other forms of genetic deafness may also be amenable to the same gene therapy strategy.
"I can envision patients with deafness having their genome sequenced and a tailored, precision medicine treatment injected into their ears to restore hearing,
a mutation in the TMC1 gene is sufficient to cause deafness. However, Holt's study also showed that gene therapy with TMC2 could compensate for loss of a functional TMC1 gene,
restoring hearing in the recessive deafness model and partial hearing in the dominant deafness model."
"The implications of successful gene therapy are profound, and we are delighted to be associated with this study program,
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