Cats Make Logical Inferences

Bioradiations Staff — Fri, 12 Aug 2016 04:12:27 +0000

People who live with cats attribute a lot of calculating behaviors to them. If this includes thinking your cat has a fundamental grasp of cause and effect, then you’re backed up by recent research by Saho Takagi and colleagues at Kyoto University.

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Teach Your Hatchlings Well

Bioradiations Staff — Fri, 15 Jul 2016 21:05:41 +0000

Baby songbirds learn their songs more quickly if their adult-bird teachers use baby talk, says research from Jon Sakata and colleagues at McGill University. Baby zebra finches learned songs significantly faster when taught by adult birds, as opposed to recordings of birds, and the team found that the reason was that real birds altered their songs in ways similar to human adults talking to small children, slowing and repeating phrases.

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Birds of a Feather Flock According to Weather?

Bioradiations Staff — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 21:53:25 +0000

Polymorphic animals are those that have distinctly different outward traits, such as a color, within a species. Black sparrowhawks (Accipiter melanoleucus)), despite their common name, exist in a version with a white front as well as an all-dark version. But why would evolution simultaneously favor such contrasting color variations within the species?

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Are You Vegetarian? Could Be Something in Your Genes

Bioradiations Staff — Wed, 11 May 2016 20:25:57 +0000

A recent study published in Molecular Biology and Evolution describes a phenomenon where populations that have typically consumed vegetarian diets over hundreds of generations have evolved a “vegetarian gene”.

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Do Lizards Dream of Scaly Sheep?

Bioradiations Staff — Wed, 11 May 2016 20:20:04 +0000

If you rouse a sleeping dragon, you might be interrupting its dreams. Or at least that’s the suggestion from recent studies at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research. A team led by Gilles Laurent set out to learn how the Australian dragon (Pogona vitticeps) responds to visual information, but continuous monitoring of brain activity with electrodes revealed other intriguing data. When sleeping, the reptiles’ brains emitted alternating patterns that resembled the switching between slow-wave deep sleep and rapid eye movement (REM) observed in birds and mammals, including humans. The alternation in reptile brains was quicker and more regular than in birds and mammals, but otherwise comparable. The team made additional observations that bolstered their suspicion that the lizards were experiencing REM, and they discovered additional similarities to mammal and bird sleep, such as coordination between regions of the brain.

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Ravens Get Inside Each Other’s Heads

Bioradiations Staff — Wed, 13 Apr 2016 00:57:12 +0000

New research suggests that ravens understand that others have minds. Theory of mind, the ability to attribute perceptions and mental states to others, either like or different from one’s own, has previously been assumed to be the domain of humans only.

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A New Source for Mutations Found in Tumors

Bioradiations Staff — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 19:43:36 +0000

A study recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences furthers our understanding of tumors and the source of the mutations that are found within their DNA. This study, carried out by researchers at Wayne State University and Indiana University, highlights a new mutation signature found in cancer cells that is caused by members of the APOBEC3 family of proteins.

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Using Sound Waves as Tweezers to Move Single Cells

Bioradiations Staff — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 19:39:59 +0000

A single enzyme, ribonucleotide reductase (RNR), is responsible for making all four deoxyribonucleotides (dNTPs) and ensuring that they are present at the ratios required to synthesize new DNA. This is possible because RNRs change their substrate specificity in response to dNTP abundance. For example, when dGTP is abundant it binds RNR, increase its affinity for ADP, and thus shifts synthesis to dATP. Scientists in the Drennan lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have long been fascinated by this unusual enzyme and now describe the allosteric changes that underlie RNR’s ability to shift specificity and maintain the proper dNTP pool in our cells.

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Bat Signal Precision

Bioradiations Staff — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 19:37:58 +0000

Imagine you’re singing the Batman theme song in a large chorus and you need to identify your own voice in the playback. Sounds difficult, but it is similar to what individual bats in colonies must do to navigate and find tiny morsels of food such as insects via echolocation. New research from a team at Tel Aviv University led by Yossi Yovel indicates they do this by modifying the volume and duration of the calls and then following the echo that exactly matches. If you did this in your chorus, you’d pick out your own voice by knowing whether you were singing “batman,” “batmaan,” or “batmaaan.” The finding dispels the previous assumption that the bats were modifying the pitch of their voices.

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Study Explains How One Enzyme Can Synthesize All Four DNA Bases

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 19:41:15 +0000

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The Beginning of the End for Ebola?

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 19:22:48 +0000

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases have discovered a potential immunotherapeutic treatment for two of the deadliest Ebola virus strains.

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A Pain-Free Life: How Some People Are Unable to Feel Pain

Bioradiations Staff — Wed, 13 Jan 2016 01:50:06 +0000

Individuals born with a rare gene mutation that leads to a nonfunctional sodium channel Nav1.7 are unable to feel pain. Although previous attempts to develop an analgesic drug by blocking Nav1.7 have been largely unsuccessful, researchers at University College London discovered recently that Nav1.7-deficient humans and transgenic mice had elevated levels of opioid peptides. These opioids likely contribute to the painlessness and elucidate a potential analgesic approach that combines specific sodium channel blockade with a low dose of opioids.

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CRISPR-Cas9 Makes Studying Exotic Organisms Much Easier

Bioradiations Staff — Wed, 13 Jan 2016 01:49:28 +0000

The CRISPR-Cas9 system has been making major waves in the field of gene editing for some time now. Now, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley have shown that not only is this gene-editing tool transforming the field of basic science research, but it can have a great impact on genetic studies in more exotic organisms like slime mold and octopi.

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Making CRISPR-Targeted Genome Editing Safer

Bioradiations Staff — Wed, 13 Jan 2016 01:48:21 +0000

The CRISPR-Cas9 technology is a powerful system for genome editing. It works by making targeted modifications to DNA. Guided by short RNAs known as CRISPR RNA or crRNA, the Cas9 protein is targeted to a specific sequence that is complementary to the crRNA sequence. Cas9 is highly efficient at cleaving at its target site. However, off-target cleavage, that is, binding to and cutting sites that are not fully complementary to the guide RNA, is a major drawback of the system.

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Making CRISPR-Targeted Genome Editing Safer

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 08 Dec 2015 18:57:18 +0000

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A Sticky Plant with a Clever Trick

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 08 Dec 2015 18:54:54 +0000

A garden book might note a columbine’s delicate leaves and gracefully nodding flowers, but at least one species, Aquilegia eximia, has been shown to have a trick or two up its sepal.

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What Day to Schedule Esophageal Cancer Surgery?

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 08 Dec 2015 18:53:42 +0000

If you’re undergoing surgery for esophageal cancer, you may want to schedule it for a Monday or Tuesday. Researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden found that patients who undergo esophageal cancer surgery early in the week have a greater chance of long-term survival than those who have surgery at the end of the week. These findings were recently published in the journal Annals of Surgery.

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Trained Pigeons Read Mammograms As Well As Humans

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 08 Dec 2015 18:52:38 +0000

Contrary to conventional belief, having a “bird brain” may not be a bad thing — at least for identifying cancer on radiology images. A recent study from the University of Iowa and the University of California (UC) Davis, showed that trained pigeons performed as well as humans in identifying benign and malignant breast tissue on digitized slides and mammograms. The results help elucidate how physicians process visual cues on diagnostic images and highlight pigeons’ ability to interpret complex visual images.

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Why Elephants Rarely Get Cancer: It’s in Their Genes

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 22:10:32 +0000

Why is cancer so rare in elephants? Scientists have observed this for decades, yet the explanation has eluded them until recently. Researchers at the University of Utah’s Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) and Arizona State University discovered elephants have extra copies of genes encoding p53, a tumor suppressor, and more robust apoptosis (programmed cell death) of damaged cells that may lead to cancer. According to the authors, these findings may aid future development of anti-cancer therapies in humans.

The post Why Elephants Rarely Get Cancer: It’s in Their Genes first appeared on Bio-Radiations.

The Cure for Cancer Could Come from…Malaria?

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 22:10:30 +0000

Scientists have discovered that a protein commonly associated with malaria could one day lead to the cure for cancer. Found quite by accident, by researchers at the University of British Columbia and the University of Copenhagen studying why pregnant women are more susceptible to malaria, this protein binds to a particular type of sugar molecule that is found in the placenta and is prevalent in a high proportion of cancers. The researchers were not surprised by this finding, since cancers and the placenta both grow rapidly, often at the expense of other tissues.

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Crows Do Fear the Reaper

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 22:09:27 +0000

Crows have been shown to associate dead bodies of their own kind with danger, and are also known to remember the faces of individual humans who have threatened them.

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Radiation Therapy for Skin Cancer: All Wrapped Up in a Bandage

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 21:51:04 +0000

Most of us think of bandages as a way to protect cuts and abrasions against infection. However, recent research shows that a novel radiotherapeutic bandage may help treat squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). A group of scientists from the University of North Texas System College of Pharmacy presented their findings at the American Association of Pharmaceutical Sciences Annual Meeting and Exposition.

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Scientists Image Metabolites Secreted by Single Cells

Bioradiations Staff — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 00:31:05 +0000

Bacteria secrete small molecules for purposes that range from communication to self-defense. These processes are extremely challenging to study in situ because it is nearly impossible to link secreted molecules to specific populations of bacteria let alone individual cells in their natural environment. By combining mass spectrometry-based imaging with fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology are able to image secretion patterns of antibiotics and map them onto the FISH profile of the bacterial population that underlies it.

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Need an Implant? Just Print It Out

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 13 Oct 2015 18:15:11 +0000

Patients who need a life-saving implant may soon be able to get a customized one from a 3D printer. In the first procedure of its kind, surgeons replaced the sternum and a portion of the rib cage with a 3D-printed titanium sternum and rib implant. The procedure, performed in a 54-year-old Spanish man with a chest wall sarcoma, was reported in a recent issue of the European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery.

The post Need an Implant? Just Print It Out first appeared on Bio-Radiations.

Single Mutations Can Alter Ecosystems to Same Extent as Species Loss

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 13 Oct 2015 18:13:17 +0000

To date most research into what drives the composition of ecosystems has focused on macroevolution, factors such as extinction events, invasion of new species, or large shifts in population abundances. A study in Nature Communications now shows that microevolution — small changes within a single population — is an equally important yet hitherto overlooked shaper of multi-species communities.

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Viruses Re-engineered to Do Good

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 13 Oct 2015 18:09:22 +0000

Scientists at Stanford University recently repurposed viruses by removing their infectious machinery and turning them into vehicles for delivering therapies directly to cells. In their study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists found a way to add molecular tags to the viral structure, which would enable them to target the viruses, and hence anything they are carrying, to a specific cell type.

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A Non-Invasive Laser Doppler System Detects Malignant Melanoma

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 13 Oct 2015 18:05:28 +0000

A recent study showed that a novel laser Doppler system effectively distinguished skin malignant melanoma from noncancerous moles by detecting subtle differences in blood flow beneath the skin, which may aid in rapid and non-invasive screening of patients.

The post A Non-Invasive Laser Doppler System Detects Malignant Melanoma first appeared on Bio-Radiations.

A New Phage-engineering Platform Allows High-throughput Assembly of Hybrid Viral Genomes in Yeast

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 13 Oct 2015 18:02:39 +0000

Bacteriophages target bacteria with high specificity, a feature that has been exploited for biotechnology and therapeutics. That same exquisite specificity has, however, also been limiting — identifying or engineering phages with new specificities is often a prohibitively time consuming and laborious process. Scientists at MIT have now developed a yeast-based phage-engineering platform that overcomes these hurdles.

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Want to Lose Weight? Check with Your Gut Microbiome

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 13 Oct 2015 17:54:28 +0000

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology recently identified how intestinal bacteria interact during metabolism, paving the way to, among other things, possibly personalizing weight-loss diets. The systems biologists developed a computational algorithm that is able to predict how modifying a person’s diet will affect them based on the bacterial and microorganismal composition of their gut microbiome.

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Melting Body Fat: Is it In Your Head?

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 13 Oct 2015 17:52:10 +0000

Muscles may not be the only organ that burns body fat. A recent study published in Cell showed that directly stimulating neurons in adipose (fat) tissue may induce breakdown, providing insight on novel therapies to combat obesity.

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Can Cancer Cells be Programmed Back to Normal?

Bioradiations Staff — Mon, 14 Sep 2015 00:30:01 +0000

In a recent study published in Nature Cell Biology, researchers at the Mayo Clinic described a way in which cancer cells could potentially be programmed back into normal cells. Their findings were stimulated by the fact that proteins that hold cells together, or adhesion proteins, interact with the Microprocessor complex, which mediates the production of microRNAs (miRNAs).

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A Pungent Play in the Game of Cat and Mouse

Bioradiations Staff — Fri, 04 Sep 2015 00:48:07 +0000

It was discovered a few years ago that the parasite Toxoplasma gondii has the diabolical effect of short circuiting the fear of cats in the brains of mice, making them easy picking. Researchers at the A.N. Severtov Institute of Ecology and Evolution in Moscow now show that a more readily abundant substance has a similar effect: the cats’ own urine.

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Breastmilk and Human Microbiome Development

Bioradiations Staff — Fri, 04 Sep 2015 00:47:45 +0000

The importance of gut microbes to well-being is one of the hottest topics in health. Another is the benefits of breastfeeding. It’s popularly assumed that breastmilk supports a healthy microbiome in infants, but what does the research show? A new review article in Science outlines what we know and don’t know about how this support may work.

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Revealing the Secrets of How Cancers Could Occur

Bioradiations Staff — Fri, 04 Sep 2015 00:45:03 +0000

In an article recently published in Nature Communications, researchers at the University of Toronto, along with scientists at Mount Sinai Hospital, demonstrated how what they call DNA ambulances work. These DNA ambulances transport severely injured DNA to specialized locations, or hospitals, within the cell to be repaired. In addition to the mode of transport, the researchers also found the road traveled by these healing transporters.

The post Revealing the Secrets of How Cancers Could Occur first appeared on Bio-Radiations.

From Child to Mother: Fetal Cells in Maternal Tissue May Impact Maternal Health After Childbirth

Bioradiations Staff — Fri, 04 Sep 2015 00:38:55 +0000

Most of us probably know that the mother’s health is important for the well-being of their developing fetus. However, a recent study published in BioEssays suggests that the fetus may also affect the health of its mother — even after the pregnancy is over. The study showed that fetal cells migrate from the placenta and reside in several parts of the mother’s body, where they may exert benefits (such as improved milk production and thermoregulation), harms (such as autoimmune diseases and cancer), or have no effect (such as their presence in the lung).

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A New Way to PCR Could Get You Results in Minutes Instead of Hours

Bioradiations Staff — Fri, 04 Sep 2015 00:36:59 +0000

Whether you are using PCR to clone, assess gene expression, or diagnose disease, modern science is difficult to imagine without PCR. Scientists at UC Berkeley have rethought how we heat and cool samples during PCR, shortening a process that once took hours to minutes.

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TOR Pathway Allows Yeast to Optimize Their Genome in Response to Environmental cChanges

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 11 Aug 2015 22:10:49 +0000

It is generally accepted that changes to a cell’s genome are driven by random mutation. Changes that confer a growth advantage become established in a population through the process of natural selection. A study published in PNAS suggests that cells can play a more active role in the evolution of their genomes — in response to caloric excess the TOR pathway in budding yeast initiates an expansion of the number of ribosomal genes.

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Cannabis-Based Therapies Without the Side Effects: A New Treatment Paradigm for Cancer?

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 11 Aug 2015 22:10:06 +0000

Recently, scientists at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the University Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain identified that inhibition of a signaling pathway in the brain, involving both a cannabinoid receptor and a serotonin receptor, prevented the undesirable side effects of THC while maintaining its therapeutic potential.

The post Cannabis-Based Therapies Without the Side Effects: A New Treatment Paradigm for Cancer? first appeared on Bio-Radiations.

Aliens in Our Midst

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 11 Aug 2015 22:08:42 +0000

As we seek out organic compounds and water on the surface of Mars, ponder the potential for hidden oceans on Europa, and discover new Earth-like exoplanets, the promise of astrobiology — namely, alien life in some form — seems closer than ever to reality. Yet what if aliens are already here on Earth, not as otherworldly visitors but alternative organisms, separately evolved and existing in a shadow biosphere?

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Our Cells Unwittingly Support Viral Entry and Infection

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 11 Aug 2015 22:07:01 +0000

Human adenoviruses comprise 25% of all gene therapy clinical trials due, in part, to their ability to infect both dividing and nondividing cells with persistent expression. Recently, researchers at the University of Zurich demonstrated how these viruses gain entry into our cells — and it’s quite sneaky!

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How the Microbiome of Soil Affects Global Warming

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 11 Aug 2015 22:06:26 +0000

The ground beneath our feet is teeming with microbial life—approximately 10 billion organisms in an average handful of soil. Now, thanks to modern genetic sequencing methods, researchers are getting surprising insights into the vibrant world of dirt.

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Gut Microbiome May Predict Progression of Colon Cancer

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 11 Aug 2015 22:05:00 +0000

The gut microbiome has been linked to a wide range of health indicators over recent years and, according to a recent study published in Genome Medicine, may help predict prognosis of patients with colon cancer. In this study, the microenvironment of colon cancer tumors had an abundance of Fusobacterium and Providencia species, perhaps identifying a microbiome signature that predicts patient prognosis.

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Mitochondria and Plastids Evolved in Miniscule Plankton to Form Eye-like Structure

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 14 Jul 2015 20:53:11 +0000

An eye-like structure called the ocelloid, found in warnowiid dinoflagellates, has long puzzled biologists. This structure resembles the eye of higher organisms to such a degree, that is was first assumed to be part of an animal the warnowiid had eaten. Now this small eukaryotic plankton has surprised scientists again – the warnowiid eye’s building blocks are mitochondria and plastids.

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A Fifth DNA Base?

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 14 Jul 2015 20:51:55 +0000

A ubiquitous but rare DNA base, previously thought to be a transitional chemical modification of cytosine, has now been shown to be stably incorporated in mammalian DNA. 5-formylcytosine (5fC) is found in all tissues, with the highest levels being found in the brain. Its exact function is unknown, but its physical position in the genome suggests that it plays a key role in gene expression.

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Disrupting the Regeneration of Brain Tumors

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 14 Jul 2015 20:50:43 +0000

Brain tumors such as glioblastomas are exceptionally difficult to treat since, irrespective of how they were treated, they find a way to regenerate. This ability can be attributed to cancer stem cells that circumvent treatment and trigger the expansion of new tumor cells. Recently, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis discovered a way to disrupt the regeneration of brain tumors by disrupting a key player in the brain tumor stem cell maintenance process.

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Growing Mini-Breasts for Cancer Research

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 14 Jul 2015 20:49:41 +0000

Researchers often use two-dimensional cell culture studies to study cancer biology. However, a recent group of researchers, led by Dr. Christina Scheel at the German Research Center for Environmental Health, has advanced this experimental model by creating three-dimensional “mini-breasts”— organoid structures derived from human breast epithelial cells.

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Paleontology Gets a Shot of Dinosaur Protein

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 14 Jul 2015 20:48:21 +0000

In all but the best-preserved fossils, researchers have assumed that intact soft tissues did not survive longer than about 4 million years. A few protein fragments might persist; however, full proteinaceous structures that could tell us about soft tissues and animal physiology would not.

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Social Amoeba Answer Age-Old Question: Do Cheaters Always Win?

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 14 Jul 2015 20:46:28 +0000

The social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum has two life stages. When nutrients are plentiful, Dicty live as individuals but when starvation sets in, thousands of Dicty come together to form a fruiting body. This fruiting body is made up of a stalk that holds up a ball of spores, and this is where the cheating comes in — only cells that make it to the top of the fruiting body and become a spore get to live and pass on their genetic information.

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A “Google Maps” Approach to Navigate the Cancer Genome

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 14 Jul 2015 20:44:28 +0000

Researchers have made significant progress recently in the development of personalized cancer genomics and therapies through analysis of characteristic variations of single base pairs and chromosomes. Recently, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison used an integrated system of DNA sequencing and optical mapping (a single-molecule, whole-genome analysis system) to identify both small- and large-scale genetic variations over time in a patient with multiple myeloma. Their findings were published on June 8, 2015 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Adding Another Dimension to Cancer Research: Three-dimensional Printing of Cancer Cells

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 09 Jun 2015 20:38:50 +0000

Traditionally, researchers have relied on two-dimensional single-layer cell culture to analyze the physiological characteristics of tumor cells and their response to anti-cancer therapies. However, an international team of scientists recently used a three-dimensional (3D) printer to construct a three-dimensional (3D) model of a cancerous tumor, which may provide a more realistic representation of the tumor’s microenvironment and thus improve knowledge on how tumors develop, grow, and spread.

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A New Player in the Fight against Ebola

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 09 Jun 2015 18:34:01 +0000

An international team of scientists recently identified the molecular factor that the Ebola virus attaches to in order to gain entry into host cells. The host protein, Neimann-Pick C1 (NPC1), is embedded in the membrane of lysosomes and allows the virus to gain entry to the cytoplasm, where the productive infection occurs. The study, which expanded upon findings from an earlier in vitro study, was carried out in NPC1 wild type, carrier, and knockout mice.

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With Potential Illicit Yeast Strains, Biology’s Breaking Bad Has Arrived

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 09 Jun 2015 18:28:28 +0000

Another week, another warning about the growing power and peril of genomic modification. Last time, the topic was using the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing method to alter the human germ line (a group of researchers promptly published on how they did just this). Now, a new commentary in Nature takes up the implications of using modified yeast to produce controlled substances such as opiates.

The post With Potential Illicit Yeast Strains, Biology’s Breaking Bad Has Arrived first appeared on Bio-Radiations.

Cyclic di-GMP Acts as a Cyclin-like Molecule to Control Cell Cycle Progression in Bacteria

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 09 Jun 2015 18:21:54 +0000

Cell division is a complicated process that requires not only cell growth and division but also faithful replication of the mother cell genome. These processes need to be timed appropriately to end up with two viable daughter cells. In eukaryotic cells cell cycle progression is controlled by oscillating proteins called cyclins that bind and activate cyclin-dependent kinases (Cdks).

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Putting Cells “to Sleep”: a Novel, Gentler Way to Treat Cancer

Bioradiations Staff — Tue, 09 Jun 2015 18:20:29 +0000

Traditional treatment for cancer often focuses on killing the malignant cells through radiotherapy or chemotherapy. However, researchers at Oregon State University are investigating the use of pactamycin analogs to inhibit proliferation and induce senescence of head and neck cancer cells — essentially putting them “to sleep” rather than killing them directly.

The post Putting Cells “to Sleep”: a Novel, Gentler Way to Treat Cancer first appeared on Bio-Radiations.

What effects are microplastics having on ocean life?

Bioradiations Staff — Fri, 08 May 2015 22:28:20 +0000

Large amounts of plastics are entering our oceans, with especially high levels found near coastal cities and, most famously, in the Great Pacific garbage patch. But what are the effects of all this plastic on the life that makes up ocean ecosystems? A new review looks at just how scientists are answering this question, from measuring these pollutants to understanding their interactions with biological systems.

The post What effects are microplastics having on ocean life? first appeared on Bio-Radiations.

Human Gene Knockouts Predict Disease Risk

Bioradiations Staff — Fri, 08 May 2015 22:25:29 +0000

Researchers have used “knockout” mice for decades to study how loss of gene function contributes to diseases. Recently, researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center (UT Health) at Houston have investigated this gene-disease relationship using naturally occurring “knockout humans.”

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Find the Latest Research and Information on Parkinson’s Disease In a New Open Access Journal

Bioradiations Staff — Fri, 08 May 2015 22:07:06 +0000

Nature Publishing Group has recently introduced a new, free journal dedicated to Parkinson’s disease (PD). This new open-access journal aims to present both the latest research findings and advances on PD, as well as ideas and options for care and treatment, and information on drugs and clinical trials. The journal will also have brief summaries of research work presented in a manner that is easily understood by anybody seeking information on this disease.

The post Find the Latest Research and Information on Parkinson’s Disease In a New Open Access Journal first appeared on Bio-Radiations.

Simple Measurement Could Bring Abandoned Antibiotics Back to the Clinic

Bioradiations Staff — Fri, 08 May 2015 21:55:29 +0000

Scientists at Duke University have developed a simple method for fine-tuning antibiotic dosing protocols that could allow use of antibiotics that have been all but abandoned. Computer models and preliminary laboratory work suggest that by determining a pathogen’s recovery time after exposure to an antibiotic, a dosing regimen can be established that allows clearing of what at present are considered resistant strains.

The post Simple Measurement Could Bring Abandoned Antibiotics Back to the Clinic first appeared on Bio-Radiations.

Novel Blood Test Predicts Breast Cancer Up to 7 Years Before it Occurs

Bioradiations Staff — Fri, 08 May 2015 21:44:29 +0000

Mammograms have been used for nearly six decades to screen for breast cancer. However, a new blood test may accurately detect breast cancer years before it develops, according to a recently published article in Metabolomics.

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Heterochromatin — Key Player in the Aging Process?

Bioradiations Staff — Fri, 08 May 2015 21:37:58 +0000

In a recently published paper in Science, scientists at the Salk Institute and Chinese Academy of Sciences showed that Werner syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that leads to premature aging, is caused by a deterioration of DNA bundles known as heterochromatin.

The post Heterochromatin — Key Player in the Aging Process? first appeared on Bio-Radiations.

Editor's Picks | Bio-Radiations

Cats Make Logical Inferences

Teach Your Hatchlings Well

Birds of a Feather Flock According to Weather?

Are You Vegetarian? Could Be Something in Your Genes

Do Lizards Dream of Scaly Sheep?

Ravens Get Inside Each Other’s Heads

A New Source for Mutations Found in Tumors

Using Sound Waves as Tweezers to Move Single Cells

Bat Signal Precision

Study Explains How One Enzyme Can Synthesize All Four DNA Bases

The Beginning of the End for Ebola?

A Pain-Free Life: How Some People Are Unable to Feel Pain

CRISPR-Cas9 Makes Studying Exotic Organisms Much Easier

Making CRISPR-Targeted Genome Editing Safer

Making CRISPR-Targeted Genome Editing Safer

A Sticky Plant with a Clever Trick

What Day to Schedule Esophageal Cancer Surgery?

Trained Pigeons Read Mammograms As Well As Humans

Why Elephants Rarely Get Cancer: It’s in Their Genes

The Cure for Cancer Could Come from…Malaria?

Crows Do Fear the Reaper

Radiation Therapy for Skin Cancer: All Wrapped Up in a Bandage

Scientists Image Metabolites Secreted by Single Cells

Need an Implant? Just Print It Out

Single Mutations Can Alter Ecosystems to Same Extent as Species Loss

Viruses Re-engineered to Do Good

A Non-Invasive Laser Doppler System Detects Malignant Melanoma

A New Phage-engineering Platform Allows High-throughput Assembly of Hybrid Viral Genomes in Yeast

Want to Lose Weight? Check with Your Gut Microbiome

Melting Body Fat: Is it In Your Head?

Can Cancer Cells be Programmed Back to Normal?

A Pungent Play in the Game of Cat and Mouse

Breastmilk and Human Microbiome Development

Revealing the Secrets of How Cancers Could Occur

From Child to Mother: Fetal Cells in Maternal Tissue May Impact Maternal Health After Childbirth

A New Way to PCR Could Get You Results in Minutes Instead of Hours

TOR Pathway Allows Yeast to Optimize Their Genome in Response to Environmental cChanges

Cannabis-Based Therapies Without the Side Effects: A New Treatment Paradigm for Cancer?

Aliens in Our Midst

Our Cells Unwittingly Support Viral Entry and Infection

How the Microbiome of Soil Affects Global Warming

Gut Microbiome May Predict Progression of Colon Cancer

Mitochondria and Plastids Evolved in Miniscule Plankton to Form Eye-like Structure

A Fifth DNA Base?

Disrupting the Regeneration of Brain Tumors

Growing Mini-Breasts for Cancer Research

Paleontology Gets a Shot of Dinosaur Protein

Social Amoeba Answer Age-Old Question: Do Cheaters Always Win?

A “Google Maps” Approach to Navigate the Cancer Genome

Adding Another Dimension to Cancer Research: Three-dimensional Printing of Cancer Cells

A New Player in the Fight against Ebola

With Potential Illicit Yeast Strains, Biology’s Breaking Bad Has Arrived

Cyclic di-GMP Acts as a Cyclin-like Molecule to Control Cell Cycle Progression in Bacteria

Putting Cells “to Sleep”: a Novel, Gentler Way to Treat Cancer

What effects are microplastics having on ocean life?

Human Gene Knockouts Predict Disease Risk

Find the Latest Research and Information on Parkinson’s Disease In a New Open Access Journal

Simple Measurement Could Bring Abandoned Antibiotics Back to the Clinic

Novel Blood Test Predicts Breast Cancer Up to 7 Years Before it Occurs

Heterochromatin — Key Player in the Aging Process?