Biotechnology

ScienceDaily (Sep. 28, 2012) — Scientists at EMBL and Oxford University discovered that, by forming or undoing gene loops, cells manipulate the path of the transcription machinery -- which reads out instructions from DNA -- controlling whether it moves along the genetic material in one direction or two. In certain toy racecar tracks, sneaky players can flip a switch, trapping their opponents' vehicles in a loop of track. Cells employ a less subtle approach: they change the track's layout. In a study published online September 28 in Science , scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and Oxford University discovered that, by forming or undoing gene loops, cells manipulate the path of the transcription machinery -- which reads out instructions from DNA -- controlling whether it moves along the genetic material in one direction or two. "We found that gene loops can turn bi-directional promoters into one-way systems," ...

ScienceDaily (Sep. 26, 2012) — The parasitic mite Varroa destructor is a major contributor to the recent mysterious death of honey bee ( Apis mellifera ) colonies. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Genome Biology finds that specific proteins, released by damaged larvae and in the antennae of adult honey bees, can drive hygienic behavior of the adults and promote the removal of infected larvae from the hive. V. destructor sucks the blood (hemolymph) of larval and adult bees leaving them weakened and reducing the ability of their immune systems to fight off infections. Not that honey bees have strong immune systems in the first place since they have fewer immunity genes than solitary insects such as flies and moths. These tiny mites can also spread viral disease between hosts. This double onslaught is thought to be a significant contributor to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). But all is not lost -- honey bees have evolve...

ScienceDaily (Sep. 28, 2012) — Royal Society University Research Fellow Dr Edward Taylor, from the University of Lincoln's School of Life Sciences, is carrying out research on bacteriophage that play a role in flesh-eating disease. Dr Taylor spent the last ten years at the University of York where he was awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship in 2006. He has chosen to continue his research at the University of Lincoln, with funding continuing for a further two years. Bacteriophage (often called phage) are viruses that infect bacteria. These are extremely common and mostly harmless; however some play a role in diseases such as diphtheria, cholera, dysentery, botulism, necrotizing (flesh-eating) pneumonia, toxic shock and scarlet fever. Phages are nature's "genetic engineers," frequently swapping genes between bacterial strains. This happens by the phage attaching itself to the surface of the cell, making a hole and the...

ScienceDaily (Sep. 26, 2012) — DNA extracted from the skins of koalas displayed in European and North American museums shows that a retrovirus has been a problem for the animals for much longer than was thought, according to Alfred Roca, an assistant professor of animal sciences at the University of Illinois, and Alex Greenwood of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (LZW) in Berlin. "The process by which a retrovirus invades the host germ line appears to be quite drawn out in this case, so that the koala population has suffered the strongly pathological effects of the virus for many generations," Roca said. Retroviruses, of which human immunodeficiency (HIV) viruses are examples, are RNA viruses that form DNA that they then incorporate into the host's genome. When retroviruses invade the host's germ line (inherited material from the eggs or sperm), the disease is transmitted to the host's offspring. The koala retr...

ScienceDaily (Sep. 27, 2012) — The same "green revolution" concepts that have revolutionized crop agriculture and helped to feed billions of people around the world may now offer similar potential in forestry, scientists say, with benefits for wood, biomass production, drought stress and even greenhouse gas mitigation. Researchers at Oregon State University recently outlined the latest findings on reduced height growth in trees through genetic modification, and concluded that several advantageous growth traits could be achieved for short-rotation forestry, bioenergy, or more efficient water use in a drier, future climate. This approach runs contrary to conventional wisdom and centuries of tree breeding, which tried to produce forest trees that grow larger and taller, the researchers note. But just as the green revolution in agriculture helped crops such as wheat and rice produce more food on smaller, sturdier plants, the opportunities in fores...

ScienceDaily (Sep. 26, 2012) — An international team of scientists have identified for the first time a key factor responsible for declining muscle repair during aging, and discovered how to halt the process in mice with a common drug. Although an early study, the findings provide clues as to how muscles lose mass with age, which can result in weakness that affects mobility and may cause falls. The study, to be published in the journal Nature , involved researchers from King's College London, Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital. The study looked at stem cells found inside muscle -- which are responsible for repairing injury -- to find out why the ability of muscles to regenerate declines with age. A dormant reservoir of stem cells is present inside every muscle, ready to be activated by exercise and injury to repair any damage. When needed, these cells divide into hundreds of new muscle fibres that repair the muscle. At the end of ...

ScienceDaily (Sep. 26, 2012) — Is aging inevitable? What factors make older tissues in the human body less able to maintain and repair themselves, as in the weakening and shrinkage of aging muscles in humans? A new study from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators and collaborators at King's College London describes the mechanism behind impaired muscle repair during aging and a strategy that may help rejuvenate aging tissue by manipulating the environment in which muscle stem cells reside. The report will appear in the journal Nature and has received advance online release. Rare muscle stem cells are located inside each skeletal muscle of the body. Also called satellite cells, due to their position on the surface of the muscle fibers they serve and protect, these cells are essential to maintaining the capacity of muscles to regenerate. Satellite cells are able to generate new, differentiated muscle cells while keeping their identity as ...

ScienceDaily (Sep. 27, 2012) — If you were a bacterium, the virus M13 might seem innocuous enough. It insinuates more than it invades, setting up shop like a freeloading houseguest, not a killer. Once inside it makes itself at home, eating your food, texting indiscriminately. Recently, however, bioengineers at Stanford University have given M13 a bit of a makeover. The researchers, Monica Ortiz, a doctoral candidate in bioengineering, and Drew Endy, PhD, an assistant professor of bioengineering, have parasitized the parasite and harnessed M13's key attributes -- its non-lethality and its ability to package and broadcast arbitrary DNA strands -- to create what might be termed the biological Internet, or "Bi-Fi." Their findings were published online Sept. 7 in the Journal of Biological Engineering . Using the virus, Ortiz and Endy have created a biological mechanism to send genetic messages from cell to cell. The system greatly increases the...

ScienceDaily (Sep. 27, 2012) — Researchers have discovered in fruit flies a key metabolic hormone thought to be the exclusive property of vertebrates. The hormone, leptin, is a nutrient sensor, regulating energy intake and output and ultimately controlling appetite. As such, it is of keen interest to researchers investigating obesity and diabetes on the molecular level. But until now, complex mammals such as mice have been the only models for investigating the mechanisms of this critical hormone. These new findings suggest that fruit flies can provide significant insights into the molecular underpinnings of fat sensing. "Leptin is very complex," said Akhila Rajan, first author on the paper and a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Norbert Perrimon, James Stillman Professor of Developmental Biology at Harvard Medical School. "These types of hormones acquire more and more complex function as they evolve. Here in the fly we're seeing lep...

ScienceDaily (Sep. 27, 2012) — Studying leukemia in mice, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have reduced a life-threatening complication of stem cell transplants, the only curative treatment when leukemia returns. About 50 percent of leukemia patients who receive stem cells from another person develop graft-versus-host disease, a condition where donor immune cells attack the patient's own body. The main organs affected are the skin, liver and gut. Now, the scientists have shown they can redirect donor immune cells away from these vital organs. Steering immune cells away from healthy tissue also leaves more of them available for their intended purpose -- killing cancer cells. "This is the first example of reducing graft-versus-host disease not by killing the T- cells, but simply by altering how they circulate and traffic," says John F. DiPersio, MD, PhD, the Virginia E. and Sam J. Golman Professor of Medic...

ScienceDaily (Sep. 25, 2012) — Cardiac stress -- for example, a heart attack or high blood pressure -- frequently leads to pathological heart growth and subsequently to heart failure. Two tiny RNA molecules play a key role in this detrimental development in mice, as researchers at the Hannover Medical School and the Göttingen Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry have now discovered. When they inhibited one of those two specific molecules, they were able to protect the rodent against pathological heart growth and failure. With these findings, the scientists hope to be able to develop therapeutic approaches that can protect humans against heart failure. Respiratory distress, fatigue, and attenuated performance are symptoms that can accompany heart failure. A reason for this can be an enlarged heart, a so-called cardiac hypertrophy. It may develop when the heart is subjected to permanent stress, for example, due to persistent high blood pressure o...

ScienceDaily (Sep. 26, 2012) — As part of their ongoing research investigating the biology of aging, the greatest risk factor for type 2 diabetes and other serious diseases, scientists at Joslin Diabetes Center have identified a new factor -- microRNA processing in fat tissue -- which plays a major role in aging and stress resistance. This finding may lead to the development of treatments that increase stress resistance and longevity and improve metabolism. The findings appear in the Sept. 5 online edition of Cell Metabolism . Over the past several years, it has become clear that fat cells (adipocytes) are more than just repositories to store fat. Indeed, fat cells secrete a number of substances that actively influence metabolism and systemic inflammation. Previous studies have found that reducing fat mass by caloric restriction (CR) or surgical or genetic means can promote longevity and stress resistance in species from yeast to primates. However, litt...

ScienceDaily (Sep. 26, 2012) — BGI announces the online publication in the journal Nature of a novel metagenomic study on human gut microbiota and their potential impact on type 2 diabetes (T2D), the most common form of diabetes. This work lays an important foundation for comprehensively understanding the genetic characteristics of gut microbiota and their relationship to T2D risk, as well as providing a new way of classifying microbes detected by DNA sequence. The work here also opens the way for transferring the potential value of a gut-microbiota-based approach into a means for clinical assessment and diagnosis of patients at risk of this disease. T2D is a major chronic disease of modern societies and threatens the health of populations throughout the world. The continual and rapid increase in the prevalence of T2D has created a race against time for researchers worldwide to find new approaches to diagnose and treat the disease. T2D is a heterogeneous...

ScienceDaily (Sep. 25, 2012) — Based on two new studies by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, regeneration of a new limb or organ in a human will be much more difficult than the mad scientist and supervillain, Dr. Curt Connors, made it seem in the Amazing Spider-man comics and films. As those who saw the recent "The Amazing Spiderman" movie will know, Dr. Connors injected himself with a serum made from lizard DNA to successfully regrow his missing lower right arm -- that is, before the formula transformed him into a reptilian humanoid. But by studying a real lizard-like amphibian, which can regenerate missing limbs, the Salk researchers discovered that it isn't enough to activate genes that kick start the regenerative process. In fact, one of the first steps is to halt the activity of so-called jumping genes. In research published August 23 in Development, Growth & Differentiation , and July 27 in Developmental...

ScienceDaily (Sep. 24, 2012) — Scientists at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and the University of Geneva have developed a microfluidic device smaller than a domino that can simultaneously measure up to 768 biomolecular interactions. Inside our cells, molecules are constantly binding and separating from one another. It's this game of constant flux that drives gene expression asides essentially every other biological process. Understanding the specific details of how these interactions take place is thus crucial to our overall understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of living organisms. There are millions of possible combinations of molecules, however; determining all of them would be a Herculean task. Various tools have been developed to measure the degree of affinity between a strand of DNA and its transcription factor. They provide an indication of the strength of the affinity between them. "Commercial" devices, however,...

ScienceDaily (Sep. 25, 2012) — Based on two new studies by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, regeneration of a new limb or organ in a human will be much more difficult than the mad scientist and supervillain, Dr. Curt Connors, made it seem in the Amazing Spider-man comics and films. As those who saw the recent "The Amazing Spiderman" movie will know, Dr. Connors injected himself with a serum made from lizard DNA to successfully regrow his missing lower right arm -- that is, before the formula transformed him into a reptilian humanoid. But by studying a real lizard-like amphibian, which can regenerate missing limbs, the Salk researchers discovered that it isn't enough to activate genes that kick start the regenerative process. In fact, one of the first steps is to halt the activity of so-called jumping genes. In research published August 23 in Development, Growth & Differentiation , and July 27 in Developmental...

ScienceDaily (Sep. 25, 2012) — The human body is proficient at making collagen. And human laboratories are getting better at it all the time. In a development that could lead to better drug design and new treatments for disease, Rice University researchers have made a major step toward synthesizing custom collagen. Rice scientists who have learned how to make collagen -- the fibrous protein that binds cells together into organs and tissues -- are now digging into its molecular structure to see how it forms and interacts with biological systems. Jeffrey Hartgerink, an associate professor of chemistry and of bioengineering, and his former graduate student Jorge Fallas, now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington, wrote a new computer program that predicts the most stable structures of nanometer-sized collagen. In nature, these small structures link into chains that serve as connective tissue in the body. Hartgerink and Fallas followed up...

ScienceDaily (Sep. 24, 2012) — It is much harder to keep up with a conversation in a crowded bar than in a quiet little café, but scientists wishing to eavesdrop on cells can now do so over the laboratory equivalent of a noisy room. A new method devised by scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in collaboration with the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ), both in Heidelberg, Germany, provides a new approach for studying the proteins cells release to communicate with each other, react to changes, or even to help them move. Published online in Nature Biotechnology , the work also opens new avenues for drug and biomarker screening. Cells in the lab have to be fed, and the 'serum' used to feed them contains proteins -- many more proteins than the cells themselves secrete, or release into their environment. So for scientists attempting to eavesdrop on cells' conversations, it's like the cells are sitting in a room b...