Summaries | Headlines

Breast Cancer In A Test Tube Could Replace Animal Tests (May 13, 2007) -- Breast cancer is the most common cancer affecting women in the Western world, killing over 12,500 people in the UK alone every year. Despite many decades of research, there is still no cure and ... > full story

Entirely New Process In Cell RNA Discovered (May 13, 2007) -- Scientists have discovered an entirely new process in which short, tiny "antisense RNA" competes with the protein-producing ribosomes for starting sites for reading messenger RNA. These unexpected ... > full story

How An Antibiotic Inhibits Bacterial Growth (May 12, 2007) -- Researchers have discovered precisely how the antibiotic linezolid inhibits bacterial ... > full story

Nerves Controlling Muscles Are Best Repaired With Similar Nerves (May 12, 2007) -- When repairing severed or damaged motor nerves with a donor nerve graft, surgeons have traditionally used a sensory nerve from another area of the patient's body. However, these patients often do not ... > full story

Toxoplasmosis Infection Trick Revealed By Scientists (May 12, 2007) -- Scientists have provided new insight into how the parasite which causes toxoplasmosis invades human cells. Toxoplasmosis is a parasitic disease, primarily carried by cats. It is transmitted to humans ... > full story

Bat Flight Generates Complex Aerodynamic Tracks (May 11, 2007) -- Bats generate a measurably distinct aerodynamic footprint to achieve lift and maneuverability, quite unlike birds and contrary to many of the assumptions that aeroengineers have used to model animal ... > full story

Fluorescent Nanoparticles Serve As Flashlights In Living Cells (May 11, 2007) -- Scientists have successfully exploited the optical properties of fluorescent nanoparticles to broaden the scope of single-cell microscopy. By using nanoparticles, they succeeded in combining two ... > full story

Skin Biology And Pathology -- Without The Need To Use Live Animals (May 11, 2007) -- Researchers have developed an artificial cellular model which faithfully reproduces the characteristics of dog's skin and which will allow, therefore, the carrying out of various lines of research ... > full story

Magnetic Computer Sensors May Help Study Biomolecules (May 11, 2007) -- Magnetic switches like those in computers also might be used to manipulate individual strands of DNA for high-speed applications such as gene sequencing, experiments at the National Institute of ... > full story

Researchers Find A Peptide That Encourages HIV Infection (May 11, 2007) -- Researchers have discovered that when a crucial portion of a peptide structure in monkeys that defends against viruses, bacteria and other foreign invaders is reversed, the peptide actually ... > full story

Scientists Make Important Finding On Cytomegalovirus Transmission (May 11, 2007) -- Researchers have shown that cytomegalovirus in the salivary glands can be reduced -- and in some cases eliminated -- through the use of antibodies to enhance the disease-fighting power of the immune ... > full story

Lab Defines Proteins That Distinguish Chromosome Ends From DNA Double-strand Breaks (May 11, 2007) -- Scientists offer insight into the way cells protect chromosome ends from misguided ... > full story

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Organelle -- In cell biology, an organelle is one of several structures with specialized functions, suspended in the cytoplasm of a eukaryotic cell. Eukaryotes are the most structurally complex known cell type, ... > full article

Cell membrane -- A cell membrane, plasma membrane or plasmalemma is a selectively permeable lipid bilayer coated by proteins which comprises the outer layer of a cell. The plasma membrane works between the machinery ... > full article

Chloroplast -- Chloroplasts are organelles found in plant cells and eukaryotic algae that conduct photosynthesis. Chloroplasts absorb sunlight and use it in conjunction with water and carbon dioxide gas to produce ... > full article

Protein biosynthesis -- Protein biosynthesis (Synthesis) is the process in which cells build proteins. The term is sometimes used to refer only to protein translation but more often it refers to a multi-step process, ... > full article

Cell (biology) -- The cell is the structural and functional unit of all living organisms, and is sometimes called the "building block of life." Some organisms, such as bacteria, are unicellular, consisting of a single ... > full article

Plant cell -- There are three major classes of plant cells that can then differentiate to form the tissue structures of roots, stems, and leaves. (The three distinct types of plant cells are classified according ... > full article

Eukaryote -- A eukaryote is an organism with a complex cell or cells, in which the genetic material is organized into a membrane-bound nucleus or nuclei. Eukaryotes (also spelled "eucaryotes") comprise animals, ... > full article

Prokaryote -- Prokaryotes are organisms without a cell nucleus, or indeed any other membrane-bound organelles, in most cases unicellular (in rare cases, multicellular). This set of characteristics is distinct from ... > full article

Mitochondrion -- In cell biology, a mitochondrion (plural mitochondria) is an organelle found in most eukaryotic cells. Mitochondria are sometimes described as "cellular power plants," because their primary function ... > full article

RNA -- Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a nucleic acid polymer consisting of covalently bound nucleotides. RNA nucleotides contain ribose rings and uracil unlike deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), which contains ... > full article

Trait (biology) -- In biology, a trait or character is a feature of an organism. The term phenotype is sometimes used as a synonym for trait in common use, but strictly speaking, does not indicate the trait, but the ... > full article

Sensory neuron -- Sensory neurons are nerve cells within the nervous system responsible for converting external stimuli from the organism's environment into internal electrical impulses. For example, some sensory ... > full article

Denaturation (biochemistry) -- Denaturation is the alteration of a protein shape through some form of external stress (for example, by applying heat, acid or alkali), in such a way that it will no longer be able to carry out its ... > full article

Lipid -- Lipids are a class of hydrocarbon-containing organic compounds. Lipids are categorized by the fact that they are soluble in nonpolar solvents (such as ether and chloroform) and are relatively ... > full article

Skeletal muscle -- Skeletal muscle is a type of striated muscle, attached to the skeleton. Skeletal muscles are used to facilitate movement, by applying force to bones and joints; via contraction. They generally ... > full article

Mitosis -- In biology, mitosis is the process by which a cell separates its duplicated genome into two identical halves. It is generally followed immediately by cytokinesis which divides the cytoplasm and cell ... > full article

Natural killer cell -- Natural killer cells (also known as NK cells, K cells, and killer cells) are a type of lymphocyte (a white blood cell) and a component of innate immune system. NK cells play a major role in the ... > full article

Cells of the stomach -- Parietal cells (also called oxyntic cells) are the stomach epithelium cells which secrete gastric acid. Parietal cells produce gastric acid (hydrochloric acid) in response to histamine (via ... > full article

Genetic code -- The genetic code is a set of rules that maps DNA sequences to proteins in the living cell, and is employed in the process of protein synthesis. Specifically, the code defines a mapping between ... > full article

Protein folding -- Protein folding is the process by which a protein structure assumes its functional shape or conformation. All protein molecules are heterogeneous unbranched chains of amino acids. By coiling and ... > full article