Biochemical Systems that Modulate the Levels of Plant Hormones
An international team of scientists have begun to put a molecular face on the biochemical systems that modulate the levels of plant hormones to defend…
Biology News
Stem Cell Biologists Grow Optic Cups from Human ESCs
In a new study from stem cell biologists at the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology, scientists demonstrate self-formation of optic cups and storable stratified neural…
Scientists Use Modified Version Rabies to Trace Neural Pathways in the Brain
Harvard scientists are using a genetically modified version of the rabies virus to trace neural pathways in the brain, believing that this research may lead…
Transgenic Mosquitoes Can’t Transmit Malaria
A team of researchers from UC Irvine and the Pasteur Institute in Paris have produced a model of the Anopheles stephensi mosquito that impairs the…
Understanding the Internal Process that Makes Salmonella Dangerous
A recently published study examines why Salmonella becomes dangerously virulent. While examining signals from outside the bacteria, they found that changes in the level of…
Bonobo Genome Completed, Differs from Humans by 1.3 Percent
Biologists at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology have completed the sequencing and analysis of the genome of the bonobo, finding that the bonobo…
HMP Maps the Healthy Human Microbiome
With microbes outnumbering human cells by 10 to 1, the Human Microbiome Project (HMP) Consortium looks at how these microorganisms coexist with their human hosts…
First Direct Observation of an Under-Ice Algal Bloom in the Arctic
During a NASA-sponsored ICESCAPE expedition, scientists found a massive algal bloom under the Arctic sea ice. Once thought impossible, this marks the first direct observation…
Conscious Perception from a Global Network of Neurons
New research from scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics supports the view that the content of consciousness is not localized in a…
Female Butterflies Prefer Flashier Mates
A new study from evolutionary biologists at Yale University examined the butterfly species Bicyclus anynana and their mating patterns, finding that female butterflies of the…
How Chronic Inflammation of Organs Can Become Cancerous
A new study from scientists at MIT gives a comprehensive look at how chronic inflammation of organs, often caused by viral or bacterial infections, provokes…
Increasing Th17 Cells in the Gut May Improve the Control of HIV Growth
A new study from a team of microbiologists and immunologists suggests that treatment aimed at increasing Th17 cells in the gut may improve the control…
Recreational Fishing is Causing the Collapse of Cape Cod’s Salt Marsh Ecosystems
According to a new study, ecologists at Brown University have discovered that recreational fishing has reduced predators in many of Cape Cod’s salt marsh ecosystems,…
Horizontal Gene Transfer Between Plants is More Widespread than Previously Thought
While studying the parasitic “corpse flower” of Southeast Asia, researchers from Harvard and Stony Brook University found that horizontal gene transfer between plants is much…
A2A Adenosine Receptor May Be a Key to Multiple Sclerosis Treatment
A newly published study from researchers at Cornell University shows how the A2A adenosine receptor expressed on blood-brain barrier cells acts as a gateway, allowing…
Evolution Helps Deduce the Shape of 18 Families of Transmembrane Proteins
Scientists at Harvard Medical School developed algorithms that allowed them to use evolution as their guide to deduce the three-dimensional structure of 18 families of…
Imbalance Between Neuronal Excitation and Inhibition May Account for Seizure Susceptibility in Angelman Syndrome
A new study from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine indicates that an imbalance between neuronal excitation and inhibition is a common abnormality…
Searching for the Best Shape for Cancer Fighting Nanoparticles
New research shows that disc-shaped nanoparticles created with photolithographic technology will allow researchers to specify the size, shape and surface properties of the nanoparticles, while…