Biochemistry news

Understanding relationship of proteins, fatty acids could help treat diseases

Understanding relationship of proteins, fatty acids could help treat diseases

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Dec 22, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- It's widely understood that eating a diet high in saturated fats increases the risk for a long list of chronic and deadly diseases, including diabetes and coronary heart disease. Understanding ...


Team makes breakthrough demonstration of pH-regulating protein

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Dec 22, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Researchers have identified the protein mechanism that senses bicarbonate fluctuations and adjusts blood pH levels.


Chemical energy influences tiny vibrations of red blood cell membranes

Chemical energy influences tiny vibrations of red blood cell membranes

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Dec 21, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Much like a tightly wound drum, red blood cells are in perpetual vibration. Those vibrations help the cells maintain their characteristic flattened oval or disc shape, which is critical to ...


Egg Processing Plant Carts Can Harbor Bacteria

Egg Processing Plant Carts Can Harbor Bacteria

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Dec 21, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Plywood-shelved carts that are used to transport eggs into processing plants can harbor Enterobacteriaceae, according to a microbial survey conducted by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) ...


Making New Enzymes to Engineer Plants for Biofuel Production

Making New Enzymes to Engineer Plants for Biofuel Production

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Dec 21, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Brookhaven scientists have created a new enzyme with the potential to interfere with a key cell-wall component in plants, possibly leading to plants that are easier to "digest" and convert ...


Molecular freight: Synthetic nanoscale transport system modeled on nature

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Dec 21, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (5) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Just like our roads, there is a lot of traffic within the cells in our bodies, because cell components, messenger molecules, and enzymes must also be brought to the right places in the cell. One of these ...


Research project yields better understanding of the defective protein that causes cystic fibrosis

Research project yields better understanding of the defective protein that causes cystic fibrosis

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Dec 18, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

A team of researchers studying the protein that, when defective or absent, causes cystic fibrosis (CF) has made an important discovery about how that protein is normally controlled and under what circumstances ...


Within a cell, actin keeps things moving

Within a cell, actin keeps things moving

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Dec 17, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Using new technology developed in his University of Oregon lab, chemist Andrew H. Marcus and his doctoral student Eric N. Senning have captured what they describe as well-orchestrated, actin-driven, ...


Researchers design a tool to induce controlled suicide in human cells

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Dec 17, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

When cells accumulate excessive errors in the proteins they produce, apoptosis is activated, that is to say, a cell suicide programme; however, beforehand the cells attempt to rectify the problem through a number of rescue ...


Argonne scientists use bacteria to power simple machines (w/ Video)

Argonne scientists use bacteria to power simple machines (w/ Video)

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Dec 16, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory and Northwestern University, Evanston, have discovered that common bacteria can turn microgears when suspended in ...


Discovery of new gene called Brd2 that regulates obesity and diabetes

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Dec 15, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

The chance discovery of a genetic mutation that makes mice enormously fat but protects them from diabetes has given researchers at Boston University School of Medicine, USA, new insights into the cellular mechanisms that ...


New protein key for cell proliferation identified

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Dec 14, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at McGill University have identified a protein that plays a key role in cell proliferation and is likely to promote cancer development. The work may lead to the development of new diagnostic tools ...


Scientists isolate new antifreeze molecule in Alaska beetle

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Dec 14, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (14) | comments 4

Scientists have identified a novel antifreeze molecule in a freeze-tolerant Alaska beetle able to survive temperatures below minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Unlike all previously described biological antifreezes that contain ...


Prussian blue linked to the origin of life

Prussian blue linked to the origin of life

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Dec 14, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (6) | comments 0

A team of researchers from the Astrobiology Centre (INTA-CSIC) has shown that hydrogen cyanide, urea and other substances considered essential to the formation of the most basic biological molecules can be ...


Scientists crack mystery of protein's dual function

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Dec 13, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 0

Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute have solved a 10-year-old mystery of how a single protein from an ancient family of enzymes can have two completely distinct roles in the body. In addition to providing guidance ...