http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. 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 responses. Scientists know only the general outline of the mechanisms behind cellular "stress responses", the interactions between them and the molecular components involved. http://www.physorg.com/news180273234.html Chemistry Thu, 17 Dec 2009 12:20:04 EST news180273234 (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 adjusted for personalized treatments, the researchers said. Their results are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). http://www.physorg.com/news180033486.html Chemistry Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:20:27 EST news180033486 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 for understanding other molecules in the family, the research supplies a theoretical underpinning for the protein's possible use for combating diseases including cancer and macular degeneration. http://www.physorg.com/news179934545.html Chemistry Sun, 13 Dec 2009 14:20:03 EST news179934545 Pateamine A (PatA), a natural product first isolated from marine sponges, has attracted considerable attention as a potential anti-cancer agent, and now a new activity has been found for it, which may reveal yet another anti-cancer mechanism. That's the assessment of Daniel Romo, a Texas A&M chemistry professor, and his colleagues at Johns Hopkins University who are pioneers in research involving this novel marine natural product. http://www.physorg.com/news176388679.html Chemistry Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:51:56 EST news176388679 For thousands of years, people have believed that eating large amounts of protein made it easier to build bigger, stronger muscles. Take Milo of Croton, the winner of five consecutive Olympic wrestling championships in the sixth century BC: If ancient writers are to be believed, he built his crushing strength in part by consuming 20 pounds of meat every day. http://www.physorg.com/news175785901.html Medicine & Health Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:40:04 EST news175785901 (PhysOrg.com) -- Bits of movable DNA called transposable elements or TEs fill up the genomes of plants and animals, but it has remained unclear how a genome can survive a rapid burst of hundreds, even thousands of new TE insertions. http://www.physorg.com/news175352914.html Biology Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:40:01 EST news175352914 UCLA scientists have identified two chemicals that convince cells to ignore premature signals to stop producing important proteins. Published in the Sept. 28 edition of the Journal of Experimental Medicine, the findings could lead to new medications for genetic diseases, such as cancer and muscular dystrophy, that are sparked by missing proteins. http://www.physorg.com/news173359027.html Medicine & Health Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:18:03 EST news173359027 When most people think of insulin, they think of diabetes - a disease that arises when, for one reason or another, insulin can't do the critical job of helping the body process sugar. But the hormone has another, less well-known function. It's also necessary for muscle growth, increasing blood flow through muscle tissue, encouraging nutrients to disperse from blood vessels and itself serving as a biochemical signal to boost muscle protein synthesis and cell proliferation. http://www.physorg.com/news173098645.html Medicine & Health Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:58:49 EST news173098645 When the Apollo 11 crew got back from the moon, 40 years ago this week, they showed no ill effects from seven days spent in weightlessness. But as American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts began conducting longer-duration space flights, scientists noticed a disturbing trend: the longer humans stay in zero gravity, the more muscle they lose. Space travelers exposed to weightlessness for a year or more - such as those on a mission to Mars, for example - could wind up crippled on their return to Earth, unable to walk or even sit up. http://www.physorg.com/news167498723.html Medicine & Health Wed, 22 Jul 2009 16:27:02 EST news167498723 (PhysOrg.com) -- Nature might abhor a vacuum, but it loves a backup plan. In living organisms, physiological systems are kept under tight control by hierarchies of organic safety catches and emergency releases, helping to make sure that things run as smoothly as possible. http://www.physorg.com/news163430546.html Chemistry Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:22:58 EST news163430546 Exercise physiologist Lynne Kammer, from The University of Texas at Austin, led a group of researchers who investigated the post-exercise physiological effects of the foods. Kammer and her team studied 12 trained cyclists, 8 male and 4 female. In contrast to many sports nutrition studies, however, the exercise protocol was designed to reflect a typical exercise session. After a warm-up period, the subjects cycled for two hours at a comfortable work rate, rather than the more frequently seen test-to-exhaustion. http://www.physorg.com/news161512020.html Medicine & Health Thu, 14 May 2009 09:27:24 EST news161512020 Many diseases derive from problems with cellular respiration, the process through which cells extract energy from nutrients. Researchers at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have now discovered a new function for a protein in the mitochondrion - popularly called the cell's power station - that plays a key part in cell respiration. http://www.physorg.com/news158405697.html Biology Wed, 08 Apr 2009 10:35:13 EST news158405697 Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have identified a master switch that might prevent cancer cells from metastasizing from a primary tumor to other organs. The switch is a protein that, when in the "on" position, maintains the normal character of cells that line the surface of organs and body cavities. These epithelial cells are the type of cell from which most solid tumors arise. However, when the switch is turned "off" or absent, epithelial cells acquire characteristics of another cell type, called mesenchymal cells, and gain the ability to migrate and move away from the primary tumor. The researchers report their findings in this month's issue of Molecular Cell. http://www.physorg.com/news156434837.html Medicine & Health Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:07:55 EST news156434837 An enzyme researchers have studied for years because of its potential connections to cancer, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and stroke, appears to have yet another major role to play: helping create and maintain the brain. http://www.physorg.com/news156058874.html Medicine & Health Thu, 12 Mar 2009 06:41:48 EST news156058874 (PhysOrg.com) -- Three billion years ago, a "new" amino acid was added to the alphabet of 20 that commonly make up proteins in organisms today. Now researchers at Yale and the University of Tokyo have demonstrated how this rare amino acid - and, by example, other amino acids - made its way into the menu for protein synthesis. The study appeared in the December 31 advance online publication of the journal Nature. http://www.physorg.com/news152278905.html Biology Tue, 27 Jan 2009 11:42:35 EST news152278905 Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have demonstrated a more effective treatment for bacterial pneumonia following influenza. They found that the antibiotics clindamycin and azithromycin, which kill bacteria by inhibiting their protein synthesis, are more effective than a standard first-line treatment with the "beta-lactam" antibiotic ampicillin, which causes the bacteria to lyse, or burst. http://www.physorg.com/news150653601.html Medicine & Health Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:13:21 EST news150653601 A new study of transfer RNA, a molecule that delivers amino acids to the protein-building machinery of the cell, challenges long-held ideas about the evolutionary history of protein synthesis. http://www.physorg.com/news137767551.html Biology Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:45:51 EST news137767551 Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have shown that the unfolded protein response, which is a reaction to stress induced by sleep deprivation, is impaired in the brains of old mice. http://www.physorg.com/news133784411.html Medicine & Health Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:20:11 EST news133784411