News tagged with molecular switch

Metastasis of pancreatic cancer in action

Ben Stanger, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, and Andrew Rhim, MD, a Gastroenterology Fellow in the ...

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Jan 19, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New discovery may lead to safer treatments for asthma, allergies and arthritis

Scientists have discovered a missing link between the body's biological clock and sugar metabolism system, a finding that may help avoid the serious side effects of drugs used for treating asthma, allergies and arthritis.

Medicine & Health / Research

created Dec 19, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Protein associated with learning implicated in causing grasshoppers to swarm

New research has found that a protein associated with learning and memory plays an integral role in changing the behaviour of locusts from that of harmless grasshoppers into swarming pests.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Dec 19, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

The smallest conceivable switch: Targeted proton transfer within a molecule

For a long time miniaturization has been the magic word in electronics. Dr. Willi Auwaerter and Professor Johannes Barth, together with their team of physicists at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM), ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Dec 12, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (7) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Researchers invent a switch that could improve electronics

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have invented a new type of electronic switch that performs electronic logic functions within a single molecule. The incorporation of such single-molecule elements could enable ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Dec 01, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (8) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

When will artificial molecular machines start working for us?

Physicist Richard Feynman in his famous 1959 talk, "Plenty of Room at the Bottom," described the precise control at the atomic level promised by molecular machines of the future. More than 50 years later, synthetic molecular ...

Chemistry / Other

created Nov 25, 2011 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (6) | comments 5 | with audio podcast

How hemp got high: Canadian scientists map the cannabis genome

A team of Canadian researchers has sequenced the genome of Cannabis sativa, the plant that produces both industrial hemp and marijuana, and in the process revealed the genetic changes that led to the plant's drug-producing proper ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Oct 19, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (12) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Researchers discover faulty molecular switch that cause infertility, miscarriage

Scientists have discovered an enzyme that acts as a 'fertility switch', in a study published in Nature Medicine today. High levels of the protein are associated with infertility, while low levels make a woman more likely ...

Medicine & Health / Research

created Oct 16, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Structure of vital protein complex, G protein-coupled receptors, described in unprecedented detail

Three international teams of scientists, led by researchers at the University of California San Diego, University of Michigan and Stanford University, have published a trio of papers describing in unprecedented ...

Medicine & Health / Research

created Sep 28, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Discovery of insulin switches in pancreas could lead to new diabetes drugs

Researchers at the Salk Institute have discovered how a hormone turns on a series of molecular switches inside the pancreas that increases production of insulin.

Medicine & Health / Research

created Sep 26, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New system finds prostate cancer spread earlier than conventional imaging

Researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have developed a way to image the spread of a particularly dangerous form of prostate cancer earlier than conventional imaging in use today, which may allow oncologists ...

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Sep 22, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Scientists establish a new class of anti-diabetic compound

In a joint study, scientists from The Scripps Research Institute and Harvard University's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have established a new class of anti-diabetic compound that targets a unique molecular switch.

Medicine & Health / Research

created Sep 04, 2011 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Why cancer cells change their appearance?

Like snakes, tumour cells shed their skin. Cancer is not a static disease but during its development the disease accumulates changes to evade natural defences adapting to new environmental circumstances, protecting against ...

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Sep 02, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Protecting cells: Evidence found for a neuronal switch to prevent neurodegenerative diseases

Scientists at Northwestern University report a surprising discovery that offers a possible new route for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. In a study of the transparent roundworm C. elegans, they found that a gene ...

Medicine & Health / Research

created Aug 24, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Researchers decipher the molecular basis of blue-green algae

Under normal conditions, cyanobacteria, also termed blue-green algae, build up energy reserves that allow them to survive under stress such as long periods of darkness. They do this by means of a molecular switch in an enzyme. ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Aug 01, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Molecular switch

A molecular switch is a molecule that can be reversibly shifted between two or more stable states. The molecules may be shifted between the states in response to changes in e.g. pH, light, temperature, an electrical current, microenvironment, or the presence of a ligand. In some cases, a combination of stimuli are utilized. The oldest forms of synthetic molecular switches are pH indicators, which display distinct colors as a function of pH. Currently synthetic molecular switches are of interest in the field of nanotechnology for application in molecular computers. Molecular switches are also important to in biology because many biological functions are based on it, for instance allosteric regulation and vision. They are also one of the simplest examples of molecular machines.

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