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Surprise! Pythons have venom…but just a little.
Fry and a python. Fry reassures us the blood on his hand was from a mere flesh wound. Image provided by Bryan Fry. Despite conventional wisdom that pythons are not venomous, python owners may be...
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Today’s Supreme Court hearing on gene patents as seen on Twitter
I compiled a list of notable tweets about today’s Supreme Court hearing on the Association for Molecular Pathology vs Myriad Genetics case. You can find them here.
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Tracking epigenetic markers at the single-molecule level
The crystal structure of the nucleosome with the core histones and DNA. Image from the PDB; Released under the GNU Free Documentation License...
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Hens shift lipid metabolism away from egg-making when stressed
A rooster (left) and a hen (right). Image from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Female_pair.jpg It’s hard to make babies when you’re stressed, even if you are a chicken. In a recent paper in the...
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Special luciferase tracks cellular processes when activated with light
The letters were produced by covering HEK293T cells expressing photoactivatable luciferase with aluminum foils in the shapes of the letters before photolysis. Image provided by Jingyi Zhao. Being able...
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Pathogenic E. coli thrive both in gut and bladder
Uropathogenic E. coli form intracellular bacterial communities in the outermost cell layer of an infected bladder. Image courtesy of Scott Hultgren. Like jet-setting celebrities with homes in more than...
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New peptide mimics inhibit pathogenic bacteria involved in toxic shock syndrome
The investigators adapted a hemolysis assay with red blood cells to quantitate the ability of the peptide analogs to inhibit S. aureus’ quorum sensing. Image provided by Helen Blackwell. The pathogenic...
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Itching to know the molecular basis of itch
Itch-inducing agents activate a discrete population of peripheral sensory neurons defined by theexpression of Nppb. In turn, the release of Nppbfrom these neurons triggers a dedicated itch biocircuit...
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A little boy’s desire to help his friend with glycogen storage disease
I spent Memorial Day weekend riding in a lot of cabs in Philadelphia. All the cabs played the same endless loop of TV segments on those little screens in the backseats. So, in those backseats, I...
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Novel probes for an important developmental signaling cascade, the Sonic...
BRD50837 is a novel small-molecule probe that inhibits Hedgehog signaling. Image by Giannina Schaefer. Researchers have found novel probes that could help to better understand a critical developmental...
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Misleading migration of small membrane proteins can lead to incorrect...
Small membrane proteins may appear larger than life on blue native electrophoretic gels. The migration of purified Aac3 (left) and free detergent micelles (right) in samples prepared with detergent at...
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NCATS issues awards to repurpose shelved compounds
The National Institutes of Health announced today that it has awarded $12.7 million to nine academic research groups matched with pharmaceutical companies to explore new uses for some of the companies’...
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Gut bacteria may be a source of male steroid hormones
Cortisol tuns on genes to make an enzyme that converts glucocorticoids into androgens by Clostridium scindens in the gut. Looks like there is more than one fount for male steroid hormones in the body....
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Introducing the monkey sperm proteome
The rhesus macaque sperm proteome now has been analyzed. Image from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Macaque_India_4.jpg We now have the sperm proteome of a primate. In a paper just out in Molecular...
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Tracking how multiple proteins interact with each other
The role of SNARE proteins in a cellular process known as exocytosis. Image from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Exocytosis-machinery.jpg Proteins are great believers in hands-on teamwork. They come...
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Overcoming the problem of making libraries of complex sugars
Much like the way trunks, branches and twigs on trees rise from the ground, long chains of sugars rise from the surfaces of proteins and lipids. These intricately arranged chains, known as glycans,...
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Under pressure: mechanism of DNA injection by herpes viruses
High pressure inside herpes viruses allows them to shove their DNA into human cells.Credit: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases According to research just out in the Journal of the...
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On mussels, mating and mitochondrial DNA
Mussels on rocks. Image credit: Angel P. Diz, University of Vigo, Spain In humans and most other animals, offspring get all their mitochondrial DNA from their mothers. But in mussels and other related...
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Designer enzymes tackle mutations in mitochondrial DNA
TALENs have developed that specifically target and remove mutations in mitochondrial DNA. Image provided by Carlos Moraes. When a power station has trouble generating electricity, the town suffers....
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Finally getting an answer to a question (and a profile on an interesting...
Virginia Lee Some stories just take a long time to be born. This month’s issue of ASBMB Today has a profile I did on Virginia Lee, the director at the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research at...
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