tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-272885542008-11-25T14:11:48.143-08:00BioMol.Netnoreply@blogger.comBlogger57125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27288554.post-45873300362991549292008-11-25T14:05:00.000-08:002008-11-25T14:11:48.160-08:00

The human genome has hidden levels of regulatory complexity and variability that have begun to reveal themselves since the initial sequence became available in 2001. Today, with increasingly powerful sequencing and analysis technologies, we are not only beginning to appreciate the scale of variation in individual human genome sequences, but also gaining a greater understanding of how genome

BioMol.Netnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27288554.post-54668356700591809352008-11-24T03:44:00.000-08:002008-11-24T03:48:17.751-08:00

In 1994, two independent groups extracted DNA from several Pleistocene epoch mammoths and noted differences among individual specimens. Subsequently, DNA sequences have been published for a number of extinct species. However, such ancient DNA is often fragmented and damaged, and studies to date have typically focused on short mitochondrial sequences, never yielding more than a fraction of a per

BioMol.Netnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27288554.post-38667718474071895062008-11-18T14:56:00.000-08:002008-11-18T15:04:26.598-08:00

What genes and regulatory sequences contribute to the organization and functioning of neural circuits and molecular pathways in the brain that support social behavior? How does social experience interact with information in the genome to modulate brain activity? Here, we address these questions by highlighting progress that has been made in identifying and understanding two key "vectors of

BioMol.Netnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27288554.post-41358996604782064552008-09-01T03:55:00.000-07:002008-09-01T03:56:44.048-07:00

In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, the nucleus is tethered to the cytoskeleton by KASH domain-containing proteins in the outer nuclear membrane and SUN domain-containing proteins in the inner nuclear membrane. By exerting force on these SUN-KASH complexes, the cytoskeleton controls the position of the nucleus within the cell. Centromeric DNA inside the nucleus has been observed to

BioMol.Netnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27288554.post-69116907917775623762008-08-09T15:40:00.000-07:002008-08-09T15:45:17.229-07:00

A Postdoctoral position is available for research in the areas of STEM CELLS AND NEURODEVELOPMENT. The laboratory, headed by Dr. Alysson R. Muotri, make use of human ES and iPS cells, in combination with genetic, molecular, biochemical and computational tools, to study early stages of brain development and the formation of neuronal networks. Research currently focuses on two interconnected

BioMol.Netnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27288554.post-50674630875436652052008-08-07T13:05:00.000-07:002008-08-07T13:09:55.153-07:00

Mitochondria are responsible for maintaining the energy balance of the cell and are also responsible for triggering apoptosis (programmed cell death) in response to oxidative stress. This one-day mini-symposium aims to highlight recent advances in our understanding of how these organelles function in the nervous system, and how mitochondrial dysfunction contributes to neurological disease.

BioMol.Netnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27288554.post-69139480560518242212008-08-01T15:02:00.000-07:002008-08-01T15:04:51.872-07:00

The generation of pluripotent stem cells from an individual patient would enable the large-scale production of the cell-types affected by that patient’s disease. These cells could in turn be used for disease modeling, drug discovery, and eventually autologous cell-replacement therapies. Although recent studies have demonstrated the reprogramming of human fibroblasts to a pluripotent state, it

BioMol.Netnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27288554.post-81992161589769595652008-03-19T05:18:00.000-07:002008-03-19T05:22:55.022-07:00

Prion proteins are linked to several diseases, including bovine spongiform encephalopathy in cattle, scrapie in sheep, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. Infectious prion-like proteins that also form amyloid fibrils are found in yeast and other fungi. Based on solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance data, Wasmer et al. provide a structural model of amyloid fibrils from the prion-forming

BioMol.Netnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27288554.post-63319766382775338402008-03-11T07:19:00.000-07:002008-03-11T07:40:55.337-07:00

Although autism is highly heritable, sorting out the genes associated with this complex disease has been difficult. Weiss et al. searched for structural mutations (duplications or deletions below the level of microscopic detection) in the genomic DNA of 751 families who are part of the Autism Genetic Resource Exchange. They found a significant association of autism with a nearly 600-kb region

BioMol.Netnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27288554.post-43626576963976618612008-02-18T04:19:00.000-08:002008-02-18T04:24:26.271-08:00

Genomics revolutionized genetic research. Now, complete annotated genome sequences are available for the human, our closest relative, the chimpanzee, and for many other model organisms. Multiple genomes have been compared and scrutinized for past and ongoing processes of variation, adaptation and speciation. Traces of the foregoing RNA world show it to be far more influential than previously

BioMol.Netnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27288554.post-87130943407589867382008-02-08T05:32:00.000-08:002008-02-08T07:06:24.982-08:00

Bonneau et al. describe progress in an effort to link systems-level analysis to events at the molecular and organismal levels. Using experiments and computation, they have pooled transcriptome, protein-protein interaction, structural, and evolution-related data to generate a dynamic model of the halophilic organism Halobacterium salinarum. This model was trained on data sets that included more

BioMol.Netnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27288554.post-92225440361938228612008-02-02T05:10:00.000-08:002008-02-02T05:15:18.519-08:00

Many examples have been reported of assembly of atoms and small molecules into patterns on surfaces by pick up, transfer, and release with a scanning probe microscope tip under vacuum conditions. Kufer et al. assembled larger single molecules into patterns on surfaces in aqueous solution with an atomic force microscope (AFM) tip by taking advantage of differential forces acting on double-stranded

BioMol.Netnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27288554.post-22247240179657431942008-01-13T02:44:00.000-08:002008-01-13T02:46:29.203-08:00

The Computational Genomics Laboratory (www.evocell.org) is looking for a post-doctoral fellow to work on the origins and evolution of intracellular compartmentalization and protein trafficking pathways, and a second post-doctoral fellow to work, in collaboration with the Cell Cycle Regulation Lab (http://sites.igc.gulbenkian.pt/ccr/), in the evolution of centrioles and their regulatory pathways.

BioMol.Netnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27288554.post-55493757665013991752007-12-22T09:05:00.000-08:002007-12-22T09:13:56.992-08:00

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the most common adult respiratory diseases worldwide and the fourth leading cause of death. The American Lung Association estimates that about 15 million US citizens are affected. In the UK, the 30,000 deaths annually mean that more die of COPD than from breast, colon or prostate cancer. Despite the high prevalence, COPD is preventable and

BioMol.Netnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27288554.post-70866584108006155742007-09-05T05:39:00.000-07:002007-09-05T06:05:27.567-07:00

Presented here is a genome sequence of an individual human. It was produced from ∼32 million random DNA fragments, sequenced by Sanger dideoxy technology and assembled into 4,528 scaffolds, comprising 2,810 million bases (Mb) of contiguous sequence with approximately 7.5-fold coverage for any given region. We developed a modified version of the Celera assembler to facilitate the identification

BioMol.Netnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27288554.post-9357378089332613912007-08-14T16:06:00.000-07:002007-08-14T16:16:04.466-07:00

Characterization of interspecies differences in gene regulation is crucial for understanding the molecular basis of both phenotypic diversity and evolution. By means of chromatin immunoprecipitation and DNA microarray analysis, the divergence in the binding sites of the pseudohyphal regulators Ste12 and Tec1 was determined in the yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae, S. mikatae, and S. bayanus under

BioMol.Netnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27288554.post-18621233939323007702007-08-10T07:22:00.000-07:002007-08-10T07:28:29.066-07:00

Adeno-associated viruses (AAV) are promising gene therapy vectors that have little or no acute toxicity. We show that normal mice and mice with mucopolysaccharidosis VII (MPS VII) develop hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after neonatal injection of an AAV vector expressing b-glucuronidase. AAV proviruses were isolated from four tumors and were all located within a 6-kilobase region of chromosome 12

BioMol.Netnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27288554.post-47288794583593568712007-07-16T07:18:00.000-07:002007-07-16T07:25:59.981-07:00

During development, genes are often transcribed in a temporally and spatially regulated manner. The murine growth hormone gene is differentially expressed in the developing pituitary gland. Lunyak et al. now examine the region surrounding the growth hormone gene and show that a repeated DNA sequence (short interspersed nuclear element B2) in the growth hormone locus functions as an insulator to

BioMol.Netnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27288554.post-71520393921395104902007-07-01T07:07:00.000-07:002007-07-01T07:11:23.083-07:00

As a step toward propagation of synthetic genomes, we completely replaced the genome of a bacterial cell with one from another species by transplanting a whole genome as naked DNA. Intact genomic DNA from Mycoplasma mycoides large colony (LC), virtually free of protein, was transplanted into Mycoplasma capricolum cells by polyethylene glycol-mediated transformation. Cells selected for

BioMol.Netnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27288554.post-20018030348481621182007-06-20T05:55:00.000-07:002007-06-20T06:00:03.261-07:00

The venom itself is a cocktail of low- and high-molecular-weight components, the toxins constituting a very small proportion of these, often only one compound. They can be classified according to their mode of action and include neurotoxins (acting on the nervous system), cardiotoxins (heart), haemorrhagins (blood vessels), haemotoxins (blood), nephrotoxins (kidney), necrotoxins (tissue) and

BioMol.Netnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27288554.post-16813568750298648952007-06-15T07:09:00.000-07:002007-06-15T07:12:18.359-07:00

Random cell-to-cell variations in gene expression within an isogenic population can lead to transitions between alternative states of gene expression. Little is known about how these variations (noise) in natural systems affects such transitions. In Bacillus subtilis, noise in ComK, the protein that regulates competence for DNA uptake, is thought to cause cells to transition to the competent

BioMol.Netnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27288554.post-47202675326369239032007-05-06T06:12:00.000-07:002007-05-06T06:16:32.441-07:00

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a major cause of death in Western countries. Here we used genome-wide association scanning to identify a 58 kilobase interval on chromosome 9p21 that was consistently associated with CHD in six independent samples (n> 23,000 participants) from four Caucasian populations. This interval, which is located near the CDKN2A and CDKN2B genes, contains no annotated genes

BioMol.Netnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27288554.post-50937582368587440392007-04-15T16:56:00.000-07:002007-04-15T17:17:00.624-07:00

The rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) is an abundant primate species that diverged from the ancestors of Homo sapiens about 25 million years ago. Because they are genetically and physiologically similar to humans, rhesus monkeys are the most widely used nonhuman primate in basic and applied biomedical research. We determined the genome sequence of an Indian-origin Macaca mulatta female and

BioMol.Netnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27288554.post-47265612953635689082007-04-06T05:08:00.000-07:002007-04-06T05:12:13.613-07:00

The domestic dog exhibits greater diversity in body size than any other terrestrial vertebrate. We used a strategy that exploits the breed structure of dogs to investigate the genetic basis of size. First, through a genome-wide scan, we identified a major quantitative trait locus (QTL) on chromosome 15 influencing size variation within a single breed. Second, we examined genetic variation in the

BioMol.Netnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27288554.post-28101304265173195232007-03-31T16:21:00.000-07:002007-03-31T16:23:48.517-07:00

The liver is one tissue in mammals that can regenerate. Passino et al. now find that hepatocyte proliferation is controlled by the neurotrophin receptor p75NTR, known primarily for its role in neurons in regulation of survival, apoptosis, and neuronal regeneration. Mice lacking p75NTR showed impaired hepatocyte proliferation. p75NTR appeared to act on hepatic stellate cells (HSCs), which

BioMol.Netnoreply@blogger.com0