Insights into Biology

Destroying Prions

A common soil mineral - birnessite - solves a nearly insolvable problem: degrading prions.

Why this matters: Prions are a misfolded form of a protein that have been implicated in many neurologically wasting diseases, the best known being Mad Cow Disease. One of the things that makes prions so tricky is that they are very, very hard to destroy. If this research pans out, and can be applied to prevent the spreading of prions, it's great news.

More Than Just the Writing on the Page

A researcher is using DNA testing to trace the origins of Medieval manuscripts.

Why this matters: Parchment in the middle ages was made out of animal skins. The proposal is to analyze the DNA in various books and to use that information to track the movement of books around Europe during the Middle Ages. There are some significant hurdles they'll need to overcome, but if it works it will be very helpful for historians and is a great example of the application of modern science to solve old problems. (It's also near and dear to my heart as I'm currently on a Middle Ages reading kick.)

Molecular Immortality

Scrips researchers have synthesized RNA enzymes that can replicate themselves indefinitely without the help of other proteins or cellular components.

Why this Matters: To replicate, a modern cell, even a very basic bacteria, requires cellular machinery in order to copy its DNA and reproduce. This produces a puzzle for early life. Even if the necessary molecules (RNA or DNA) were around, how could they start replicating? Research like this points to possible answers

We're Not Alone (and We're Outnumbered)

NIH is running a project to study all the microbial cells that go along with the average healthy adult:

Within the body of a healthy adult, microbial cells are estimated to outnumber human cells by a factor of ten to one. These communities, however, remain largely unstudied, leaving almost entirely unknown their influence upon human development, physiology, immunity, and nutrition. To take advantage of recent technological advances and to develop new ones, the NIH Roadmap has initiated the Human Microbiome Project (HMP) with the mission of generating resources enabling comprehensive characterization of the human microbiota and analysis of its role in human health and disease.

Another Reason to Get a Good Night's Sleep

Researchers have found a correlation between animals that sleep a lot and a lower likelihood of parasites.

Happy Holidays!

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season.

I'll be posting again in the New Year.

With the New Year Nearly Here...

Science has released their top 10 breakthroughs for 2008 (keep reading to see all 10).

More Than Scaffolding

The H3 Histone: Not just for structure anymore - it's also critical for DNA Methylation.

Cancer-Causing Instability

The genome sequence of a breast cancer cell line shows heavily rearranged and disordered genes, and broken DNA repair machinery:

"It's like a computer program that has become buggy and transcends into something dangerous... It makes the cell escape normal controls on cell proliferation."

Tell Us Something We Don't Know

Princeton researchers have shown that sugar can be addictive (at least in rats).