Researchers have been able to see how heart failure affects the surface of an individual heart muscle cell in minute detail, using a new nanoscale scanning technique developed at Imperial College London.

First proposed in 1929 by J.B.S. Haldane in his essay on the origin of life, the "soup theory" suggested that life as we know it was the result of UV radiation converting methane, ammonia and water into the first organic compounds in the early earth oceans. The first cells grew by fermenting this organic primordial soup to generate energy in the form of ATP.

Researchers from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville are unlocking some of the secrets that allow bacteria to respond and adapt to changes in their environment - and hope their findings may be used to enhance medicines that fight harmful bacteria or even to develop ways to better utilize bacteria in agriculture and other similar applications.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers and their colleagues have identified an enzyme that can effectively wipe a cell’s developmental slate clean, essentially giving a fresh start. The enzyme, which is thought to help genetically reprogram fertilized eggs as part of normal development, may help scientists create stem cells and arrest the growth of cancers.

A multi-institutional research team have recently identified a gene - called Microfibril-Associated Glycoprotein 2, or MAGP2 - that offers promise as a personalized treatment target for ovarian cancer. Not previously associated with any type of cancer, MAGP2 was found to be over-expressed in papillary serous ovarian tumors of patients who died more quickly from the disease.

Finding and treating a tumor without disturbing normal tissue presents challenges -- sometimes the most effective therapies can be invasive and harsh.

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have devised a way they might deliver the right therapy directly to tumors using special molecules, called aptamers, which specifically bind to living tumor tissue.

A new way for scientists to interact with and understand the structure of
important biological molecules critical to human health is now available. Called
iSee, it’s now possible to interactively fly over, zoom into and dive through 3D
visualisations of these molecules in atomic detail.
 

Today, three U.S. researchers were awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Australian-American researcher Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak, won the prize for their discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the role of an enzyme called telomerase in maintaining or stripping away this molecular shield.

Cancer stem cells have many of the same characteristics as regular stem cells - and are thought to be directly responsible for tumor formation and growth. Tufts University researchers have recently identified that the STAT3 gene regulates cancer stem cells in the aggressive brain cancer, Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) - offering a promising new option in the fight against such cancers.

University of Bath and Exeter researchers teamed up to develop the first ever system that allows them to follow the progress of bacterial infection in real-time, with living organisms. Traditional studies of bacterial infection are done after the death of the infected organism - in a petri dish - and lack key processes and cellular signals that play an integral part in the infection process.