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.

Scientists from the Burnham Institute for Medical Research have determined that the Caspase-8 protein - a primary player in pre-programmed cell death, or apoptosis - also helps to relay signals that enable cancer cells to thrive.

For the first time, scientists have managed to grow mature human eggs from immature cells in the lab, a technique that may eventually help save the fertility of female cancer patients who aren’t eligible for traditional egg harvest.

Researchers from Purdue University have recently synthesized a molecule that locates and binds to the prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) - a protein that is found on the membrane of more than 90% of all prostate cancers - giving promise of targeted drug treatment.

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have created bright, stable and bio-friendly nanocrystals that act as individual investigators of activity within a cell. These ideal light emitting probes represent a significant step in scrutinizing the behaviors of proteins and other components in complex systems such as a living cell.

As "highlighted" in the June 2009 issue of Discover, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center scientists in Texas have recently engineered a DNA dimmer - allowing them to adjust the intensity at which a cell 'glows' by precisely controlling the production of green fluorescent protein (GFP) within the cell.

Dr. Katherine Borden of the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) of the Université de Montréal, has recently published a study in the journal Blood, demonstrating that ribavirin, a common anti-viral drug, suppresses the activities of a gene linked to making cells cancerous.