News

Scientists have developed a novel technique based on an oscillating gene circuit that they hope will help to shed light on the human microbiome.

Rapid diagnostic test for Lyme disease matches and outperforms standard testing approaches; could be used in a clinician’s office.

The ramifications of bacteria's ability to become resistant to antibiotics can be seen in hospitals, public places, our food supply, and our water. Now, researchers have demonstrated how we could improve upon the ability of nature's exquisitely selective collection of antimicrobial enzymes to attack bacteria in a way that's much less likely to cause bacterial resistance.

The discovery in the 1990s that a mutation in a single gene of an experimental worm could double its lifespan set off a stampede of research on the molecular biology of aging and triggered hopes that drug therapies or other interventions could be developed to extend healthy human lifespan. But as is often the case in science, the genetic regulation of aging is more complicated than it first appeared.

New research in mice has shown that the effects of maternal obesity can pass across generations to offspring, accelerating the rate of aging and metabolic problems.

Depression affects women nearly twice as much as men, but unraveling the brain's blueprint that regulates this behavior, let alone identifying specific molecular differences between sexes, has proven difficult. Researchers have found and flipped a switch in the brain, revealing a single circuit in mice that activates during stress and is controlled by testosterone.

Scientists have developed innovative new methods for imaging and reconstructing mitochondria at the synaptic level.

Researchers have gained new insights into the causative agent of tuberculosis which could provide the basis for a new approach to antibiotic therapy.

X-ray crystallography – the standard method for determining the structure of proteins – could be providing researchers with inaccurate information about a critical set of proteins found in cell membranes. This finding could impact drug design success, as drug developers could be working with imprecise drug target information.

A new study, led by Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy, PhD, of Scripps Research, and Sheref Mansy, PhD, of the University of Trento, offers an explanation for how “protocells” could have emerged on early Earth, eventually leading to the cells we know today.