by Monash University Graphical abstract. Credit: DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2021.07.021 New research from the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute (ARMI) at Monash University has identified novel cell types and RNA signals that may assist with brain and spinal cord repair. Tissues and organs have different capacities to regenerate after injury or disease. Identifying cell types and signals that can promote repair is particularly...
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been examining the real-world performance of the two vaccines since they were first authorized among health care personnel, first responders and other frontline workers. The effectiveness against infection of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines dropped from 91 percent before the Delta variant became dominant to...
A team of scientists from Russia studied the role of double-stranded fragments of the maturing RNA and showed that the interaction between distant parts of the RNA can regulate gene expression. The research was published in Nature Communications. Image credit: Pixabay (Free Pixabay license) At school, we learn that DNA is double-stranded and RNA is...
by UT Southwestern Medical Center Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain A chemical modification of RNA that can be influenced by diet appears to play a key role in polycystic kidney disease, an inherited disorder that is the fourth leading cause of kidney failure in the U.S., UT Southwestern researchers report in a new study. The findings, published...
MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL BOSTON – A long-running debate over how an important gene-silencing protein identifies its targets has been resolved by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). Their findings, reported in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, also explain certain mysteries about the behavior of this protein, known as Polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2). PRC2 helps regulate whether genes...
BY CAROLINE DELBERT DEC 29, 2020 COKADAGETTY IMAGES In 2020, ribonucleic acid (RNA) has been in the news because of a special kind that has enabled the first two COVID-19 vaccines. But in new research, scientists suggest RNA’s origins and role in the formation of life could have been very different than previously believed—and sharing the spotlight with deoxyribonucleic...
Posted Today New research has identified and described a cellular process that, despite what textbooks say, has remained elusive to scientists until now – precisely how the copying of genetic material that, once started, is properly turned off. The finding concerns a key process essential to life: the transcription phase of gene expression, which enables cells...
by Osaka University Fig.1 Ribosomal protein mRNA partially reversed impaired axonal outgrowth found in TDP-43-knockdown neurons. Decrease of TDP-43 in mouse cortical neurons impaired axonal outgrowth, which was significantly improved by overexpression of individual ribosomal protein mRNAs. Credit: National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry As the current COVID-19 crisis has shown, the disruptions that occur when...
By Dr. Liji Thomas, MD The global pandemic of COVID-19 continues to cause thousands of deaths and many hundreds of thousands of new infections every day. New methods are urgently needed to identify severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections and manage them better, including developing criteria for hospitalization. A new study by a...
by Vanessa McMains, Johns Hopkins University (Top) The nuclear pore protein Pom121 in healthy brain cells. (Bottom) Brain cells with an ALS/dementia genetic mutation have less of the nuclear pore protein Pom121 than healthy brain cells, which leads to disrupted transport routes and ultimately cell death. Credit: Alyssa Coyne Researchers have long sought to explain...
