Genetic redundancy aids competition among bacteria in symbiosis with squid

The molecular mechanism used by many bacteria to kill neighboring cells has redundancy built into its genetic makeup, which could allow for the mechanism to be expressed in different environments. Some strains of luminescent bacteria that compete to colonize the…

WPI biologist’s discovery gives evolution clues and may affect drug interaction research

Worcester, Mass. – August 15, 2019 – A biologist at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has shown that a key biological component in a worm’s communication system can be repurposed to take on a different job, a critical finding about the…

Immune cells drive gallstone formation

Sticky meshworks of DNA and proteins extruded by white blood cells called neutrophils act as the glue that binds together calcium and cholesterol crystals during gallstone formation, researchers in Germany report August 15 in the journal Immunity . Both genetic…

Dartmouth receives $12.5 million grant to establish Center for Quantitative Biology

Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine has been awarded a 5-year, $12.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to establish a Center for Quantitative Biology (CQB) that will bring together and enhance initiatives in computational biology, bioinformatics, and…

New drug targets early instigator of Alzheimer’s disease

Over a hundred years after they were first identified, two ominous signposts of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) remain central topics of research–both formed by sticky accumulations of protein in the brain. Amyloid beta solidifies into senile plaques, which congregate in the…

Adding MS Drug to Targeted Cancer Therapy May Improve Glioblastoma Outcomes

The multiple sclerosis drug teriflunomide, paired with targeted cancer therapy, markedly shrinks patient-derived glioblastomas grown in mice by reaching stem cells at the tumor’s root, according to a new UC San Diego School of Medicine study published in Science Translational Medicine.

Scientists hit pay dirt with new microbial research technique

A better method for studying microbes in the soil will help scientists understand large-scale environmental cycles Long ago, during the European Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci wrote that we humans “know more about the movement of celestial bodies than about the…