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Marguerite Prior discusses neurotophic compound J147 in Alzheimer’s therapeutics
Alzheimer’s disease, a neurodegenerative disorder often characterized by the accumulation of amyloid plaques in the brain, affects over 30 million people worldwide – a figure predicted to double by...
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To bind or not to bind: intricacies of ligand-induced receptor dimerization
Cell surface receptors have important roles to play in the control of many cellular processes. They are activated when a ligand binds to an extracellular domain, which transmits a signal to an...
View ArticleAntibiotic treatments: are patients willing to wait?
The rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria poses one of the biggest threats to human health. In a Government report on the threat of increasing bacterial resistance, the UK chief medical officer...
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The joy of chocolate: genomics tackles cacao pod colour and flavor
To many people, chocolate is a divine food that brings happiness to their everyday lives. However, little is known about the mechanisms that control the flavor qualities of cacao beans, from which...
View ArticlePopping perceptions on wine: climate effects on the grapevine transcriptome
A fundamental principle in the field of genetics is that phenotypes are the output of interactions between genotypes and the environment. Changes in phenotype caused by differing environmental...
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Yeast factories: engineering bioethanol production through evolution
In order to create truly sustainable biofuels, researchers are investigating methods to produce bioethanol from waste plant dry matter, such as wood and straw, known as lignocellulosic feedstocks. The...
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Tracking bird flu: Jiming Liu discusses how to model the risk of H7N9 infection
Influenza A viruses are able to infect both birds and certain mammals, with the resulting infection commonly referred to as ‘bird flu’. One subtype, H5N1, gained particular notoriety following...
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TB in China: delving into why diagnosis is often delayed
Tuberculosis (TB) is the second leading cause of death in low- and middle-income countries and globally is the second leading cause of death from infectious disease. Delays in seeking healthcare and in...
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Malaria metabolomics and the missing mitochondrial enzyme
In an article published in BMC Biology, Malcolm McConville and colleagues from the University of Melbourne, Australia provide a timely reassessment of carbon metabolism of the malarial parasite...
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Size matters: reproductive success in male mice is linked to baculum width
As body parts go, animal genitalia are particularly diverse – so diverse, in fact, that there’s a specific term for it: ‘genitalic extravagance’. One example of this is the baculum, or penis bone,...
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Frank Hailer and Verena Kutschera discuss the phylogeography of the red fox
Phylogeographic studies of a species aim to uncover how historical processes could account for their geographical distribution, considering the genetic patterns within that species. Fossil records can...
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Not so tough: Michel Milinkovitch discusses sensory organs on crocodylian scales
The crocodylian family includes crocodiles, gharials, alligators and caimans – all tough-skinned reptiles with a characteristic armor of scales. Although their outer body surface is formed of a hard...
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Moulding metastasis: How the tumour microenvironment influences EMT and MET
A recent article published in the Journal of Translational Medicine by Songming Ding and colleagues from the Zhejiang University School of Medicine, China explores the molecular mechanisms of tumour...
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Cancer mapped: An atlas of histone modifications across cancer cell lines
A recent publication in Epigenetics & Chromatin reports on a comprehensive ‘atlas’ of histone post-translational modifications (PTMs) in 24 commonly used cell lines, the majority of which are...
View ArticleDoes night work affect the risk of breast cancer?
Previous observational studies have suggested an association between night work and increased risk of breast cancer. This is a potentially important observation given the high prevalence of breast...
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Preying on predators: trophic cascade unharmed by dingo culling to protect...
In Australia, the culling of dingoes is a relatively common practice to protect livestock. However, these culls are often strongly opposed on the grounds of the ecological effect they may have on the...
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What makes for a powerful enhancer sequence?
How did the zebrafish (pictured below) get its stripes? The stripes are of course a product of the tissue-specific expression of GFP; the ability to control the tissue specificity of gene expression is...
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Unraveling the autistic mind through structural analyses of neural connections
Diffusion MRI tractography in the brain white matter. PLoS ONE 3(12): e4006. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0004006 Autism is increasingly recognised as a disorder of abnormal connectivity patterns in the...
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The power of pilins as protein nanotubes
Protein based nanomaterials that respond to the biological environment have potential as drug delivery vehicles, biosensors and as scaffolds for nanowire-based power generation. The inherent...
View ArticleChild’s play: Reducing childhood risk factors for cardiovascular disease
Physical activity in children plays a vital role in preventing the development of risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD), however the amount of physical activity that young children require is...
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