Body

PHILADELPHIA -- Protein design is technique that is increasingly valuable to a variety of fields, from biochemistry to therapeutics to materials engineering. University of Pennsylvania chemists have taken this kind of design a step further; using computational methods, they have created the first custom-designed protein crystal.

Picking an ambitious design target with challenging features, the researchers' success bodes well for the technique's use in better understanding proteins' makeup or using their self-assembling properties in making new materials with unique properties.

Scientists are reporting development and successful testing of a fabric coating that would give new meaning to the phrase "stain-resistant" — a coating that would take an active role in sloughing off grease, dirt, strong acids and other gunk. The report, which shows that the coating is even more water-repellent than car wax or Teflon, appears in ACS' journal Langmuir.

Scientists are reporting that the mucus lining the stomachs of pigs could be a long-sought, abundant source of "mucins" being considered for use as broad-spectrum anti-viral agents to supplement baby formula and for use in personal hygiene and other consumer products to protect against a range of viral infections. Their study appears in ACS' journal Biomacromolecules.

One in six men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime, the second leading cause of death among men in the United States.

It's a serious problem and current diagnostic tests aren't very specific. But a research team at the University of Central Florida NanoScience Technology Center has found a more accurate test that not only determines whether a patient has prostate cancer, but also how aggressive it is.

University of California, San Diego scientists have used powerful computational tools and laboratory tests to discover new support for a once-marginalized theory about the underlying cause of Parkinson's disease.

The new results conflict with an older theory that insoluble intracellular fibrils called amyloids cause Parkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases. Instead, the new findings provide a step-by-step explanation of how a "protein-run-amok" aggregates within the membranes of neurons and punctures holes in them to cause the symptoms of Parkinson's disease.

Researchers from the University of Oviedo have for the first time analysed a DNA fragment from commercial feed for aquarium cichlids, aquaculture salmon and marine fish in aquariums. The results show that in order to manufacture this feed, eight species of high trophic level fish have been used, some of them coming directly from extractive fisheries.

Researchers at the University of Granada Department of Botanic have participated in an international study that has confirmed that global warming is causing plants to migrate to higher altitudes. The study –recently published in Science– analyzed species diversity shifts in 66 summits of 17 European ranges between 2001 and 2008.

BBSRC-funded researchers at Cambridge University have shed new light on a common food poisoning bug. Using real-time video microscopy, coupled with mathematical modelling, they have changed our assumptions about Salmonella and how it infects human cells. The research was published in Interface.

Text message reminders to parents about flu vaccinations may help boost the number of children vaccinated, according to researchers at Columbia University Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. Full study findings are reported in the April 25 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

ICP researchers published today in the 'Proceedings of the Royal Society B' one of the first fossil-based evidences supporting the evolutionary theory of ageing, which predicts that species evolving in low mortality and resource-limited ecosystems tend to be more long-lived.

The study shows that the tooth height of endemic insular mammals is an indicator of longevity, and questions the use of this morphological characteristic as an exclusive indicator to infer the diet of fossil species, and to interpret the climate in which they lived.

La Jolla, CA ---- Humans are built to hunger for fat, packing it on during times of feast and burning it during periods of famine. But when deluged by foods rich in fat and sugar, the modern waistline often far exceeds the need to store energy for lean times, and the result has been an epidemic of diabetes, heart disease and other obesity-related problems.

Now, scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have identified the linchpin of fat metabolism, a protein known as fibroblast growth factor 1 (FGF1), which may open new avenues in the treatment of diabetes.

For centuries, women have been reporting engorgement of the upper, anterior part of the vagina during the stage of sexual excitement, though the fact the structure of this phenomenon had not been anatomically determined. A new study published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine says that this elusive structure does exist anatomically.

Philadelphia, PA, April 25, 2012 – It has been estimated that roughly 4% to 6% of child abuse victims present first to an ophthalmologist. In a case study in the April issue of the Journal of American Association of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus, doctors at the University of Washington and the Seattle Children's Hospital describe a case of a 13-month-old girl who was initially diagnosed with corneal abrasion and a mild infection. She was eventually identified as a victim of child abuse.

Primary cilia are hair-like structures which protrude from almost all mammalian cells. They are thought to be sensory and involved in sampling the cell's environment. New research, published in BioMed Central's open access journal Cilia, launched today, shows that cilia on cells in the retina and liver are able to make stable connections with each other - indicating that cilia not only are able to sense their environment but are also involved in cell communication.

Discerning males remain faithful

...if you are a spider. Sex for male orb web spiders (Argiope bruennichi) is a two shot affair since the act of mating destroys their genitalia. If they survive being eaten during their first encounter with a female, they have two choices – to mate again with the same female (monogynous) or try to find a new partner (bigynous). New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Frontiers in Zoology shows that choice of mating behavior for A. bruennichi depends on the size and age of the first female they mate with.