FMRI Brain Scanner Reads Thoughts Letter By Letter

Posted on by

Featured Article Academic Journal Main Category: MRI / PET / Ultrasound Also Included In: Neurology / Neuroscience;Medical Devices / Diagnostics;Biology / Biochemistry Article Date: 02 Jul 2012 - 3:00 PDT

Current ratings for: FMRI Brain Scanner Reads Thoughts Letter By Letter

5 (1 votes)

5 (1 votes)

Bettina Sorger of Maastricht University in The Netherlands and colleagues report their work in the 28 June online issue of Current Biology.

Human communication depends on being able to move and use a multiplicity of muscles, such as in forming sounds and words and making gestures and facial expressions. To do this the neuromuscular system must be healthy and undamaged. But severely motor-disabled patients, such as those with locked-in syndrome, who are fully conscious and aware, can't have a back-and-forth conversation because their neuromuscular system is not intact.

The challenge to scientists trying to find ways to enable such patients to communicate is to tap into those parts of the brain that are performing the mental tasks of communication but are denied the means with which to express them physically, using the motor system or voluntary muscles.

fMRI tracks brain activity by measuring changes in blood flow (hemodynamics) and oxygen in the brain. When a brain area is more active it uses more oxygen, and to meet this increase in demand, the blood flow to the area increases. Thus using fMRI, researchers can produce activation maps that show which parts of the brain are involved in particular brain processes.

Neuroscientists like Adrian Owen and his team have already used fMRI to assess consciousness in people thought to be in an unconscious vegetative state and thus incapable of thought, and enabled them to respond yes or no to questions.

This latest study by Sorger and colleagues takes that work a stage further, as Sorger explained to the press:

Go here to see the original:
FMRI Brain Scanner Reads Thoughts Letter By Letter

Grant brings student researchers to Western

Posted on by

This summer, from June 18 through Aug. 24, Western will host 10 students from across the country to participate in the Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program.

Spiegel, who is involved in REU, said this program benefits Westerns community by making the department and university more visible to other institutions and expanding Western's already vibrant research culture. Students need to be exceptional academically, show interest in research in their personal statements and we look for students who wouldnt have this opportunity otherwise, he said.

The main purpose of the REU program is to give students the opportunity to experience authentic research not found anywhere else, according to Westerns chemistry department's website.

Many students involved in the REU are from community colleges and small liberal arts universities, which may not have the funding or facilities to provide this kind of experience, Spiegel said.

REU programs at other institutions around the country work in a broad range of scientific fields, but at Western the focus is on chemistry, according to the chemistry department's website. During the 10-week program, Western provides students with a $4,500 stipend, a $1,000 allowance for meals and a reimbursement on travel expenses.

Nathan Drake, a Western student and biochemistry major, is head of support for the REU program.

Students are able to ask him questions they dont feel as comfortable asking their assigned faculty members, such as the best place to get coffee, supplies for living situations and can utilize him as a tour guide to make the transition easier, Drake said.

Charlie Snyder, an REU participant from Skidmore College in New York, is working with John Gilbertson to find a metal complex that can turn carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide, she said. Snyder said she thinks this the extensive lab experience will build her skills and improve her resume.

Visiting students work either with existing groups or individually, and always with a faculty member as a mentor. The research focuses on the field of synthetic chemistry, biochemistry and materials chemistry, Spiegel said. Being humbled by undergraduates' enthusiasm and raw intelligence are Spiegels favorite parts about working with the students, he said.

Washington benefits from this program because qualified students are better prepared for a high-tech, competitive workforce after graduation. Many program alumni get jobs in the Seattle area, Spiegel said.

Continue reading here:
Grant brings student researchers to Western

Exercise is key in the fight against Alzheimer's disease

Posted on by

Public release date: 27-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Angela Hopp ahopp@asbmb.org 240-283-6614 American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

In a recent Journal of Biological Chemistry "Paper of the Week," research led by Ayae Kinoshita at the Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan reveals the benefits of exercise in combating Alzheimer's disease.

The most common cause of dementia, Alzheimer's disease results in the loss of cognitive faculty. In the majority of cases, Alzheimer's disease occurs after age 65, and factors such as diet and exercise appear to play a role in its development, with high-fat diets as a risk factor.

Kinoshita's research compared the effects of 1) diet control, 2) voluntary exercise and 3) diet control plus exercise in an Alzheimer's disease mouse model. The results showed that exercise was more beneficial than diet control in reducing -amyloid formation (a defining characteristic of Alzheimer's disease) and restoring memory loss induced by a high-fat diet in these mice. Moreover, Kinoshita's team found that the effect of diet control plus exercise was not significantly different than exercise alone. They attribute the positive effects of exercise to increased degradation of -amyloid deposits in the brain.

"Based on the results in this research," Kinoshita suggests, "exercise should be given priority to prevent Alzheimer's disease."

###

From the article: "Exercise is more effective than diet control in preventing high fat diet-induced -amyloid deposition and memory deficit in amyloid precursor protein transgenic mice" by Masato Maesako, Kengo Uemura, Masakazu Kubota, Akira Kuzuya, Kazuki Sasaki, Naoko Hayashida, Megumi Asada-Utsugi, Kiwamu Watanabe, Maiko Uemura, Takeshi Kihara, Ryosuke Takahashi, Shun Shimohama and Ayae Kinoshita

Corresponding author: Ayae Kinoshita, School of Human Health Sciences, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine in Kyoto, Japan; email: akinoshita@hs.med.kyoto-u.ac.jp

About the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Follow this link:
Exercise is key in the fight against Alzheimer's disease

A new model to understand the supertasting phenomenon

Posted on by

Public release date: 21-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Angela Hopp ahopp@asbmb.org 240-283-6600 American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Supertasting describes the ability to strongly detect food flavors such as bitter and sweet, and it can affect a person's food preferences. For example, supertasters are often averse to green vegetables because their bitter taste is amplified. Supertasters may also prefer foods lower in sugar and fat. Approximately one out of four people is a supertaster, and a supertaster's avoidance of sweet and fatty foods may have protective cardiovascular effects.

Christopher Nosrat and colleagues at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Pennsylvania have developed a new mouse model that may be useful to study supertasting. The team's work was reported in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Nosrat's group developed mice whose taste buds overexpress brain-derived neurotrophic factor, a growth factor for neurons and a protein that is important for the distribution of nerves to sensory organs, such as taste buds. These mice had larger taste buds, an increased number of taste cells per taste bud, and a greater supply of nerves in the taste buds compared with the control mice. These features suggest that the mice could be a model for supertasters, whose tongues have an increased number of fungiform taste buds (a specific kind of taste bud on the front and sides of the tongue that detects the five basic tastes).

"By generating the supertaster rodent model," Nosrat reports, "we are able to study the supertasting phenomenon in detail." Furthermore, brain-derived neurotrophic factor is important for proper development of the nervous system, Nosrat explains, and this mouse model can facilitate the development of therapies for nerve injuries in which taste signaling to the brain has been damaged.

###

From the article: "Targeted taste cell-specific overexpression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor in adult taste buds elevates phosphorylated TrkB protein levels in taste cells, increases taste bud size, and promotes gustatory innervation" by Irina V. Nosrat, Robert F. Margolskee, and Christopher A. Nosrat. See it online: http://www.jbc.org/content/287/20/16791.

Corresponding author: Christopher A. Nosrat, Center for Adult Cancer Research, University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis; email: canosrat@gmail.com.

About the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Originally posted here:
A new model to understand the supertasting phenomenon

Grb2 holds powerful molecular signaling pathway in check

Posted on by

ScienceDaily (June 22, 2012) Once considered merely a passive link between proteins that matter, Grb2 -- pronounced "grab2" -- actually lives up to its nickname with its controlling grip on an important cell signaling pathway, scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center report in the June 22 issue of Cell.

"Grb2 is a switch that controls normal signaling through the fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR)," said the paper's senior author, John Ladbury, Ph.D., professor in MD Anderson's Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

"Perhaps the best way to think about it is that Grb2 controls cell homeostasis (stable state) before a growth factor binds to FGFR, activating this molecular pathway," Ladbury said.

In addition to discovering a fundamental aspect of FGFR signaling, the researchers' discovery points to a potential explanation of why genomic alterations found in breast, bladder and gastric cancers and melanoma might promote cancer formation and growth, Ladbury noted.

FGFR has a docking station to receive growth factors on the cell surface, and another internal region that passes the growth factor signal on to proteins inside the cell by attaching phosphate groups to them.

FGFR employs phosphorylation to regulate a number of important processes, including the cell cycle, cell proliferation and migration. When some of these pathways become overactive, they can contribute to cancer growth and survival.

Like "a car idling in neutral" ready to go

Grb2's full name reflects its location: growth factor receptor-bound protein 2. In the great rush of molecular signaling pathway mapping in the 1990s, Ladbury noted that Grb2 was labeled an "adaptor protein," one that has no activity of its own apart from connecting to other proteins.

Mapping ran way ahead of figuring out each protein's function in a signaling pathway, Ladbury said, and scientists are still catching up in that area.

"When you think about it, why would a cell bother to produce a protein that plays only a passive role linking one protein to another?" Ladbury said. He and his colleagues found that's simply not the case with Grb2.

See more here:
Grb2 holds powerful molecular signaling pathway in check

Ezose Sciences Announces Appointment of Chief Operating Officer

Posted on by

PINE BROOK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Ezose Sciences Inc. announced today that Scott A. Siegel, Ph.D., Vice President, Business Development, has been named Chief Operating Officer, a new position at the company.

Dr. Siegel will assume broad responsibility for operations at Ezose, which focuses on glycomics research to identify biomarkers for use in drug development and disease management, and to characterize biotherapeutic glycoforms. He will also continue to lead Business Development. In his new role he will continue to report to Kiyoshi Nagata,Ph.D., Chairman andChief Executive OfficerofEzose.

Scott has made Ezose a partner of choice for healthcare companies and academic institutions that seek to realize the promise of glycomics in their R&D programs, said Dr. Nagata. At the same time, his talents and energies have already supported various operational activities at Ezose. We look forward to the still broader contributions he will make in his new position.

The naming of a chief operating officer, together with the other appointments we are announcing today, demonstrates our commitment to helping our partners establish glycomics as a basic tool in their biomedical research.

Dr. Siegel brings to his role more than 25 years of experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Before joining Ezose in 2009 he was Vice President of Corporate Development for Redpoint Bio, a publically traded biotechnology company. Earlier, he held various positions in New Business Development and Worldwide Strategic Marketing at Johnson & Johnson. He has served in R&D capacities at Phytera, Inc., Centocor, Inc., and Becton Dickinson and Co., and as Adjunct Associate Professor of Microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Siegel is one of the inventors of Remicade (Infliximab), a therapy for rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory disorders.

Dr. Siegel earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center, and completed his postdoctoral studies in the Department of Pharmacology at Yale University School of Medicine.

In other recent appointments, Ezose named:

About Glycomics

Glycomics is the study of glycans, the sugar chains that during the biochemical process known as glycosylation become attached to many proteins expressed by human cells. The particular glycans involved may crucially determine the function of the resulting glycoprotein and its role in health and disease.

See original here:
Ezose Sciences Announces Appointment of Chief Operating Officer

How Protein Clumps Are Pulled Apart

Posted on by

Editor's Choice Main Category: Biology / Biochemistry Article Date: 20 Jun 2012 - 11:00 PDT

Current ratings for: 'How Protein Clumps Are Pulled Apart'

In humans, amyloid fibers form biological nanostructures that house pigments and other molecules, and may also play an important role in long-term memory. These fibers are one of the most stable protein-based structures in nature, so when they are harmful in diseases, such as Parkinson's, they are extremely difficult for cells to break down.

As a result, Martin Duennwald and AnaLisa Echeverria, at the Boston Biomedical Research Institute, and James Shorter, assistant professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of Pennsylvania, set out to find ways to promote beneficial amyloid fiber assembly or to reverse its pathogenic assembly, at will. The study is published in PLoS Biology.

Yeast have a protein called Hsp104 that can quickly disassemble amyloid fibers, and this activity is significantly enhances by a group of small heat shock proteins. However, humans and other animals do not have the Hsp104 protein, thus raising the question of whether human cells are also capable of disassembling amyloid fibers?

In this study, the researchers found that when Hsp104 is absent, the yeast small heat shock proteins work together with other proteins to disassemble amyloid fibers. The proteins slowly remove each subunit one by one from the tips of the fibers. The team were surprised by this activity as these proteins are best known for their role in preventing protein clumping.

Shorter explained:

According to the researchers, the proteins of the amyloid-disaggregating machinery in yeast are also present in humans. Therefore, human small heat shock proteins are able to work together with other proteins to disassemble amyloid fibers, even without Hsp104.

They state that these findings could lead to the development of new therapies for different neurodegenerative disorders.

Their aim is to activate the machinery in humans to pull apart disease-causing amyloid fibers where and when needed by increasing the expression of heat shock proteins.

See original here:
How Protein Clumps Are Pulled Apart

Power Impian leads with revolutionary skin care trend

Posted on by

21st June, 2012

Power Impian International Sdn. BHd., a subsidiary of Power Root Group has cooperated with Mibelle Biochemistry to launch an innovative anti-aging product, Impian SemCell at Swiss Garden Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, on 24 May 2012 and MOU signing ceremony has been held between Power Impian International Sdn. Bhd., Chemical Solutions Sdn. Bhd. and Mibelle Biochemistry for the exclusiveness agreement of latest innovative skin care formulation, DermCom Forte to Power Impian.

PhytoCellTec Malus Domestica was the result of scientific research by Dr. Fred Zulli from Mibelle Biochemistry. According to the research, Swiss Apple Stem Cell (PhytoCellTec Malus Domestica) is able to increase the vitality of body stem cell up to 92% thus is good for improving overall body health and youthfulness.

Since its launch in November last year, Power Impian have received a lot of positive feedback and testimonies for anti-aging benefit as well as health regained benefit such as reduced skin scars for allergic problem, improved skin radiance and fairer skin etc. From the testimony feedback, the consumer can have the significant changes for the skin problem and health problem within a short period time of consumption.

To answer the ever growing demand and to fit the needs of everyone, Power Impian has now cooperated again with Mibelle Biochemistry and Chemical Solutions Sdn. Bhd. to further formulate a qualitative and innovative skin care product series enhanced with DermCom Forte, one natural active ingredient formulation for skin care cosmetic which is just launched in Barcelona in last month and has been awarded silver prize. This active ingredient has been studied and came out with a lot of supportive data from Dr. Fred Zulli. With this new and unique formulation supported by the latest technology and clinical study, this upcoming skin care product series will be the superb quality choice and would perform satisfactorily in the market.

Go here to read the rest:
Power Impian leads with revolutionary skin care trend

Link between vitamin C and twin seedlings can increase seed production in crops

Posted on by

ScienceDaily (June 18, 2012) Biochemists at the University of California, Riverside report a new role for vitamin C in plants: promoting the production of twins and even triplets in plant seeds.

Daniel R. Gallie, a professor of biochemistry, and Zhong Chen, an associate research biochemist in the Department of Biochemistry, found that increasing the level of dehydroascorbate reductase (DHAR), a naturally occurring enzyme that recycles vitamin C in plants and animals, increases the level of the vitamin and results in the production of twin and triplet seedlings in a single seed.

The value of the discovery lies in the potential to produce genetically identical seedlings and increase production of high-value crops.

"The ability to increase fertility can be extremely useful when the inherent rate of fertility is low or the value of the crop is great, such as corn in which the production of multiple embryos would significantly boost its protein content," Gallie said. "The extra seedlings per seed may also enhance per-seed survival chances for some species."

Study results appear in the online journal PLoS ONE.

Just as in humans, twins in plants can be either genetically identical or fraternal. Gallie and Chen discovered that the twins and triplets produced in tobacco plants when vitamin C was increased were true twins or triplets as they were genetically identical.

In the lab, the researchers went on to show that injecting plant ovaries with vitamin C was sufficient to produce twins or triplets and that the vitamin causes the zygote, the fertilized egg, to divide into two or even three fertilized egg cells before these cells proceed through subsequent stages of development to produce twins or triplets.

Although they used tobacco in their research, Gallie predicts vitamin C could generate twins and triplets in other plants as well.

"Because the early stages of embryo development are so conserved among plant species, we expect that vitamin C will have a similar effect in almost any plant," he said.

A question raised by the study is whether vitamin C might have a similar effect in humans. In contrast to most animals, humans cannot make vitamin C and it must, therefore, be obtained regularly from dietary sources.

Read the original:
Link between vitamin C and twin seedlings can increase seed production in crops

Set science free from publishers' paywalls

Posted on by

Continue reading page |1 |2

IF YOU would like to read the latest research from my lab, be my guest. Our report on a protein from a mouse version of the winter vomiting virus has just been published in the journal PLoS One and is available online for free to anyone (vol 7, p e38723).

Contrast that with my first paper, published in 1990, which you could only have read if you had access to a university library with an expensive subscription to the journal Biochemistry.

Back in 1990 before the world wide web that was how scientific publishing was done. Today it is being transformed by open access publishers like the Public Library of Science. Rather than being funded by journal subscriptions, these publishers charge authors or their institutions the cost of publication and make their papers available for free online.

Many scientists are passionate supporters of open access and want to see the old model swept away. They have launched a protest movement dubbed the Academic Spring and organised a high-profile boycott of journals published by Elsevier. And the tide appears to be turning in their favour. This week the Finch Report, commissioned by the UK government, recommended that research papers especially those funded by the taxpayer should be made freely available to anyone who wants to read them.

Advocates of open access claim it has major advantages over the subscription model that has been around since academic journals were invented in the 17th century. They argue that science operates more effectively when findings can be accessed freely and immediately by scientists around the world. Better yet, it allows new results to be data-mined using powerful web-crawling technology that might spot connections between data insights that no individual would be likely to make.

But if open access is so clearly superior, why has it not swept all before it? The model has been around for a decade but about nine-tenths of the approximately 2 million research papers that appear every year are still published behind a paywall.

Part of the reason is scientists' reluctance to abandon traditional journals and the established ranking among them. Not all journals are equal they are graded by impact factor, which reflects the average number of times that the papers they publish are cited by others. Nature's impact factor is 36, one of the highest going, whereas Biochemistry's is around 3.2. Biochemistry is well regarded many journals have lower factors but a paper in Nature is still a much greater prize.

Unfortunately, it is prized for the wrong reasons. Impact factors apply to journals as a whole, not individual papers or their authors.

Despite this, scientists are still judged on publications in high-impact journals; funding and promotion often depend on it. Consequently few are willing to risk bucking the trend. This has allowed several publishers to resist calls to abandon the subscription model.

Original post:
Set science free from publishers' paywalls

Scientists discover how key enzyme involved in aging, cancer assembles

Posted on by

A model representing the interaction of the p65 protein with telomerase RNA. The RNA backbone of telomerase (multicolored) is shown interacting with three different parts of the p65 protein (shown in gold, blue, and light green). Credit: Mahavir Singh, Juli Feigon/UCLA Chemistry and Biochemistry

(Phys.org) -- UCLA biochemists have mapped the structure of a key proteinRNA complex that is required for the assembly of telomerase, an enzyme important in both cancer and aging.

The researchers found that a region at the end of the p65 protein that includes a flexible tail is responsible for bending telomerase's RNA backbone in order to create a scaffold for the assembly of other protein building blocks. Understanding this protein, which is found in a type of single-celled organism that lives in fresh water ponds, may help researchers predict the function of similar proteins in humans and other organisms.

The study was published June 14 in the online edition of the journal Molecular Cell and is scheduled for publication in the print edition on July 13.

The genetic code of both the single-celled protozoan Tetrahymena and humans is stored within long strands of DNA packaged neatly within chromosomes. The telomerase enzyme helps create telomeres protective caps at the ends of the chromosomes that prevent the degradation of our DNA, said Juli Feigon, a UCLA professor of chemistry and biochemistry and senior author of the study.

Each time the cell divides, the telomeres shorten, acting like the slow-burning fuse of a time bomb. After many divisions, the telomeres become eroded to a point that can trigger cell death.

Cells with abnormally high levels of telomerase activity constantly rebuild their protective chromosomal caps, allowing them to replicate indefinitely and become, essentially, immortal. Yet undying cells generally prove to be more of a curse than a blessing, Feigon said.

"Telomerase is not very active in most of our cells because we don't want them to live forever," said Feigon, who is also a researcher at UCLA's Molecular Biology Institute and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. "After many generations, DNA damage builds up and we wouldn't want to pass those errors on to subsequent cells."

Overactive telomerase has potentially lethal consequences far beyond the propagation of erroneous DNA. The enzyme is particularly lively within cancer cells, which prevents them from dying out naturally. Finding a way to turn off telomerase in cancer cells might help prevent the diseased cells from multiplying.

Enlarge

Read the original:
Scientists discover how key enzyme involved in aging, cancer assembles

Depth of the Field

Posted on by

Linda McCormick, a pollution-prevention expert with a biochemistry degree from UC Berkeley, said recycling was not a priority at the University when she first became a resource conservation manager for the UNM Recycling Program in 2003.

McCormick said she is proud to watch the program grow, and that UNM recycled 125,000 tons of material last year. McCormick said the recycling program includes eight staff members who pick up recyclable materials from all over campus every day. She said staff members separate the recyclable materials into different categories to put into bales, which are then sold to a range of recycling companies. She said the program helps the University save a lot of money on trash disposal.

McCormick said the program utilizes a lot of unused items from other departments. She said the program reuses trash bins from Athletics, which adds a great component to the recycling program.

The UNM Recycling Program welcomes students, staff and faculty members to drop off recyclable trash at their location next to Tucker Avenue and Camino del Servicio on North Campus.

Follow this link:
Depth of the Field

Link between vitamin C, twins can increase seed production in crops

Posted on by

A boost of vitamin C results in the production of twin seedlings of tobacco. Credit: Gallie Lab, UC Riverside

Biochemists at the University of California, Riverside report a new role for vitamin C in plants: promoting the production of twins and even triplets in plant seeds.

Daniel R. Gallie, a professor of biochemistry, and Zhong Chen, an associate research biochemist in the Department of Biochemistry, found that increasing the level of dehydroascorbate reductase (DHAR), a naturally occurring enzyme that recycles vitamin C in plants and animals, increases the level of the vitamin and results in the production of twin and triplet seedlings in a single seed.

The value of the discovery lies in the potential to produce genetically identical seedlings and increase production of high-value crops.

"The ability to increase fertility can be extremely useful when the inherent rate of fertility is low or the value of the crop is great, such as corn in which the production of multiple embryos would significantly boost its protein content," Gallie said. "The extra seedlings per seed may also enhance per-seed survival chances for some species."

Study results appear in the online international journal PLoS ONE.

Just as in humans, twins in plants can be either genetically identical or fraternal. Gallie and Chen discovered that the twins and triplets produced in tobacco plants when vitamin C was increased were true twins or triplets as they were genetically identical.

In the lab, the researchers went on to show that injecting plant ovaries with vitamin C was sufficient to produce twins or triplets and that the vitamin causes the zygote, the fertilized egg, to divide into two or even three fertilized egg cells before these cells proceed through subsequent stages of development to produce twins or triplets.

Although they used tobacco in their research, Gallie predicts vitamin C could generate twins and triplets in other plants as well.

"Because the early stages of embryo development are so conserved among plant species, we expect that vitamin C will have a similar effect in almost any plant," he said.

Read the rest here:
Link between vitamin C, twins can increase seed production in crops

Miss Davis County crowned Miss Utah 2012

Posted on by

Kara Arnold, Miss Davis County, was crowned Miss Utah 2012 on Saturday night at the Capitol Theater in Salt Lake City.

Arnold, of Bountiful, is a biochemistry major at the University of Utah and was recently accepted into the universitys medical school. Along with the title she won Saturday, she will receive a $10,000 scholarship to help her toward her goal of becoming a physician. She received a preliminary award for academic excellence, which is sponsored by and decided upon by the Miss America organization.

During her reigning year, Arnold will travel the state promoting her chosen platform "Discover Your Potential Step Up with STEM," serving as an ambassador for the Childrens Miracle Network Hospitals. She will also be the official spokeswoman for the Child Protection Registry, which is dedicated to protecting Utah families from adult-oriented solicitations.

First runner-up was Miss Duchesne County, Brittani Reinhardt; second runner-up was Miss Pioneer Valley, Ciera Pekarcik; and third runner up was Miss Orem, Hannah Harkness. All will receive varying amounts of scholarship money.

Copyright 2012 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Read more from the original source:
Miss Davis County crowned Miss Utah 2012

Link Between Vitamin C and Twins Can Increase Seed Production in Crops

Posted on by

Discovery can assist farming of low-fertility crops, say UC Riverside biochemists

By Iqbal Pittalwala on June 18, 2012

RIVERSIDE, Calif. Biochemists at the University of California, Riverside report a new role for vitamin C in plants: promoting the production of twins and even triplets in plant seeds.

Daniel R. Gallie, a professor of biochemistry, and Zhong Chen, an associate research biochemist in the Department of Biochemistry, found that increasing the level of dehydroascorbate reductase (DHAR), a naturally occurring enzyme that recycles vitamin C in plants and animals, increases the level of the vitamin and results in the production of twin and triplet seedlings in a single seed.

The value of the discovery lies in the potential to produce genetically identical seedlings and increase production of high-value crops.

A boost of vitamin C results in the production of twin seedlings of tobacco. Photo credit: Gallie Lab, UC Riverside.

The ability to increase fertility can be extremely useful when the inherent rate of fertility is low or the value of the crop is great, such as corn in which the production of multiple embryos would significantly boost its protein content, Gallie said. The extra seedlings per seed may also enhance per-seed survival chances for some species.

Study results appear in the online international journal PLoS ONE.

Just as in humans, twins in plants can be either genetically identical or fraternal. Gallie and Chen discovered that the twins and triplets produced in tobacco plants when vitamin C was increased were true twins or triplets as they were genetically identical.

In the lab, the researchers went on to show that injecting plant ovaries with vitamin C was sufficient to produce twins or triplets and that the vitamin causes the zygote, the fertilized egg, to divide into two or even three fertilized egg cells before these cells proceed through subsequent stages of development to produce twins or triplets.

Go here to read the rest:
Link Between Vitamin C and Twins Can Increase Seed Production in Crops

Tracking breast cancer cells on the move

Posted on by

Public release date: 14-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Angela Hopp 240-283-6614 American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Breast cancer cells frequently move from their primary site and invade bone, decreasing a patient's chance of survival. This process of metastasis is complex, and factors both within the breast cancer cells and within the new bone environment play a role. In next week's Journal of Biological Chemistry "Paper of the Week," Roger Gomis and colleagues at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine in Spain investigated how breast cancer cells migrate to bone.

In particular, they examined the role of NOG, a gene important to proper bone development. Previously, NOG was associated with bone metastasis in prostate cancer, but its specific role in breast cancer to bone metastasis remained unknown.

Gomis and colleagues showed that once breast cancer cells are on the move NOG enables them to specifically invade the bone and establish a tumor. It does this in two ways. First, NOG escalates bone degeneration by increasing the number of mature osteoclasts (bone cells that break down bone), essentially creating a spot in the bone for the metastatic breast cancer cells to take up residence. Second, NOG keeps the metastatic breast cancer cells in a stem-cell-like state, which enables them to propagate and form a new tumor in the bone environment.

Gomis explains that the reason NOG expression leads to an increased potential for breast cancer to bone metastasis is because it not only affects features inherent to aggressive cancer cells (such as the ability to establish a new tumor) but also influences properties of the bone environment (such as osteoclast degeneration of bone).

###

From the article: "Identification of NOG as a specific breast cancer bone metastasis-supporting gene" by Maria Tarragona, Milica Pavlovic, Anna Arnal-Estap, Jelena Urosevic, Mnica Morales, Marc Guiu, Evarist Planet, Eva Gonzlez-Surez, Roger R. Gomis

Link to "Paper in Press": http://www.jbc.org/content/early/2012/04/30/jbc.M112.355834.full.pdf+html

Corresponding author: Roger R. Gomis, Oncology Programme, Institute for Research in Biomedicine in Barcelona, Spain; e-mail: roger.gomis@irbbarcelona.org

Read the original:
Tracking breast cancer cells on the move

MU biochemistry assistant professor Peter Cornish named Pew Scholar

Posted on by

Friday, June 15, 2012 | 7:45 p.m. CDT

COLUMBIA Peter Cornish has always been interested in discovery and figuring out how things function.

These interests have led him to national recognition.

Cornish, a biochemistry assistant professor at MU, is one of the22individuals in the nation to be named a 2012 Pew Scholar in the biomedical sciences.He is the first MU faculty member to receive the honor while working at the university.

It is a big deal for me and a big deal for the university, Cornish said. It not only provides money for research but also notoriety.

Pew Scholars are considered to be among the most innovative young researchers. According to the Pew Charitable Trusts website, the community includes Nobel Prize winners, MacArthur Fellows and Albert Lasker BasicMedical Research Award recipients.

Since 1985, the program has invited top research institutions to nominate one candidate each year. It received 134 eligible nominations from a pool of 179 institutions this year.

Winners receive $240,000over four years to help them pursue their research without major restrictions.The program looks to back scientists early in their careers so they can take calculated risks to help advance the human health field.

Even though Cornish only started at MU in the spring of 2010, his talent, past work and future potential made him a great fit to be MUs Pew Scholar nominee, said Gerald Hazelbauer, chairman of the Biochemistry Department.

Cornish is working with technologycalled Frster resonance energy transfer (FRET), which is relatively new and developing quite rapidly, Hazelbauer said. Single-molecule FRET gives scientists the ability to look at molecules on an individual basis.

View original post here:
MU biochemistry assistant professor Peter Cornish named Pew Scholar

Brainiac: The history and science of doping

Posted on by

The return of the Olympics means that we'll get to enjoy some of those weird and delightful summer sports -- stuff like archery, handball, and synchronized swimming. Unfortunately, it also means the return of a thorny and frustrating subject: doping. In Run, Swim, Throw, Cheat, Chris Cooper, a professor of biochemistry at the University of Essex, provides an extraordinarily thorough account of the history and science of drugs in sports. We tend to think about doping in a relatively unsophisticated way, Cooper argues: It's bad, and we want to stop it. In fact, however, the science of doping is extraordinarily complex, and its history is nuanced and surprising. We need to understand doping better.

The first thing to grasp about doping, Cooper writes, is that, for most of history, no one's cared about it -- the idea of "doping" simply didn't exist. The ancient Greeks were entirely open about their use of nutritional and pharmaceutical aides: "Charmis of Sparta swore that dried figs led him to Olympic gold in 668 B.C.," Cooper writes, while the great Greek physician Galen "noted the positive benefits of eating herbs, mushrooms, and testicles." In 1904, runner Thomas Hicks won the St. Louis Olympic Marathon "on a combination of strychnine injections laced with brandy," and no one seemed to mind; in the inter-war years, scientists on both sides of the Atlantic openly and enthusiastically endorsed performance-enhancing drugs, including cocaine. In the 1930s, British soccer teams proudly boasted about the supplements they used: the Wolverhampton Wanderers, for example, "informed the media of their latest pharmaceutical tricks, publicizing their use of extracts of monkey glands in the newspaper the News of the World." Doping was banned at the Olympics in 1938, but still didn't have a real stigma -- professional athletes continued to use drugs.

For most of history, Cooper writes, "The debate, as far as we can judge, was about methods not morals. The view seemed to be that any way to obtain an edge was fine." Really, Cooper argues, it should come as no surprise that no one cared about doping: Ordinary people were enthusiastic about drugs in everyday life, too. In the 1940s and 50s, it was totally normal for a person to pop an amphetamine pill to boost his mood. It was only when society as a whole turned against drugs after the 1960s that doping in sports became a truly moral issue.

So we are still working out own attitudes toward doping, which are relatively recent -- and those attitudes must contend with the science of doping, which, Cooper shows, is equally double-edged. In the first place, it's hard to know what really works -- and, therefore, which offenses an athlete ought to be punished for. Clinical trials of performance-enhancing drugs, he points out, are of limited relevance to elite athletes, since they have bodies which differ in substantial ways from those of even very fit ordinary people. And, at the highest levels, elite athletes often possess built-in advantages which are 'unfair,' and which can be arranged on a spectrum along with pharmaceutical or nutritional advantages. Some athletes, for example, are "doped" by their genes -- like the Finnish skier Eero Mantyranta, who won seven Olympic medals, in part because he possessed a mutant gene which caused his body to over-produce EPO, a hormone which drives the production of red blood cells. EPO, as it happens, is also a performance-enhancing drug. Similarly, a small percentage of female athletes, Cooper points out, are born with hormonal profiles which give them unusual strength and speed. Above and beyond these issues, there's the fact of "technological doping" -- the benefits which an economically advanced home country can provide for an athlete-in-training.

Doping, in short, is complicated, and hard to talk about in a monolithic way. The only way to make sense of it is to think very carefully, on a case-by-case basis, about which sorts of interventions constitute effective, meaningful cheating. (Some doping interventions might in fact boil down to the placebo effect.) Unfortunately, our approach to doping is as inconsistent as our policy on recreational drugs. Caffeine, for example, has a demonstrable and substantial affect on athletic performance, and yet no one's outlawed it -- almost certainly because it's legal in civilian life. This suggests that many of our attitudes about doping may have little to do with sports. Instead, they proceed out of our moral concerns about drug use in general.

Cooper devotes most of the book to a fine-grained discussion of the science of doping, and shows that it's full of surprising wrinkles and exceptions. As a whole, his account suggests that we are not spending enough money and time to really understand the problem. Ultimately, he makes the case for a more empirical and pro-active approach to thinking about drugs in sports, driven by research. More research would help us anticipate new developments and concentrate on those doping practices which truly create unfairness. "We can no more 'win' a war on drugs in sport than we can 'win' a war on drugs in society," he concludes -- the best we can do is be informed, and to focus on increasing fairness, one case at a time.

See original here:
Brainiac: The history and science of doping

UNC's Saskia Neher selected as 2012 Pew Scholar

Posted on by

Newswise CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Saskia B. Neher, PhD, assistant professor in the department of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, was one of twenty-two of Americas most promising scientists to be named Pew Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Neher is the eleventh such recipient for UNC since the program began in 1985 and she is one of 8 women among 22 awardees, overall, nationwide.

The 2012 Pew Scholars will join a select community that includes MacArthur Fellows, recipients of the Albert Lasker Medical Research Award and three Nobel Prize winners. The program encourages early-career scientists to advance research that leads to important medical breakthroughs and treatments.

Nehers research explores the molecular systems that help to activateand disablethe breakdown of fat. When we consume food rich in fat, molecules called lipases break down the fat so that it can be used as a source of fuel or be stored. In humans, defects in a lipase called LPL increase an individuals risk of cardiovascular disease. The activity of this molecule is regulated by a pair of proteins: one that activates LPL and another that switches it off when an animal fasts. Neher uncovered evidence that suggests how the activating protein functions.

Nehers work now will be to determine how the regulators of LPL interact, using sophisticated approaches in biochemistry, molecular biology and crystallography. Her research should provide insights into the regulation of an important process that could produce new targets for the treatment or prevention of cardiovascular disease.

Pew is pleased to provide this countrys most ambitious and dedicated scientists with timely funding that enables them to explore novel areas of investigation early in their careers, at what may be the most inventive and creative period in their research, said Rebecca W. Rimel, president and CEO of The Pew Charitable Trusts.

The program has invested more than $125 million to fund over 500 scholars. Recipients receive $240,000 over four years to pursue their research without restriction. Applicants are nominated by an invited institution and demonstrate both excellence and innovation in their research. This year, 179 institutions were requested to nominate a candidate and 134 eligible nominations were received.

View original post here:
UNC's Saskia Neher selected as 2012 Pew Scholar

Did Lance Try to Fly Under the Radar?

Posted on by

Seven-time Tour de France champ and cancer activist Lance Armstrong is back in the news, but not for great physical feats.

This time, hes defending himself against doping charges that could strip him of the seven Tour de France titles that he won from 1999 to 2005.

While many of the allegations have been raised before, and were the subject of a federal investigation that concluded several months ago with no criminal charges, there is some surprising new evidence that Armstrong continued to dope during his "comeback" to professional cycling from 2009 to 2011.

PHOTOS: Lance Armstrong: Cycling Legend

It seems odd he would continue, said Thomas Brenna, professor of nutritional science at Cornell University and researcher into the use of steroids in sports.

Brenna says that even though Armstrong did not fail any doping tests, his biochemistry may have been suspicious enough to raise alarm bells by U.S. Anti-Doping Agency officials.

They are charging that he was flying under the radar, Brenna said. That indicates that they believe that based on the totality of the evidence that he has been systematically been doping and avoiding detection in same sense that the BALCO folks (the San Francisco Bay Area lab linked to doping violations by Giants slugger Barry Bonds and Olympic sprinter Marion Jones) were keeping track of when one could dope and take a test and pass it.

According to the allegations by USADA, Armstrong figured out a way to get a performance benefit from blood-boosting drugs without tripping the wire.

Yes, there are ways to fool the test if you know what you are doing, said Brenna. Im not going to say how.

The charges against Armstrong and five former team officials and team doctors were contained in a June 12 letter from USADA. The letters existence was first revealed by The Washington Post and has been published by the Wall Street Journal.

Visit link:
Did Lance Try to Fly Under the Radar?