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Scientists engineer designer proteins that control enzyme activity
It’s hard to understate the importance of enzymes – proteins which function as the engines that enable basically all complex biological processes, from replicating genomes to extracting energy to...
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Cell signal whets appetites for tumor-devouring dendritic cells
Dendritic Cell Revealed In a paper published online Aug. 31 by Nature Medicine, researchers based at the University of Chicago report that using mice with an intact immune system provides a much more...
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Synthetic proteins help solve structure of the fluoride ion channel
Fluoride ion (center) with monobodies attached (top and bottom) Although present almost everywhere – food, soil, toothpaste and especially tap water –, the fluoride ion is highly toxic to...
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Gene test may improve care for 1 out of 4 patients with pulmonary fibrosis
“Comparison of the 5-year survival rate for IPF” by IPFeditor Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is without doubt a devastating disease. Imre Noth,...
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Protein aggregation after heat shock is an organized, reversible cellular...
Heat shock proteins (green) Credit: http://www.pierce-antibodies.com What happens inside a cell when it’s exposed to potentially harmful environmental conditions? It’s not an easy question to answer,...
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Improving the allocation of biomedical research resources with big data
ROI identifies “understudied” diseases, representing high-opportunity conditions for additional investment. Circle size is proportional to opportunity index for the corresponding disease, for 2011...
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Repurposing Common FDA-Approved Drugs to Fight Bacterial Infections
Sean Crosson investigates the growth of bacteria in a petri dish under the hood. (Photo by Sahar Mozaffari, ITM) “What if we could give someone medication we can buy off the shelf from Walgreens to...
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Probiotic formula reverses cow’s milk allergies by changing gut bacteria of...
Video: Argonne National Laboratory There has been an unprecedented increase in food allergies in developed countries, rising by as much as 20 percent in the past decade. Allergy to cow’s milk is one...
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How turtles evolved their skulls
Eunotosaurus africanus, the earliest-known turtle, even though it had no shell. It lived in southern Africa 260 million years ago. Turtles are famous for the their shells, but it was their skulls that...
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The brain perceives motion the same way through both vision and touch
Sliman Bensmaia, PhD, with a rotating drum used for research. The drum is covered with materials with different textures. Human subjects hold their finger against it and report different sensations as...
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Lupus research maps the path to personalized treatments
3D image of a T follicular helper (TFH) cell (yellow), interacting with a B cell (teal) in kidney tissue Lupus is a frustrating and bewildering disease, for both patients and doctors. A chronic...
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125-million-year-old mammal fossil preserved with hair, spines and even a...
The fossil of Spinolestes xenarthrosus is preserved with hair and soft tissues. Photo by Georg Oleschinski. The discovery of a new 125-million-year-old fossil mammal in Spain has pushed back the...
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How mitochondria play a role in breast cancer when the body forgets to do the...
Mitochondria shown in breast cancer tumor cells If you took biology class in high school, you likely learned about mitochondria. Nestled inside our cells, these organelles are often depicted in...
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Neuroscience 2015, and a window into the brain
Brace yourself Chicago, it’s here! This weekend marks the start of Neuroscience 2015, the annual mega-conference of the Society for Neuroscience, world’s largest organization of scientists and...
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Study identifies neurons responsible for symmetric action
A goshawk relies on precise symmetrical motor control to fly (especially through tight spaces). Click here for an animated gif. Whether it’s a bird flying, a kangaroo hopping or a human smiling,...
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Seaweed State of the Union
A University of Chicago researcher has discovered that the type of carbon that seaweeds harness can impact the structure of ecological communities within coastal zones, a finding with wide...
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Sheet music for creating the artificial sense of touch
When you learn to play an instrument, it would be great if you could just skip straight to the part where you can play a real song. But first, you have to know what kind of sounds it can make and how...
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UChicago-led team creates potential new approach for early detection of blood...
Bone marrow from an older woman with mild macrocytic anemia and subtle dyserythropoiesis and occasional ring sideroblasts. (Courtesy of Andrew Artz and John Anastasi) New research published Monday in...
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Gut bacteria can dramatically amplify cancer immunotherapy
Bifidobacterium may stimulate the immune system’s attacks on tumors. (Steven Shirley / Science) By introducing a particular strain of bacteria into the digestive tracts of mice with melanoma,...
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Extremely high genetic variation may shield tumors from treatment
The most rigorous genetic sequencing ever carried out on a single tumor reveals far greater genetic diversity among cancer cells than anticipated. Researchers from the University of Chicago and the...
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