The discovery of a major gear in the biological clock that tells the body when to sleep and metabolize food may lead to new drugs to treat sleep problems and metabolic disorders, including diabetes. Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies showed that two cellular switches found on the nucleus of mouse cells, known…
Newly found gene mutations tied to autism may one day help scientists classify types of the developmental disorder and shape treatments based on their DNA profiles, researchers said. The mutations aren’t found in parents of autistic people, and don’t guarantee children will have autism, the scientists found. Some, though, are more common in children of…
Ants put an active effort into developing social immunity, the phenomenon whereby contact with infected individuals can confer resistance to the community, according to a study published in PLoS Biology. Ants will groom their fungus-infected nestmates more, which promotes minor fungal infections that spur a fungus-specific immune response, similar to “chickenpox parties” popular before the…
Why do some persons succumb to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) while others who suffered the same ordeal do not? UCLA scientists have linked two genes involved in serotonin production to a higher risk of developing PTSD. Published in the online edition of the Journal of Affective Disorders, the findings suggest that susceptibility to PTSD is…
In a closely watched case, the Supreme Court threw out a lower court ruling allowing human genes to be patented, a topic of enormous interest to cancer researchers, patients and drug makers. The Court overturned patents belonging to Myriad Genetics on genes linked to increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer. Scientists say genes carrying…
Biologists and engineers are working on a tiny robot that functions like a living creature and could be safely used within the human body to diagnose disease. Called ‘Cyberplasm’, it’s based loosely on the sea lamprey, and will have an electronic nervous system, ‘eye’ and ‘nose’ sensors derived from mammalian cells, and artificial muscles that…
An unprecedented project that will attempt to unravel the ways our biological clocks tick is underway by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA. No one really knows the details of how our body clocks work. But when the rhythms get messed up, the results can be horrendous. Accidents, loss of productivity, disease, including…
Cheeseburgers pack on the pounds, but in mice a high-fat diet also packs on new nerve cells in the brain. More brain cells may seem like a good thing, but these newly sprouted cells appear to trigger weight gain in the animals, a new study finds. The results offer insight into how the brain controls…
Findings help to explain how microbes programme a developing immune system.
Information security experts believe the blurring of the boundaries between computer and biological viruses is not too far-fetched—and could have very real consequences. The origins of each virus are strikingly different: A computer virus is designed, whereas a biological virus evolves under pressure from natural selection. But what would happen if these origins are switched?…