ScienceDaily: Biotechnology News

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• New method for detecting lung cancer unveiled
• Inner workings of virus responsible for rare skin cancer
• Avoiding fatal responses to flu infection
• Team discovers treatable mechanism responsible for often deadly response to flu
• New insight into immune tolerance furthers understanding of autoimmune disease
• Human-chimp evolutionary divergence: Methylation and gene sequence co-evolved, study suggests
• Switch that controls stem cell pluripotency discovered
• A call to arms for synthetic biology
• New light on detection of bacterial infection: Polymers fluoresce in the presence of bacteria
• Scientists take first step towards creating 'inorganic life'

New method for detecting lung cancer unveiled Posted: 15 Sep 2011 01:35 PM PDT When lung cancer strikes, it often spreads silently into more advanced stages before being detected. In a new article, biological engineers and medical scientists reveal how their discovery could provide a much earlier warning signal.

Inner workings of virus responsible for rare skin cancer Posted: 15 Sep 2011 10:44 AM PDT Scientists have begun to uncover how the virus that causes most Merkel cell carcinoma -- a rare and aggressive skin cancer -- operates, meaning that a rational chemotherapeutic target for this cancer could be developed in the near future.

Avoiding fatal responses to flu infection Posted: 15 Sep 2011 10:44 AM PDT Most of the time, being ill with the flu is little more than a nuisance. Other times, it can spark an exaggerated immune response and turn deadly. Researchers have now traced the origins of this severe immune response -- called a cytokine storm -- to its source.

Team discovers treatable mechanism responsible for often deadly response to flu Posted: 15 Sep 2011 10:44 AM PDT Researchers have found a novel mechanism by which certain viruses such as influenza trigger a type of immune reaction that can severely sicken or kill those infected.

New insight into immune tolerance furthers understanding of autoimmune disease Posted: 15 Sep 2011 10:44 AM PDT The mechanisms that underlie immune activation and tolerance are not completely understood. Now, a new research study provides intriguing insight into the complex immune regulatory mechanisms that underlie immune tolerance.

Human-chimp evolutionary divergence: Methylation and gene sequence co-evolved, study suggests Posted: 15 Sep 2011 10:16 AM PDT Scientists published the first quantitative evidence supporting the notion that genome-wide "bookmarking" of DNA with methyl molecules -- a process called methylation -- and underlying DNA sequences have co-evolved in a kind of molecular slow-dance over the 6 million years since humans and chimps diverged from a common ancestor.

Switch that controls stem cell pluripotency discovered Posted: 15 Sep 2011 10:16 AM PDT Scientists have found a control switch that regulates stem cell "pluripotency," the capacity of stem cells to develop into any type of cell in the human body. The discovery reveals that pluripotency is regulated by a single event in a process called alternative splicing.

A call to arms for synthetic biology Posted: 15 Sep 2011 08:40 AM PDT Scientists have replaced all of the DNA in the arm of a yeast chromosome with computer-designed, synthetically produced DNA that is structurally distinct from its original DNA to produce a healthy yeast cell.

New light on detection of bacterial infection: Polymers fluoresce in the presence of bacteria Posted: 15 Sep 2011 08:37 AM PDT Researchers have developed polymers that fluoresce in the presence of bacteria, paving the way for the rapid detection and assessment of wound infection using ultra-violet light.

Scientists take first step towards creating 'inorganic life' Posted: 15 Sep 2011 06:16 AM PDT Scientists in Scotland say they have taken their first tentative steps towards creating 'life' from inorganic chemicals potentially defining the new area of 'inorganic biology'.

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