A reference genome from the Indian cobra compiled in an international collaborative study should lead to the development of new safer and more effective antivenoms, while the elucidated genome and predicted associated proteome may be a powerful platform for studies of venomous snakes.
A mitochondrial glutamine transporter variant is a key regulator of glutamine metabolism and metabolic reprogramming in cancer cells, and targeting such transporters could be a new strategy for controlling tumor growth, Korean researchers reported online in the Dec. 19, 2019, edition of Cell Metabolism.
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have discovered that intravenous (I.V.) delivery of the Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine sharply improved its ability to provoke a protective T-cell response in the lungs.
The natural immune system has two lines of defense that complement each other. In response to an infection, a rapid but fairly unspecific and short-lived response by the innate immune system is followed by the precisely targeted attack of the B and T cells of the adaptive immune system, followed by immune memory that can last a lifetime
Genome sequencing is enabling new insights into the genetic aspects of health and disease that have touched just about every aspect in biomedicine. It is also, like the “skin”-colored crayons of yore, disproportionately focused on the Caucasian segment of the population. And that is a loss for everyone.
LONDON – Twenty years on from sequencing of the first draft of the human genome and the associated hype, 2019 was the year that the science of genomics truly began to make an impact in health care.
“Bacteria often only do harm at certain concentrations,” Stefan Kaufmann told BioWorld. In fact, bacteria have evolved an entire communication system, so-called quorum sensing, to monitor how many of their colleagues are in the vicinity, and then switch from growth to virulence only at high densities.?
Scientists at the University of Tuebingen have identified a network of antifibrotic RNAs, and showed that this network was controlled by the transcription factor Pparg. Fibrosis, which is essentially the formation of inappropriate scar tissue, contributes to multiple diseases, and its molecular mechanisms are poorly understood.
A single injection of SOD1-targeting RNA into the subpial space, which is below the innermost meningeal layer, was able to spread throughout the spinal cord and, via retrograde delivery, into brain centers that project to the spinal cord in several animal models, including primates.
LONDON – While large-scale biobanks that link genomics to longitudinal health records of diagnosis, treatment and outcomes promise to revolutionize understanding of the genetics of complex disease, the detailed statistical analysis of those high-dimensional data is still very much in its infancy.
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