Washington | 18 hours ago
Biosensor shows promise for cancer diagnosis
Washington, May 16 - Researchers have created an ultra-sensitive biosensor that could open up new opportunities for early detection of cancer and help doctors tailor personalised medicine specific to biochemistry of individual patients.The device, which could be several hundred times more sensitive than other biosensors, combines the attributes of two distinctly different types of sensors, said Mu ... read more

Washington | 23 days ago
Soy protein can lower fat accumulation in liver
Washington, April 23 - Eating soy protein could significantly lower fat accumulation in the livers of obese patients by partially restoring the function of a key signalling pathway in the organ, according to a research at a US university.Hong Chen, assistant professor of food science at the University of Illinois, said: Almost a third of American adults have fatty liver disease, many of them witho ... read more

Toronto | 23 days ago
Cholesterol shows promise in fighting cancer
Toronto, April 23 - Researchers at Simon Fraser University have concluded that cholesterol may have a few good qualities like slowing or halting cancer cell growth, after all the bad publicity it has received for its role in heart disease or obesity.They arrived at this conclusion while trying to understand how cholesterol moves around inside cells in the fat's journey to cell surfaces where it re ... read more

Sydney | 1 month ago
Disarming bugs can combat antibiotic resistance
Sydney, April 5 - Disarming harmful bugs could be a better way to combat antibiotic resistance than by killing them, says a new study.Research led by Monash University in Melbourne, Australia showed a protein complex called TAM formed a type of molecular pump in bacteria. The pump allows bugs to shift disease-causing molecules from inside the bug cell to the outside, readying them for infection, t ... read more

Washington | 1 month ago
Metformin may protect against liver cancer
Washington, April 2 - Metformin, a well-tolerated drug prescribed for diabetics, may also protect against liver cancer, says a new study.The study, led by Geoffrey Girnun, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, looks at the effect of metformin in cancer prevention and is one of the first to evaluate liver cancer.Since many of the ... read more

Sydney | 2 months ago
Scientists crack riddle of clot-busting enzyme
Sydney, March 12 - Scientists have cracked the riddle of a clot-busting enzyme, potentially opening the way to more effective therapy for stroke, heart attack and cancer.Monash University researchers, led by James Whisstock and Paul Coughlin, have shown how the protein plasminogen is converted into plasmin, an enzyme that sweeps disease-causing clots and clears up damaged tissue. Clinicians curren ... read more

Washington | 3 months ago
Breakthrough promises cheap biosolar energy
Washington, Feb 3 - A bio-solar breakthrough to produce cheap and efficient energy by tapping the plant's photosynthetic process has been achieved, claim scientists.Barry D. Bruce, professor of biochemistry at the University of Tennessee, worked with researchers from MIT and Ecole Polytechnique Federale, Switzerland to develop a process to improve the efficiency of generating electric power using ... read more

Washington | 3 months ago
Tiny alcohol amounts double worm's life
Washington, Jan 22 - Tiny portions of ethanol, the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages, can more than double the lifespan of a tiny worm known as C elegans.The worm, found in soils, where they eat bacteria, is used frequently as a model in aging studies, according to University of California Los Angeles biochemists. This finding floored us - it's shocking, said Steven Clarke, a California ... read more

Toronto | 4 months ago
Drugs checkmating cancer may combat resistant bugs
Toronto, Dec 23 - Drugs that checkmate cancer could also combat pathogens that have become highly resistant to antibiotics - a problem spreading globally.'Our study found that certain proteins, called kinases, that confer antibiotic resistance are structurally related to proteins important in cancer,' says Gerry Wright, professor of biochemistry at McMaster University. 'The pharmaceutical sector h ... read more

Washington | 5 months ago
New drug starves malaria parasite to death
Washington, Dec 8 - A potent new drug vanquishes malaria by literally starving its lethal parasites to death.Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease caused by single-celled parasites Plasmodium falciparum, causing severe infection and death in many Asian and African countries.The research, carried out on a small number of non-human primates, could bolster efforts to develop more potent therapies again ... read more