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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 28, 2014 at 8:55am

Next generation super powerful fuel from bacteria
The next generation of super powerful fuel, capable of arming missiles and space rockets may come from an engineered bacterium.

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have engineered a bacterium to synthesize pinene - a hydrocarbon produced by trees that could potentially replace high-energy fuels such as JP-10 in missiles and other aerospace applications.

By inserting enzymes from trees into the bacterium, Georgia Tech scientist Stephen Sarria boosted pinene production six-fold over earlier bioengineering efforts. To be competitive, the researchers will have to boost their production of pinene 26-fold.

Though a more dramatic improvement will be needed before pinene can compete with petroleum-based JP-10, the scientists believe they have identified the major obstacles that must be overcome to reach that goal.

They say it may be possible to produce pinene at a cost lower than that of petroleum-based sources.

If that can be done - and if the resulting bio-fuel operates well in these applications - that could open the door for lighter and more powerful engines fueled by increased supplies of high-energy fuels.

-Agencies

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 28, 2014 at 8:42am

Total Synthesis of a Functional Designer Eukaryotic Chromosome
Gene Gurus Create Synthetic Yeast Chromosome From Scratch
Geneticists say they've built a working yeast chromosome from the bottom up for the first time — a feat that could open the way for custom-made biofactories that churn out fuels and pharmaceuticals
Rapid advances in DNA synthesis techniques have made it possible to engineer viruses, biochemical pathways and assemble bacterial genomes. Here, we report the synthesis of a functional 272,871–base pair designer eukaryotic chromosome, synIII, which is based on the 316,617–base pair native Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome III. Changes to synIII include TAG/TAA stop-codon replacements, deletion of subtelomeric regions, introns, transfer RNAs, transposons, and silent mating loci as well as insertion of loxPsym sites to enable genome scrambling. SynIII is functional in S. cerevisiae. Scrambling of the chromosome in a heterozygous diploid reveals a large increase in a-mater derivatives resulting from loss of the MATα allele on synIII. The complete design and synthesis of synIII establishes S. cerevisiae as the basis for designer eukaryotic genome biology.
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2014/03/26/science.1249252....

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 28, 2014 at 8:32am

Leptin is a pleiotropic protein best known for regulation of appetite and fat storage in mammals. While many leptin orthologs have been identified among vertebrates, an authentic leptin in birds has remained elusive and controversial. Here we identify leptin sequence from the Peregrine falcon, Falco peregrinus (pfleptin), and identify sequences from two other birds (mallard and zebra finch), and ‘missing’ vertebrates (elephant shark, alligator, Indian python, Chinese soft-shelled turtle, and coelacanth). The pattern of genes surrounding leptin (snd1, rbm28) is syntenic between the falcon and mammalian genomes. Phylogenetic analysis of all known leptin protein sequences improves our understanding of leptin’s evolution. Structural modeling of leptin orthologs highlights a highly conserved hydrophobic core in the four-helix cytokine packing domain. A docked model of leptin with the leptin receptor for Peregrine falcon reveals several conserved amino acids important for the interaction and possible coevolution of leptin with its receptor. We also show for the first time, an authentic avian leptin sequence that activates the JAK-STAT signaling pathway. These newly identified sequences, structures, and tools for avian leptin and its receptor will allow elucidation of the function of these proteins in feral and domestic birds.

Discovery of the Elusive Leptin in Birds: Identification of Several ‘Missing Links’ in the Evolution of Leptin and Its Receptor
How does the Arctic tern (a sea bird) fly more than 80,000 miles in its roundtrip North Pole-to-South Pole migration? How does the Emperor penguin incubate eggs for months during the Antarctic winter without eating? How does the Rufous hummingbird, which weighs less than a nickel, migrate from British Columbia to Mexico? These physiological gymnastics would usually be influenced by leptin, the hormone that regulates body fat storage, metabolism and appetite. However, leptin has gone missing in birds – until now.

University of Akron researchers have discovered leptin in birds, In their “Discovery of the Elusive Leptin in Birds: Identification of Several ‘Missing Links’ in the Evolution of Leptin and its Receptor,” published March 24, 2014, in the journal PLOS ONE, UA researchers reveal their findings of leptin in the peregrine falcon, mallard duck and zebra finch.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone....

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 28, 2014 at 8:23am

A new project could help revolutionize the way doctors screen new drugs through a surrogate body system.

Scientists are developing a project called Advanced Tissue-engineered Human Ectypal Network Analyzer (ATHENA), which aims to essentially be a testing station for new drugs on the human body. ATHENA will be a $19 million project that includes a liver, heart, lung and kidney all connected together and able to fit neatly on a desk.

“By developing this ‘homo minutus,’ we are stepping beyond the need for animal or Petri dish testing: There are huge benefits in developing drug and toxicity analysis systems that can mimic the response of actual human organs,” Rashi Iyer, a senior scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, said in a statement

Using A Surrogate To Test Drugs’ Effects On The Human Body
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1113104796/surrogate-body-to-t...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 27, 2014 at 6:31am

Biodegradable battery could melt inside the body

Medical implants would monitor vital signs or dispense therapies before vanishing.
http://www.nature.com/news/biodegradable-battery-could-melt-inside-...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 27, 2014 at 6:28am

Human Nose Can Detect 1 Trillion Odors
What the the nose knows might as well be limitless, researchers suggest.
http://www.nature.com/news/human-nose-can-detect-1-trillion-odours-...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 27, 2014 at 6:24am

Apoptosis: Keeping inflammation at bay
Cells dying by apoptosis can trigger an anti-inflammatory gene response in other cells by releasing a compound called adenosine monophosphate.
AMP molecules released by apoptotic cells can trigger an anti-inflammatory response in phagocytes.
http://elife.elifesciences.org/content/3/e02583

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 27, 2014 at 6:22am

How does the brain process rhythm?
A region of the brain called the putamen has a central role in our ability to keep a beat in our head.
http://elife.elifesciences.org/content/3/e02658

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 26, 2014 at 10:21am

E-cigarettes don’t help smokers quit, study finds
People who tried electronic devices no more likely to give up smokes a year later
Electronic cigarettes may not shut off the urge to smoke cigarettes. A survey of 949 smokers found no difference in quit rates a year after some had taken up e-cigarettes while others hadn’t, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco report March 24 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

E-cigarettes deliver nicotine in vapor form without the cancer-causing combusted materials of a lit cigarette. Manufacturers suggest that using them is a first step toward quitting smoking. Of 949 smokers who answered online questionnaires, 88 reported trying e-cigarettes at the study’s outset. One year later, about 13.5 percent of all participants had quit smoking during the year. Roughly equal percentages of e-cigarette users and smokers who didn’t use them had successfully quit regular cigarettes; differences in quit rates between the two groups fell within the study’s margin of error.

Separately, studies published in 2013 in the Lancet and the American Journal of Preventive Medicine similarly found no more quitting among smokers who took up e-cigarettes. The UCSF authors suggest that regulators prohibit ads claiming that e-cigarettes help people quit smoking unless scientific evidence emerges to prove it.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/e-cigarettes-don%E2%80%99t-help...

http://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797%2812%2900822-7/abstract

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2813...

E-cigarettes, with or without nicotine, were modestly effective at helping smokers to quit, with similar achievement of abstinence as with nicotine patches, and few adverse events. Uncertainty exists about the place of e-cigarettes in tobacco control, and more research is urgently needed to clearly establish their overall benefits and harms at both individual and population levels.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on March 26, 2014 at 9:59am

Scientists have found that commonly used anti-inflammation drugs could also be used as antibiotics
Some commonly used drugs that combat aches and pains, fever and inflammation are also thought to have the ability to kill bacteria, research published in Chemistry & Biology shows.

These drugs, better known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), act on bacteria in a way that is fundamentally different from current antibiotics. The discovery could open up new strategies for fighting drug-resistant infections and “superbugs.”
http://www.cell.com/chemistry-biology/retrieve/pii/S1074552114000672
Evidence suggests that some nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) possess antibacterial properties with an unknown mechanism. We describe the in vitro antibacterial properties of the NSAIDs carprofen, bromfenac, and vedaprofen, and show that these NSAIDs inhibit the Escherichia coli DNA polymerase III β subunit, an essential interaction hub that acts as a mobile tether on DNA for many essential partner proteins in DNA replication and repair. Crystal structures show that the three NSAIDs bind to the sliding clamp at a common binding site required for partner binding. Inhibition of interaction of the clamp loader and/or the replicative polymerase α subunit with the sliding clamp is demonstrated using an in vitro DNA replication assay. NSAIDs thus present promising lead scaffolds for novel antibacterial agents targeting the sliding clamp.

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