WSU BIOL209 Microbiology

Dr. Montelaro and his colleagues found that a particular sequence of amino acids on the tail end of HIV allow the virus to "punch into" and infect cells. The team manufactured a synthetic and more efficient version of this sequence -- called engineered cationic antimicrobial peptides, or "eCAPs" -- that laboratory tests have shown to rapidly destroy bacteria that are otherwise resistant to most standard antibiotics.

Traditional antibiotics typically work by poisoning important metabolic processes after being taken up by the target bacteria, a process that may take hours, or days, to clear a bacterial infection. In contrast, the eCAPs are specifically attracted to the surface of target bacteria where they disrupt the bacterial membrane, causing death within seconds, or minutes.

eCAPs work well against biofilms

The only deficiencies that investigators found were that a mechanical milk bottle capper was broken, so employees had capped the bottles by hand, and that the water used to clean equipment was cooler than recommended (110 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit, instead of 160 to 170 degrees F).

the patch conducts electricity at about the same speed as natural heart cells and it "squeezes" appropriately

closest man-made approximation of native human heart tissue to date

Scientists believe that disruption of two key particles—and consequently a proteasome's ability to work correctly—has implications for cancers as well as various neurological degenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases.

"In the assembly process there is only one tail that actually determines how the core particle and regulatory particle bind together," Roelofs said. "That's surprising because there are six tails, but only one is needed to give specificity, and the docking into the pocket is controlled by the chaperone."

the findings may reveal new targets for anticancer drugs

n the latest issue of the journal Oncogene, Florence Janody and her team at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC, Portugal), identified a novel mechanism by which the activity of Src is limited by the cell's skeleton (cytoskeleton) limiting the development of tumours.

ble to stop the tumour development induced by the high activity of Src through the genetic manipulation of the cytoskeleton in fly tissues

showed that the development of tumours is stopped in the presence of high levels of the actin Capping Protein.

The researchers generated and transplanted a type of human nerve-cell progenitor called the medial ganglionic eminence (MGE) cell, in experiments describe

The researchers generated and transplanted a type of human nerve-cell progenitor called the medial ganglionic eminence (MGE) cel

Kriegstein sees MGE cells as a potential treatment to better control nerve circuits that become overactive in certain neurological disorders.

The disease "could wipe out half of the bat species in the US," she says. "It's caused one of the fastest declines of wildlife that we've seen in the US."

The device will give hospitals and research labs a much easier way to separate DNA from human fluid samples, which will help with genome sequencing, disease diagnosis and forensic investigations.