By Victoria Stern Gene hunters The paper: K. Lage et al., “A human phenome-interactome network of protein complexes implicated in genetic disorders,” Nat Biotech, 25: 309–316, 2007. (Cited in 86 papers) The finding: Søren Brunak at the Technical University of Denmark and Kasper Lage, now at the Broad Institute in Boston, developed a computational method to predict which proteins most likely cause a particular disease. By

A type of antibody long thought to have a minor role in immune system memory may actually be a key player, new findings suggest. Researchers tracked the antibody's function by imaging the immune system's B cells in the act of responding to a pathogen and developing into memory B cells, which can recognize an infectious agent years after first encountering it, they report in a study published online yesterday (October 25) in Nature Immunology. B cell and memory B cell reacting to a virus Image:

Researchers have retracted a study that pinpointed a specific gene in Drosophila required to maintain healthy cell activity, published two years ago in Current Biology. In a linkurl:retraction notice;http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VRT-4XF85VF-P&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=37ff9ee170319a71ae14c5c0a2a41692 published in the journal earlier this month (October 13), they attributed

New findings complicate recent evidence for a viral link to prostate cancer. linkurl:Recent studies;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/55966/ have found the virus, called xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV), in a disproportionate number of cancer tissue samples in men with prostate cancer, but the linkurl:latest report,;http://www.retrovirology.com/content/6/1/92 published today (October 16) in Retrovirology, detected no sign of XMRV in tissue samples from almost 600 pro

The 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry will go to Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, a molecular and cell biologist at MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology at Cambridge, Thomas Steitz, a molecular biochemist at Yale University, and Ada Yonath, a structural biologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel for their work mapping the ribosome--one of the cell's most complex machines--at the atomic level. They will share the prize equally. Please check back later today for full coverage o

Three researchers who made fundamental discoveries on the structure and function of the ribosome will receive the linkurl:Nobel Prize for Chemistry;http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2009/press.html this year. Understanding how the ribosome works at the atomic level has been crucial for understanding key cellular processes underlying life. Venkatraman RamakrishnanImage: MRC Laboratory ofMolecular Biologylinkurl:Venkatraman Ramakrishnan,;http://www.gf.org/fellows/11944-venkat

Nanoparticles may prove effective tools for improving stem cell therapy, new research suggests. Chemical engineers have successfully used nanoparticles to enhance stem cells' ability to stimulate regeneration of damaged vascular tissue and reduce muscle degeneration in mice, they report in a study published online today (October 5) in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Stem cells Image: Wikipedia"This is an intriguing finding," said linkurl:Arnold Kriegstein,;http://bms.ucsf.edu/

Brain-injured patients who show minimal to no signs of consciousness may still retain functioning brain networks that allow them to learn, researchers report in a study published online today (September 20) in Nature Neuroscience. A brain scan Image: Wikipedia"Determining cognitive processing capacity in behaviorally unresponsive patients has been a real dilemma for clinicians working in brain injury," said linkurl:Joseph Giacino,;http://www.njneuro.org/bios/giacino.asp the associate director

One afternoon in 2007, linkurl:James Kakalios,;http://www.physics.umn.edu/people/kakalios.html a physics professor at the University of Minnesota, received a rather unexpected call. Ann Merchant, marketing director for the National Academy of Sciences, was on the line. "We've got a request for a scientist to work on a superhero. Have you heard of linkurl:Watchmen?";http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0409459/ Merchant asked. That was like asking a movie buff, "Have you ever heard of Citizen Kane?" Ka

Researchers replace defective mitochondrial genomes with healthy ones in monkey embryos—a technique that could be used to prevent children from inheriting a variety of incurable genetic diseases caused by defective mitochondrial genes.

It's 4 AM. Two grad students sit across the table from each other hunched over textbooks, looking bleary-eyed. One boy asks the other, "Why are we doing this?" His friend looks up and responds through a haze of exhaustion and self-pity: "You mean, why are we submitting ourselves to grad school instead of working out there, getting rich, getting enough sleep and actually enjoying life?" "No," the first boy replies. "I mean why are we doing the problems from the wrong chapter?" This scene fro

Bacteria-infecting viruses, generally thought to be harmful to their hosts, can also be surprisingly beneficial. A pea aphid Image: WikipediaA bacteriophage infecting a bacterium living in the cells and body cavity of a small, plant-eating insect protects the insect from attack by a deadly wasp predator, reports a study published online in Science today (August 20). The discovery may help create more effective methods of pest control, the authors say. "This is a wonderful paper," linkurl:Chr