Double X Science - It's In Your Genes

Search Results for: label/protein

  • Biology Explainer: The big 4 building blocks of life–carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and nucleic acids

    …e X Extra: A triglyceride can have up to three different fatty acids attached to it. Canola oil, for example, consists primarily of oleic acid, linoleic acid, and linolenic acid, all of which are unsaturated fatty acids with 18 carbons in their chains. Why do we take in fat anyway? Fat is a necessary nutrient for everything from our nervous systems to our circulatory health. It also, under appropriate conditions, is an excellent way to store up…

    Authored by on June 8, 2012

  • Unicorns and Brainbows

    Brainbow is a mouse with a rainbow brain. By Jeffrey Perkel    A couple weeks ago I wrote about the beautiful world right under our noses, a world visible only under the microscope. The cover image for that post was this picture, a “‘Brainbow’ transgenic mouse hippocampus,” which placed 18th in the 2008 Nikon Small World Photomicroscopy contest. Brainbow technology also won the 2007 Olympus Bioscapes contest, with this be…

    Authored by on May 6, 2013

  • The Bright Crystal

    …he molecular structures of drug targets to design molecules that “fit” them like a lock to a key. The technique most often used to solve those molecular structures is x-ray crystallography. With this approach, which turned 100 years old in November, a high-powered beam of x-rays is shot at a crystal of protein molecules. The x-rays collide with the crystal’s atoms, scattering at specific angles. Working backwards from that information, researc…

    Authored by on December 5, 2012

  • Crowdfunding on the Brain: Finding Biomarkers for Early Autism Diagnosis

    …recent technology, and according to the Darie Lab, they have been able to identify over 700 proteins in the saliva alone. This is quite an incredible step up from traditional mass spectrometers, which could detect only around 100 proteins in saliva. Just because we haven’t been able to identify biomarkers for autism in the past doesn’t mean we can’t do it now.  In addition to the use of this new technology, the Darie Lab presents some compelli…

    Authored by on December 3, 2012

  • An antibody therapy for hemophilia A?

    …Pharmaceutical, reported an example of a new kind of antibody application, and it’s pretty slick. The paper concerns a novel treatment concept for hemophila A, an X-linked recessive bleeding disorder that affects about 1 in 10,000 men. It is caused by a lack of a clotting protein called factor VIII (FVIII), and the typical treatment is “prophylactic supplementation” of the missing protein. There are three problems with that treatmen…

    Authored by on October 12, 2012

  • Biology Xplainer: Evolution and how it happens

    …he population will change over time. It will be adapted to its environment. It will evolve. Other mechanisms of evolution A pigeon depicted in Charles Darwin’sVariation of Animals and PlantsUnder Domestication, 1868. U.S.public domain image, via Wikimedia. When Darwin presented his idea of natural selection, he knew he had an audience to win over. He pointed out that people select features of organisms all the time and breed the…

    Authored by on January 29, 2012

  • Notable women biochemists in the 1900s

    …oman scientist you would like to see in this series.] Sofia Simmonds was a scholar, researcher, author, professor, and administrator (1917-2007). She earned her B.A. in chemistry from Barnard College at Columbia University in 1938 and her Ph.D. in biochemistry from Cornell in 1942. After a few years as a postdoctoral Research Associate at Cornell, she took an instructor position at Yale Universityís School of Medicine in 1945 and rose through the…

    Authored by on February 14, 2013

  • No gene is an island: What do scientists mean when they talk about environment and genes?

    Nope. This island does not represent your genes. (Source) When you read news stories about what affects a developing human in the womb or how cancer or obesity arises, you probably also see references to genes and environment. Some articles may focus on genes versus environment, or mention that something is “mostly” genetic or that the “environment” contributes to a disorder or trait in some way. What some people…

    Authored by on May 7, 2012

  • Leaky gut and wonky immune response might be double whammy leading to inflammatory bowel disease (in mice)

    A case of ulcerative colitis, a form of inflammatory bowel disease.Photo via Wikimedia Commons. Credit: Samir. A two-hit punch in the gut might explain why some people find themselves alone among their closest relatives in having inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The double gut punches come in the form of a compromised intestinal wall coupled with a poorly behaved immune system, say Emory researchers, whose work using mice was publishe…

    Authored by on September 13, 2012

  • After Newtown missteps, journalists get guidelines

    Protip: Don’t diagnose based on speculation. by Jessica Wright                Attention journalists: If you’ve been calling people “nuts” or “deranged” in your stories, the Associated Press is recommending that it’s time you stopped. This guideline — along with the common-sense assertion that writers shouldn’t diagnose individuals with a mental illness based entirely on speculation — is part of a new recommendation added to the AP styleboo…

    Authored by on March 27, 2013

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