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Discovery of New Genes...
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This issue...
Brieflies
View from the Inside
Discovery of New Genes...
Friendlier Gases...
Working
Science
People
About
Subscribe Free
This issue...
Brieflies
View from the Inside
Discovery of New Genes...
Friendlier Gases...
Working Science
People
About
Subscribe Free
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Brieflies...
Quicker Disease Detection
Professor Edward Yeung at Ames Laboratory is using native fluorescence microscopy to detect disease much earlier than previously possible. Yeung has used the native fluorescence of the neurotransmitter serotonin, a molecule the cell secretes for intercellular communication, to follow the chemical response of single cells to a chemical stimulus. Monitoring such processes previously required chemical modification of a cellular protein with a fluorescent tag, possibly affecting its natural response. Using an intensified charge-coupled device (ICCD) and 305-nm illumination from an Argon-ion laser, Yeung recorded the uptake and release of serotonin from individual neurons at video frame rates. Using other techniques also based on native fluorescence, Yeung simultaneously monitored the release of insulin from a single cell and determined the amount remaining, allowing the percentage of insulin released to be calculated. This capability to examine single insulin-producing cells to determine secretion behaviors and contents will lead to better understanding of diabetes and better therapies.
This research is supported by the Office of Basic Energy Sciences/Division of Chemical Sciences. Contact: Edward S. Yeung, Ames Laboratory and Iowa State University, (515) 294-8062, yeung@ameslab.gov
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Illuminating Invisible Dangers
A newly developed luminescent biosensor can detect and identify biological and chemical agents almost instantaneously. It also may be able to detect viruses such as influenza and HIV, as well as bacteria and proteins. Researchers Duncan McBranch, David Whitten, Hsing-Lin Wang, and Liaohai Chen from Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Fred Wudl and Roger Helgeson from University of California, Los Angeles, developed a method of using certain polymers as luminescent sensors. The polymers fluoresce in the presence of biological and chemical agents with the help of molecular intermediaries that bind to the agents' receptor sites. This new method could pave the way for further development of a lightweight, portable, real-time diagnostic tool that can be used in homes, clinics, and in the field.
This research is supported by the Office of Basic Energy Sciences. Contact: David G. Whitten, Los Alamos National Laboratory, (505) 665-6024, whitten@lanl.gov.
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Snapshot of a Bacterial Light-Driven Proton Pump
UC Irvine researchers Hartmut "Hudel" Luecke and Janos Lanyi captured an x-ray image of the changing shape of a protein called bacteriorhodopsin as it pumped tiny hydrogen ions, also known as protons, through the cell to create energy needed for cells to survive. The finding is the first to show how a protein goes through the motions of pumping chemicals through a cell's protective membrane. The high-resolution x-ray crystallographic structure of the light-driven protein pump is frozen in mid-stroke in its proton transport cycle. This research will help scientists develop, in atomic detail, a simple model for understanding how all receptors, pumps and other cellular gateways work-a model that eventually could enable medical researchers to design new drugs to treat a variety of diseases.
This research was supported by the Office of Basic Energy Sciences/Energy Biosciences Program. These findings were published in the October 8 issue of Science.
Contacts: Janos K. Lanyi, Professor of Physiology and Biophysics, University of California Irvine, (949) 824-7150, jlanyi@uci.edu; Hartmut "Hudel" Luecke, Professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, University of California Irvine, (949) 824-1605, hudel@uci.edu. For more information, see the UC Irvine news release.
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DOE's Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) announces the new PrePRINT Network websitea searchable gateway to not-yet-published scientific and technical information. With a single query, anyone interested in science research can browse the PrePRINT Network collections and resources that include servers at academic institutions, government research laboratories, scientific societies, private research organizations, and individual scientists and researchersall available without subscription, with only a few exceptions.
The PrePRINT Network is the latest offering in an innovative series of web-based services "Bringing Science to the Desktop." Easy access to science information for the public is made available by OSTI through EnergyFiles, DOE's Virtual Library of Energy Science and Technology. EnergyFiles now provides three main ways that researchers can disseminate their findings: the DOE Information Bridge for "grey literature" (literature not commercially available); PubSCIENCE for journal literature; and the PrePRINT Network for "preprints" (manuscripts that have not been formally published through traditional channels).
This work is supported by the Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research. Contact: R. L. Scott, OSTI, (865) 576-1193, scottrl@ostinet.osti.gov
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