News: NIGMS Research Around the Nation

An NIGMS-funded plant pathologist has shown how a receptor molecule in plants pairs with a specific molecule on invading bacteria, triggering an immune reaction.

NIGMS has issued a supplement grant to a researcher who is studying how the malaria parasite evolved resistance to the medication chloroquine.

NIGMS-funded researchers have used drunken fruit flies to identify networks of genes--also present in humans--that play a role in drinking behavior.

Researchers funded by NIGMS have successfully reconstituted the enzyme responsible for producing the blockbuster cholesterol-lowering drug lovastatin.

An NIGMS-funded analysis of thousands of genes and proteins shows that humans are complex, in part, because of the way we evolved to cope with redundancies among duplicate genes.

An NIGMS-funded study reveals how proteins critical for the transparency of the eye lens are properly sorted and located.

An NIGMS-funded study suggests that vaccinating more people would slow the evolution of seasonal flu viruses, making vaccines more effective.

Part of NIGMS's stimulus funds to study induced pluripotent stem cells will go to researchers in Wisconsin.

Texas Tech has received $800,000 in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to assess how effective the laboratory method is at teaching physics and how well students understand the material.

NIGMS has issued a $600,000 grant to accelerate research into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS), which can be reprogrammed into virtually any cell type.

An NIGMS-funded study has uncovered more than 300 proteins that appear to control gene expression as well as perform other roles in cells.

NIGMS is using $5.4 million of Recovery Act funds to accelerate basic studies of induced pluripotent stem cells. 

NIH is using $67.4 million to support to support highly innovative research projects promising big payoffs.

NIGMS-funded researchers have identified how the motions of an enzyme relate to correct copying of genetic instructions.

An NIGMS-funded study found that rapidly evolving "junk" DNA may create incompatibilities between two related species, preventing reproduction.

An NIGMS-funded study suggests that the tightly packed, gene-poor portion of DNA prevents breeding among closely related species.

NIGMS-supported researchers found that mice lacking a particular chloride ion channel do not secrete insulin properly.

NIGMS is funding a relatively large number of bioinformatics-related projects with stimulus grants.

NIGMS awarded a $2.5-million stimulus grant to the American Society for Cell Biology to establish an online open-access database called "The Cell: An Image Library."

NIGMS-funded researchers have found that a protein involved in programmed cell death is also required for the proper synthesis of histones, a chief component of chromosomes.

NIGMS-funded chemists have successfully synthesized carbenes, a class of unusually unstable molecules used to make catalysts.

An NIGMS-funded study finds that single-stranded DNA-binding protein plays a dynamic role and is critical to DNA repair.

A team of biologists supported by NIGMS has solved the structure of a molecule that helps plants survive droughts.

NIH stiumulus grants to Emory include an NIGMS-funded study of the genome of voles, which are a good model for studying social attachment.

An NIGMS-funded study suggests that small mechanical forces on embryonic stem cells can coax them to develop in specific ways.

NIGMS-funded researchers found that both mother and daughter cells control and sense their size before committing to divide but that the levers and gears that they use to make that commitment are different.

An NIGMS Grand Opportunities stimulus grant will support a study on whether genetic information in existing electronic medical records can be used to make drug administration safer.

New Mexico State University has received funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for its Bridges to the Baccalaureate program.

NIGMS grantee Robert Cohen has received funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to study the function of ubiquitin, a protein in cells that can lead to major disease depending on the path it takes.

NIH will fund 14 grants focusing on factors that influence the careers of women
in biomedical and behavioral science and engineering.

NIGMS grantee Thomas A. Steitz of Yale University is named a recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in chemistry.

Three NIGMS grantees will share the 2009 Nobel Prize for their “studies of the structure and function of the ribosome.”

NIGMS grantee Ada E. Yonath of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, is named a recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in chemistry.

NIGMS-funded biologists have shed light on the regulation of histones, the proteins that package DNA into chromosomes.

Former NIGMS Director Ruth L. Kirschstein, M.D., died on October 6, 2009. This post links to tributes to her many contributions to the scientific community and invites readers to share their own thoughts about her.

NIGMS-funded bioengineers have succeeded in building human tissue patches with supply lines for the oxygen and nutrients that living cells require.

NIGMS grantee Venkatraman Ramakrishnan of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, United Kingdom, is named a recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in chemistry.

NIGMS-funded researchers have sequenced the genome of a yeast that can convert tough grasses into ethanol, a biofuel.

Molecular biologist and NIGMS grantee Elizabeth H. Blackburn of the University of California, San Francisco, named a recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.

Three NIGMS grantees will share the 2009 Nobel Prize for their discovery of "how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase."

The 2009 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine is awarded to three NIGMS grantees who solved a major problem in biology: how the chromosomes can be copied in a complete way during cell divisions and how they are protected against degradation. The winners are Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak.

Genetics professor and NIGMS grantee Jack Szostak named a recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.

NIGMS grantees Peter Lipke and Louise Hainline are among the researchers at Brooklyn College receiving funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Molecular biologist and NIGMS grantee Carol Greider of Johns Hopkins University named a recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.

A new five-year, $2 million IRACDA grant awarded to the University of Alabama at Birmingham Graduate School will educate and train a diverse community of postdoctoral scholars.

NIGMS has awarded a "Grand Opportunities" grant to create an on-line image gallery of the cell that will be accessible to researchers, schools, and the public.

NIGMS grantee Scott Singleton is studying the basic biology of bacterial drug resistance, work that could lead to new strategies to combat this health issue.

NIGMS-funded researchers have identified an enzyme that helps tuberculosis bacteria resist humans' natural defense system.

Three NIGMS-funded scientists, Susan Forsburg, Emily Scott and George O’Doherty, are among those receiving support from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

NIGMS-funded researchers have provided new evidence about structures involved in the faithful separation of chromosomes during cell duplication.

Using an RNA-powered nanomoter, NIGMS-funded reseachers have engineered an artificial pore that can transmit material through a membrane.

NIGMS-funded researchers have proposed a new model for how animals develop; history of exposure to signals helps cells determine their location.

The University of California, Santa Cruz, has received a five-year, $1.1 million grant to continue its Bridges to the Baccalaureate program.

Using genetic engineering, NIGMS-supported researchers have examined the roles of individual genes in the production of energy within mitochondria.

A team of NIGMS-supported researchers has visualized the precise arrangement of chemoreceptors—the receptors that sense and respond to chemical stimuli—in bacteria.

An NIGMS-supported research team has found that evolution can never go backwards because the paths to the genes once present in our ancestors are forever blocked.

Using a DNA-binding protein called the lac repressor, NIGMS-supported biologists have answered some long-sought questions about DNA looping.

A team of NIGMS-supported researchers has found that a particular gene—known as Rab2—is critical for nerve cells to make and package signals that mediate communication between neurons.

NIGMS-supported scientists have devised a mathematical model of wound healing that could replace intuition with clear guidance in treating chronic wounds.

NIGMS grantee Katsura Asano has received funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to study how eukaryotic cells initiate the process of building proteins.

Grambling State has received $4.5 million to continue funding the university’s MARC program.

A team of NIGMS-supported researchers has created a small implantable device that releases drugs into the body when a magnetic field is applied.

NIGMS-supported investigators report the construction of a complete model, including three dimensional protein structures, of the central metabolic network of the bacterium Thermotoga maritima.

PSI-supported researchers have modeled all of the protein structures in an organism’s metabolic network, offering new insights on basic biology and evolution.

Many of the genes that regulate insulin also alter the timing of the circadian clock, according to a new NIGMS-supported study.

Kansas State University has received $1.1 million to fund its Bridges to the Baccalaureate program.

Neurobiologist Alberto Rivera-Rentas is working to increase the diversity of the scientific workforce through the MORE Division.

The transition from egg-laying to live-born young opened up evolutionary pathways that allowed ancient species to adapt to and thrive in open oceans, according to a new NIGMS-supported study.

NIGMS-supported researchers have genetically encoded mouse cells to respond to light, creating cells that can be trained to follow a beam or stop on command like microscopic robots.

New, high-resolution views of a zinc transporter protein deciphered by NIGMS-supported scientists suggest a mechanism for how cells sense and regulate zinc, an element that is essential for life.

The University of California, San Francisco, has received nearly $300,000 in federal economic stimulus funds to support the university’s Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Award program. 

NIGMS-supported researchers have illuminated how competition between proteins enhances combinatorial diversity during ubiquitination, the process that marks proteins for destruction.

NIGMS-funded disease modelers calculate that a vaccination program that reaches 70 percent of the U.S. population would control pandemic influenza H1N1.

Medgar Evers College has received a five-year grant totaling more than $1 million to continue its Bridges to the Baccalaureate program.

Studying rats, NIGMS-funded researchers have discovered a genetic region responsible for cardiovascular collapse during anesthesia.

NIGMS-funded researchers have found that certain disease-related proteins are present at DNA damage sites only when DNA replicates.

NIGMS-funded biologists have discovered the molecular sensor that lets cell feel changes to their shapes and remodel themselves back into symmetry.

By developing new methods to detect genes involved in complex diseases, NIGMS-funded mathematicians have identified genes linked to ALS.

MARC/RISE program director Frank Bayliss receives Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring.

NIGMS-funded researchers have discovered a key missing link in the signaling pathway for plant steroid hormones.

SCORE program director Steven Oppenheimer is among the recipients of this year’s Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring.

MIDAS adds new research expertise to simulate disease spread, evaluate different intervention strategies and help inform public health officials and policymakers.

The Harvard School of Public Health establishes a new MIDAS Center of Excellence to model drug resistance, seasonal infectious diseases, and intervention allocation. 

NIGMS-funded chemists and biologists have demonstrated that specially synthesized boron compounds are readily accepted in biologically active enzymes.

NIGMS-funded chemists have created three-dimensional DNA crystals, a process with many potential applications.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has provided funding for new research to learn more about how white blood cells work.

Queens College students expand their scientific research capabilities with the help of the Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) program.

NIGMS grantee Stephen Eubank has received funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to develop computer models of infectious disease emergence and spread.

Thanks in part to large-scale structural biology efforts like the NIGMS Protein Structure Initiative, scientists are launching a community experiment to drive advances in NMR data analysis. 

Dieter Soll is one of eight NIGMS grantees at Yale University receiving funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

A team of researchers partly supported by NIGMS used data from Portuguese water dogs—the breed of President Barack Obama's dog Bo—to help find a gene that gives some dogs curly hair and others long, wavy hair.

A new study reports that a gene variant carried by about a third of the population plays a major role in this group’s response to an anti-clotting medicine, clopidogrel (Plavix). People with the variant produce a defective version of the CYP2C19 enzyme and are less able to activate the drug, placing them at increased risk for dangerous events like strokes and heart attacks. 

NIGMS-supported researchers have identified a common gene variant carried by as many as a third of the population that plays a major role in determining why some people do not respond to an anti-clotting medication, Plavix.

NIGMS grantee Stephen Eubank will use funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to extend our understanding of disease models and expand their use in policymaking. 

New NIGMS-supported research demonstrates that mRNA decay takes place while mRNAs are associated with actively translating ribosomes.

NIGMS grantee Emily Scott has received funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to further her lung cancer research at the University of Kansas. Watch a video of Scott discussing her research.

By studying the intricate mechanisms at work in protein production, a team of NIGMS-supported researchers has discovered why certain kinds of antibiotics are so effective.

NIGMS-supported researchers have for the first time captured elusive movements of ribosomes at work, shedding light on how these cellular factories take in genetic instructions and churn out proteins.

NIGMS grantee W. Allen Miller is among the researchers at Iowa State University receiving American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding.

NIGMS grantee Donald Jarvis is among the scientists at the University of Wyoming receiving funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. 

A new technique developed by a team of NIGMS-supported scientists uses light to manipulate the activity of a protein that initiates cell movement, providing a new tool for scientists who study the fundamentals of protein function.

NIGMS-supported computational biologists have shown that proteins’ intrinsic ability to change shape allows small molecules to interact with the structure that permits the best binding.

New NIGMS-supported research helps show how sugar contributes to cell growth, and how it might be stopped to control tumors.

A new NIGMS-funded study in honey-bees lends support to the idea that nurture, an organism's environment, may ultimately influence nature, its genetic inheritance.

A team of NIGMS researchers has created a set of peptide-like molecules that successfully block HIV infection of human cells in laboratory experiments.

Better tools for manipulating DNA in the laboratory may soon be possible with newly discovered catalytic DNA capable of cleaving single-stranded DNA, according to an NIGMS-supported study.

A team supported by NIGMS describes a molecular scaffold that ensures a critical step in cell division: equal distribution of genetic material between two daughter cells.

A team of NIGMS-supported scientists has uncovered new clues into cancer's deadliest behavior—its ability to put down roots in new tissues after spreading throughout the body.

NIGMS grantee Aleksandar Popadic is among the researchers at Wayne State University receiving American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding. Popadic studies the molecular processes underlying variation in organ and tissue growth.

NIGMS-supported scientists have identified inherited variations in two genes that account for 37 percent of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia, including a gene that may help predict drug response.

A protein known to regulate gene expression also protects the tips of chromosomes and is involved in protein stability, NIGMS-funded researchers report.

Funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act supports summer research experiences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

NIGMS-funded scientists say that the acquisition of extra copies of chromosome sets drives speciation in plants more than previously supposed.

NIGMS grantees Gayle Slaughter and Michael J. Friedlander were awarded American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding to support training and recruitment of new students and faculty at Baylor College of Medicine. 

NIGMS-funded researchers showed that oxygen treatment in mice can hasten memory loss like that in Alzheimer's disease.

NIGMS-funded biologists have discovered how a drug that kills parasitic roundworms works.

NIGMS-funded researchers have discovered a function for a gene that is expressed highly in certain cancers.

With a renewed NIGMS grant, the Princeton Center for Quantitative Biology continues its efforts to improve quantitative and computational approaches and to train the next generation of systems biologists.

NIGMS grantees are among the researchers at Emory University receiving American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding. 

Using yeast cells, NIGMS-funded researchers found genes that can prevent a type of genetic rearrangement that may lead to cancer and other diseases.

NIGMS-funded research demonstrates how enzyme functions have evolved, particularly in proofreading the sequences of newly made proteins.

An NIGMS-funded study shows how a promising new "last resort" antibiotic called ramoplanin can kill bacteria.

An NIGMS-funded study shows that an enzyme in our immune system may recognize the presence of certain types of viral RNA.

The latest research team to join the MIDAS effort will create models that simulate the complex interplay between human behavior and disease spread.

NIGMS-funded researchers now believe that the original source of malignant malaria is a parasite found in chimps in equatorial Africa.

The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College will receive $164,171 for the university’s MBRS RISE program. The funding is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

University of Pittsburgh researchers will develop and test computer simulations that will ultimately help public health officials evaluate intervention strategies to contain infectious disease outbreaks.

NIGMS-supported researchers have shown that they can engineer mouse and human cells to produce brown fat, a natural type of fat that counteracts obesity.

NIGMS-supported scientists report assembly of the first functioning prototype of an artificial Golgi, a key structure inside cells that helps process and package hormones, enzymes, and other substances.

An NIGMS-supported research team has discovered a novel way to turn on stem cell genes in human skin cells without the risks associated with inserting extra genes or using viruses.

A team of NIGMS-supported biologists report that a little-understood protein previously implicated in a rare genetic disorder plays an unexpected and critical role in building and maintaining healthy cells.

Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists will contribute computational modeling and antibody engineering expertise to a new NIGMS-supported National Center for Systems Biology located at the University of New Mexico.

A new systems biology center led by Janet Oliver of the University of New Mexico will investigate how innate and adaptive immune systems interact.

The 10th National Center For Systems Biology will conduct modeling and experimental studies to understand the behavior of complex cell signaling networks in immune and cancer cells. 

NIGMS-supported researchers have devised a scheme for identifying genes in yeast that could lead to the identification of new cancer genes in humans.

Evidence buried in the chromosomes of animals strongly suggests that mammals have seen their genomes shrink following the dinosaurs' extinction, reports an NIGMS-supported team.

Andy Catling, a pharmacology professor at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, has received a $177,500 supplement to his NIGMS grant to support research cell receptor systems.

NIGMS-funded researchers have identified the gene that is mutated in an inherited form of a rare neuroendocrine tumor.

NIGMS-funded researchers have created gyrating nanostars whose twinkling allows for a new, improved imaging technique.

An NIGMS-funded study provides a first step in quantifying the effect of epigenetic changes on disease risk.

NIGMS-funded physicists have created tiny devices that can determine the mass of a single molecule in real time.

NIGMS-funded researchers have developed special contact lenses that gradually dispense a constant, adjustable amount of medication to the eye.

NIGMS-funded researchers have found that the sea lamprey discards one-fifth of its DNA when generating immune receptors.

Random fluctuations working alongside partial penetrance can lead to developmental leaps, report NIGMS-funded researchers.

NIGMS-supported researchers have discovered a master regulator gene for the development of pancreas and other organs.

NIGMS-supported researchers report on the molecular mechanisms that govern the metabolism of selenium, a trace element crucial to life.

A new NIGMS-supported study that sheds light on a DNA repair process could lead to new ways to enhance the effectiveness of cancer medicines.

A team of NIGMS-supported scientists has identified a pheromone that when transferred from males to females during the mating process wards off male suitors for at least a week.

A team of researchers partially supported by NIGMS report the discovery of five genetic variants related to blood pressure in African-Americans, findings that may provide new clues to treating and preventing hypertension.

NIGMS-supported researchers have unveiled a powerful new resource for scientists studying human illnesses—a reference standard of deletions and duplications of DNA found in the human genome.

NIGMS-supported researchers have determined the structure of a protein crucial to the virulence of anthrax bacteria.

A team of NIGMS-supported researchers has found that under- or overwinding DNA induces structural changes that expose the sequence of bases within the molecule.

A new NIGMS-supported advance will enable scientists to rapidly characterize ring-shaped nonribosomal peptides, a class of natural compounds with a high potential to yield new pharmaceuticals.