Biochemistry, Genetics, and Molecular Biology

What could be the similarity between human skin and turtle shell? A group of researchers led by molecular biologist Leopold Eckhart of the University Department of Dermatology at MedUni Vienna studied the genes that help in the formation of the shell in the European terrapin and a North American species of turtle. They discovered that the mutations responsible for the hard shell originate in a group of genes known as the Epidermal Differentiation Complex (EDC). Read more about their research here.

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University found evidence that an algae-infecting virus is capable of invading mammalian cells. Acanthocystis turfacea chlorella virus 1, or ATCV-1, is a pathogen belonging to a class of chloroviruses that was believed to thrive only in green algae. Read more about their research here.

Eric Betzig of Janelia Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia, who won the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy, and his colleagues have applied their techniques to watching live cells in action and generated images and videos of protein movement and interactions as the cells internalize molecules. Read on to learn more about this.

Stem cells receive various molecular cues, but they differentiate between these cues i.e. they ignore the irrelevant cues and respond only to the crucial signs by rapidly developing to form major organ systems of the body. To understand how stem cells are able to do this, researchers at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) studied engineered cultured mouse embryonic stem cells. Read more about their research here.

Researchers at the University of Missouri have been able to procure detailed images of the capsid protein, which is a key protein in HIV, in its natural state. Read more about their research here.

Noam Sobel, a neuroscientist of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, and his colleagues have found that each individual has a personal sense of smell and that this distinctive perception of odors can help identify his/her identity. Read more about their research here.

Scientists have been aware of two types of pluripotent stem cells. However, Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, a developmental biologist at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, and his team discovered a third type of stem cell, which they have named region-selective pluripotent stem cells (rsPSCs). Read more about their research here.

Scientists at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale De Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, studied centrioles and discovered the possibility that centrioles might carry defective mutations that could pass on a broad range of diseases to a growing embryo. Read more about their research here.

Although it is known that Type 1 diabetes occurs when the body's immune system kills insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, researchers were not aware of the exact genes that cause the disease. A research group has now identified the location and identities of the genes that increase the risk of Type 1 diabetes. Read on to find more. 

A team of researchers from the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology has discovered a new hormone “MOTS-c,” a mitochondrial-derived peptide hormone that imitates the effects commonly associated with exercising. It counters insulin insensitivity and diet-induced and age-dependent insulin resistance. Read on to find out more.