Our knowledge of cancer biology in 2019 is extensive, however there are several enduring problems that make it difficult to translate this knowledge into new, effective therapeutics. Oncogenes are genes that contribute to tumor initiation and/or tumor progression, and with oncogenes the therapeutic strategy is block or inhibit their function; we have been fairly successful [...]
Anyone can imagine being very thirsty. Similarly, everyone knows that the craving disappears like magic once sufficient water has been consumed. But why? And why – when thirsty - does an ice cold glass of fresh water sound so much more refreshing than a warm glass of saltwater? There are biochemical reasons for these familiar [...]
What if you didn’t experience physical pain? This is an attractive idea, but of course pain is necessary to alert you to hazardous situations. What if you didn’t experience anxiety? Again, this is an attractive idea, but anxiety alerts us to potentially dangerous situations so corrective action can be taken. From the perspective of evolution, [...]
A molecular mechanism that explains the development of autism remains enigmatic. Here, researchers from UCLA sequenced the DNA and RNA from patients with and without autism to catalog differences in RNA editing – a little-studied process where the RNA produced from our genes is edited to produce novel RNAs that differ from the DNA sequence [...]
Hey everyone! Summer 2019 science workshops on Molecular Biology of Cancer, Molecular Neuroscience, Molecular Immunology and Biomedical Research are now scheduled at UC Berkeley and UC San Diego and at our facility in the Bay Area. Workshops held at UC Berkeley are 6/2-6/15 and 6/16-6/29. Workshops held at UCSD are 7/7-7/20. Our Biomedical Research camps [...]
DNA is not new. A pairs with T, G pairs with C, and these 4 nucleotides are organized into genes and intervening sequences that twist up into the famous double helix that ultimately explains all of life and heredity. But what if this settled science was reimagined as something new? https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2019/01/19/adding-new-dna-letters-make-novel-proteins-possible
A very strange but crucial phenomenon occurs in the DNA of B and T cells that comprise the adaptive immune system: their DNA is cut and pasted in different, random combinations during a very complex process that ultimately helps to fights infection. Nowhere else in the body at any stage of development has this been [...]
The immune system differentiates between “self” and “non-self”, and attacks any entity it perceives as foreign. Microorganisms like bacteria and viruses are obviously recognized as foreign, but the immune system also recognizes tissue from different individuals within the same species as foreign, which can cause major problems for organ transplantation. But why doesn’t the maternal [...]
Summer 2019 workshops will be scheduled soon, but first we would like to announce the annual winter break Medical and Translational Bioinformatics workshop to be held 12/26-12/29 in Berkeley, California. This is a great workshop for anyone who is interested in doing research out of general interest or for a science fair project. Email info@rosettainstitute.org [...]
Metastasis – the process by which cancer cells leave their tumor-of-origin, enter the blood stream and colonize distant tissues – is responsible for 90% of cancer deaths. The first step in this complex process is invasion into surrounding tissue and blood vessels, which requires the degradation of connective tissue (extracellular matrix) that compartmentalizes these sub-regions. [...]