Latest Enzymes Stories

Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have identified how a gene for a protein that can cause Type 2 diabetes, also possibly kills nerve cells in the brain, thereby contributing to Alzheimer's disease.The gene, called SorCS1, controls the generation of amyloid-beta (Abeta) in the brain. Abeta plays a key role in the development of Alzheimer's disease. The researchers previously linked SorCS1 to Alzheimer's disease and identified where the molecules lived in the cell, but not how they...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Satori(TM) Pharmaceuticals today announced the presentation of two posters at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease (ICAD) taking place in Paris, France, July 16-21, 2011. Both posters illuminate the unique biological activity associated with Satori's approach to the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. The posters were titled, "Gamma-secretase modulators do not show a potency shift in high expressing model...

New Device simplifies saliva collection from infants ensuring both child safety and accurate biomarker assay results State College, PA (PRWEB) July 15, 2011 Salimetrics has introduced the Infant Swab (SIS), a new saliva collection device for use with infants under the age of six months. Designed specifically to address the problems with collecting saliva from infants, the SIS maximizes collection volume while limiting collection times and interference. Saliva is the preferred testing...

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., July 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Codexis, Inc. (Nasdaq: CDXS) today announced the first scale up manufacturing of the company's proprietary cellulase enzymes at commercial scale. These enzymes are used to convert non-food biomass to fermentable sugars, and ultimately to sustainable products including biofuels and bio-based performance ingredients in household goods such as laundry detergents and shampoos. Scale up manufacturing of a prototype cellulase enzyme product...

Scientists have deciphered the structure of an essential part of Mediator, a complex molecular machine that plays a vital role in regulating the transcription of DNA.The research adds an important link to discoveries that have enabled scientists to gain a deeper understanding of how cells translate genetic information into the proteins and processes of life. The findings, published in the July 3 advance online issue of the journal Nature, were reported by a research team led by Yuichiro...

A new advance by UCLA biochemists has brought scientists one step closer to developing treatments that could delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease and prevent the sexual transmission of HIV.The researchers report that they have designed molecular inhibitors that target specific proteins associated with Alzheimer's disease and HIV to prevent them from forming amyloid fibers, the elongated chains of interlocking proteins that play a key role in more than two dozen degenerative and often fatal...

ABBOTT PARK, Ill., June 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Abbott (NYSE: ABT) announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved an infant-specific dose of CREON(R) (pancrelipase) Delayed-Release Capsules to treat exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI) due to cystic fibrosis (CF). The CREON 3,000 units of lipase capsule provides the lowest dosage strength in the class approved by the FDA. This new option will enable more precise dosing titration in accordance with the...

After eight years of work, researchers have unearthed what has been a well-kept secret of our immune system's success. The findings published online on June 9th in Immunity, a Cell Press publication, offer an explanation for how specialized immune cells are able to kill infected or cancerous cells without killing themselves in the process.The focus of the study is a molecule known as perforin, whose job it is to open up a pore in cells targeted for destruction. With that pore in place,...

Factory trials conducted by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists have led to recommendations for controlling or preventing starch buildup in processed raw sugars and products made with those sugars. The study was led by chemist Gillian Eggleston with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Commodity Utilization Research Unit in New Orleans, La. ARS is USDA's chief intramural scientific research agency.Eggleston has been studying sugarcane that comes into factories containing too...

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, the Medical University of South Carolina and American Life Science Pharmaceuticals of San Diego have demonstrated that oral administration of a cysteine protease inhibitor, E64d, not only reduces the build-up of β-amyloid (Aβ) in the brains of animal models for Alzheimer's disease, but also results in a substantial improvement in memory deficit.A paper detailing the findings has been published as an early online version and is...