Latest Messenger RNA Stories

Biomedical engineers have developed a new type of probe that allows them to visualize single ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules within live cells more easily than existing methods. The tool will help scientists learn more about how RNA operates within living cells.Techniques scientists currently use to image these transporters of genetic information within cells have several drawbacks, including the need for synthetic RNA or a large number of fluorescent molecules. The fluorescent probes...

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have identified a master switch that might prevent cancer cells from metastasizing from a primary tumor to other organs. The switch is a protein that, when in the "on" position, maintains the normal character of cells that line the surface of organs and body cavities. These epithelial cells are the type of cell from which most solid tumors arise. However, when the switch is turned "off" or absent, epithelial cells acquire...

Harvard University researchers said they have taken an important step toward making an artificial life form by creating a ribosome, known as the cell's factory, Reuters reported.The proteins that carry out key business for all forms of life are created by the ribosome. Messenger RNA carries DNA's genetic instructions to a cell's ribosome, which then cooks up the desired protein. All living organism from bacteria to humans uses a ribosome, and scientists say they are all strikingly...

A single cell "“ whether a yeast cell or one of your cells "“ is exquisitely sensitive to its surroundings. It receives input signals, processes the information, makes decisions, and issues commands for making the proper response. As with any control system, noise "“ errors, slip-ups, mis-reads "“ can get in the way of correct decision making. Virginia Tech biologists and engineers have created a mathematical model to explore the roles of noise in controlling the basic events of the...

Findings may lead to novel treatments for diseases resistant to current RNAiA team of researchers led by Rutgers' Samuel Gunderson has developed a novel gene silencing platform with very significant improvements over existing RNAi approaches. This may enable the development and discovery of a new class of drugs to treat a wide array of diseases. Critical to the technology is the approach this team took to specifically target RNA biosynthesis.The research findings are reported in the journal...

A mathematical model developed at the Weizmann Institute has revealed how single-celled organisms regulate their activities for maximum efficiencyThe bacterium Escherichia coli, one of the best-studied single-celled organisms around, is a master of industrial efficiency. This bacterium can be thought of as a factory with just one product: itself. It exists to make copies of itself, and its business plan is to make them at the lowest possible cost, with the greatest possible efficiency. ...

Scientists have identified a new way to inhibit a molecule that is critical for HIV pathogenesis. The research, published by Cell Press in the January 16th issue of the journal Molecular Cell, presents a target for development of antiretroviral therapeutics that are likely to complement existing therapies and provide additional protection from HIV and AIDS.Infection of human cells with HIV-1 requires multiple events that involve complex interactions between viral elements and cellular...

An international research team led by Tim Nilsen, Ph.D., a professor of medicine and biochemistry and the director of the School of Medicine's Center for RNA Molecular Biology, has discovered an unexpected mechanism governing alternative splicing, the process by which single genes produce different proteins in different situations. The new mechanism suggests that curing the more than half of genetic diseases that are caused by mutations in the genetic code that in turn create mistakes in...

Argos Therapeutics today announced the publication of an article in the online journal BMC Molecular Biology supporting the Company's novel method of stimulating the CD40 receptor signal cascade in dendritic cells (DCs), which may potentially improve the potency of their DC-based immunotherapy. Argos' process involves electroporation of RNA into DCs, encoding a modified version of the T-cell protein CD40L. Stimulating this receptor signal cascade through ectopic expression of this novel CD40L...

A team of scientists at IBM (NYSE: IBM) and the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) have discovered that microRNAs --small molecules that are an important regulatory component in the machinery of living cells -- actually regulate the differentiation of stem cells and have roles that go way beyond what was previously thought. The work uncovers new ways by which microRNAs regulate how genes are made and could provide alternative explanations for some observations that biologists have made in...