Biology

Pushed to the brink of survival, the hyper-driven cells of a cancerous tumor tap into an ancient system that has helped organisms cope with internal stresses and environmental challenges since life began. As an integral part of this system, heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) has been shown to help malignant cells accommodate the genetic changes and profound disturbances in normal biology that occur in cancers. Researchers have theorized that...  

(PhysOrg.com) -- Markus Seeliger, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacological Sciences, Stony Brook University School of Medicine, and collaborators at Harvard University, have developed and characterized the mechanism of a new class of highly specific inhibitors of the Src (sarcoma) kinase, known as a cancer-causing protein. The research, published in the April 2012 edition of Nature Chemical Biology, may provide a foundation to...  

"Inhibiting HSP90 in tumors may not cause them to roll over and die," says Whitesell, who with support from the Susan G. Komen for the Cure will be analyzing blood and tissue samples from trial participants. "But it may change the biology of the ...  

Motivation: Protein kinases represent critical links in cell signaling. A central problem in computational biology is to systematically identify their substrates. Results: This study introduces a new method to predict kinase substrates by extracting evolutionary information from multiple sequence alignments in a manner that is tolerant to degenerate motif positioning. Given a known consensus, the new method (ConDens) compares the observed...  

Markus Seeliger, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacological Sciences, Stony Brook University School of Medicine, and collaborators at Harvard University, have developed and characterized the mechanism of a new class of highly specific inhibitors of the Src (sarcoma) kinase, known as a cancer-causing protein. The research, published in the April 2012 edition of Nature Chemical Biology, may provide a foundation to developing new...  

Researchers have uncovered what makes one particular strain of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) so proficient at picking up resistance genes, such as the one that makes it resistant to vancomycin, the last line of defense for hospital-acquired infections. They report their findings in mBio®, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology, on Tuesday May 22.  

Marine scientists studying life around deep-sea vents have discovered that some hardy species can survive the extreme change in pressure that occurs when a research submersible rises to the surface. The team's findings, published in Conservation Biology, reveal how a species can be inadvertently carried by submersibles to new areas, with potentially damaging effects on marine ecosystems.  

Stony Brook scientist defines structure of Src kinase inhibitors in Nature Chemical Biology Newswise — STONY BROOK, N.Y., March 28, 2012 – Markus Seeliger, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacological Sciences, Stony Brook University ...  

Quantum physics and plant biology seem like two branches of science that could not be more different, but surprisingly they may in fact be intimately tied.