Researchers have discovered that a protein found naturally in cells that provides some protection from viruses is responsible for creating mutations that drive resistance to tamoxifen treatment in breast cancer. Because the protein, known as APOBEC3B, is found in elevated quantities in other kinds of cancer cells, the finding explains differential responses to treatment and opens the door to boosting the effectiveness of tamoxifen and related breast cancer therapies that inhibit the ability of e...

Photoswitches are a family of small-molecules designed to photo-modulate the activity of specific signaling proteins: One color turns the protein ‘on’; a different color turns it ‘off’. Photoswitches were conceived at the Nanomedicine Development Center for the Optical Control of Biological Function at UC Berkeley Light-sensitive proteins are changing the way scientists study how new drug candidates affect critical properties of heart and nerve cells. The proteins, discovered by Max Planck re...

Northwestern Medicine scientists, working with the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN), recently assessed whether an RNA biosignature of the body’s response to infection could distinguish if infants 60 days or younger with fever were experiencing a serious bacterial infection. The results, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, show how RNA biosignatures may be an alternative – and more accurate – method to identify infants with bacterial infectio...

Phototactic behaviour directs some bacteria towards light and others into darkness: This enables them to utilize solar energy as efficiently as possible for their metabolism, or, otherwise, protects them from excessive light intensity. A team of researchers headed by Clemens Bechinger from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and the University of Stuttgart, as well as colleagues from the University of Düsseldorf have now found a surprisingly simple way to direct synthetic microswimm...