Chromosome Ends and Diseases of Aging

Chromosome Ends and Diseases of Aging

UCSF Professor Elizabeth Blackburn explores the effects of aging on a cellular level.

Unwinding Clock Genetics

The fruit fly has taught scientists a great deal about the daily rhythms of animals and their internal biological clocks. Dr. Michael Rosbash explains how he and colleagues cloned the first gene identified as having an important role in the function of the clock. His work opened up the molecular analysis of biological clocks and represents one of the most advanced studies of how genes affect behavior

Frontiers in Cancer Diagnostics: Chipping Away at Cancer

Clinical practice informs basic science research, and that research in turn informs clinical practice. In the field of oncology discoveries in molecular biology and genetics have revolutionized clinical care for patients with cancer. This series begins at the "bench" with Katherine Hyland and Joseph DeRisi describing genomic alterations that occur in cancer cells and how applications of genomic technologies use this information for diagnostic and therapeutic management Series.

EF-Tu delivers aminoacyl-tRNA to the ribosome

Elongation factor Tu (EF-Tu) binds all elongator aminoacyl-transfer RNAs (aa-tRNAs) for delivery to the ribosome during protein synthesis. Here, we show that EF-Tu binds misacylated tRNAs over a much wider range of affinities than it binds the corresponding correctly acylated tRNAs, suggesting that the protein exhibits considerable specificity for both the amino acid side chain and the tRNA body. The thermodynamic contributions of the amino acid and the tRNA body to the overall binding affinity are independent of each other and compensate for one another when the tRNAs are correctly acylated. Because certain misacylated tRNAs bind EF-Tu significantly more strongly or weakly than cognate aa-tRNAs, EF-Tu may contribute to translational accuracy.

The immune system

Kidney Transplant - Gene Expression

Kidney Transplant - Gene Expression



Kidney Transplant Update presents Dr. Manikkam Suthanthiran who discusses the status of gene expression profiling.

Reproductive Health Effects of Pesitcides

Changes in Female Sexual Function Throughout the Lifespan

The Miracle Of Respiration.

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Part 7

Bacterial Pneumonia: Old Habits and New Approaches

Pneumonia occurs when a person's lungs become inflamed and filled with fluid as a result of infection by bacteria, viruses or fungi. Though treatment protocols have significantly advanced since the Great Pandemic of 1918 -- when mortality rates were 320 times those of today -- pneumonia is still the 6th leading cause of death in the United States. Norman Rizk, MD, professor of medicine, discusses some of the current challenges in diagnosis and treatment, including the issue of drug-resistant bacteria and the prevalence of hospital-acquired pneumonia.

Cancer and Climate Change: Parallels in Risk Management

The Influence of Sex/Gender on Cardiovascular Health

While more men have heart disease, each year more women die from it--studies have shown that only 8% of women are aware that heart disease is the leading cause of death among women. Hannah Valentine, MD, professor of medicine at Stanford, discusses this and other related discrepancies.

Gene control in plants

SH2 Domain Phosphotyrosine

SH2 domains typically bind a phosphorylated tyrosine residue in the context of a longer peptide motif within a target protein, and SH2 domains represent the largest class of known pTyr-recognition domains.
Phosphorylation of tyrosine residues in a protein occurs during signal transduction and is carried out by tyrosine kinases. In this way, phosphorylation of a substrate by tyrosine kinases acts as a switch to trigger binding to an SH2 domain-containing protein. The intimate relationship between tyrosine kinases and SH2 domains is supported by their coordinate emergence during eukaryotic evolution.

Beta Sheet

The β sheet (also β-pleated sheet) is the second form of regular secondary structure in proteins, only somewhat less common than alpha helix. Beta sheets consist of beta strands connected laterally by at least two or three backbone hydrogen bonds, forming a generally twisted, pleated sheet. A beta strand (also β strand) is a stretch of polypeptide chain typically 3 to 10 amino acids long with backbone in an almost fully extended conformation. The higher-level association of β sheets has been implicated in formation of the protein aggregates and fibrils observed in many human diseases, notably the amyloidoses such as Alzheimer's disease