Nan's+blurbs+on+'hot'+bio+topics


 * I'm posting short (as short as possible...) blurbs of random current events that I see in the news(paper); No guarantees that it will even show up in the biology competition; this is a "just in case" kinda thing. I'll highlight important words/phrases. I know, there's only 1 more week until the competition --I do things last minute :D**. **This is a quick resource more for the people who are actually going into this with the hope of receiving a scholarship.**

A national research group has discovered that // hypermethylation // is a defining aspect of secondary glioblastomas, malignancies that have progressed from lower-grade tumors. Hypermethylation might //promote tumor development by silencing two tumor-suppressing genes, or by silencing others to provide a favorable context for genetic damage to occur.//

Gina Cannarozzi and Professor Gaston Gonnet, from the Computer Science Department of ETH Zurich and the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, have// identified a new genetic sub-code that determines at which rate given products must be made by the cell. // This sub-code.... --->makes it possible to // read info about gene expression rates directly from genomic sequences //, whereas up to now, this info could only be obtained through laborious & expensive experimental approaches (i.e. microarrays) --->will provide more information about ribosomes ---> can be used to optimize, in a much more rational manner,// the amount of product delivered by a foreign host. // (I.e. insulin is produced by expressing a protein in a foreign host such as // E. coli //or // S. cerevisiae //.)

Scientists at Duke University Medical Center found that 23 of the patients with epilepsy had deletions on chromosome 16 at 16p13.11, but no such deletions appeared in the DNA of the healthy volunteers. This suggests that people //missing large chunks of DNA on chromosome 16 are much more likely than others to develop a chronic seizure disorder//  during their lifetime.

A new genetic fault which may account for some cases of inherited deafness has been revealed by Dutch researchers. The gene in question, labelled //PTPRQ, appears to play a role in the development of the inner ear "hair cell"//  before the birth of the child. These cells // will not form properly or in sufficient numbers, // //leading to profound deafness or extremely poor hearing// .

Scientists probing seas around the globe have discovered a profound diversity of microbes and bacteria that are critical to the survival of the world's oceans and the planet; //p////rorocentrum// is one of the millions of species of marine microbes that was recently identified.

Researchers have used a// patient's own stem cells to help repair his heart during open-heart bypass surgery //. This man is the first in Canada to receive the treatment. Doctors // removed bone marrow from his hip, purified it to isolate the stem cells, then injected them directly into his heart. //