A team of scientists has developed a promising new strategy for "reactivating" genes that cause cancer tumors to shrink and die. The researchers hope that their discovery will aid in the development of an innovative anti-cancer drug that effectively targets unhealthy, cancerous tissue without damaging healthy, non-cancerous tissue and vital organs. The research will be published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. (more)
Using a new technique in which models of primitive cells are constructed from the bottom up, Penn State scientists have demonstrated that the structure of a cell's membrane and cytoplasm may be as important to cell division as the specialized machinery -- such as enzymes, DNA or RNA -- that are found within living cells. The study, which will be published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, may provide important clues to how life originated from nonlife and how modern cells came to exhibit complex behaviors. (more)
Chimpanzees and humans are minimally different genetically, but the small differences are what make us human, according to a team of researchers who identified segments of non-coding DNA missing in humans that exist in chimpanzees and other animals. "The technology now lets us look at the genomes of humans and other mammals and find sites where humans are unique," said Philip Reno, assistant professor of anthropology, Penn State. "We can now correlate that information with specific human physical characteristics." (more)
Clifford Tabin, a professor in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and also the chairman of the department, will present the Russell Marker Lectures in Evolutionary Biology on March 14 and 15 on Penn State's University Park campus. The free public lectures are sponsored by the Penn State Eberly College of Science. The series includes a lecture intended for a general audience titled "Revisiting Evolutionary Examples Used by Darwin: New Insights in the Varied Beaks of Darwin's Finches and Regressive Evolution in Cave Fish" at 5 p.m. on Monday, March 14. Tabin also will give a more specialized lecture titled "Evolution and Development of Gut and Limb Pattern" at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, March 15. Both lectures will take place in the Berg Auditorium, 100 Life Sciences Building. (more)
The majority of public high school biology teachers are not strong classroom advocates of evolutionary biology, despite 40 years of court cases that have ruled teaching creationism or intelligent design violates the Constitution, according to Penn State political scientists. A mandatory undergraduate course in evolutionary biology for prospective teachers, and frequent refresher courses for current teachers, may be part of the solution, they say. (more)
Beth Shapiro, the Shaffer Career Development Assistant Professor of Biology at Penn State University, has won a David and Lucile Packard Foundation fellowship to explore the origins and evolution of viruses. (more)
It's no secret to any dog- or cat-lover that humans have a special connection with animals, but in a new journal article and forthcoming book, paleoanthropologist Pat Shipman of Penn State argues that this human-animal connection goes well beyond simple affection. Shipman proposes that the interdependency of ancestral humans with other animal species -- "the animal connection" -- played a crucial and beneficial role in human evolution over the last 2.6 million years. (more)
New Penn State research about human development and human genetic diseases reveals that jumping elements, some of which cause genetic diseases, become incorporated in the genome at different stages of human development. The density of transposable (jumping) elements between sex chromosomes in primates may have important consequences for the studies of human genetic diseases, say researchers Erika Kvikstad, a 2009 Penn State doctoral graduate in genetics, and Kateryna Makova, an associate professor of biology. (more)
Blind snakes have been discovered to be one of the few species now living in Madagascar that existed there when it broke away from India about 100 million years ago, according to a study that was published in the March 31 issue of the Royal Society journal Biology Letters. "Blindsnakes are not very pretty, are rarely noticed, and are often mistaken for earthworms, nonetheless, they tell a very interesting evolutionary story" said Blair Hedges, professor of biology at Penn State and a leader of the research team that made the discovery. Photos and more information are online at http://www.science.psu.edu/news-and-events/2010-news/Hedges3-2010. (more)
Scientists have discovered that the drastic decline in Arctic musk ox populations that began roughly 12,000 years ago was due to a warming climate rather than to human hunting. The research is the first study to use ancient musk ox DNA collected from across the animal's former geographic range to test for human impacts on musk ox populations. The research will be published in the early on-line edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences sometime during the week ending Friday, March 12. (more)
