Northeast Tennessee counties reported more than 100 new novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infections for the second-straight day on Thursday, the first time in three weeks the region saw consecutive days with
Loading video.
VIDEO: To reconstruct a 3D image of the human Mediator-bound transcription pre-initiation complex, researchers first captured hundreds of thousands of images of the Med-PIC complex. They then used computational methods to. view more
Credit: Northwestern University
For the first time ever, a Northwestern University-led research team has peered inside a human cell to view a multi-subunit machine responsible for regulating gene expression.
Called the Mediator-bound pre-initiation complex (Med-PIC), the structure is a key player in determining which genes are activated and which are suppressed. Mediator helps position the rest of the complex RNA polymerase II and the general transcription factors at the beginning of genes that the cell wants to transcribe.
Study: Lowering the activity of KRAS gene can help fight pancreatic cancer
If clinicians could stop mutations of the KRAS gene in pancreatic cancer – which happens in more than 90 percent of pancreatic cancer cases and drastically reduces response to immunotherapy – the chances of improving treatment for this deadly form of cancer would be increased.
A collaborative study by Stony Brook University scientists, published in
Nature Communications, takes an initial step toward better understanding how KRAS drives immune evasion and demonstrates a lowering of the KRAS activity resulting in a more favorable immune environment to fight cancer.
Previous strategies to block the KRAS oncogene therapeutically have focused on counteracting its growth-promoting role in cancer.
An international team of scientists with Fridgeir Grímsson from the University of Vienna has found a previously unknown fossil fly species in old lake sediments of the Messel Pit, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Germany. In the stomach of the fossil insect, pollen from various plants could be detected, which allows rare insights into the feeding behavior, the ecology and the role of the fly as a pollinator. The study was published in Current Biology .