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The use of RNA interference as therapeutic tool
The latest discoveries in the field of RNA interference have revolutionized our knowledge of molecular and cellular biology. They have allowed to advance in therapies to treat serious diseases, like HIV. But this article proves that, at the present time, much is left to...
The UAB heads a European research project on proteases and pathological processe
A research group of the UAB Institute of Biotechnology and Biomedicine and the UAB Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, directed by Francesc Xavier Avilés, is the coordinator of a European project aimed at studying...
Redesigning enzymes
Enzymes are proteins that regulate the rate of chemical reactions involved in biological processes. Researchers at the UAB Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology are currently studying strategies to artificially alter the structure of enzymes in order to modify their behaviour.
Which is the cause of female sterility?
A researchers team of the UAB Biomedicine and Biotechnology Institute's Immunology Unity and some european researchers have publishedan important book about this subject. According to their research, a transformation in proteins' function can cause circulating autoantibodies presence that...
Lynn Margulis, a microbiologist at the U.S. considered one of the leading figures in the evolution theory
Lynn Margulis is one of the leading scientists in the field of microbiology. Her contributions to biology and evolutionism are many. Amonst others, of particular significance is her Serial...
UAB's researchers have applied atomic force microscopy to study chromatin -DNA and histones- in its natural aqueous environment and have found that it is much more compact than previously thought. A fact that will have to be considered to understand the mechanism of DNA transcription during the cell cycle.
The Miller-Urey experiment
As a part of the activities of the UAB Year of Evolution, The faculties of Biosciences and Sciences have held a conference on Prebiotic Evolution. The event included various seminars and the inauguration of the reproduction of the Miller-Urey apparatus, that has been set up...
Insect pests and plants, struggling for survival
In nature we can see many examples of adaptable evolution. On of these mechanisms may be seen in the co-evolution of herbivorous insects and the plants they feed on: while prey develop biological defences, the predators react to make themselves insensitive to attack....
After being synthesized, the proteins fold themselves to acquire their function. Although this process, called oxidative folding, has been investigated extensively, some keys aspects have been neglected, like the thermodynamics or the computational prediction. UAB researchers disassembled this puzzle and its conclusions became a one single theory...
