Category Archives: Biochemistry

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Author and scientist Dee Takemoto edits her latest book in her Aptos studio. takemoto taught biochemistry for 32 years at Kansas State University and recently published a book detailing the corn syrup/obesity relationship.

APTOS -- To Dee Takemoto, retiring from teaching biochemistry for 32 years at Kansas State has meant tackling books she's been meaning to write.

"I haven't really wanted to slow down yet," the 63-year-old Aptos resident said.

Takemoto published "Gaining Weight? High Fructose Corn Syrup and Obesity" in January, just wrapped up her first novel [science fiction, of course], and is finishing up a book about genetics and obesity. In addition to writing, Takemoto edits science journals from China, Korea and Japan.

While Takemoto used to study primarily diabetic retinopathy, she said she became interested in studying obesity after more and more of her students at Kansas State seemed overweight. She challenged them to omit corn syrup from their diets, which Takemoto said led them to lose an average of 40 pounds per person.

Takemoto said she decided to further study this connection in her book.

"I have a number of people who call me and say it's an easy diet to be on because you don't have to give up your favorite stuff," Takemoto said. "I'm just really committed to people losing weight."

Takemoto began her career in health and sciences at USC, where she earned a doctorate in molecular biology. She and her husband Larry Takemoto [he received a doctorate in biology from UCLA] were offered tenure-track positions teaching at Kansas State.

Moving to Manhattan Center, Kansas, took a bit of adjusting, said Larry Takemoto.

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Dee Takemoto, Santa Cruz County Stories: Former professor stays busy in retirement as an author

Public release date: 13-Jul-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Kathleen Phillips ka-phillips@tamu.edu 979-845-2872 Texas A&M AgriLife Communications

COLLEGE STATION Top-notch molecular research swung into gear at Texas A&M University this week literally.

A crane lowered a high-field 800 megahertz Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectrometer through an opening in the roof of a biochemistry and biophysics building Wednesday, putting the university on par with leading U.S. research institutions, according to Dr. Gregory Reinhart, department head.

The German-made instrument, which was flown on a cargo plane accompanied by an engineer and transported to the Texas A&M campus on a special truck, is expected to be fully operational by the first of September.

The Nuclear Magnetic Resonance technique, commonly called NMR, is the forerunner of the more widely known MRI. Reinhart explained that an MRI makes images of human tissue for medical diagnostics, but NMR makes images at the molecular level for scientific exploration.

"This is a major step forward in the capability of the university in the general area of structural biology," said Reinhart, whose department collaborated with Texas AgriLife Research, a part of the Texas A&M System, to obtain the equipment.

The equipment will benefit researchers from across Texas A&M, officials noted.

"We are excited to partner with Texas A&M University to bring this powerful instrument to campus," said Dr. Craig Nessler, AgriLife Research director. "It is critical that we find ways to collaboratively provide such state of the art equipment to our scientists to maintain our research competitiveness."

Structural biology means looking at macromolecules which consist of hundreds or thousands of atoms and then deducing the way these are built and how they move, Reinhart said. Knowing how the molecules work helps scientists create solutions for a variety of needs.

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Science goes through the roof

Eagle photo by Dave McDermand Workers carefully line up placement Thursday for a super-conducting magnet that arrived on Texas A&Ms West Campus.

A 100-ton crane sat outside Texas A&M Universitys biochemistry and biophysics building Thursday not an uncommon site for the construction-heavy campus.

But the cranes presence had nothing to do with raising another new building. Instead, it was there to lift a four-metric-ton, 800 megahertz Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectrometer through an opening in the roof of the building.

The installation of the NMR, which will be complete in two to three months, puts A&M on par with other top national research institutions, Dr. Gregory Reinhart, head of the biochemistry and biophysics department, said.

NMR spectroscopy functions similar to the way an MRI takes images of the body, Reinhart said. NMR was developed first, and expanded into the imaging technique known as MRI. NMR, however, allows for higher precision for molecular information.

In NMR, we dont look at large objects, rather we look at individual molecules, like proteins and nucleic acids, Tatyana Igumenova, assistant professor and director of the NMR facility, said. This kind of instrument will allow us to determine the structure and dynamics of those molecules.

The NMR will be extremely powerful for research in drug design, Igumenova said.

You can identify potential drug candidates and use an NMR to determine where exactly they bind to the protein or enzyme, and what kind of effect they have on the structure and dynamics, Igumenova said.

With these capabilities, researchers will be able to design improved inhibitors to prevent the spread of disease.

The NMR, along with the upgrade and relocation of two other instruments to the NMR facility, cost a total of $2.7 million. The NMR itself cost more than $2 million, Reinhart said.

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Installation of new spectrometer gets under way on A&M campus

Public release date: 11-Jul-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Angela Hopp ahopp@asbmb.org 240-283-6614 American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Next week's Journal of Biological Chemistry "Paper of the Week" by Wai Mun Huang and colleagues at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center and the University of Minnesota reveals new insights into the molecular properties of the rod-shaped soil bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens, the pathogen responsible for crown gall disease, a tumor-forming infection in plants, such as tomatoes, walnuts, grapes and beets.

The bacterium is parasitic: It infects its plant host by entering through an open wound, inserts a small segment of its genetic code into the plant's genome, devours energy made by the plant, and forms knobby brown lesions on the plant stem.

Huang's group focused on the pathogen's genetic material. Most bacteria have circular chromosomes. But A. tumefaciens C58, the strain studied by Huang's group, contains one circular chromosome and one linear chromosome (along with two circular plasmids). Huang's research illuminates how this bacterium maintains its linear chromosome.

Huang's team ascertained the DNA sequence for the telomeres, or the protective end caps, of the linear chromosome in A. tumefaciens C58 and confirmed that an enzyme, TelA, actually forms them by making hairpin loops. These end caps are important for maintaining the stability of linear chromosomes. Interestingly, TelA also binds the telomeres. This activity is unique among bacterial enzymes of this kind and may protect the telomeres (which degrade over time and thus lose their ability to preserve DNA), as telomere binding proteins do in eukaryotes.

"Hairpin-ended linear chromosomes and plasmids are found in a number of branches of bacteria and viruses," Huang says. "They are simple and elegant to form and to maintain." But what remains to be understood is why this linear configuration is not more common or even the preferred configuration for bacteria, Huang emphasizes.

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From the article: "Linear chromosome generating system of Agrobacterium tumefaciens C58: Protelomerase generates and protects hairpin ends" by Wai Mun Huang, Jeanne DaGloria, Heather Fox, Qiurong Ruan, John Tillou, Ke Shi, Hideki Aihara, John Aron, and Sherwood Casjens

Link to Paper in Press version of article: http://bit.ly/MfBz8C

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A deeper look into the pathogen responsible for crown gall disease in plants

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Dominican University of California associate professor Dr. Maggie Louie.

There will be no summer vacation for Dr. Maggie Louie, an associate professor of biochemistry at Dominican University in San Rafael.

Louie and her two student assistants are working through the summer, continuing their research into the role that the heavy metal cadmium plays in the incidence of breast cancer. She and her team have received more than $450,000 in grants from the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health to fund their work.

In April, Louie released research results that show cancer cells become increasingly aggressive the longer they are exposed to small concentrations of cadmium, commonly found in cosmetics, food, water and air particles. While other studies had previously shown links between acute cadmium exposure and breast cancer, Louie's study is one of only a few to link chronic cadmium exposure to the disease.

Now, Louie says she is investigating further to understand the biochemical process involved, and she believes she has found a protein that plays a key role.

"We've identified a potential player, which is stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1)," Louie said, "and we're trying to figure out how this small protein is being regulated by cadmium and what its role is in terms of increasing the cancer's ability to metastasize."

Louie said, "Unfortunately, cadmium is all around us. Cadmium is in our food, our water, our makeup, and our air."

Cadmium is produced mainly as a byproduct

Louie said many people believe there is nothing to worry about because the levels of exposure are so low. She, however, has her doubts.

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Dominican University professor explores links to breast cancer

The bacterium Escherichia coli (E. coli) has a rudimentary molecular "memory" that allows it to swim toward the richest sources of food. MU biochemistry professor Gerald Hazelbauer's continuing discoveries about how bacteria do this could shed light on human and animal sensory, memory and response systems.

"My doctoral work was with Julius Adler, the first scientist to study the molecules behind bacterial behavior. His work led to the discovery that bacteria have a molecular 'memory' system that allows them to 'remember' the past, compare it to the present and thus move toward the area that is most favorable," Hazelbauer said. "When I began my work as a researcher in the late 1960s, studying bacterial behavior was a curiosity and its significance unclear. Now, decades later, the research done by my group and others has grown into a body of knowledge about the fundamental processes used by all living things to recognize, remember and respond to changes in their environments."

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) recently recognized and rewarded Hazelbauer's scientific contributions by granting him a "Method to Extend Research in Time" (MERIT) Award. The award, which is worth at least $5.5 million over 10 years, will allow him to continue his research without re-applying for funding. Hazelbauer joins only 11 other MU researchers who have received the MERIT award, including his wife, Linda Randall, who is also a biochemistry professor.

MERIT awards are intended to foster creativity and allow researchers to take more time to develop new techniques. The awards are given only to scientists who have proven themselves by succeeding in at least 10 years of previous NIGMS-funded research and who seem likely to continue making valuable contributions to their field.

Hazelbauer is professor and chair/director of biochemistry, a department/division jointly administered by the University of Missouri's School of Medicine and College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. Linda Randall is the Wurdack Professor of Biological Chemistry in that unit.

Provided by University of Missouri-Columbia

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Like humans bacteria remember (if only for 4 seconds), says researcher