202 results found for lindau-nobel

For cancer diagnosis and therapy, we are developing activatable cell-penetrating peptides (ACPPs), synthetic molecules with a novel amplifying mechanism for homing to diseased tissues. ACPPs are polycationic cell-penetrating peptides whose cellular ....

In 1952, Felix Bloch and Edward Purcell were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for the description of the phenomenon of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Over the years, NMR has been used in a wide range of fundamental studies in physics, and in the....

Aquaporin (AQP) water channel proteins enable high water permeability in certain biological membranes. Discovered in human red cells but expressed in multiple tissues, AQP1 has been thoroughly characterized and its atomic structure is known. Expres....

Synthetic biologists seek to design, build, and test novel biological systems. We have chemically synthesized a bacterial genome (Mycoplsama mycoides, 1078Kb) and brought it to life by transplantation into the cytoplasm of a related species. We are....

Biological research and medicine were transformed by the invention and improvement of the optical microscope. Since the early 1990s, there has been another revolution in optical imaging, and manipulation of individual biological molecules and bio-mo....

Many important drugs such as penicillin, aspirin, or digitalis, were discovered by serendipity - some by curious researchers who accidentally noted a "strange" phenomenon, and some by isolation of active ingredients form plants known for centuries to....

Structural studies of the ribosome exemplify the evolution of structural studies in cell biology from the early negatively stained images of macromolecular assemblies in whole cells, to a detailed atomic understanding of the mechanisms of action of a....

Slightly more than 20% of the global cancer incidence is presently being linked to viral, bacterial, or parasitic infections. The mechanisms by which these agents mediate malignant transformation differ substantially. Some contribute directly, freq....

Analysis of the immune system is fascinating and progressing rapidly. As a field of medical enquiry, it has however, drifted and turned purely academic. This is because interest and appreciation of protective immunity in infectious disease medicine....

Since the first cases of AIDS in 1981 and the identification of its etiological agent in 1983, much progress has been made in both the development of tools to prevent and treat HIV infection and the access to these tools. In particular, the wide arr....

The techniques and concepts that have resulted in the identification and isolation of embryonic stem cells have come from studies with mouse teratocarcinomas. Embryonic stem cells isolated from normal mouse embryos may be grown in tissue culture and....

It is now axiomatic that, no matter what its causes, cancer ultimately arises from the malfunction of genes. A number of clues prefigured this paradigm: the persistence of the malignant phenotype through countless cell divisions; the mutagenicity of....

The epidemiology of Helicobacter pylori continues to be an area of discovery and controversy in the 21st century. The transmission of this bacterium from mother to child allows Helicobacter DNA to mimic the evolution of maternal mitochondria DNA. B....

Infectious microbes collectively represent the strongest selective pressure operating on our species, and over hundreds of millions of years, drove the evolution of the sophisticated immune system we have today. While the general outlines of immune ....

Flies challenged with bacteria or fungi rapidly transcribe a battery of genes encoding potent antimicrobial peptides which oppose the invading microorganisms. Genetic analysis has identified two signaling cascades which control their expression: (1)....

Despite enormous advances in structural studies of biological systems we are frequently left without a clear structure-function correlation and cannot fully describe how different systems actually work. This introduces a major challenge for computer....

The broad outlines of the secretory pathway were established by pioneering EM and cell fractionation experiments conducted by George Palade in the 1960s. Beginning in the mid 1970s and early 80s, my laboratory isolated a series of conditionally leth....

Astrophysical objects are able to accelerate atomic nuclei to energies 10^7 times more than man made accelerators such as LHC. _Particles arrive at earth from space with energies as great as 50 joules, a macroscopic energy in a microscopic particle.....

Spintronics is a new field of research which exploits the influence of the electron spin on electronic transport. It is well known for the giant magnetoresistance of the magnetic multilayers and its application to increase the capacity of the hard d....

During the entire 20th century, physical sciences have advanced to such a degree that we can extrapolate how they can be applied, even in a fairly distant future.  Even if we leave open the (likely) possibility of spectacular new discoveries and inv....

David discusses a few of the questions facing fundamental physics that might be answered before the 100th Lindau meeting in 2050.

The worldÍs supply of Helium gas comes primarily from alpha decay in rocks. The most abundant supply is in the American Southwest where it is trapped with methane is natural gas wells. That supply is estimated to last a mere 25 years. It took 4.7 bi....

John summarizes the history of the universe, from the Big Bang through the formation of galaxies and the Solar System, and the history of the Earth and some of the special factors enabling the formation of life.  Our future will be hot as the Sun ge....

The image of light waves as oscillating electromagnetic fields explains virtually all the phenomena of traditional optics.  An awareness that these waves are somehow subdivided into quanta has however been with us since the early 20th century.  The....

Particle physics mainly developed after World War II. It has its roots in the first half of the previous century, when it became clear that all matter is made up from atoms, and the atoms in turn were found to contain a nucleus surrounded by electro....

Using our most advanced techniques and instruments we sift through study the cosmic microwave background as a relic of the early universe to understand the events surrounding the birth and subsequent development of the Universe.  A precision inspect....

Every macroscopic chemical transformation, whether it is atmospheric ozone depletion or the burning of a candle, consists of millions of microscopic chemical events, which involve collisions between molecules.  It has been the dream of scientists fo....

Our experience suggests that a system will usually show the tendency to undergo spontaneously a transition from the state of order into disorder.  Quite in contrast, our world developed from an initial state of great disorder into another one where ....

The selective degradation of many short-lived proteins in eukaryotic cells is carried out by the ubiquitin-mediated proteolytic system.  In this pathway, proteins are targeted for degradation by covalent ligation to ubiquitin, a highly conserved sma....

The design and development of inhibiting (or occasionally activating) ligands of target proteins in medicine and crop protection guided by molecular structures and functions has become an established technology in academia and industry recently._ Dr....

Prof. Kroto starts his lecture with remarks on his boyhood and his passions at school and University, especially graphic art and drawing.  He mentions his 4/5 rule and shows the connection between theory and experiments, and he is sold on scientific....

Science is inevitably intertwined with society.  The state of the art of science, coupled with industrial endeavors, has determined our quality of life.  Chemists are proud of their ability to generate high value from almost nothing by using accumu....

Molecules to observe and manipulate biological systems can be devised by a variety of strategies, ranging from pure chemical design and total synthesis to genome mining and high-throughput directed evolution. Examples of both successes and failures a....

Professor Martin Chalfie regrets the disproportionately high funding of translational research, defined as applied research for the treatment of human diseases.  With examples from the research in his lab he wants to show how important nontranslatio....

Ribosomes are the universal cellular machines that act as polymerases that translate the genetic code into proteins. They posses spectacular architecture accompanied by inherent mobility that facilitate their smooth performance in decoding, peptide ....

We live in a fascinating world surrounded by life. Much of that life is clearly visible like the plants and animals that we see every day. However, far more is invisible to the naked eye and it is to this realm, the microscopic world, that I will t....

Survival of vertebrate hosts against infections depends on important natural or innate resistance mechanisms combined with adaptive immune responses of T and B cells. Infectious agents probe the limit of immune responses and help to characterize thr....

After a short reminder of the historical development of evolutionary biology, elements to a molecular theory of Darwinian evolution will be presented. Biological evolution is driven by the availability of genetic variants in populations. The occasi....

This talk concentrates on cellular regulation by tyrosine phosphorylation which has been directly implicated in cell growth, differentiation and transformation. Growth factor receptors transduce their signal by recruiting a multiplicity of adaptor p....

It was in 1882 that Walther Flemming published drawings of chromosomes lining up in mitosis and parting equally to the daughters of cell division, and 20 years later that Theodor Boveri explained the significance of the chromosome dance in terms of t....

Argonaute proteins interact with small RNAs to mediate gene silencing. C. elegans contains 27 Argonaute homologs, raising the question of what roles these genes play in RNAi and related gene-silencing pathways. Through our collaborator, Dr. Shohei....

The role of nitric oxide in cellular signaling in the past three decades has become one of the most rapidly growing areas in biology. Nitric oxide is a gas and a free radical with an unshared electron that can regulate an ever-growing list of biolog....

In the process of preparing M(NR)(CHCMe2R')(OR")2 (R' = Me or Ph) species (or analogs that contain enantiomerically pure biphenolate or binaphtholate ligands) in situ by treating M(NR)(CHCMe2R')(pyrrolide)2 species with alcohols, we have discovered M....

Molecules to observe and manipulate biological systems can be devised by a variety of strategies, ranging from pure chemical design and total synthesis to genome mining and high-throughput directed evolution. Examples of both successes and failures ....

Since its introduction as a biological marker, the Aequorea victoria Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) has had a strong impact in biology, being used in an ever-increasing variety of ways. I will review a bit of the history of GFP and show how having ....

There are numerous kinds of luminous organism on earth. Mysterious emission of light from them inspired the curiosity of mankind ever since the ancient times. In history, Raphael Dubois discovered luciferin and luciferase from one of them, a click ....

As scientists, our livelihoods are supported by teaching and research, but we also have the opportunity to make observations beyond our usual confines and share these with non-scientific citizens. Growing up in my native state of Minnesota, I have al....

I shall present and explain the thesis that mankind is on the threshold of a dramatic transition: From an earth, predominantly powered by oil and other fossil fuels, with unsustainable global warming, to a new earth predominantly powered by "clean" s....