Researchers from The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio have determined the atomic-level structure of transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β), offering clues as to how it interlocks with cell receptors with which it has special affinity. This interaction plays an important role in normal cells but is especially important in cancer.

TGF-β protein-receptor interaction promotes processes such as immune suppression, tissue remodeling and formation of blood vessels that lead to the growth and metastasis of cancer cells. The new finding, reported in the February issue of Molecular Cell, is being called a major milestone in the field and is expected to facilitate development of novel cancer therapies.

“TGF-β acts as a tumor suppressor in normal cells, but in cancer this growth-inhibiting capacity is selectively lost, and in turn TGF-β becomes a bad actor that induces many activities that lead to the growth and metastasis of cancer cells,” said corresponding author Andrew P. Hinck, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the UT Health Science Center. “Understanding the detailed nature of the interactions between TGF-β and its receptors represents a critical new step forward, as this opens up the opportunity of finding new drugs that mimic the interactions between TGF-β and its receptors. These should block assembly of the TGF-β signaling complex and in turn eliminate TGF-β’s tumor-promoting activities.”

Although there are more than 40 other proteins like TGF-β in humans, none are able to bind the TGF-β receptors and hence none function in the same manner as TGF-β. “TGF-β is very selective in its interactions with its receptors, due to the fact that four receptor subunits bind in an interdependent manner, interacting not only with TGF-β but with one another as well. It is like a tight-fitting jigsaw puzzle that only goes together one way,” Dr. Hinck said.

It may not have won an Oscar, but the tiny electron has finally made its film debut. A new video shows how an electron rides on a light wave after just having been pulled away from an atom. This is the first time an electron has ever been filmed in this way, and the results are presented in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Previously it has been next to impossible to photograph electrons accurately since their extremely high velocities have produced blurry pictures. In order to capture these rapid events, extremely short flashes of light are necessary, but such flashes were not previously available. With the use of a newly developed technology for generating short pulses from intense laser light, so-called attosecond pulses, scientists at the Lund University Faculty of Engineering in Sweden have managed to capture the electron's motion for the first time.

"It takes about 150 attoseconds for an electron to circle the nucleus of an atom. An attosecond is 10-18 seconds long, or, expressed in another way: an attosecond is related to a second as a second is related to the age of the universe," says Johan Mauritsson, an assistant professor in atomic physics at the Faculty of Engineering, Lund University. He is one of seven researchers behind the study, which was directed by him and Professor Anne L'Huillier.

With the aid of another laser these scientists have moreover succeeded in guiding the motion of the electron so that they can capture a collision between an electron and an atom on film.

Tools developed by researchers exploring language and speech comprehension can be powerful aids for remedial readers, children with language challenges, and anyone learning a second language, according to psychology professor Dominic Massaro of the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Massaro is a cognitive researcher whose breakthroughs have advanced researchers' understanding of the importance of face-to-face interaction in speech comprehension.

Massaro has developed computer-assisted speech and language tutors that use natural human speech to model language articulation. This sophisticated technology, which has helped autistic and hearing-impaired children, is now being incorporated into Scholastic's System 44 new remedial reading program for California schoolchildren, and the software is being tailored to help with the acquisition of languages,

"When you're learning a new language, it's helpful to see how the words are formed," said Massaro. "For instance, in Arabic, segments are articulated at the back of the throat." Massaro's facial animation software features a realistic tongue and palate that students can access in dynamic sideview cutaways of the tongue, jaw, and teeth. Combining such visual cues with sound boosts comprehension--and mimics the natural processes that laboratory experiments by Massaro and others have illuminated.

Smart Communications, Cisco and Trends.Net, Inc. have entered into a partnership for ICT education which is helping to reach out to the student population of the Philippines.</p> <p>After three successful runs, the customised course named Internetworking Fundamentals has benefited engineering teachers and other instructors are scheduled for training. The training, which was open to teachers from partner schools of Smart Wireless Engineering Education Programme (SWEEP) partner schools, was offered on three consecutive trainings.</p> <p>By familiarising teachers with devices, techniques and methods used in an actual work setting, the course is designed to help them go beyond the textbook and into what happens in the real world. Topics include Data Communications on the engineering level, data networks, switching methods, routing protocols and wide area technologies. The training course was initiated by Smart, the country's premier wireless services provider, and launched under SWEEP. A first of its kind industry-academe partnership, SWEEP seeks to improve the level of technology and engineering education in the country.

One of the great mysteries of biology is how life could have evolved so rapidly,&rdquo; says Lindquist. &ldquo;This research gives at least one plausible explanation for the speed of evolution and for the evolution of complex traits affected by several genes.&rdquo;</p> <p>HSP90 belongs to a class of proteins called chaperones, which help other proteins in the cell fold properly, prevent protein clumping, and escort improperly made proteins to be recycled. These vital functions become even more important when a cell is stressed by heat, cold, toxins or other hardships that affect protein folding.</p> <p>Hsp90 is particularly interesting because it is specialized to chaperone proteins that are key regulators of growth and development. Thus, it is in a position to couple environmental change to the release of hidden genetic variation and thereby to produce a host of new traits.</p> <p>Selective breeding can lead to the enrichment of those genetic changes, allowing the trait to be inherited even in the absence of stress. &ldquo;In previous studies, most of the new traits that appeared in response to stress would have been detrimental to the organism &ndash; hopeful monsters,&rdquo; says Lindquist. In the current studies, Todd Sangster and his co-authors used inbred mustard plants (Arabidopsis thaliana) and simulated stress by inhibiting their HSP90 production with the chemical geldanamycin, a known, highly specific HSP90 inhibitor or by RNAi.</p> <p>The authors then examined the effects of stressing the plants. When the plants were grown without geldanamycin, HSP90 suppressed the mutant proteins, so their effects were not observed and the plant appeared normal