Category Archives: Molecular biology
The love hormone and its disregarded sibling
Author:
Marcos Otero García has just earned a Ph.D. in neuroscience at the University of Valencia
We got it wrong.
Media have outlined a rosy picture of Oxytocin as the “love hormone” that floods our brain when we interact with […]
The benefits of recycling: neuron plasticity promoted by histone turnover
If there should be one rule that could apply to all fields of biological knowledge, it could be that they get more and more complex as we deepen into their study. Regarding genetics, the landscape has become not only more […]
Starving the brain
Life is sustained by chemical reactions, and the countless reactions that take place in the cells of living organisms that are responsible for every biological process are known as energetic metabolism. Among the others, the brain stands as the most […]
Cell therapy as a cure for chronic pain
The way we approach pain therapies doesn’t differ from the ones taken for other diseases. The aim is to look for molecular targets, which can be suitable for chemical intervention thoroughly assessing both efficacy and safety profiles for the drug, […]
How to eat and lose weight
In the 1930s Clive McCay, a biochemist working in Ithaca, New York, made an interesting observation: rats that were kept on a low calorie diet lived longer than rats that had unrestrained access to food. In the next years this […]
The use of natural fluorescent proteins for studying life
Some jellyfish species are beautifully fluorescent in the dark ocean, emitting light from different parts of their bodies in a process that is thought to help them to warn off predators. The molecular biology behind this process of […]
Grasshopper mouse mighty powers against evil bark scorpion: a molecular tale
Natural selection has been sculpturing living organisms for millions of years, enabling them to get adapted to an ever-changing environment. Gradually, certain traits are selected over others based on the advantage they confer to the population. Natural selection is not […]
Eat healthily, for your children’s sake!
Nowadays we are more aware than ever about the relevance of eating a balanced and assorted diet. However, in the more industrialized countries obesity has become almost epidemic, and it is a condition that lies at the base of many […]
Bessel beam plane illumination microscopy: another smart solution for an old challenge.
Since the emergence of the microscope in the early seventeenth century, many claimed its invention, but many more have tried to improve it. Many problems have been resolved on the way, allowing us to poke directly with our own eyes […]
Life and deeds of RNA (III): RNA processing, neurodegeneration and a rare disease
One of the most surprising and fascinating facts about scientific research is that one never truly knows which directions investigations may take. Along the way that goes from gathering data, to the path that links our initial question and the […]