Listening to Fish Ears
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Ask most biologists and you’ll hear that salmon, trout, and many fish species make one round trip between fresh water and the ocean over their lifetime. But by looking in, of all places, their ear bones, scientists have learned that the European brown trout doesn’t stick to such a simple itinerary: The fish seem to [...]
Cell culture technology
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The growing of cells outside of living organisms. With mammalian cell culture, we can replace animal testing with cell testing when evaluating the safety and efficacy of medicines. Plant cell culture provides an environmentally sound and economically feasible option for obtaining naturally occurring products with therapeutic value, such as the chemotherapeutic agent paclitaxel, a compound [...]
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A family of blood plasma proteins that is necessary for the blood-clotting process. This group includes factor VIII, which in most cases of hemophilia, is found to be deficient. When the skin surrounding a body is cut or otherwise disrupted a cascade of these antihemophilic factors, or “clotting factors,” are initiated near the problem site. [...]
A research team produces seed artificial cork oak
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The cork oak is of great ecological and economic importance for the society. With nearly 700,000 ha of forest, the average production of cork is 70,000 tons per year, a quarter of world production. As for the cork industry, it employs nearly 100,000 people. These forests are also home to endangered species [...]
Antigen
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A foreign substance that, when introduced into the body, can stimulate an immune response.
Antisense
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A piece of nucleic acid, typically created in the lab, which has a sequence exactly opposite to an mRNA molecule made by the body. mRNA molecules made by the body serve as templates for the synthesis of protein (see transcription). Since the “antisense” mRNA molecule binds tightly to its mirror image, it can prevent [...]
Alzheimer’s disease
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A disease characterized by, among other things, progressive loss of memory. The development of Alzheimer’s disease is thought to be associated at least in part with possessing certain alleles of the gene, which encodes apolipoprotein E.
Amplification
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An increase in the number of copies of a specific DNA fragment. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is a cheap and easy technique used to amplify DNA strands by heating and cooling a medium that includes the strand to be copied, DNA polymerase, two 20-base primers, and an excess of nucleotides. Once a copy is made [...]
Anaerobic
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Requiring little or no Oxygen (O2) for survival or growth. For instance, there are certain fungi and bacteria types that flourish in conditions that lack the presence of oxygen.
Analyte
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The substance which a laboratory test aims to detect. In cholesterol testing, for example, the analyte is cholesterol. In genetic testing, the analyte could be, for example, a specific allele or genetic mutation.
