If you ever had a set of Micronauts – toy robots with removable body parts – you probably had fun swapping their heads, imagining how it would affect their behavior. Scientists supported by the National Institutes of Health have been performing similar experiments on ion channels – pores in our nerve cells – to sort out the channels' key functional parts.

PROSTHETIC limbs controlled by thought alone could soon be capable of vastly more complex movements, including a choice of different hand grasps and shoulder and elbow rotations.

Scientists are one step closer to understanding how proteins move when they perform functions essential for supporting life.

Viral infection disrupts the normal response of mammalian cells to outside deleterious forces, cleaving and inactivating a protein called G3BP that helps drive the formation of stress granules, which shelter the messenger RNAs that carry the code for protein formation, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

A human stem cell line derived from embryos that were identified by preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to carry the mutation for fragile X syndrome has provided an unprecedented view of early events associated with this disease. In addition to giving scientists fresh insight into fragile X, results from this unique model system have emphasized the value of this new source of embryonic stem cells and may have a significant impact on the way that genetic diseases are studied in the future. The research is published in the November issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell, published by Cell Press.

Two independent papers in the December 1st issue of G&D detail how human RecQ helicases regulate homologous recombination and protect genome stability.

When ancient retroviruses slipped bits of their DNA into the primate genome millions of years ago, they successfully preserved their own genetic legacy. Today an estimated 8 percent of the human genetic code consists of endogenous retroviruses (ERVs)--the DNA remnants from these so-called "selfish parasites."