For a quarter century, GenBank has helped advance scientific discovery worldwide. Established by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1982, the database of nucleic acid sequences is one of the key tools that scientists use to conduct biomedical and biologic research. Since its creation, GenBank has grown at an exponential rate, doubling in size every 18 months. In celebration of this vital resource and its contribution to science over the last 25 years, the National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine (NLM), NIH, is holding a two-day conference on GenBank.

Researchers have made a breakthrough in the development of "green gasoline," a liquid identical to standard gasoline yet created from sustainable biomass sources like switchgrass and poplar trees.

‘Mother cells’ which produce the neurons affected by Parkinson’s disease have been identified by scientists, according to new research published in the journal Glia.

The neurotransmitter acetylcholine is an essential chemical communicator, carrying impulses from neurons to skeletal muscle cells and many parts of the nervous system. Now researchers at the University of Illinois have painstakingly mapped the interior of a key component of the relay system that allows acetylcholine to get its message across. Their findings, which appear in the current issue of Nature Structure & Molecular Biology, reveal how the muscle nicotinic acetylcholine receptor responds to a burst of acetylcholine on the surface of a cell.

The battle of the sexes may begin in the womb, researchers from Tel Aviv University believe. And it may have troubling consequences — a male twin can compromise the health of his twin sister before she is born.

Researchers have confirmed the first case of complete lunglessness in a frog, according to a report in the April 8th issue of Current Biology, a publication of Cell Press. The aquatic frog Barbourula kalimantanensis apparently gets all the oxygen it needs through its skin.

The brain image at left is from a subject exposed to alcohol, cigarettes, cocaine and marijuana in utero, while the image at right is from a same-age, same-sex control with none of these exposures. Note that the cortical gray matter appears thinner in the exposed brain than in the control (black arrowheads). In addition, the subcortical gray matter appears fuller and more robust in the control brain (see arrows near top of image) than in the exposed brain. Credit: Courtesy Christopher Watson and Michael Rivkin, MD, Children's Hospital Boston Although behavioral studies clearly indicate that exposure to drugs, alcohol and tobacco in utero is bad for a baby’s developing brain, specific anatomic brain effects have been hard to tease out in humans. Often users don’t limit themselves to one substance, and demographic factors like poverty can also influence brain development.