Saturday, April 26, 2008

Dow Jones Industrial Index Weekly Chart Hanging Man Candlestick Charting Pattern


Weekly chart has hangning man candlestick chart pattern near the intersection of 2 resistance lines. The weekly black downtrend resistance line and the red upper channel resistance line may be tested next week. Breakout above these 2 resistances will propel Dow Jones Index to next resistance at 13270. However, if this weekly hanging man is confirmed by a long down bar expect a drop towards mid Bolinger Band support at 12544 . If this support does not hold a further retracement towards the blue mid channel support line is likely.

Sony Ericsson X1 is coming soon



XPERIA™ X1 lets you enjoy the convergence of communication and entertainment. Choose an experience by simply touching the XPERIA™ panel interface. The QWERTY keyboard makes writing fast and easy.



With Windows Mobile® inside, you can enjoy your favorite entertainment and work efficiently on the move. XPERIA™ X1 is a premium mobile experience.

Arc slider design, 3 inch Wide VGA display and premium metal body: with its sophisticated and distinctive design, XPERIA™ X1 redefines premiumness.





http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/products/mobilephones/overview/x1?cc=us&lc=en

Genentech Leading the Biotechnology Industry

Considered the founder of the biotechnology industry, Genentech has been delivering on the promise of biotechnology for more than 30 years, using human genetic information to discover, develop, manufacture and commercialize biotherapeutics that address significant unmet medical needs. Today, Genentech is among the world's leading biotech companies, with multiple products on the market for serious or life-threatening medical conditions, more than 100 projects in the pipeline and a long term plan for growth. For more general information about the company, visit our corporate overview section.

Corporate Giving

Girl at Science Fair Committed to being a strong and engaged corporate citizen, Genentech supports a wide variety of organizations and initiatives through our corporate giving programs.


http://www.gene.com/gene/about/

RNA Comparison with DNA

RNA and DNA differ in three main ways. First, unlike DNA which is double-stranded, RNA is a single-stranded molecule in most of its biological roles and has a much shorter chain of nucleotides. Second, while DNA contains deoxyribose, RNA contains ribose, (there is no hydroxyl group attached to the pentose ring in the 2' position in DNA). These hydroxyl groups make RNA less stable than DNA because it is more prone to hydrolysis. Third, the complementary nucleotide to adenine is not thymine, as it is in DNA, but rather uracil, which is an unmethylated form of thymine.[13]

The 50S ribosomal subunit. RNA is in orange, protein in blue. The active site  is in the middle (red).
The 50S ribosomal subunit. RNA is in orange, protein in blue. The active site is in the middle (red).


Like DNA, most biologically active RNAs including tRNA, rRNA, snRNAs and other, non-coding, RNAs are extensively base paired to form double stranded helices. Structural analysis of these RNAs have revealed that they are highly structured. Unlike DNA, this structure is not long double-stranded helices but rather collections of short helices packed together into structures akin to proteins. In this fashion, RNAs can achieve chemical catalysis, like enzymes.[14] For instance, determination of the structure of the ribosome—an enzyme that catalyzes peptide bond formation—revealed that its active site is composed entirely of RNA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RNA

What are the potential uses of human stem cells and the obstacles that must be overcome before these potential uses will be realized?

There are many ways in which human stem cells can be used in basic research and in clinical research. However, there are many technical hurdles between the promise of stem cells and the realization of these uses, which will only be overcome by continued intensive stem cell research.

Studies of human embryonic stem cells may yield information about the complex events that occur during human development. A primary goal of this work is to identify how undifferentiated stem cells become differentiated. Scientists know that turning genes on and off is central to this process. Some of the most serious medical conditions, such as cancer and birth defects, are due to abnormal cell division and differentiation. A better understanding of the genetic and molecular controls of these processes may yield information about how such diseases arise and suggest new strategies for therapy. A significant hurdle to this use and most uses of stem cells is that scientists do not yet fully understand the signals that turn specific genes on and off to influence the differentiation of the stem cell.

Human stem cells could also be used to test new drugs. For example, new medications could be tested for safety on differentiated cells generated from human pluripotent cell lines. Other kinds of cell lines are already used in this way. Cancer cell lines, for example, are used to screen potential anti-tumor drugs. But, the availability of pluripotent stem cells would allow drug testing in a wider range of cell types. However, to screen drugs effectively, the conditions must be identical when comparing different drugs. Therefore, scientists will have to be able to precisely control the differentiation of stem cells into the specific cell type on which drugs will be tested. Current knowledge of the signals controlling differentiation fall well short of being able to mimic these conditions precisely to consistently have identical differentiated cells for each drug being tested.

Perhaps the most important potential application of human stem cells is the generation of cells and tissues that could be used for cell-based therapies. Today, donated organs and tissues are often used to replace ailing or destroyed tissue, but the need for transplantable tissues and organs far outweighs the available supply. Stem cells, directed to differentiate into specific cell types, offer the possibility of a renewable source of replacement cells and tissues to treat diseases including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, spinal cord injury, stroke, burns, heart disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis.

Graphic depicting heart muscle repair with adult stem cells

For example, it may become possible to generate healthy heart muscle cells in the laboratory and then transplant those cells into patients with chronic heart disease. Preliminary research in mice and other animals indicates that bone marrow stem cells, transplanted into a damaged heart, can generate heart muscle cells and successfully repopulate the heart tissue. Other recent studies in cell culture systems indicate that it may be possible to direct the differentiation of embryonic stem cells or adult bone marrow cells into heart muscle cells (Figure 4).

In people who suffer from type I diabetes, the cells of the pancreas that normally produce insulin are destroyed by the patient's own immune system. New studies indicate that it may be possible to direct the differentiation of human embryonic stem cells in cell culture to form insulin-producing cells that eventually could be used in transplantation therapy for diabetics.

To realize the promise of novel cell-based therapies for such pervasive and debilitating diseases, scientists must be able to easily and reproducibly manipulate stem cells so that they possess the necessary characteristics for successful differentiation, transplantation and engraftment. The following is a list of steps in successful cell-based treatments that scientists will have to learn to precisely control to bring such treatments to the clinic. To be useful for transplant purposes, stem cells must be reproducibly made to:

  • Proliferate extensively and generate sufficient quantities of tissue.
  • Differentiate into the desired cell type(s).
  • Survive in the recipient after transplant.
  • Integrate into the surrounding tissue after transplant.
  • Function appropriately for the duration of the recipient's life.
  • Avoid harming the recipient in any way.

Also, to avoid the problem of immune rejection, scientists are experimenting with different research strategies to generate tissues that will not be rejected.

To summarize, the promise of stem cell therapies is an exciting one, but significant technical hurdles remain that will only be overcome through years of intensive research.

http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/basics/basics6.asp

Junk DNA

In molecular biology, "junk" DNA is a provisional label for the portions of the DNA sequence of a chromosome or a genome for which no function has yet been identified. Scientists fully expect to find functions for some, but definitely not all, of this provisionally classified collection. About 80-90% of the human genome has been designated as "junk", including most sequences within introns and most intergenic DNA. While much of this sequence may be an evolutionary artifact that serves no present-day purpose, some is believed to function in ways that are not currently understood. Moreover, the conservation of some junk DNA over many millions of years of evolution may imply an essential function. Some consider the "junk" label as something of a misnomer, but others consider it apposite as junk is stored away for possible new uses, rather than thrown out; others prefer the term "noncoding DNA" (although junk DNA often includes transposons that encode proteins with no clear value to their host genome). However it now appears that, although protein-coding DNA makes up barely 2% of the human genome, about 80% of the bases in the genome may be transcribed, [1]but transcription by itself does not necessarily imply function.

Broadly, the science of functional genomics has developed widely accepted techniques to characterize protein-coding genes, RNA genes, and regulatory regions. In the genomes of most plants and animals, however, these together constitute only a small percentage of genomic DNA (less than 2% in the case of humans). The function, if any, of the remainder remains under investigation. Most of it can be identified as repetitive elements that have no known biological function for their host (although they are useful to geneticists for analyzing lineage and phylogeny). Still, a large amount of sequence in these genomes falls under no existing classification other than "junk".

Overall genome size, and by extension the amount of junk DNA, appears to have little relationship to organism complexity: the genome of the unicellular Amoeba dubia has been reported to contain more than 200 times the amount of DNA in humans"[2] [3].

The pufferfish Takifugu rubripes genome is only about one tenth the size of the human genome, yet seems to have a comparable number of genes. Most of the difference appears to lie in what is now known only as junk DNA. This puzzle is known as the C-value enigma or, more conventionally, the C-value paradox

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junk_DNA