Cell

Tokyo, 6 December - Researchers in Japan have launched FANTOM5, Functional Annotation of the Mammalian Genome, an international effort to globally map transcription initiation in every human cell type.

Summaries of newsworthy papers: Neuroscience: Linking deafness and cardiac arrhythmia; Geoscience: Deep burn; Neuroscience: Sizing up visual perception; Genetics: Variants associated with kidney cancer and Photonics: Taking off using light

Genetics: LMO1’s dual role in neuroblastoma; Comment: When small got big; Neuroscience: Simple sex-specific circuits; Ecology: Biodiversity and infectious disease; Physics: ‘Stripes’ and the pseudogap in a high-temperature superconductor and Atmosphere of a ‘super-Earth’ exoplanet

Summaries of newsworthy papers:A boost for Alzheimer’s disease; Why diamond can be polished; Targeting AID for immunoglobulin genes; Risk variant for hypospadias and How to reverse age-related tissue degeneration

Summaries of newsworthy papers: Cosmology: Measuring dark energy with geometry; Astronomy: Pinning down Cepheid variable-star masses; Physics: Bose–Einstein condensation of light; Physics: Cooperative atomic motions caught in the act and Sweetness and blight

Evolution has left a protein and nucleic acid molecule with remarkably similar structures, allowing them to undergo modification by closely related enzymes

Summaries of newsworthy papers: Spontaneous repair; Mental retardation linked to new mutations; Futile anti-HIV responses; Measuring cell traction in 3D and Sub-seafloor carbon release off California

Tolerating the foreign materials in food that mice and humans need hinges on the presence of B7 proteins

A 40-year debate over the mechanism of long-term motor memory storage in the brain has been settled through pioneering research by researchers at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute.

Rethinking schizophrenia; The circuitry of fear; The regeneration game; New model of Rett syndrome; Matters of the mind; An early terrestrial date for oxygenation; Light it up; High-performance transistors by transfer printing and Maggot bodies sense bright light

Biotechnology: Gauging the behaviour of nanoparticles in the lung; Medicine: Taming prostate cancer aggressiveness; Geoscience: Tropical rainfall in a changing climate; Genetics: RNAs regulate reprogramming; Immunology: Natural signaling blocker identified; Neuroscience: Genes regulating neuronal sprouting after stroke

Cloning efficiency is undermined by widespread disruption of genomic regulation resulting largely from defective expression of a single gene

An effective method for generating cerebellar neurons could lead to new treatments for movement disorders

A specific genetic variant puts individuals of Asian ancestry at risk of developing diabetes—but not their European counterparts

Dr Numano and colleagues have been investigating the dynamics of ion channels and efficiently manipulating them for optical control of neural activity.

Dr Tero and colleagues found unique phase separation forming triangular domains to occur in a supported lipid bilayer (SLB) consisting of GM1, sphingomyelin (SM) and cholesterol (Chol) at 20:40:40 molar ratio.

This inaugural Toyohashi Tech e-Newsletter includes an interview with President Yoshiyuki Sakaki—internationally renowned molecular biologist who led Japan’s International Human Genome Project—about his ambitious plans on enhancing the university’s research and education infrastructure.

University Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, Malaysia, conducted a 3-day invention exposition and competition at the university 12 – 14 October 2010.

Summaries of newsworthy papers include: Complexities of the Haiti earthquake; Landslide-generated tsunamis in Haiti; Making small genomes; Carbonate rocks buried deep in the martian crust; Variants associated with obesity;

Identification of the mechanism that triggers suicide in dissociated human stem cells should assist their development as therapeutics

Summaries of newsworthy papers include: Insight into human development; Optogenetics gets to the heart; Mutations in WDR62 result in small brains; Folding and cutting DNA into nanoscale shapes

A newly identified set of genomic loci appears to be selectively associated with prostate cancer in East Asian men

Summaries of newsworthy papers include: A giant leap; A Northern Hemisphere oceanic cold snap; X-ray specs; Nuclear power, for and against; How to weaken a fault; Probing the first step in vision; Salmonella in ménage à trois

Summaries of newsworthy papers include: New pain relief; Resisting AZT; A look at the 2009 H1N1 neuraminidase; A new model for pneumonia

Summaries of newsworthy papers include: Fewer Arctic hurricanes in a warmer world; Toxic double act; Road to ruin Serengeti; Extremophiles produce energy by unusual means; Spin quantum jumps in real time; Twisted electron beams on demand; Ice protection

Summaries of newsworthy papers include: Pressure sensors rivalling human skin; An inflammatory clue to diabetes; Ocean overturning varies with latitude; Validating microRNA targets; Neuroscience: A closer look at choice

Summaries of newsworthy papers include: The hunchback of Las Hoyas; Patchwork science; Boosting the cell’s recycling centre; A global Younger Dryas?; Dead giveaways

Summaries of newsworthy papers include: I Optical ‘black box’ regeneration; Cool forests in long-term heatwaves; Perturbing parasitic plants

Advances in molecular imaging reveal startling insights into the workings of the brain and could make it possible to diagnose migraine definitively for the first time

A subset of immune cells remain ideally positioned to respond quickly to the reappearance of previously encountered pathogens