Patrick Barry

All Stories by Patrick Barry

  1. Health & Medicine

    When antioxidants go bad

    Overproduction of antioxidants, usually thought to be beneficial, is the cause of an inherited heart disease.

  2. The origins of immunity?

    In social amoebas, sluglike clusters of usually independent organisms, certain cells take on a protective role that hints at the origin of immune systems in higher animals.

  3. Protein Lineages: Randomness was crucial to ancient genetic changes

    Reconstruction of an ancient protein shows how seemingly unimportant mutations paved the way for its evolution into a molecule with an essential modern role.

  4. Health & Medicine

    Skeletal Discovery: Bone cells affect metabolism

    A protein made by bone cells has a surprising influence on energy metabolism, and could have a role in treating diabetes.

  5. Health & Medicine

    Taking a Jab at Cancer

    Vaccines that train a person's immune system to kill cancerous cells, when combined with drugs that block tumor defense mechanisms, are starting to show promise.

  6. Fatherless Stem Cells: Scientific fraud involved an accidental advance

    Stem cells that discredited researcher Woo Suk Hwang claimed as the first example of human cloning actually came from embryos that contained only the mother's genetic material.

  7. Health & Medicine

    Perception is longevity

    Mice lived longer when they were fooled into sensing lower insulin levels than they actually had.

  8. Old viruses have new tricks

    Invading viruses can trick a cell into turning off its defense mechanisms.

  9. Health & Medicine

    Brain Seasoning: A common spice could deter Alzheimer’s

    A compound in the curry spice turmeric restores the ability of immune system cells to destroy plaques linked to Alzheimer's disease.

  10. Health & Medicine

    Tumor Suicide: Gene therapy makes cancer cells self-destruct

    Microscopic bubbles of fat that deliver a suicide gene to tumor cells show success in treating pancreatic cancer in mice.

  11. Anemone reveals complex past

    The starlet sea anemone, a primitive creature with ancient evolutionary roots, has a surprisingly complex genome.

  12. Adding to nature’s repertoire

    Modified mouse cells make proteins that include synthetic amino acids in addition to the 20 natural ones.