Ncsu News

Editor’s note: WRAL Local Tech Wire recently added more sources for news, including stories, photos and graphics produced by the news services of various universities. Such stories are labeled as UniversityTech and with the appropriate source. By adding stories and information from collegiate news services, LTW is enhancing significantly its coverage of scientific and research efforts at regional universities where many of tomorrow’s discoveries are being made and the foundations of new companies are in the process of being created. RALEIGH, N.C. – Score one for the nurture side of the nature vs. nurture debate, as North Carolina State...

Editor’s note: This article is part of WRAL Local Tech Wire’s highlighting of research at universities across the Carolinas and Georgia.RALEIGH, N.C. — In a surprising finding, researchers at North Carolina State University have discovered that HIV can cause portions of the body’s innate immune system, when stimulated, to actually increase the virus’ replication. The finding could lead to a change in therapeutic strategies for HIV patients. Dr. Gregg Dean, professor of immunopathology at NC State, led the research team. Dr. Shila Nordone, a research assistant professor in Dean’s lab, collaborated on the study, which was published in the...

Editor’s note: This article is part of WRAL Local Tech Wire’s efforts to highlight research at universities across the Carolinas and Georgia. RALEIGH – Cellular processes, such as multiplication, are often regulated by switches that control the frequency and timing of interactions between proteins. North Carolina State University scientists have discovered the way in which a specific protein-protein interaction prevents the cell from turning off one of its switches, leading to uncontrolled cell proliferation – one of the hallmarks of cancer. In a paper published in the December edition of the Cell Press journal Structure, the N.C. State researchers...

Editor’s note: This article is part of WRAL Local Tech Wire’s efforts to highlight research at universities across the Carolinas and Georgia. RALEIGH – Sweet potatoes, a staple on holiday dinner tables, are being re-engineered by North Carolina State University scientists as source of ethanol to help the U.S. reduce its dependence on imported oil – and ease the biofuel industry’s troublesome reliance on corn. This industrial sweet potato doesn’t look, or taste, much like the Southern classic, but can produce twice the starch content of corn – the leading source of ethanol. More starch means more sugars that...