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Biotech News

Morse Code Used by Human Cells? 281

Posted by samzenpus from the can-you-feel-them-talking dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "Researchers from several universities and drug companies in the U.K. have discovered that our cells are using Morse-like signals to switch genes on and off. The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) write that this discovery may have major implications for the pharmaceutical industry. Better and more efficient drugs would only deliver the signals to our cells that will activate a desired behavior. Sounds like science fiction? Read more for other details, references and pictures."
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Morse Code Used by Human Cells? More

Morse Code Used by Human Cells?

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  • The ham radio folks will be happy to hear this... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Ellis D. Tripp ( 755736 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @09:54PM (#11344375) Homepage
    Let me guess: One more justification for hanging onto the 5WPM morse requirement, right?

    • Re:The ham radio folks will be happy to hear this. (Score:4, Informative)

      by JJahn ( 657100 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @11:20PM (#11345046)
      In case anyone here is wondering, you can get the basic amateur radio license without having any knowledge of Morse code. You need the 5WPM morse code for the more advanced licenses that open up more frequencies and higher power, especially the HF ones.
      • Yeah, but where's the fun in doing only the bare minimum? I remember when 13 wpm was a reasonable expectation. But hey, you're losing out if you don't learn it. You can transmit and receive further and on less power with CW.

        Doesn't anyone like a challenge anymore? It is all about buying multi-thousand-dollar Japanese rigs, prefab antennas and high-power amps? Where's the fun in that? You might as well just get a mobile phone.
        • but I STILL have a problem with it being a REQUIREMENT to get a license in this day and age.

          Yes, CW is useful for weak signal work, and could theoretically be helpful in an emergency situation where nothing else was available (sending morse by tapping 2 wires together, etc...). But outside of the amateur service (and the occasional automated ID system), it simply isn't used anymore.

          A much better argument could be made for OTHER practical radio skills that have much more widespread application nowadays, an
          • Morse code is still used for identifying VOR and NDB beacons in aviation. Being able to ident them just by listening, rather than having to look up the dots & dashes cheat sheet on the aviation sectional can really help to reduce the cockpit workload, especially when you're lost, or can easily get lost if you misidentify one.

  • I'll send CQ (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @09:55PM (#11344382)
    to my feet in the morning, then QRO to my legs. That will allow me to get QRV and out of bed.

  • Aha! (Score:5, Funny)

    by MutantHamster ( 816782 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @09:55PM (#11344386) Homepage
    Human cells did it first. I knew that Morse guy was a fraud all along.

  • subliminal messages... (Score:5, Funny)

    by jpardey ( 569633 ) <<j_pardey> <at> <hotmail.com>> on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @09:55PM (#11344389)
    ...just got a lot more fun

  • This boat is obviously sinking... (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    So do cancer sells put out: ... --- ...
  • You mean DNA uses proteins to turn themselves on and off, and they behave in some sort of pattern? Oh wait...that's already been covered by biology for a long time. Perhaps I should start my own blog and report "news" that isn't new at all, sell adverts, and make a ton of money of off slashdot...

    • Re:No shit? (Score:5, Informative)

      by shawb ( 16347 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @10:10PM (#11344507)
      Well, it's been known that they use a pattern in that the arrangement of base units in a line represents a pattern. AFAIK it has not been general knowledge in the biology community that there is a temporal pattern involved with this activation as well. And DNA turning on and off is a little simplistic, there are such things as rate of transcription, how many simultaneous transcriptions occur, etc.

      • Re:No shit? (Score:3, Interesting)

        by mikael ( 484 )
        It's known that nature uses reaction-diffusion techniques to generate camouflage patterns for animals [sjsu.edu]. This was noted by Alan Turing. It wouldn't be too surprising to see if this occurred inside cells as well. There's an interesting 3D demo to see what reaction-diffusion equations can do in real-time [markmark.net]. Perhaps the pharamceutical companies will have to figure out ways of generating such signalling patterns.
      • While I am involved in biology, I've never personally encountered temporal transcription regulation. A quick Google Scholar search shows that quite a few examples have been demonstrated: "temporal transcription regulation" search" [google.com].

        The first result, this paper [endojournals.org], shows a pretty cool example of a protein changing behavior depending on whether it's exposed in a pulsatile or continuous manner to growth hormone. That's from 1997, so not too recently.
      • My sense is that this can (theoretically) be explained pretty well based on physical chemistry, e.g. the kinetics and binding constants of each reaction involved. The timing of complex animal development is fairly precise, and that's just a giant transcription factor cascade that's both temporally and spatially localized in an embryo. There are all sorts of weird interactions that govern how long a signal persists, usually in the form of feedback regulation and antagonistic pathways

  • Hopefully, we will all soon realize that... (Score:3)

    by Cryofan ( 194126 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @09:58PM (#11344418) Journal
    ....we really don't know all that much YET about biology and about how the universe works. We will someday, but as of today, science and medicine is rather "oversold", meaning we have been led to believe that it is more capable than it really is. And this story is a perfect example of that. A major signaling pathway that we were not even aware. Children at play, even still.....

    • Re:Hopefully, we will all soon realize that... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by harvardian ( 140312 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @10:20PM (#11344578)
      There's nothing in that press release to convince me that a "major signaling pathway" has been discovered. There was just an overblown analogy; no science was explained.

      And maybe you think biology is "oversold" because you don't know anything about it. Does anybody in your family take a statin (for lowering cholesterol levels)? If so, you should know that amazingly little details have been worked out about why those drugs work, down to the proteins that sit on the endoplasmic reticulum that are involved in cholesterol metabolism regulation, and the enzymes that interact with them. We know how that regulatory pathway eventually trickles down to interaction with DNA via transcription factors.

      Maybe you shouldn't bite the hand that feeds you out of ignorance.
      • we still have a way to go.
        • Right... that was his point. Everyone acknowledges that we still have a way to go... so how is science "oversold" (as you originally claimed)?

        • I agree with you on that. I just felt you were giving my profession a cheap shot based on a very shoddy press release, and had to say something.
        • Absolutely.

          I once studied genetic algorithms and I thought to myself 'hmm there are so many ways that I could implement a genetic algorithm, endless ways. I wonder how nature does it' and went on to study cell biology and genetics.

          Coming from computer science, I can tell you it was a humbling experience. We think we are so clever with our electronics and silicon chips and technology, but any living cell is far more amazingly... actually its hard to quantify in exactly what department they excel in, energy
          • What causes all that magnetism? Why do two masses attract each other? Why am I smarter than I seem?
          • "If its supposed to be like a little machine, its got to be explainable in a deterministic way. Otherwise its magic. I have no problem with magic (see my sig), but its nice if you admit to it rather than pretending its science."

            two things:
            - determinism is waaaaaaaaaaaaay outdated.
            - magic is just a word to explain things we don't understand. like god, or mother nature, or fate.

            science is not about absolutes**. anyone who got that wrong didn't pay attention during philosophy of science courses... read some
      • I did some with someone who was doing some leading-edge research into Gene Regulation and Protien Signaling. She is extremely amazed at how much we don't know. :)

        But that's not to say that it's useless at all. Even knowing that one protien contributes to a chain allows you to inhibit it and stop the chain; it's just saying that there's ALOT left we have to learn.

      • Re:Hopefully, we will all soon realize that... (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        And I suppose our wonderful understanding of statins would allow us to know about and avoid side effects like increased depression due to the suppression of essential lipids in the brain? Oh that's right, we only started to get a fucking clue after the fact. The parent poster is dead on, most people have way too inflated an opinion of modern medicine.

        We've come a long way, but we're still ages away from having an engineer's level of understanding of the human body.

        The mistake people in medicine make is ta
      • We also know that statins cause muscle damage, kidney damage, liver damage, heart damage (how ironic - look up statin-induced cardiomyopathy), metabolic damage and brain damage. Leaving people weak, sick, tired, forgetful, confused and dull and sometimes demented or dead.

        We know statins interfere with vital steps in producing testosterone, estrogen (good bye sex drive, etc) and other vital hormones, and deplete CoQ10, which is crucial for cellular energy metabolism.

        Yet we force these drugs down the throat
        • I just picked a popular drug to illustrate that the field of molecular biology sometimes knows an impressive (to me) level of detail about some things.

          But, to address what you say -- I wholeheartedly agree, contrary to what it may seem like in my initial post, that drugs are often misused. But sometimes they're not. Yes, CRP should've been the focus of more research, but in the meantime, statins are not as awful as you make them sound. My uncle recently had a stent inserted into a major artery -- he had
        • Meanwhile the government is pushng that ridiculous food pyramid, with its over-emphasis on grains and causing carbohydrate overload without being balanced by proteins and fat (the 4 food groups were better - much less diabetes when that was popular - and type 2 was NEVER seen in kids back then, even the fat ones)

          Diabetes is a huge problem right now. So are stress injuries caused by hauling around an oversized carcas. When you look at your health insurance bill, think this:

          This bill costs me 40% more th
    • We will someday, but as of today, science and medicine is rather "oversold", meaning we have been led to believe that it is more capable than it really is.

      I assure you that this is because of how the media reports things, and not because of the scientists themselves. Talk to just about any scientist, and one of the first things they'll emphasize is how much is left to discover. For many scientists, the frequency of surprises in the field is a big reason for why they're scientists in the first place. A typ
    • Hopefully, we will all soon realize that... ....we really don't know all that much YET about biology and about how the universe works.

      What do you mean "soon"?

      Most serious researchers understand this already.

      That's probably what they love too, and what motivates them.

  • What they are saying (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @10:03PM (#11344448)
    ... --- -.-.

    S.O.C. Save Our Cells...

    From IP claims.

  • Wtf is this press release saying? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by harvardian ( 140312 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @10:05PM (#11344467)
    The number of 'dots and dashes' being used by each signal could have different purposes, all of which could be modified by a drug.

    Alright, I work in a chemical biology lab, and I don't know wtf this is supposed to mean. It's common for proteins to have their localization controlled by phosphorylation (i.e., a transcription factor, which is a protein that turns a gene on when bound to DNA, can only get into the nucleus to do its job depending on whether it's been phosphorylated or not). But what does "signal" mean in this context? The press release doesn't offer any scientific details.

    This is really just all hype until they can make a claim beyond vague analogies. So why does this make the front page of Slashdot?

    • Re:Wtf is this press release saying? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by gardyloo ( 512791 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @10:12PM (#11344520)

      This is really just all hype until they can make a claim beyond vague analogies. So why does this make the front page of Slashdot?

      Because Roland posted it.
    • This is really just all hype until they can make a claim beyond vague analogies. So why does this make the front page of Slashdot?
      You're new here, aren't you?
    • From what I can glean from the information, I guess the idea is that there are certain biochemical signaling pathways which depend on the frequency pattern of a messenger molecule interacting with a target, rather than a simple off/on response. As was demonstrated by the experiment's use of tumor necrosis factor, I'd think the area where something like that would come into play would be apoptosis. The default program for your cells is "kill thyself," and that only gets changed if your cells receive signal
    • If you have access to Science it looks like some of this work was published last October. I haven't read through it properley but the abstract looks like it is the same http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/306 /5696/704 [sciencemag.org]

  • lame -.. ness ..- filter .... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Doc Ruby ( 173196 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @10:08PM (#11344492) Homepage Journal
    So a geneticist's lame metaphor for any "pattern of signals", Morse code, goes over a journalist's head, and makes it to the Slashdot homepage. If only we cell megacolonies were smart enough to decipher these patterns of signals, we might actually get meaningful insights into the infomechanics of DNA.
  • Is just letting that turd Roland Piquepaille get more publicity for his blog. We need a slashdot boycott of these artciles, somehow. While we can't not reply (if we do, some loser or another will just reply anyway), maybe we can drown it out with comments that are uniform enough to get Taco's attention.

    I propose everyone comment (whether at thread root or in reply) with a subject of "Stop the Roland Piquepaille assfest now!" and a body of the same. If out of 150 comments, 80 or 90 of them were these, would they not at least give it some consideration?
    • I agree. This is utter drivel. The articles are completely lacking in details. Assumedly, the pictures show p65/RelA shuttling in and out of the nucleus, although it's not completely clear that these are even the same field. The conditions are completely unknown - what amount of TNF-alpha are they using? Is it supposed to be continuous application? It doesn't seem likely that a single hose of TNF-alpha would last 7 hours, though I suppose it's possible. Most importantly, however, what is the biologica
  • Lifes keeps things simple, but tries to build in some level of protection. Think of our protocols. Which ones succeed? Almost, always the simple stuff. Then think about the body. mostly 4 bases for DNA, same for RNA. Likewise, some 20-30 Amino Acids, from which all proteins get built. Life is nothing but simple with some very interesting glue.

  • Another Roland Piquepaille blog post? (Score:5, Informative)

    by jdgeorge ( 18767 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @10:30PM (#11344677)
    Perhaps this is a bit off-topic, but...

    Various posts have appeared recently concerning the frequent appearance of articles like this one, submitted by Roland Piquepaille, containing links to what appears to be sparsely annotated collection text and images copied from other sources.

    It appears that Roland is successfully using Slashdot to generate advertising revenue for this "blog" (which sadly seems to have marginally higher editing standards than Slashdot itself). Perhaps he should be formally added to the Slashdot staff and made an editor instead of paying him informally in this way.

    The result might be improved Slashdot editing, and fewer links to a mediocre blog.
    • cut'n'paste journalism + blog ads + traffic(this is where slashdot comes in) = $

      he should be added as editor. so he could be filtered.

      the journal he runs is pretty much useless, and the guy himself runs so different stories there that it's pretty obvious that he doesn't know jack about the stuff he's cut'n'pasting.
    • How about you just -not- click any links that are submitted by Ronald Piquepaille?

      -Every- goddamn time the guy posts something, it is met by the same responses (mostly done by AC though) , acting as if getting revenue from ads is the worst thing around.

      Just in case you did not notice ; Slashdot has more or less the same function, as being an outlet (ALSO relying on add-revenue) to expose articles on other sites : When is the time you gonna complaint about this ?

      When you have a problem with Piquepaille'

      • When you have a problem with Piquepaille's posts ; Just don't read them, thus not giving him any ad-revenues.

        That's a fair comment; though this is the first click I've ever made to his blog.

        However, I wasn't entirely joking about the suggestion of formally adding him to the Slashdot staff. He actually does a better job of exactly what the Slashdot editors are supposed to do.
  • Stanislav Lem wrote a story about bacteria communicating in Morse. I vaguely remember it, a scientist noticed the resemblance between the dots and bars of bacteria growing on a petri dish, so he mutated bacteria until it was capable of spelling out morse code and communicating in words. Alas I don't remember the whole story, or the title, anyone remember it?
  • I thought I could hear "dot dot dot dash dash dash dot dot dot" coming from my liver on new years eve.

  • Stop the Roland Piquepaille nightmare! (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @10:42PM (#11344763)
    For christ's sake, if I read another ad for this asshole's fucking blog _where he doesn't even actually write any of the fucking content_, it'll be too fucking soon. Why the fuck do the editors insist on promoting this no-talent assclown?

    Dammit, it took fucking _forever_ for Katz to go away. Not fucking looking forward to doing that again, but looks like we're right back to it.
    • if I read another ad for this asshole's fucking blog _where he doesn't even actually write any of the fucking content_, it'll be too fucking soon
      Couldn't agree more. This time rather than ripping content from the New Scientist, he's ripping it from a publication he doesn't even know the name of: it's not 'Business' (what the hell kinda sense would that make? it's about bio-sciences!), it's 'BBSRC Business'!

  • Also Known As (Score:3, Interesting)

    by boatboy ( 549643 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @10:45PM (#11344778) Homepage
    The Force

  • A real reference (Score:3, Informative)

    by monocyte ( 849219 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @10:46PM (#11344789)
    Diappointingly, none of these links actually included any sort of reference to the scientific literature. Luckily, it was pretty easy to find one: "Oscillations in NF-kappaB signaling control the dynamics of gene expression", Science. 2004 Oct 22;306(5696):704-8. You can find the abstract on pubmed, and if you or your institution happens to have a subscription to Science you can read it online. Looking at the abstract, it seems like the morse code analogy is not very accurate: gene transcription is dependent on oscillation frequency of a transcription factor, but there doesn't seem to be any encoding in the signal in the manner of morse code.
  • This has nothing to do with Morse code or communication between cells. It's a press release for a paper on an oscillating biochemical reaction within cells.

  • Oh Good! (Score:5, Funny)

    by rubberbando ( 784342 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2005 @11:54PM (#11345246)
    Now that we know how to communicate with them...

    Could someone convert the following messages to morris code for me?

    To my head hair follicles: START GROWING AGAIN!

    To my back, ear, and nose hair follicles : STOP GROWING SO MUCH!
  • This just in:

    A major pharmaceutical company has patented the "morse code" used by cells to communicate. Such communication codes are now registered as a proprietary protocol belonging to the company. You have no chance to survive make your time.

  • Pants! (Score:3, Funny)

    by LoudMusic ( 199347 ) on Thursday January 13, 2005 @01:00AM (#11345658)
    All this time it was Morse Code ... and I tried buying girls beer to switch their jeans off.
  • This is one of the conclusions that was suggested in "Cosmic Serpent" [amazon.com] by Jeremy Narby. Interstingly, the book is about how the native peoples of South America use psychadelic shamanism to form a picture of reality and how much of what they describe as having been learned while in drug induced states has later (much later) been discovered through advanced western science. Fer instance some South American shaman claim to able to see the shape of dna inside a plant or animal while on ayahuasca and further mor
  • But isn't Morse Code just symbolic binary?

    01 .-

    Or maybe I'm just reading too much into it??

  • Link to Original Article (Score:3, Informative)

    by stiggle ( 649614 ) on Thursday January 13, 2005 @06:04AM (#11346888)
    The original article (without ads)

    http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/media/pressreleases/05_01_1 0_cell_morse_code.html [bbsrc.ac.uk]

    Media Releases
    10 January 2005
    A Morse code for human cells

    Morse code is a simple, effective and clear method of communication and now scientists believe that cells in our body may also be using patterns of signals to switch genes on and off. The discovery may have major implications for the pharmaceutical industry as the signalling molecules that are targeted by drugs may have more than one purpose. The number of 'dots and dashes' being used by each signal could have different purposes, all of which could be modified by a drug.

    The researchers, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and working at the Universities of Liverpool and Manchester and the Royal Liverpool Children's Hospital, in collaboration with scientists at AstraZeneca and Pfizer, have studied transcription factors, the signalling molecules inside cells that activate or deactivate genes. They found that the strength of the signal is less important than the dynamic frequency pattern that is used.

    Professor Michael White of the Centre for Cell Imaging at Liverpool and leader of the research group said, "The timing of the repeating signal is essential for its interpretation. It seems that cells may read the oscillations in level of transcription factors in a similar way to Morse code."

    The researchers focused on the response of a transcription factor involved in controlling the crucial processes of cell division and cell death. They found that the dynamics of the signalling molecule resemble the changes in calcium levels that encode other messages in cells. The results suggest how common signalling molecules could convey different messages through different frequencies.

    Professor Douglas Kell, who sits on BBSRC Council and is a member of the research team, said, "This raises new challenges for drug designers. It appears that simply aiming to knock down signalling molecules with drugs, as many people are trying to do, may have weak or even undesirable effects as a range of signals could be cancelled out. It is going to be important in the future to decode the Morse-like messages from the molecules to make sure that only the desired effects are blocked."

    Professor Julia Goodfellow, BBSRC Chief Executive, said, "This research is an example of a multi-disciplinary approach producing vitally important results. By combining expertise in cell biology, chemistry, mathematical modelling and bio-imaging the research team have discovered this coded signal that is going to inform the development of better, more effective drugs."

    ENDS
    Contacts

    Matt Goode , BBSRC Media Office

    Tel: 01793 413299, E-mail: matt.goode@bbsrc.ac.uk

    Professor Michael White, University of Liverpool

    E-mail: m.white@liv.ac.uk

    Professor Douglas Kell, University of Manchester

    E-mail: dbk@man.ac.uk

    Notes to Editors

    This research features in the January 2005 issue of Business, the quarterly magazine of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.

    The researchers used cultured cells, which had been modified to carry fluorescent proteins or a gene for bioluminescence which enabled them to visualise events in the cell.

    The signalling molecule focused on was NF-kappa B which is a transcription factor involved in cell death and cell division.

    The collaborative research was conducted by scientists at the Universities of Manchester, Liverpool , The Royal Liverpool Children's Hospital and the pharmaceutical companies AstraZeneca and Pfizer.

    About BBSRC

    The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) is the UK funding agency for research in the life sciences. Sponsored by Government, BBSRC annually invests around £300 million in a wide range of research that makes a significant contribution to the quality of life for UK citizens and supports a number of important industrial stakeholders including the agriculture, food, chemical, healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors. http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk
  • Scientists have been able to "turn off" diabetes in mice for ten years now.

    This has not yet turned into a viable, universal treatment option yet.

    It might not ever. It might. We accept that the limits of medicine are really the limits of our ability to understand the human body's complexity, and the limits of our ability to functionally apply what little we do know.

    I've got a vested interest in this, with a couple of issues to wait for a cure for. One has a specific genetic component that sits right next

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