Youth with superior IQ are distinguished by how fast the thinking part of their brains thickens and thins as they grow up, researchers at the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) have discovered. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans showed that their brain’s outer mantle, or cortex, thickens more rapidly during childhood, reaching its peak later than in their peers – perhaps reflecting a longer developmental window for high-level thinking c
Results from a clinical trial demonstrate that high doses of an experimental H5N1 avian influenza vaccine can induce immune responses in healthy adults. Approximately half of those volunteers who received an initial and a booster dose of the highest dosage of the vaccine tested in the trial developed levels of infection-fighting antibodies that current tests predict would neutralize the virus. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of H
A Duke University engineering group is doing pioneering work at very diminutive dimensions. Their basic studies could lead to genetically engineered proteins that can form erasable chemical detectors; self-grown forests of molecular “bottlebrushes” that keep themselves contamination-free; and auto-assembled DNA “towers” that could become anchors for the tiniest of devices.
Professor of biomedical engineering Ashutosh Chilkoti of Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering will describe such a
New evidence to explain how the body’s natural joint lubricant prevents the wear and tear that can lead to osteoarthritis has been uncovered by researchers at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering The findings may lead to new methods for treating arthritis, the researchers said.
The team found in realistic models of joints that, rather than simply reducing friction, a component of joint fluid called lubricin forms a very thin barrier that repels joint surfaces to preve
Chemists have developed a powerful household water purification system that puts the cleansing power of an industrial water treatment plant into a container the size of a ketchup packet. The researchers have shown that the tiny packet, which acts as a chemical filter, can be added to highly contaminated water to dramatically reduce pathogen-induced diarrhea — the top killer of children in much of the developing world.
The packets also show promise for boosting water safety during emer
The sweetgum tree grows widely throughout the country and is known for its mace-like green fruit, which are sometimes called “gumballs.” Now, this spiny fruit may become an important source of a chemical needed to make a lifesaving drug against bird flu — a drug that is currently in short supply worldwide, researchers say.
Chemists have found that the seeds of the sweetgum fruit contain significant amounts of shikimic acid, the starting material used to produce the main antiviral agen
When Michael Furey, professor of mechanical and biomedical engineering, at Virginia Tech, met Czeslaw Kajdas, then with the Radom Technical University in Poland, at a conference in Europe in 1981, they had differing views on how to form polymer films on surfaces to reduce wear. The result of their eventual collaboration has been fundamental discoveries in surface chemistry and dozens of compounds that reduced wear in metals, advanced alloys, and ceramics. These include ashless antiwear additiv
As the population ages, arthritis will become more prevalent. It would be helpful to know more about the causes and treatments of cartilage wear.
Michael Furey, Virginia Tech professor emeritus of mechanical and biomedical engineering, recently conducted the first study of wear in human cartilage. Furey will report his research and results at the 231st American Chemical Society National Meeting in Atlanta March 26-30.
Furey has been studying lubrication and wear of
A rare frog that lives in rushing streams and waterfalls in east-central China is able to make itself heard above the roar of flowing water by communicating ultrasonically, scientists reported March 16 in the journal Nature. Attributes that enable the frog to hear ultrasounds are made possible by the presence of an ear canal, which most other frogs don’t have.
“Our research points out an elegant and novel solution to the problem of communication in high levels of background noise
Rodeo athletes have often been called a breed of their own and now University of Alberta research looking into how they deal with whiplash injuries confirms it.
Dr. Robert Ferrari, from the U of A’s Department of Medicine, has conducted several studies on whiplash and patients’ expectations of recovery. Last year while on a radio talk show, he was explaining how Canadians have a worse outcome than those recovering from similar injuries in other countries. Since w
Physicians with more experience are better able to detect a third heart sound that is an indicator of heart disease, according to a study on stethoscope accuracy in cardiac patients at UCSF Medical Center.
Greater experience in auscultation– listening to body sounds with a stethoscope– provides better outcomes in detecting pathologic heart disorders, underscoring the importance of skilled instruction in the use of a stethoscope, the researchers said. Their findings appear in
Association Internationale pour la Recherche sur la Maladie d’Alzheimer (AIRMA) now is taking applications for funding from French-based scientific teams studying Alzheimer’s disease, announced Janet R. Michaels, the organization’s chairwoman.
“Association Internationale pour la Recherche sur la Maladie d’Alzheimer is looking forward to providing funding for French-based scientific teams conducting research on Alzheimer’s disease,” Michaels said. “We are committed to funding research to
PowderMed, the immunotherapeutics company focused on the development and manufacture of DNA-based vaccines for viral diseases and cancer, has announced that its dual-antigen encoding immunotherapeutic for Hepatitis B (HBV) has received US IND approval together with approval from the Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwanese Regulatory Authorities and has entered Phase I Clinical Trials. The study will primarily evaluate the safety and tolerability of the HBV immunotherapeutic, pdpSC18, administered by P
Let us suppose that a new fruit fly species is observed on an island in the southwestern Indian Ocean. As soon as the information is confirmed, it is released on the Internet. This type of alert can now be issued from five Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) islands – Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Réunion, Seychelles – involved in the regional crop protection programme (PRPV). This is thanks to a website, www.prpv.org, to which crop protection professionals now have access.
The programm
Antibiotic resistance is a major problem worldwide and there is an urgent need for new antibiotics to be developed. Potential new drugs are usually made in the lab which is complicated and time-consuming. An international team of scientists are using bacteria found naturally in the soil to produce new antibiotics in the fight against drug-resistant “Super-bugs” such as MRSA.
Led by Professor Tony Maxwell of the John Innes Centre (Norwich, UK) [1] and Professor Lutz Heide of the Pharm
Scientists at the University of Liverpool have identified a new gene that causes the spread of cancer.
Professor Philip Rudland, Dr Guozheng Wang and Dr Roger Barraclough from the University’s Cancer and Polio Research Fund Laboratories have discovered an additional member of the S100 family of protein genes – S100P – that causes the spread of cancerous cells from an original tumour to other parts of the body.
If present in the primary tumour, metastagenes such as S100P tr
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