Research News from the Journal of Pathology
While newly published research confirms that under laboratory circumstances prion-protein can be absorbed across the gut, it also shows that this is unlikely to occur in real life. In addition, the results show that the places in the gut that do take up these disease-associated proteins are different from the locations where infectivity is known to be amplified. The findings will be published in the Journal of Pathology.
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Emerging mobile services are demanding an ever-increasing amount of bandwidth, but the radio spectrum for third generation (3G) and beyond systems is in short supply. Algorithms developed by European researchers are helping operators better manage their precious bandwidth resources.
The EVEREST project developed and tested advanced algorithms to provide mobile operators with enhanced Radio Resource Management (RRM) techniques aimed at reducing the risk of communications bottlenecks at a t
An analysis of new data by a leading cancer researcher has revealed specific cancers that are most likely to affect teenagers and young adults, and it points to infections, adolescent growth spurts, and hormones as being among the possible causes. Now, international collaborative research is needed to find out more.
Professor Jillian Birch told a news briefing at the 4th International Conference on Teenage and Young Adult Cancer Medicine, organised by the charity Teenage Cancer Trust, that
The simplest bacteria need almost twice as many genes to survive than scientists first believed, according to new research published in Nature (30 March 2006).
Bacteria are some of the simplest forms of life and have been studied by scientists trying to identify the smallest collection of genes – or minimal genome – that is needed for maintaining life.
Traditionally scientists have done this by removing, or ‘knocking out’, a series of individual genes from a bacterial g
Researchers in Switzerland report that extreme rains in Europe may grow stronger and more frequent in the near future and have significant effects on the region’s infrastructure and natural systems. They aggregated a number of regional European climate models to produce more refined estimates of increases in precipitation extremes over most of the continent by the late 21st century than were previously available. Their research was published on 24 March in the Journal of Geophysical Research-A
Using the unusual color properties of gold at the nanoscale, scientists at Northwestern University have developed a “litmus test” for DNA and small molecule binding that eventually could be used by pharmaceutical companies to rapidly identify promising candidates for new anti-cancer drugs.
The detection system, called colorimetric screening, can be used to detect a variety of targets, such as DNA, small molecules and proteins, that bind to DNA, and the strength of the bond is ind
University of Michigan researchers have discovered how to measure the absorption of multi-walled carbon nanoparticles into worms and cancer cells, a breakthrough that will revolutionize scientists’ understanding of how the particles impact the living environment.
A team led by U-M chemical engineering professor Walter J. Weber Jr. tagged multi-walled carbon nanotubes—one of the most promising nanomaterials developed to date—with the carbon-14 radioactive isotope, which enabled
A single nutrient found in soy products elicits changes in gene behavior that permanently reduce an embryo’s risk of becoming obese later in life, according to an animal study at Duke University Medical Center.
The findings, yet to be confirmed in humans, could explain why Asians have lower rates of obesity and cancer, said the Duke researchers. Asians consume large amounts of soy, which has been linked to lower rates of breast, endometrial and prostate cancer, among other
North America isn’t the only continent that’s experienced super-colossal volcanic eruptions in the recent geologic past. The massive explosion of the almost unknown Vilama Caldera in Argentina appears to have matched Yellowstone’s last continent-blanketing blast. It may, in fact, be just one of several unappreciated supervolcanoes hidden in a veritable mega-volcano nursery called the Eduardo Avaroa Caldera Complex, located in the inhospitable Puna-Altiplano region near the tri-sec
A recently completed economic study of timber demand projections for the next two decades in southeast Alaska explains four alternatives describing how the forest products industry could develop. The peer-reviewed study now in process of being published, Timber Products Output and Timber Harvests in Alaska: Projections for 2005-25, was prepared by Pacific Northwest Research Station scientists Allen Brackley, Thomas Rojas, and Richard Haynes.
“The projections of future demand are repre
Finding could help speed SARS drug discovery
The study was conducted by researchers from Scripps Research; the Genomics Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taiwan; and the National Taiwan University. It is being published today in the journal Chemistry and Biology (Vol. 13, No. 3).
Chi-Huey Wong is currently the Ernest W. Hahn Chair in Chemistry at the Skaggs Institute of Chemical Biology and directs the Scripps Research lab heading the study. He said the new finding
Stem cells can repair damaged spinal tissue and help restore function in rats with spinal cord injuries, according to a new study. The findings may eventually lead to insights that result in new treatments for humans with spinal cord injuries.
Michael Fehlings, MD, PhD, and his colleagues at the Krembil Neuroscience Center at Toronto Western Research Institute and the University of Toronto also identified a critical window during which stem cell transplants may be effective, say
Rare metabolic diseases such as Tay-Sachs, Fabry and Gaucher syndromes are caused by enzyme deficiencies and typically have crippling, even fatal, consequences starting at very early ages. Now a team of University of Washington scientists has developed a relatively simple screening process to detect enzyme deficiencies in newborns that will allow treatment to begin before too much damage has been done.
“All of the damage from these diseases is permanent, so if you can start treatmen
Chemists and materials scientists often study “nanotubes” — capsule-shaped molecules only a few billionths of a meter (nanometers) in width. In nanotube form, many materials take on useful, unique properties, such as physical strength and excellent conductivity. Carbon nanotubes are the most widely investigated variety. Now, in pioneering research, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have created and investigated the properties of nanotubes made of
Ultrasound provides a safe and accurate method of detecting breast cancers in pregnant women, as well as assessing response to chemotherapy, according to a study appearing in the April issue of Radiology. Investigators at the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston recently studied the largest group of women to date who were both diagnosed and treated for breast cancer during pregnancy.
“Ultrasound identified 100 percent of cancers in our study, and mammography demonstrated 90
The risks of Sumatra-style mega-quakes around the world have been sorely misjudged, say earth scientists who are re-examining some of the pre-December 2004 assumptions scientists made about such rare events.
For more than two decades geologists had thought that the largest quakes, of magnitude 9 and greater, happen when a young tectonic plate is subducted, or shoved quickly, under another plate. But the Great Sumatra-Andaman earthquake of 26 December 2004 didn’t match that
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