We are closer to finding the missing 80% of breast cancer genes than ever before thanks to the success of the COSMIC database (Catalogue Of Somatic Mutations In Cancer) the 5th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC-5) was told today.
The genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 account for approximately 20% of the familial risk of breast cancer, leaving 80% to be explained. The COSMIC database developed at the Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK was created in 2004 to provide free up to the minute g
A heatable array for the amplification and chemical analysis of nucleic acids.
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A cold-induced expression system for temperature regulated gene expression; particularly the over-expression of hydrophobic or thermo labile proteins.Further…
The offered invention opens up a new avenue for providing new agents at the disposal of combating the emerging resistance to existing antibiotics. The obtained…
New World Wildlife Fund study links protecting wildlife and improving human welfare
Saving endangered species like pandas, gorillas and tigers helps reduce poverty and improve the lives of local communities, according to a new World Wildlife Fund report. Now as the eighth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity opens today in Curitiba, Brazil, WWF urges the CBD and member governments to integrate species conservation work into efforts to alleviate pov
An international team of scientists and engineers has taken a major step toward completion of what will be the world’s preeminent cosmic neutrino observatory, harnessing a sophisticated hot-water drill to build an observatory under the South Pole that eventually will encompass a cubic kilometer of ice.
Scientists leading a consortium building the massive neutrino telescope known as IceCube say that this year they have nearly doubled the size of the detector now under const
Proteins, one of the basic components of living things, are among the most studied molecules in biochemistry. Understanding how proteins form or “fold” from sequenced strings of amino acids has long been one of the grand challenges of biology.
A common belief holds that the more proteins are confined by their environment, the more stable – or less likely to unfold – they become. Now, as reported on the cover of the March issue of Biophysical Journal, a team of chemical and biol
Endoscopic surgery brings many advantages for patients but is very difficult for the surgeon. Working at the Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdam, Joris Jaspers has developed two instruments which make this approach easier and also cheaper than with existing surgical robotics. Jaspers is awarded his doctorate on Wednesday 22 March at Delft University of Technology.
Endoscopic operations (or keyhole surgery) are much less stressful for the patient and give a better cosmetic result than ‘open
A child’s first word is always a time for celebration. Whether it’s “ma,” “da,” or “cookie,” the fact that your child has begun to communicate verbally represents a significant step in his or her development – and your role as a parent. And while most infants understand a small repertoire of words by 12 months, there’s little knowledge of just how they build those vocabularies. In contrast, researchers know a fair amount about how toddlers’ language develops. While it might make sense to assume tha
Increase in Vitamin E tied to reduction in utero deaths, but faster rates of cancer onset
Manipulating the in utero environment may alter the onset of cancers that appear later in the lives of mammals, according to a new University of Toronto study published in the journal Carcinogenesis.
“We know that cancer-causing agents can travel across the placenta and harm the developing embryo or fetus,” says Professor Peter Wells of the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy. “This stu
It was once thought that only humans gestured to direct another person’s attention, but such “referential” gesturing was recently observed in wild chimpanzees.
John Mitani, University of Michigan anthropology professor, and colleague Simone Pika, a postdoctoral fellow in psychology at University of St. Andrews in Scotland, observed male chimps habitually using “directed scratches” to request grooming of specific areas on the body. The findings suggest that our closest living
A team of cell biologists, toxicologists and molecular bioscientists at UC Davis has published a study connecting thimerosal with disruptions in antigen-presenting cells known as dendritic cells obtained from mice. The study provides the first evidence that dendritic cells show unprecedented sensitivity to thimerosal, resulting in fundamental changes in the immune system’s ability to respond to external factors. The study was published online today and will be available in the July print editi
People with Eczema may benefit from finding
Scientists supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), have identified a defect in the immune response of people with the skin condition atopic dermatitis that puts them at risk of developing serious complications following smallpox vaccination. Led by Donald Y.M. Leung, M.D., Ph.D., of the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, the
The newly identified human bocavirus was found in nearly 5 percent of pneumonia patients in rural Thailand, mostly in very young children. Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report their findings today at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases
“Our preliminary data suggests that human bocavirus may be associated with pneumonia in Thailand, especially among young children,” says Alicia Fry, one of the researchers on the study.
A group of scientists from Oregon have discovered that butterflies experience a great loss in body fat during metamorphosis. The details of their findings appear in the March issue of the Journal of Lipid Research, an American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology journal.
“The transformation of a caterpillar to a butterfly is one on nature’s great mysteries,” says William E. Connor of the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland. “Powerful chemical mediators
2:00 p.m. Eastern, March 20, 2006 — Move over, Superman, with your X-ray vision. Marine scientists have now figured out a way to “see through” the ocean’s surface and detect what’s below, with the help of satellites in space.
Using sensor data from several U.S. and European satellites, researchers from the University of Delaware, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Ocean University of China have developed a method to detect super-salty, submerged eddies cal
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