FINDINGS:
A team led by NIH Director’s Pioneer Award recipient X. Sunney Xie, Ph.D., of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., has developed new imaging methods to track gene expression and the production of individual protein molecules in single, living cells. This technical tour de force, published in papers in this week’s issues of Science and Nature, opens the way to studying the expression of many important proteins, including those that exist in low numbers in the cell a
Identification may lead to drug development targeted to dementia
A research team that included members from The Johns Hopkins University and the University of Minnesota Medical School has for the first time identified a substance in the brain that is proven to cause memory loss. This identification gives drug developers a target for creating drugs to treat memory loss in patients with dementia.
Karen H. Ashe of the University of Minnesota Medical School led the research te
Investigators who extended the Harvard Six Cities fine particulate air pollution study by eight years found that reduced levels of tiny particle pollution during this period lowered mortality risk for participants.
The results appear in the second issue for March 2006 of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published by the American Thoracic Society.
The findings of the original Harvard Six Cities study (1979 to 1990) revealed an associatio
Researchers have used computational methods to predict what could be a prokaryotic RNA-silencing mechanism similar to the eukaryotic RNA- interference system. A study published today in the open access journal with a novel system of peer review, Biology Direct, provides the first strong evidence that a type of tandem repeats found in archaea and bacteria, the Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindrome Repeats (CRISPR), might act in conjunction with the CRISPR-associated (cas) family of gen
May open new approach to understanding memory impairments in Alzheimer’s disease
Neuroscientists at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have discovered a new cell type in the part of the brain that processes our sense of smell. This new cell type, the Blanes cell, is a member of a group of previously unstudied brain cells described by the Spanish neuroanatomist Blanes (pronounced blon – es) in the late 1800s. Blanes cells have unusual properties which may hel
The insulating myelin sheath enwrapping the cable-like axons of nerve cells is the major target of attack of the immune system in multiple sclerosis. Such attack causes neural short-circuits that give rise to the muscle weakness, loss of coordination, and speech and visual loss in the disease.
Now, Douglas Fields of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and his colleagues have reported in the March 16, 2006, issue of Neuron that supporting cells called a
Two recent papers by Pitt physicist offer a deeper understanding of how electrons behave on surfaces, with applications in electronics and energy
Hrvoje Petek, University of Pittsburgh professor of physics and codirector of Pitt’s Gertrude E. and John M. Petersen Institute of NanoScience and Engineering (PINSE), has published two papers in recent weeks that literally illuminate how electrons behave on various surfaces.
In the first paper, Petek and Miroslav Nyvl
Using a chain of molecules as an infinitesimal lanyard to tug on a chemical bond about to break, Duke University chemists have found they can speed a complex chemical reaction.
Their unusual manipulative technique can reveal previously unknown details about the evolution of such two-step bond reactions, said assistant Duke chemistry professor Stephen Craig. It might ultimately aid efforts to develop new kinds of polymers that can “heal” themselves after tearing, he said.
Craig, c
Inhibiting gamma secretase may prevent amyloid plaque build-up thought to trigger disease, but trials continue
Oregon Health & Science University is participating in a national study of a drug that may prevent Alzheimer’s disease by blocking an enzyme that produces plaques believed to trigger the disorder.
OHSU is one of six sites around the country taking part in a double-blind, placebo-controlled study of the agent known as LY450139, a gamma secretase inhibitor m
By designing a variant of an astronomical technique proposed by Einstein, researchers from The University of Auckland and Massey University, together with astronomers from Auckland’s Stardome Observatory, have found evidence for a new icy “Super Earth”.
While over 100 gaseous Jupiter-sized planets have been discovered in the last decade, and four medium Neptune-sized planets, until now there have been no discoveries of Earth-sized terrestrial planets that could support li
Findings could increase popular compound’s therapeutic use and effectiveness
According to the study, these activators bind to specific sites on the neurotoxin protein, increasing protease activity and enhancing the toxin’s effect. In some cases, the study noted, the activation power of the new molecules was as much as fourteen-fold, the greatest increase in activation ever reported for a protease; before this study, a two-fold activation of a protease was referred to
Study is giant leap towards prevention and treatment
Researchers at Children’s Hospital & Research Center at Oakland (CHRCO) have published a new study that is the first to explain how brain cells die in patients with Alzheimer’s Disease. This discovery is an important first step to helping researchers devise ways to slow, prevent and eventually cure a disease that affects an estimated 4.5 million Americans.
In a study published in the February 28th issue of the
Unbalanced superfluid could be akin to exotic matter found in Quark Star
Rice University physicist Randall Hulet will discuss breakthrough efforts to create a long-sought quantum superfluid at a press conference at 2:30 p.m. today at the American Physical Society’s 2006 March Meeting.
In January, Hulet’s laboratory reported in the journal Science the observation of an elusive quantum state – a superfluid of fermions with mismatched numbers of dance partners. Despite
Three unique photographs of a recent volcanic eruption in a remote part of Ecuador show a plume unlike any previously documented, and hint at a newly recognized hazard, say scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
“The usual volcanic plume consists of a stalk capped with an umbrella, and resembles the mushroom of an atom bomb blast,” said geology professor Susan Kieffer, “but the umbrella on this plume was wavy, like the shell of a scallop.”
In a pap
Leading edge research being pioneered by Northumbria and Newcastle Universities could lead to a safer and more effective way of screening for breast cancer.
Dr David Smith from Northumbria’s School of Computing, Engineering and Information Sciences, is developing a microwave-based technique that can generate holographic high-quality images of hidden objects such as tumours.
Now an award from the Medical Research Council means he and a research associate can spend time
While analysing the complex structure of the Milky Way, an international team of astronomers from Italy and the United Kingdom has recently derived the shape of the Galactic outer stellar disc, and provided the strongest evidence that, besides being warped, it is at least 70% more extended than previously thought. Their findings will be reported in an upcoming issue of Astronomy & Astrophysics, and is a new step in understanding the large-scale structure of our Galaxy.
Using the 2MASS
Feedback
