Relationships with industry, competitive environments associated with research secrecy
Open sharing of information is a basic principle of the scientific process, but it is well known that secrecy has become a fact of life in academic science. Several studies have described how researchers may withhold the results of their studies from other scientists or deny them access to data or materials. In two new reports, researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Inst
Like any other organism, an influenza virus’s success in life is measured by its genetic track record, its ability to pass on genes from one generation to the next.
But while much is known about the genes and inner workings of flu viruses, how the microbe organizes its genetic contents to seed future generations of viruses has remained an enduring mystery of biology.
Now, with the help of a long-studied flu virus, an electron microscope and a novel idea of how
Research shows it may stop new breast cancer drugs working say UK specialists
Breast cancer specialists from one of the UK’s leading cancer centres cautioned doctors (Thursday 26 January) of the risks in prescribing vaginal oestrogen to breast cancer patients being treated with the new aromatase inhibiting drugs, anastrozole, letrozole and exemestane[1].
Their concerns follow findings from the first study to examine the impact of vaginal oestrogen in women receivin
International team led by scientists at Einstein and Beth Israel
Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and its Manhattan hospital affiliate, Beth Israel Medical Center, have found that a specific mutation in a single gene is a major cause of Parkinson’s disease among Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Jews. The report will appear in the January 26 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.
“Like the discovery of the BRCA1 and BRCA2
NIH and PKD Foundation launch HALT-PKD treatment trials
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the PKD Foundation have launched two treatment trials for autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD). The common inherited disorder is characterized by cysts in the kidneys and other organs, high blood pressure, and aneurysms (bulges in blood vessels, which may burst) in the brain. Symptoms usually appear between the ages of 30 and 40 and include back and side pain and h
UF researchers restore vitality to cells in lab experiments
University of Florida researchers say primitive cells that act like molecular maintenance men – traveling throughout the body to repair damaged blood vessels – become too rigid to move in patients with diabetes, fueling the disease’s vascular complications. But they have found a way to restore the cells’ flexibility, at least in the laboratory, according to findings published in the January issue of the journal D
Scientists from the University of Nizhny Novgorod believe that ozone, an original synthetic porous material called KhIPEK and a special catalyst will protect us from the harmful effect of potentially hazardous matter – chemical and biological substances. The research by chemists and biochemists is supported by the International Science and Technology Centre, which has placed information on this promising development on its website (http://tech-db.istc.ru).
Chemically and biol
The EUREKA project E! 2288 on Computer-aided orthopaedic care (MEDAC) is helping orthopaedic surgeons to not only document their clinical cases, but to also manage and analyse all patient data compiled. This award-winning project is revolutionising orthopaedic research and could be applicable to many other specialist areas of medicine. Patients benefit from a fast and documented diagnosis, while surgeons gain access to vast resources of reference data and the means to analyse their own patients’ re
Identity Swap: Finding the variants that human history has favoured
Sequence differences in less than 0.2% of the 3-billion-base human genome play a vital role in a bewildering variety of human disease. Today, researchers from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the Cambridge University’s Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, together with international colleagues report in PLoS Genetics their detailed maps of differences implicated in disease as well as genes that are u
Distant Planet Brings Astronomers Closer To Home
Using a network of telescopes scattered across the globe, including the Danish 1.54m telescope at ESO La Silla (Chile), astronomers [1] discovered a new extrasolar planet significantly more Earth-like than any other planet found so far. The planet, which is only about 5 times as massive as the Earth, circles its parent star in about 10 years. It is the least massive exoplanet around an ordinary star detected so far and also the
Bacteria and viruses utilize a natural mechanism to get inside cells and grow, researchers say.
These pathogens gain entry the same way millions of receptors on the cell’s surface routinely do after they get activated, says Dr. Yehia Daaka, professor and Distinguished Chair in Oncologic Pathology at the Medical College of Georgia. Dr. Daaka is corresponding author on an article published Jan. 23 by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
By moving off the cell su
Researchers at Ohio State University have found a way to boost the development of pattern recognition software by taking a different approach from that used by most experts in the field.
This work may impact research in areas as diverse as genetics, economics, climate modeling, and neuroscience.
Aleix Martinez, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Ohio State, explained what all these areas of research have in common: pattern recognition.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins restored the normal growth of specific nerve cells in the cerebellum of mouse models of Down syndrome (DS) that were stunted by this genetic condition. The cerebellum is the rear, lower part of the brain that controls signals from the muscles to coordinate balance and motor learning.
The finding is important, investigators say, because the cells rescued by this treatment represent potential targets for future therapy in human babies with DS. And i
The year 2005 may have been the warmest year in a century, according to NASA scientists studying temperature data from around the world.
Climatologists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City noted that the highest global annual average surface temperature in more than a century was recorded in their analysis for the 2005 calendar year.
Some other research groups that study climate change rank 2005 as the second warmest year, based on com
Results Suggest Alzheimer’s Disease May Be More Common than Previously Recognized
A new study from Rush University MedicalCenter helps explain why gait problems are often progressive in old age and related to risk of dementia and death.
The study, published in the January issue of the Annals of Neurology, found that neurofibrillary tangles in the substantia nigra, a part of the brain that is subject to cell loss in Parkinson’s disease, are associated with gait i
University of Toronto study dispels decades-old theory
After decades of debate, a U of T researcher has finally determined that duck-billed dinosaurs’ massive but hollow crests had nothing to do with what many scientists suspected — the sense of smell.
Speculation about their function has led to theories that the crests functioned as everything from brain coolers to snorkels for underwater feeding. Now, David Evans, a PhD student in zoology at the University of To
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