Animal study shows potential for new therapies to aid drug-addiction recovery efforts
A novel chemical compound that blocks memory-related drug cravings has the potential to be the basis of new therapies to aid drug-addiction recovery efforts, UC Irvine neurobiologists have found.
Because exposure to people, places and objects previously associated with a drug habit can trigger overwhelming memory-based cravings, many former drug users often relapse into drug-taking be
An international team of 53 researchers has offered the most convincing evidence so far linking bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression, to two chromosomal regions in the human genome. The finding gives scientists refined targets for further gene studies.
“Even though bipolar disorder affects millions of people around the world-sometimes throughout their lifetimes-what we understand to be biologically relevant at the genetic level is not terribly characterized,” said Matth
It’s more than a question of taste
Eating an apple is infinitely better than looking like one, according to experts at the American College of Cardiology (ACC). Humor aside, research has drawn significant links between body shape and heart disease. The American College of Cardiology is hoping to reshape America by highlighting this new health data on World Heart Day.
“People whose fat collects around the waist – the classic apple shape – are at higher risk of heart
Computers can predict the detailed structure of small proteins nearly as well as experimental methods, at least some of the time, according to new studies by Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers.
The findings, which were reported in the September 16, 2005, issue of the journal Science, provide a glimmer of hope that scientists eventually may be able to determine the structure of proteins from their genomic sequences, a problem that has seemed insurmountable.
When Dr. Susan Rosenberg, professor of molecular and human genetics at Baylor College of Medicine, first published her finding that the mutation rate increased in bacteria stressed by starvation, sometimes resulting in a rare change that benefited the bacteria, it was controversial.
In a report in the current issue of the journal Molecular Cell, she and her colleagues describe not only how it happens but also show that this only occurs at a special time and place in the stres
Researchers have determined the first detailed molecular images of a piece of the spike-shaped protein that the SARS virus uses to grab host cells and initiate the first stages of infection. The structure, which shows how the spike protein grasps its receptor, may help scientists learn new details about how the virus infects cells. The information could also be helpful in identifying potential weak points that can be exploited by novel antiviral drugs or vaccines.
The SARS (seve
In one of the largest studies of its kind, UCSF researchers have found that eating lots of fruits and vegetables – particularly vegetables — is associated with about a 50 percent reduction in the risk of developing pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer is difficult to diagnose and remains largely untreatable. It kills about 30,000 people in the U.S. each year and has a five-year survival under four percent.
The vegetables most strongly associated with increased protection were
Scientists using satellite imagery found that at least 23 percent of the water released from the mouth of the Mississippi River from July through September 2004 traveled quite a distance – into the Gulf of Mexico, around the Florida Keys, and into the Atlantic Ocean.
The researchers combined data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites with information collected from ships to study the water discharge, appearing
UCSD biochemists have developed a computer program that helps explain a long-standing mystery: how the same proteins can play different roles in a wide range of cellular processes, including those leading to immune responses and cancer.
Prior to the UCSD team’s findings, which are published in the September 16 issue of the journal Science, many scientists expressed doubts that a computational approach could represent the intricate mechanisms through which cells respond to outside
The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes worldwide has nearly doubled over the past 35 years, even though the total number of hurricanes has dropped since the 1990s, according to a study by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The shift occurred as global sea surface temperatures have increased over the same period. The research will appear in the September 16 issue of the journal Science, published by the AAAS, the science
Water management is the key to regulating cell volume says Dutch researcher Bas Tomassen. He investigated the uptake and secretion of water by the plasma membrane of animal and human cells.
Cell volume is the outcome of a subtle balance between water uptake and secretion by the cell plasma membrane. A cell can regulate its volume by adjusting the salt concentrations in and around the cell. Exactly how this process works is still not known. Bas Tomassen has identified a number o
Marine organisms hidden in caves, such as sponges, play an extremely important role in the nutrient cycle of coral reefs. Indeed they probably play the most important role of all, says Dutch biologist Sander Scheffers. And that is valuable information for nature conservationists who want to preserve the coral reefs.
In order to protect coral reefs it is important to understand how both the reefs and their environment function. Researchers often concentrate on subjects such as p
She went to investigate the local ecology. Yet during her field work on East Java, Dutch biologist Ansje Löhr became increasingly involved with the local residents, whose harvests failed and whose health was deteriorating due to extremely acidified and polluted river water. Löhr has recently received a second grant to help the Javanese population.
Löhr’s Ph.D. study was part of a larger project on the Ijen Crater Lake on East Java, Indonesia. This crater lake is the large
In the scenario proposed by the astrophysicists, the gas from the companion star is channeled along the magnetic field lines until it slams into the pulsar magnetic poles. This gas, heated to extreme temperatures, produces high-energy photons. These photons, emitted periodically at the pulsar rotation frequency, are detected by the INTEGRAL satellite. Additional observations by NASA’s Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer show that during the cannibalization of the companion star, the pulsar spins
EUREKA project E! 1388 EUROENVIRON AIDAIR has developed a set of easy-to-use software tools, based on state-of-the-art modelling and data analysis methods, that will greatly enhance environmental management. The AIDAIR system utilises real-time links to monitoring sensors, regional forecasts and pollution control technologies to help decision-makers respond to air quality problems and pollution hotspots. As a commercially available product, it helps ensure compliance with EU pollution directive
Prison bullying is not a one-way process, according to new research funded by the ESRC. Among bullies, it found that 71 per cent were also victims, and of those who had themselves been intimidated, 57 per cent bullied others.
Professor John Archer and Dr Jane Ireland of the University of Central Lancashire found no evidence to back the theory that ‘bully-victims’ – those who are both bullies and on the receiving end – are a special type of person.
Their findings, based
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