Study finds that poor T cell responsiveness limits current approaches
In recent years, researchers have become increasingly interested in developing therapeutic vaccines. Most Americans are familiar with prophylactic, or preventive vaccines, which protect an individual from infections; examples include the common pediatric vaccines as well as the flu shot. But therapeutic vaccines are designed instead to be administered to patients who have already acquired chronic infections, su
In the search for the best fats for a heart healthy diet, trans- and saturated fats have long been recognized as undesirable and those that contain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and mono-unsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) are preferred — with no clear benefit demonstrated for higher levels of either the PUFAs or the MUFAs within recommended limits.
Now, a Penn State study provides evidence that the optimum dietary fat isn’t one that contains either more PUFAs or more MUF
A gene enabling an insect virus to enter new cells was likely stolen from a host cell and adapted for the virus’s use, researchers at Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) at Cornell University report.
Virologists have long thought of baculoviruses, a group of viruses that can liquefy their insect hosts in a matter of days but don’t induce so much as a sneeze in mammals, as potential pesticides. But the viruses would require tweaking to be effective since they kill insects
Researchers from HP Laboratories in Bristol, UK, have proposed an approach to distributed optical quantum computing with a technique that is highly efficient, flexible and scalable.
Quantum computing is expected to be much more powerful than conventional information processing. It should be able to search faster and simulate better, factor large numbers efficiently and virtually guarantee secure communications.
Optical quantum computing – using photons instead of electro
The European Space Agency (ESA) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) signed an agreement on 27 June 2005 for including European instruments on board India’s first scientific mission to the Moon, Chandrayaan-1.
This agreement, under the umbrella agreement for co-operation already existing between ISRO and ESA, was signed by Mr G Madhavan Nair, Chairman of ISRO, and Mr Jean Jacques Dordain, Director General of ESA, at Bangalore.
Chandrayaan-1 is planned
Physics researchers working at the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) Laboratory in Japan have observed a new type of interaction among the most fundamental of particles, the quark. The scientists reported at the Symposium on Lepton-Photon Interactions at High Energies, June 30-July 5 in Uppsala, Sweden, that they had produced first evidence of a beauty quark converting to the lightest of quarks, the down quark.
“Observation of this very rare phenomenon allows us t
New research suggests novel treatment targets for the most common form of childhood epilepsy – with the potential to have fewer side effects than traditional therapy. The findings from Wake Forest University School of Medicine are reported today in the July issue of the Journal of Neurophysiology.
Through studies in animals, the researchers learned more about the possible brain pathways involved in absence, or petit mal, seizures and tested a drug that revealed a potential new targe
New research sheds light on why cervical precancers disappear in some women and not in others. Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center report in the July 1 issue of Clinical Cancer Research that the reason many of these lesions persist is an unlikely mix of human papilloma virus (HPV) strain and a woman’s individual immune system.
For decades, scientists have known that HPV causes nearly all cases of cancer in the neck of the womb. Most sexually active women – some rep
With equipment designed to probe the smallest segments of the genetic code, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and collaborating institutions have found something much larger: sections of the chromosomes of lung cancer cells where cancer-related genes may lurk.
In a study in the July 1 issue of the journal Cancer Research, the researchers used single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array technology, which focuses on the building blocks of individual genes, to identify regio
New study boosts evidence for link between kids’ sleep and behavior problems
Several years ago, University of Michigan researchers published some of the strongest evidence yet that children who snore when they sleep are far more likely to have attention and hyperactivity problems than their non-snoring peers.
Today, that link takes on a new long-term dimension with the publication in the journal Sleep of follow-up data from some of the same children who took part in the
A new study of the carbon dioxide emissions, cropland area requirements, and other environmental consequences of growing corn and sugarcane to produce fuel ethanol indicates that the “direct and indirect environmental impacts of growing, harvesting, and converting biomass to ethanol far exceed any value in developing this energy resource on a large scale.” The study, published in the July 2005 issue of BioScience, the journal of the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS), uses the “eco
A few X-ray measurements can help determine whether chronic problems with the hard-to-reach frontal sinuses can be corrected with surgery, according to a new study.
“The frontal sinus is behind the forehead and it has a very tortuous drainage,” says Dr. Stil E. Kountakis, vice chair of the Medical College of Georgia Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. “It’s the most difficult sinus to work with.”
The good news is the frontal sinuses, which run parallel to
Mobile atmospheric lab gathering climate data
Scientists sponsored by the Department of Energy are conducting a six-month atmospheric research campaign at the Point Reyes National Seashore, in Marin County, California. The experiment’s goal is to help researchers understand how aerosols –small particles such as soot, dust and smoke–influence the structure of marine stratus clouds, and how aerosols are associated with drizzle – the misty rain regularly produced by these types
MicroRNAs are a recently discovered large class of small, non-coding genes. Each animal genome contains hundreds of these genes, which have been shown to regulate the expression of protein coding genes by binding to partially complementary sites in messenger RNAs. However, little is known about the biological function of these tiny genes, which are encoded in a string of 21 to 24 DNA bases.
In a series of four high-profile papers in Nature, Nature Genetics, Developmental Biology,
Efforts to halt a fungus that deprives about 60 million people a year of food have led Purdue University scientists to discover the molecular machinery that enables the pathogen to blast its way into rice plants.
The fungus, Magnaporthe grisea, which is known as rice blast fungus, is the most deadly of the pathogens that attack rice, reducing yields by as much as 75 percent in infected areas. Learning how the fungus tricks rice’s natural defenses against pathogens to penetrat
A new analysis based on animal studies suggests that showering in manganese-contaminated water for a decade or more could have permanent effects on the nervous system. The damage may occur even at levels of manganese considered safe by the Environmental Protection Agency, according to researchers from Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
“If our results are confirmed, they could have profound implications for the nation and the world,” said John Spangler, M.D., an asso
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