Currently available lines of human embryonic stem cells have been contaminated with a non-human molecule that compromises their potential therapeutic use in human subjects, according to research by investigators at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine and the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California.
In a study published online January 23, 2005 in the journal Nature Medicine, the researchers found that human embryonic stem cells, including those curr
Study finds surprisingly strong impact of genetic variation
Carrying the higher-risk genotype for Alzheimer’s disease appears to render even healthy older people subject to major problems with prospective memory, the ability to remember what to do in the future. For the group studied, this could affect important behaviors such as remembering to take medicine at a certain time or getting to a doctor’s appointment. The research appears in the January issue of Neuropsycholog
Results from a Mayo Clinic laboratory study in animals suggest that using distraction osteogenesis, a procedure that uses the mechanical force of an appliance to lengthen soft tissue and bone, may be a feasible and effective method to repair cleft palate in the future. Cleft palate is a common birth defect in which a child is born with a gap in the roof of the mouth. This condition occurs in one out of 700 to 1,000 births in the United States.
“Right now, nobody tries to close
While large-scale genomic sequencing technologies over the past decade have given scientists databases filled with the complete genomes of hundreds of organisms, not enough is being done to interpret all that data by assigning functions to sequenced genes (annotation), according to a report released today by the American Academy of Microbiology. An Experimental Approach to Genome Annotation proposes a new initiative to help address this challenge.
“Roughly 40% of predicted genes
As the death toll from the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami climbed above 200,000, a University of Washington psychologist who just returned from Indonesia warned of a new danger among the survivors – a mental health crisis.
“We are seeing children petrified by seeing water in a tub or cowering when large airplanes are flying overhead because they sound like rushing water,” said Randall Kyes, a research associate professor of psychology and head of the division of international
Timing is everything, it seems, even in science. A team led by Johns Hopkins scientists has unraveled the first step in translating genetic information in order to build a protein, only to find that it’s not one step but two.
In a series of experiments, the scientists found that when yeast’s protein-building machinery recognizes the starting line for a gene’s instructions, it first alters its structure and then releases a factor known as eIF1, a step necessary to
A new study on the determination of how livers are allocated for transplants examined the relationship between liver disease severity and quality of life, and found that the commonly used model for liver allocation is not a reliable indicator of general quality of life.
The results of this study appear in the February 2005 issue of Liver Transplantation, the official journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) and the International Liver Transplan
Many rivers and streams in the United States are believed to contain a toxic antimicrobial chemical whose environmental fate was never thoroughly scrutinized despite large-scale production and usage for almost half a century, according to an analysis conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The chemical, triclocarban, has been widely used for decades in hand soaps and other cleaning products, but rarely was monitored for or detected in the environment. The
Older women who drink a moderate amount of alcohol each day may be helping to keep their minds sharp, according to researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and colleagues.
“In our study, older women who drank moderate amounts of alcohol tended to perform better on tests for cognitive function and dementia,” said Mark Espeland, Ph.D., lead researcher. “Most of these women drank one or two drinks per day.”
The researchers used data from the Women’s
University of Michigan researchers have developed a faster, more efficient way to produce a wide variety of nanoparticle drug delivery systems, using DNA molecules to bind the particles together.
Nanometer-scaled dendrimers can be assembled in many configurations by using attached lengths of single-stranded DNA molecules, which naturally bind to other DNA strands in a highly specific fashion. “With this approach, you can target a wide variety of molecules—drugs, contrast agen
For most of the growing number of women who go out to work, organising childcare for young children is a highly complicated process in which the slightest disruption is likely to cause a crisis, according to new research sponsored by the ESRC.
Among big city-dwellers, pre-school arrangements – even for the most affluent households – involve careful scheduling in time and travel, typically using three or four different types of regular care, says the study, led at University Colle
Even before making the connection between drugs such as Vioxx and heart attacks, many doctors were becoming concerned that the heavily advertised drugs known as COX-2 inhibitors were being over-used, often by patients unlikely to benefit from this costly but innovative pharmaceutical class.
In the January 25, 2005, issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers from the University of Chicago and Stanford University School of Medicine use data from the National Center
To identify the best treatment for recurrent ovarian cancer, researchers at Yale School of Medicine are studying a technology called the Yale apoptosis assay in combination with another technology called the ChemoFX assay, which could double the response rate to existing drugs.
In patients with recurrent ovarian cancer, it is often difficult to select an effective treatment because the tumor develops resistance to many drugs. Currently, physicians select a drug and must wait abo
Extraterrestrial molecules found in meteorites may hold the key to the origin of life on Earth, according to chemistry research at the University.
Dr Terence Kee and a team from Leeds and Bradford universities are examining a particular source of phosphorus found naturally only in space to discover whether it could have helped form the building blocks of life.
Phosphorus is found in all living cells, but some scientists doubt that the most common form of phosphorus
Females on top: Three Steps to Emancipation Classical polyandry occurs when a female breeds with several males who will raise their offspring alone. New research suggests that three evolutionary steps are crucial for this type of mating system with reversed sex roles to develop.
Firstly, males take on care of the eggs (the reasons why differ between fishes and birds).
Secondly, females become able to lay more eggs than a male can accommodate.
Thirdly, females compete
Further insights into Titan were unveiled today (21st January 2005) as scientists involved in the joint NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini-Huygens mission presented further results and images a week to the day after the successful descent and arrival of the Huygens probe on the surface of Saturn’s largest moon.
Principal Investigator for the Huygens Surface Science Package [SSP], Professor John Zarnecki from the Open University, Milton Keynes, has spent the last week with his team analysing and
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