Gene function in mammals can be quickly and reliably predicted using a high-throughput analysis of patterns of RNA expression, according to an article published today in Journal of Biology. This challenges the conventional view that tissue-specificity is the best predictor of function, and could speed up the quest to understand whole genomes, in humans and other mammals, by decades. The authors have made their mouse dataset openly accessible online to the research community.
Tim H
An experimental drug under development by Bristol-Myers Squibb is showing early promise in reversing the signs and symptoms of patients whose chronic myeloid leukemia failed to respond to Gleevec, which is considered the standard of treatment for the disorder.
In a study to be presented today at the 46th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology in San Diego, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleag
An antimicrobial agent found in many shampoos and hand lotions and widely used in industrial settings inhibits the development of particular neuron structures that are essential for transmitting signals between cells, according to a University of Pittsburgh study presented today at Cell Biology 2004, the 44th annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology. The meeting is being held Dec. 4 – 8 at the Washington Convention Center.
Prolonged exposure to low levels of me
The hippocampus skews ’right,’ especially in males, plus the righty-lefty distinction may go back 5 million years
New MRI-based studies present more evidence that the brains of chimpanzees are human-like in terms of the relationships among brain asymmetry, handedness and language, according to research undertaken at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta. Understanding our evolutionary cousins helps us to understand what makes us human. Two related reports appear
ASH news tips from M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center offers these news items presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH). An oral targeted therapy gentle enough to be used by patients in their 70s or 80s is showing benefit in treating high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a pre-leukemic disorder that can progress to acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), according to a study presented at the annual meeti
Seven papers that expand upon recent research into the origin of tetrapods and their invasion of the land during the Devonian period appear in the September/October 2004 issue of Physiological and Biochemical Zoology.
Although the fossil record of this transition remains far from complete, new discoveries have increased the resolution of the morphological sequence, documented the relative rapidity and geographic distribution of the tetrapod appearance, and fueled new controversy
NU biologist isolates gene making infections drug-resistant
Northeastern University today announced that biologist Kim Lewis has discovered the gene that prevents antibiotics from successfully destroying infections within biofilm. For years, scientists have struggled to understand why a certain type of infection – known as biofilms – are often resistant to antibiotics. Biofilms contain cells that are identical to the infecting cells, but are not corrupted and destroyed by anti
A recent finding by a North Carolina State University biochemist advances the fundamental biology of how genetic information, encoded in DNA, is decoded for the production of proteins.
Dr. Paul F. Agris, professor of biochemistry at NC State, and academic colleagues from England and Poland show concrete evidence in favor of the 1966 “Wobble Hypothesis” offered by Francis Crick, the co-founder of the DNA molecule and its double-helix structure, and Agris’ own “Modified Wobble
By exploiting an HIV protein that readily traverses cell membranes, Carnegie Mellon University scientists have developed a new way to introduce a gene-like molecule called a peptide nucleic acid (PNA) directly into live mammalian cells, including human embryonic stem (ES) cells. The work, published online December 2 in Chemical Communications, holds considerable promise in genetic engineering, diagnostics and therapeutics.
“Our results show that PNAs could be effectively deliv
System helps physicians prevent radiation-induced skin injuries to patients
The threading of slender catheters and stents through arteries to deliver treatments to the heart, the brain and elsewhere in the body has produced nothing short of a medical revolution. But these delicate procedures require that patients be exposed to continuous radiation that can last up to an hour or more, sometimes causing skin injuries that, in rare cases, develop necrosis (tissue death), requiring
People could be exposed to antibiotic-resistant bacteria from breathing the air from concentrated swine feeding facilities, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. They detected bacteria resistant to at least two antibiotics in air samples collected from inside a large-scale swine operation in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Until now, little research has been conducted regarding the presence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the air within
Protecting microtubule “highways” may lead to novel therapies, study shows
Parkinson’s disease may be caused by an environmental-genetic double whammy on the neurons that produce dopamine, the neurotransmitter that controls body movement, a new study has shown.
Researchers at the University at Buffalo, using cultures of rat neurons, have shown that the presence of mutated parkin genes, combined with the toxic effects of the chemical rotenone, results in a cascade of
There is no such thing as a ‘bog standard comprehensives’ when it comes to deciding which students are entered for GCSE examinations such as French, Geography or History, according to a new Economic and Social Research Council-funded study published today.
Researchers from Staffordshire University and the University of Durham found that there were big variations between and within schools in the extent to which students are entered for different GCSE subjects. Those differences h
SEATURTLE.ORG has announced a new fund raiser to support sea turtle research and conservation in Africa. The African Sea Turtle Fund will be a small, competitive grants fund, with initial grants limited to activities along Africa’s Atlantic coast. The goal is to raise $10,000, and one lucky contributor will win a brand new Apple iPod photo. Six species of sea turtles (loggerheads, leatherbacks, greens, hawksbills, olive ridleys, and Kemp’s ridleys) are found along the Atla
The European Union is becoming increasingly strict in its rules governing recycling in the automobile branch, but there seems to be little or no theoretical foundation for these rules. Antoinette van Schaik concludes this in her PhD thesis on car recycling, which she will defend on 8 December at TU Delft.
Van Schaik finds the EU’s demand of 85 percent recycling far too general. Moreover, the measurement and calculation methods used to calculate the percentage are far too simplist
The missing link in understanding how the body reacts to being short of oxygen has been discovered in a ‘molecular fishing expedition’ by Leeds researchers.
Professor Chris Peers and Paul Kemp from cardiovascular medicine and biologist Dr David Iles and colleagues set out to complete the puzzle of what identifies low oxygen levels in the body and triggers cells to respond. The processes from the cell’s response to the nervous system’s reaction – which makes us breath harder – has
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