A protein characterized by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine plays an important role in communication between neurons. This protein is overactive (up-regulated) in children with Down’s Syndrome.
Identifying this protein – Dap160 — and its function is an important step in understanding how neurons communicate with one another, said Dr. Hugo Bellen, BCM professor of molecular and human genetics, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, and director of the program
A new gene mutation identified by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in Houston is part of the constellation of genes associated with susceptibility to developing type 1 diabetes. It could also play a role in the devastating complications of diabetes such as kidney failure.
The gene called SUMO-4 contributes a portion of the risk of getting this form of diabetes, which typically strikes youngsters, said Drs. David Owerbach, Kurt Bohren and Kenneth Gabbay. Owerbach and Bo
University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography physical oceanographer David Ullman and University of Connecticut physical oceanographer Dan Codiga have studied the processes giving rise to a coastal current jet that forms in the Atlantic Ocean south of Block Island. Although the commonly accepted scientific view has been that the flow along the southern New England continental shelf is steady on seasonal timescales, recent collection and analysis of long-term current records as part of a
UH researchers developing efficient, practical power source alternatives
As temperatures soar this summer, so do electric bills. Researchers at the University of Houston are striving toward decreasing those costs with the next revolution in power generation.
Imagine a power source so small, yet so efficient, that it could make cumbersome power plants virtually obsolete while lowering your electric bill. A breakthrough in thin film solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) is curren
Competing theories about why brain cells die in Huntington’s disease may not be competitors after all, according to a report published July 23, 2004, in the online edition of the Annals of Neurology.
Researchers report finding minor molecular abnormalities of the sort proposed by these different theories in cells throughout the brain and even in the skin. Yet only select groups of cells in a few movement centers of the brain are so vulnerable to these disruptions that they degenerate a
Forest ecologists have long wondered why forests decline in the absence of catastrophic disturbances. A new study, in part funded by the British Ecological Society, and published in this week’s Science, has shed new light on this problem.
This study investigated natural forested stands across each of six ’chronosequences’ or sequences of soils of different ages since the most recent major disturbance. These sequences were located in a range of climatic zones, including northern Sweden (a se
The director of the Nanobioengineering Laboratory of the CREBEC and sub-director of the Parc Científic de Barcelona (PCB, Barcelona Science Park), Josep Samitier, will coordinate the research lines on the application of nanobiotechnologies for the differentiation of stem cells in the European project entitled CellPROM, the most funded project in the first call of the VI Framework Programme. Josep Samitier will preside the CellPROM Scientific Committee on Nanotechnologies and will join its Management
Autism suffers present a widespread range of antibodies against brain tissue and one protein in particular seems to be the major target of these antibodies claim a group of scientists in the July issue of the Journal of Neuroimmunology. The researchers also show that these antibodies are not genetically determined, as parents of affected individuals do not exhibit them, and so are probably not involved in disease appearance.
Immune abnormalities, including antibodies against the central ner
These images of ‘yardangs’, features sculpted by wind-blown sand seen here near Olympus Mons on Mars, were obtained by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board the ESA Mars Express spacecraft.
This image was taken during orbit 143 with a resolution of 20 metres per pixel. This scene shows a structure south of Olympus Mons at 6° N latitude and 220° E longitude, which was probably formed by the action of the wind. Loose sand fragments were transported by wind, and impacted on the be
To date epilepsy research has mainly concentrated on the transmission of the nerve cell signals to what are known as the synapses. However, recent observations by medical researchers from the US, France and the University of Bonn support the idea that in ’falling sickness’ the signal processing in the nerve cells (neurons) is altered: normally specific ion channels absorb the neuronal activity. In rats suffering from epilepsy, however, this signals brake seems impaired: they have far fewer functioni
The thought of having any chemotherapy treatment must be hard enough to bear, but researchers from the University of Surrey are carrying out clinical trials into ‘chemotherapy at home’. NHS cancer patients are currently asked to attend busy clinics in city hospitals but research by the Postgraduate Medical School together with the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford may see a change to that for intensive treatments. Cancer patients taking part in the trials are responding well and are much ha
A University of Surrey spin-out company, Cybersense Biosystems Ltd, has developed a portable toxicity screening device. The ROTAS system can be literally wheeled on to a brown field site and carry out field-based screening of contaminated soils and waters and results can be read within minutes. It is especially relevant with the Government’s vision to see more contaminated industrial land made safe for housing.
“The key benefit of ROTAS is its ability to dramatically reduce the cost of sit
Thirty-one-year-old Karen Romero, blinded by a malignant brain tumor, had endured two years of chemotherapy before her cancer was finally eradicated at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas with a new means of delivering radiation therapy.
She believes – as do her doctors – that the treatment she received, which pinpoints high-beam radiation therapy on cancer cells with unprecedented accuracy, saved her life. After only two treatments, her ocular germinoma tumor appears to be gone.
Since West Nile virus is expected to be prominent again this summer – especially on the West Coast – University of Toronto researchers are urging physicians to be on the lookout for its most common manifestations.
A U of T study, published in the May issue of the quarterly Canadian Journal of Neuroscience, found that among hospitalized patients in Toronto with West Nile virus (WNV), encephalitis was the most common neurological manifestation. More surprisingly, encephalitis was an apparent
A multi-center study led by Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center cardiologist David M. Herrington, M.D., M.H.S., suggests that measuring the stiffness of arteries to screen for early atherosclerosis may be another way to identify people at risk for heart disease or stroke.
Herrington’s study was published in on-line this week in Circulation, a medical journal of the American Heart Association. “The study suggests another way to identify people who are at risk for coronary heart dise
Women are at least twice as likely as men to develop some musculoskeletal disorders of the upper body. That’s the finding of scientists at Ohio State University who re-analyzed data from 56 previous studies on the subject.
This new work, though it did not yield specific incidence rates for different disorders, gives researchers a critical baseline for comparing gender differences in the prevalence of disorders of the neck, shoulders, arms, and hands.
Until now, some researchers su
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