Scientists for the first time have restored a crucial substance known as myelin in a widespread area of an animal’s brain, opening the door toward new ways to improve treatment of an assortment of “demyelinating” diseases as well as the side effects of such common conditions as high blood pressure and heart disease. The research by a team led by Steven Goldman, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Rochester Medical Center, is in the January issue of Nature Medicine.
Using human brain cell
Interdisciplinary project targets disruptions of metal ion balance in human cells
For years, scientists have worked to pinpoint what causes the short-circuit of copper metabolism in human cells that leads to two deadly neurodegenerative disorders known as Wilson’s disease and Menkes disease.
Now, a research team led by scientists at Oregon Health & Science University is working full time at the molecular level of medicine to find out.
These “metallobiochemists
Researchers from LSU, NASA and Mexico find Mars-like conditions in a South American desert
A team of scientists from LSU, NASA, the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and other research organizations has discovered an area of Earth that is shockingly similar to the surface of Mars.
This joint research effort has discovered clues from one of Earth’s driest deserts about the limits of life on this planet, and why past missions to Mars may have failed to detect life.
Crash! Bang! Crunch! That was the noise of your glasses breaking as your head hit the inflating airbag! Picture a typical road accident scenario. What’s happened? What do you do next?
With luck, within 5 minutes you’ll be compos mentis enough to call for help on your mobile phone. But what if you’re unconscious or have broken your wrist? This is the scenario in which a new e-call system proposed under the IST project E-MERGE will come into its own.
Automatic alerts to emergency
A key objective of the ongoing EU Grid programme is to make available large-scale, distributed resources capable of solving complex processing problems. The environment, energy, health, transport and industrial design are all likely application areas. At the end of 2003 the Grid infrastructure is already a reality, interconnecting national research networks in Europe and across the world. The next question is – how do researchers access and use this huge resource?
One of largest research
The first 360-degree color view from NASA’s Spirit Mars Exploration Rover presents a range of tempting targets from nearby rocks to hills on the horizon.
“The whole panorama is there before us,” said rover science- team member Dr. Michael Malin of Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego. “It’s a great opening to the next stage of our mission.”
Spirit’s flight team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., continues making progress toward getting the
In many species, the reproductive cells of the germline can only form properly if certain mRNAs are prevented from translating into proteins until they have been transported to precise target locations in the egg and the appropriate developmental stage has been reached. In a study published in the January issue of Developmental Cell, members of the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology (CDB) Laboratory for Germline Development (Akira Nakamura, Team Leader) report that, in the fruit fly Drosophila, t
Morning headaches affect about one person in 13 in the general population and are associated with depression and anxiety disorders, according to an article in the January 12 issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
According to the article, waking up with a headache is traditionally associated with sleep disorders. Studies have reported a high association between morning headache and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, and snoring. The prevalence of morni
Moderate amounts of exercise, such as walking 12 miles per week, may help prevent weight gain, and can promote weight loss in non-dieting individuals, according to an article in the January 12 issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Fifty-five percent of Americans are overweight or obese, according to the article. From 1991 to 1998, the prevalence of obesity increased by almost 50 percent. Obesity is associated with a higher risk for several health prob
In fighting cancer, the sooner doctors can determine how a patient will respond to a particular therapy, the more effective overall treatment will be. Researchers have now shown that 18F-FDG PET scans are better than CT scans at predicting response to imatinib mesylate, a drug that has recently been found effective in treating gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs).
The result is significant, as the PET scan allows doctors to determine if the therapy regimen is working very early in the tr
Becoming an adult takes longer today than in previous decades, with many not achieving all the traditional markers — starting a career, forming a new household, starting a family — until after age 30, according to a study by the Network on Transitions to Adulthood.
The Network, funded by the MacArthur Foundation, is directed by Frank Furstenberg, professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania.
According to the study, a demographic shift has occurred, almost without no
Purdue University scientists have found the glue that saltwater mussels use to affix themselves to rocks is a subject worth sticking to, both for its pure scientific interest and for its potential applications in medicine and industry.
Jonathan Wilker and his research group have discovered that the formation of mussel adhesive requires iron, a metal that has never before been found in such a biological function. While the discovery is valuable for its scientific merit, it also could impact
In experiments in the laboratory and with mice, the Johns Hopkins researchers found that the chemical prostaglandin-E2 protects brain cells from damage. The finding was completely unexpected, the researchers say, because prostaglandin-E2 causes damage in other tissues and is made by an enzyme, COX-2, known to wreak havoc in the brain after injury. The findings appear in the Jan. 7 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.
“It’s kind of paradoxical, that the product of an enzyme that causes
Flowering plants are the largest group of plants and contain just about all of our food crops. Khidir Hilu’s research using rapidly evolving genes to determine the molecular evolution of flowering plants is providing new insights into plant relationships, according to the cover story article in the recently released December 2003 issue of the American Journal of Botany (Angiosperm phylogeny based on matK sequence information1).
Flowering plants include cereals such as wheat, barle
Surgeons at Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH) are enrolling people with degenerative disc disease in a research study to determine if new artificial discs will have the long-term durability to safely provide increased range of motion and less strain on the adjacent discs than spinal fusion. Northwestern Memorial Hospital is one of approximately 30 sites around the country testing the Maverick artificial disc made from cobalt-chrome alloy. Currently, three artificial discs are being investi
Genes that help wounds heal are most often the “good guys,” but a new study paints them as the enemy in some types of cancer. Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have found that some tumors activate these wound-healing genes and, when they do, the tumors are more likely to spread. This work could help highlight new ways to treat the disease along with helping doctors decide which cancers to approach more aggressively.
“This is a feature we can find early on in the dise
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