Chimpanzees and humans have gene variant, for different reasons
Gene variants determine which humans and which chimpanzees can taste bitter substances. For humans, this taste sensitivity may influence nutritional choices and ultimately their health, as well as behaviors, such as smoking. For chimpanzees, it provides a way to live safely in their environments by avoiding toxic plants and other harmful compounds.
Research conducted more 65 years ago by a team of scienti
Plasmodium, the parasite responsible for malaria, impairs the ability of key cells of the immune system to trigger an efficient immune response. This might explain why patients with malaria are susceptible to a wide range of other infections and fail to respond to several vaccines. In a study published today in the open access journal Journal of Biology (http://jbiol.com/), researchers show that if dendritic cells, the key cells involved in initiating immunity, are exposed to red blood cells inf
Results of maple syrup urine disease study published in American Journal of Transplantation
Liver transplants cured the metabolic symptoms of 11 patients with a rare but devastating genetic condition known as Maple Syrup Urine Disease (MSUD), according to a study by researchers from Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and the Clinic for Special Children.
All patients from the study (ranging in age from 1-20) are alive and well with normal liver function, according to
A University of Central Florida researcher has demonstrated that altering AMPA receptors in animals improved their chances of surviving strokes and remaining healthier afterwards.
A University of Central Florida researcher has discovered that altering a receptor that mediates communication between nerve cells in the brain significantly improves animals’ chances of surviving strokes and allows them to remain healthier afterwards.
YouMing Lu, a professor at the UCF Burnett C
Obesity, body fat distribution more in your genes than previously known, Joslin Diabetes Center-led study shows
Do you have big hips or a “beer” belly? Are you “apple-shaped” or “pear-shaped”? It makes a difference, since we know that abdominal obesity is linked to diabetes and many other metabolic conditions, i.e., the metabolic syndrome. What’s new is that, according to a new study led by researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, both obesity and body shape seem t
Plasmodium, the parasite responsible for malaria, impairs the ability of key cells of the immune system to trigger an efficient immune response. This might explain why patients with malaria are susceptible to a wide range of other infections and fail to respond to several vaccines. In a study published today in the open access journal Journal of Biology, researchers show that if dendritic cells, the key cells involved in initiating immunity, are exposed to red blood cells infected with Plasmodium
Genetically engineered mice convinced scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies that it was time to overhaul widely held beliefs about how a powerful tumor suppressor called p53 is controlled in cells. Their new model of p53 regulation has important implications for the development of anticancer drugs.
This new model, published in the April issue of the journal Cancer Cell, emphasizes the independent role of two proteins, called Mdm2 and Mdm4. Both proteins are part of t
Findings may point researchers to future targets for treatment of genetic blood disorders
Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center researchers have identified the role of a protein in hemoglobin gene silencing that may one day be a potential target for the treatment of genetic blood disorders like sickle-cell anemia and beta-thalassemia on the molecular level.
In the April issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researcher
In a former cowshed on the edge of the University of New Hampshire campus, David Berlinsky, assistant professor of zoology, peers into a big blue plastic tub. Inside, black sea bass circle slowly in the dim light. The converted barn is now an aquaculture research facility for the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture, and home to Berlinsky’s latest research.
Black sea bass feature prominently on many menus, but wild populations of the fish are in decline and their availability
Numerical processing similar in children and adults, brain scans reveal
Four-year-olds who are still developing numerical abilities show activity in the same brain region during numerical tasks as do math-adept adults, Duke University researchers Jessica Cantlon, Kevin Pelphrey and colleagues report in the open access journal PLoS Biology. Their comparative brain scan studies explore the earliest glimmerings of numerical processing in pre-school children.
The research
Stem cell scientists at the University of Edinburgh have discovered that Notch, a protein first discovered more than 80 years ago in the fruit fly, directs unspecialized embryonic stem cells to become cells of the nervous system. These unexpected findings pave the way for using lab-grown cells to model disease and test the effects of new drugs, and are published online this week in the open-access journal PLoS Biology.
Embryonic stem cells have the potential to make all 200 cell types
Scientists have discovered that a stem cell factor overexpressed both in brain tumor cells and in neurons following brain injury promotes tumor survival by inducing angiogenesis. The research study, published in the April issue of Cancer Cell, examines the interaction between tumor cells and surrounding tissues and may have substantial significance for design of more effective therapeutics for one of the most lethal types of tumor, malignant gliomas.
Stem cell factor (SCF) is an impo
Ultra-small particles loaded with medicine
Ultra-small particles loaded with medicine – and aimed with the precision of a rifle – are offering a promising new way to strike at cancer, according to researchers working at MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
In a paper to appear the week of April 10 in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team reports a way to custom design nanoparticles so they home in on dangerous cancer ce
Varied gene signatures in multiple myeloma cells predict different outcomes, provide treatment targets
Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and collaborators have identified four distinct genetic subtypes of multiple myeloma, a deadly blood cancer, that have different prognoses and might be treated most effectively with drugs specifically targeted to those subtypes.
A new computational tool based on an algorithm designed to recognize human faces plucked the fou
A bacterium that lives in rivers, streams and human aqueducts uses nature’s strongest glue to stay in one place, according to new research by Indiana University Bloomington and Brown University scientists reported in next week’s (April 11) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The scientists found they had to apply a force of about 1 micronewton to remove a single Caulobacter crescentus from a glass pipette. Because C. crescentus is so small, the pulling f
MIT chemical engineers have devised an elegant new method for creating complex polymeric microparticles that could have applications in a variety of fields, from drug delivery in medicine to the creation of building blocks for the photonic materials that carry light. The particles can also add texture to skin creams and color to inks.
The new synthesis method gives researchers an extraordinary degree of control over the shape and chemical properties of the microparticles, which range in
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