Brilliant reception
A team of researchers that includes biologists from Washington University in St. Louis has discovered that a gene involved in the development and function of the fruit fly antenna also gives the organism its color vision.
Claude Desplan, Ph.D., professor of biology at New York University, and his students made the discovery and provided the data. Ian Duncan, Washington University professor of biology, and his wife, research assistant Dianne Duncan, pr
When the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has enough to eat, enjoys the right temperatures and is not crowded out by its fellows, it produces a hormone, which binds to a receptor called DAF12 that allows it to reach reproductive maturity and live a natural lifespan.
When conditions are harsher, however, the worm – a classic model organism frequently studied in the laboratory – does not produce the hormone and enters a special stage called the dauer diapause in which it remains an immature
Reduces virus RNA abundance
Last fall Dr. Peter Sarnow and a team of Stanford University scientists reported that the hepatitis C virus needs a specific microRNA, named miR-122, in order to replicate in cultured liver cells. When the scientists inactivated the microRNA, the amount of hepatitis C virus RNA was reduced by approximately 80 percent. The discovery was widely heralded for its potential to develop new antiviral agents against hepatitis C, the most common blood-borne v
Research bolsters case for Philippine conservation
Scientists have discovered two new species — a parrot and a mouse — that live only on a small island in the Philippines. This island, Camiguin, is the smallest Philippine island, of which there are 7,000, known to support a bird or mammal species that is endemic (lives nowhere else).
The scientists’ research, which is embargoed, is described in the April 5 issue of Fieldiana: Zoology, a peer-reviewed, scientific jour
Cancer researchers are working toward a future in which each patient’s tumor will act like a crystal ball, revealing how oncologists should treat the cancer to obtain the best outcome. Currently, physicians cannot predict which patients with prostate cancer should receive extra therapy after surgery – or whether some of these patients have an indolent disease that does not even require surgery. Most patients with colorectal cancer have surgery, but some, even at the earliest stages, could b
In an experiment that could offer a new pathway to restoring vision in people with inherited retinal degeneration, researchers have engineered cells in the eye to be light sensitive that were not before. Using a harmless virus, they introduced a gene for a light-sensitive protein into “inner retinal neurons” in a strain of mice with photoreceptor deficiency that resembles the defect in such inherited human disorders as retinitis pigmentosa. Unlike the retinal rods and cones that normally funct
Nerve cells that normally are not light sensitive in the retinas of blind mice can respond to light when a green algae protein called channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) is inserted into the cell membranes, according to a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-supported study published in the April 6, 2006 issue of the journal Neuron. The study was conducted with mice that had been genetically bred to lose rods and cones, the light-sensitive cells in the retina. This condition is similar to the blinding
Paleontologists have discovered fossils of a species that provides the missing evolutionary link between fish and the first animals that walked out of water onto land about 375 million years ago. The newly found species, Tiktaalik roseae, has a skull, a neck, ribs and parts of the limbs that are similar to four-legged animals known as tetrapods, as well as fish-like features such as a primitive jaw, fins and scales.
These fossils, found on Ellesmere Island in Arctic Canada, are
For the first time, researchers studying patients with abnormal moles have identified proteins that could help predict whether such moles will progress into melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. The study provides promising evidence that the proteins may represent potential biomarkers for prevention therapy. The results were announced today at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), at the Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. The study, abstra
Studying mice, pain researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified two key components in the pain cascade that may provide targets for more effective analgesic drugs with potentially fewer side effects.
Dorsal horn neurons (shown here in green) have different firing patterns in wild-type mice, which fire less frequently, from those bred without Kv4.2 potassium channels, which fire more often in response to a potentially painful stimulus.
There may soon be a better way to fight unsightly wrinkles. Researchers have discovered a novel way to increase the potency of botulinum neurotoxin treatments — commonly known as Botox — that they say could one day allow patients to receive the injections less frequently while maintaining or even enhancing its cosmetic benefits.
By allowing lower doses, the new approach could also make the treatment safer by reducing the risk of complications associated with immune system recogni
A invited paper published in Trends in Neuroscience this week by Nicolas G. Bazan, MD, PhD, Boyd Professor and Director of the Neuroscience Center of Excellence at LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, reports on the role that the omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil play in protecting cells in the retina from degenerative diseases like retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of loss of vision in those older than 65. The paper is titled, Cell survival matte
Ever wondered how flies are able to walk on the ceiling without falling off? Scientists at the Max Planck Institute in Stuttgart (Germany) are investigating this James Bond-style ability of insects to hang upside down from a ceiling. In the future such knowledge could lead to the design of tiny machines that mimic this phenomenon of nature.
The team led by Stanislav Gorb used optical sensors to measure the forces applied by each leg of a fly whilst walking freely on a smooth ceiling. They
The Pacific Hagfish is a strange animal: it feeds by gnawing its way into a carcass and staying inside to feed for up to 3 days. Scientists at the University of British Columbia (Canada) believe the Hagfish’s gruesome method of feeding may cause the stagnant water inside the carcass to become acidic from the build up of CO2 produced by the fish, which could explain why the fish is able to cope with environmental conditions of up to 7% CO2 (350 × that found in normal air). Dan Baker is presenting
Weekend athletes who overexert themselves running or playing basketball may one day reap the benefits of research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem that shows that adult stem cells can be used to make new tendon or ligament tissue.
Tendon and ligament injuries present a major clinical challenge to orthopedic medicine. In the United States, at least 200,000 patients undergo tendon or ligament repair each year. Moreover, the intervertebral disc, which is composed in part of ten
Scientists from all over the world tackle the global threat of Malaria at the second annual BioMalPar conference
Today the network of excellence for Biology and Pathology of the Malaria Parasite (BioMalPar), will bring together the world’s elite in the field of Malaria research at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg. At the second annual BioMalPar conference, organised jointly by Institut Pasteur Paris (France), Leiden University Medical Centre (The Nether
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