An Australian research team has solved one of biology’s most fundamental questions – why males produce sperm and females produce eggs. The finding is a breakthrough that could lead to improved infertility treatment, cancer therapy and pest management.
The team, led by Dr Josephine Bowles and Professor Peter Koopman from the Institute for Molecular Bioscience at The University of Queensland, has discovered that derivatives of Vitamin A trigger the beginning of egg and sperm production,
UV-absorbing chemicals used in sunscreens may disturb production of thyroid hormone, according to new work being presented at the European Congress of Endocrinology in Glasgow.
German researchers looked at rats exposed to the UV-absorbing chemicals 4MBC (also used in some anti-aging creams) and benzophenone 2 (BP2).
They found that after treating the rats with 4MBC for 5 days, the levels of thyroid stimulating hormone were significantly raised (with the other main t
A newly-discovered mode of action of testosterone is showing great promise in defining novel strategies for the development of drugs against prostate cancer.
Testosterone has been associated with a higher rate of certain cancers. Classically, testosterone passes through the cell membrane to act inside the cell. However recent work has indicated that testosterone may also act at the cell surface, through membrane androgen binding sites called Ambs.
Now a team lead by Pro
If you enjoy wildlife programmes then you’ll probably have seen bird’s-eye view footage of flying, taken from cameras attached to birds. A research group from the University of Oxford has gone one step further: by attaching a compact motion measurement unit in addition to cameras they hope to glean novel information on what it is that makes birds aeronautical experts. Their results could help in designing wing-morphing aircraft that would have deformable wing and tail parts, in place of convent
Do you remember learning to swim? Thrashing around, floundering, until suddenly it all clicks into place and a few feeble strokes of doggy-paddle propel you away from your parent’s arms. Surely, you think, fish must be born as expert swimmers. Actually, fish larvae are pretty feeble when it comes to an efficient mode of swimming called ‘burst-and-coast’. Dr Ulrike Müller from Wageningen University studies how fish swim: “Fish larvae are the most critical life history stage. In marine fish more than
Increasing carbon levels can be a good thing in some cases: scientists at the University of Durham propose that higher levels of inorganic carbon can have a positive influence on human health.
Carbon levels are sensed by a biological molecule, adenylyl cyclase (AC), that can then affect sperm motility or the virulence of a dangerous human pathogen. So far, AC is the only signalling molecule known to directly respond to inorganic carbon. Dr Martin Cann will present this work at the
A new method of delivering chemotherapy to cancer patients without incurring side effects such as hair loss and vomiting is being developed.
The method, produced at the University of Bath, involves using tiny fibres and beads soaked in the chemotherapy drug which are then implanted into the cancerous area in the patient’s body.
These fibres are bio-degradable and compatible with body tissue, which means they would not be rejected by the patient’s body. They gradually tur
Malaria kills a child every thirty seconds in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to recent estimates. It is a huge problem currently threatening over 40% of the world’s population and still on the increase. The infection causes more than 300 million acute illnesses and at least a million deaths annually, and is recognised as a major factor impeding the development of some of the poorest nations.
Past strategies to kill off mosquitoes with insecticides failed as they developed resistance
In the April 1 issue of G&D, Dr. Cory Abate-Shen (UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School) and colleagues resolve the long-standing question of how homeoproteins selectively bind their DNA targets in vivo.
In marked contrast to their precise target recognition in vivo, in vitro, homeoproteins bind DNA quite promiscuously. In their upcoming paper, Dr. Abate-Shen and colleagues demonstrate that the PIAS1 SUMO E3 ubiquitin ligase protein underlies the in vivo DNA-binding specificity of t
The 2-gene expression profile of HOXB13 and IL17BR in a woman’s breast cancer predicts risk of recurrence in node-negative patients treated with tamoxifen
Mayo Clinic researchers report that the expression of two novel genes within the tumors of women with early stage breast cancer may allow identification of women who are and are not at risk for early relapse or cancer-related death. Results of the study are published in the April 1 issue of Clinical Cancer Research.
It has been known for some time that silver is highly toxic to a wide range of bacteria, and silver-based compounds have been used extensively in bactericidal applications. This property of silver has caused great interest especially as new resistant strains of bacteria have become a serious problem in public health.
For example MRSA bacteria kill 5,000 hospital patients a year in the UK alone and any method of attacking them, not involving normal antibiotics, is becoming increasing
Talking about sex and fertility can be just as embarrassing for medical staff as for adolescent cancer patients, the 4th International Conference on Teenage and Young Adult Cancer Medicine heard today (Thursday 30 March).
However, Drs Allan Pacey and Adam Glaser warned the conference, organised by Teenage Cancer Trust, that if doctors failed to discuss the effect that the cancer or its treatment could have on their future fertility with their young patients, the patients would h
Scientists in the UK have found that a type of amoeba acts as an incubator for MRSA bacteria. As amoebae are often found in healthcare environments this discovery has implications for the infection control strategies adopted by hospitals.
The single cell amoeba, Acanthamoeba polyphagam, commonly eats and digests environmental bacteria. It also engulfs pathogens such as MRSA. However, instead of being digested by the amoeba, MRSA survives and replicates whilst inside the amoeba.
Using bioinformatics, scientists at Boston Biomedical Research Institute elucidate the kinome of a key model organism
The journal PLoS Genetics has published the findings of a team of scientists at the nonprofit Boston Biomedical Research Institute that provides a whole genome analysis of the protein kinases from a scientifically valuable model organism known as Dictyostelium.
Led by Dr. Janet Smith, this study offers important insights into the evolution of kinases, which
Doses of DNA-gene-coated gold particles protect mice against a protein implicated in Alzheimer’s disease, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.
By pressure-injecting the gene responsible for producing the specific protein – called amyloid-beta 42 – the researchers caused the mice to make antibodies and greatly reduce the protein’s build-up in the brain. Accumulation of amyloid-beta 42 in humans is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease.
Much of what scientists learn about the evolution of Earth’s first animals will have to be gleaned from spherical embryos fossilized under very specific conditions, according to a new study by Indiana University Bloomington and University of Bristol researchers in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Purported animal embryo fossils have been reported continuously over the last 12 years, mainly by paleontologists working in China. Scientists di
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