The authors of a paper in last week’s Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Section B, who say their 7.9 mm-long fish from a peat swamp in Southeast Asia is the smallest fish and vertebrate known, have failed to make note of work published last fall that describes sexually mature, male anglerfishes measuring 6.2 mm to 7.4 mm in length.
The 6.2 mm specimen is by far the smallest of any vertebrate, beating the recent claim by a full 1.7 mm, according to Ted Pietsch, a Univ
When Sylvia the baboon lost Sierra, her closest grooming partner and daughter, to a lion, she responded in a way that would be considered very human-like: she looked to friends for support. According to researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, baboons physiologically respond to bereavement in ways similar to humans, with an increase in stress hormones called glucocorticoids. Baboons can lower their glucocorticoid levels through friendly social contact, expanding their social network
Regular use of selective COX-2 inhibitors significantly reduces the risk of breast cancer. A case-control study published today in the open access journal BMC Cancer observed that daily use of selective COX-2 inhibitors, including celecoxib (Celebrex) and rofecoxib (Vioxx), was associated with a 71% reduction in the risk of breast cancer. Non-selective COX-2 inhibitors, such as aspirin and ibuprofen, also reduced the risk of breast cancer. This study highlights the potential of nonsteroida
Researchers at the Yale Fertility Center are now offering a cutting edge reproductive procedure called oocyte cryopreservation that allows women to freeze their eggs and use them at a later time to conceive a child.
Pasquale Patrizio, M.D., professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences and Director of the Yale Fertility Center, is introducing this technique at Yale in collaboration with an oocyte cryopreservation expert from Bologna, Italy. They w
Cleaner method of making spices, perfumes moves one step closer to reality
Materials scientists at Lehigh University and catalyst chemists at Cardiff University have uncovered secrets of the “nanoworld” that promise to lead to cleaner methods of producing, among other things, spices and perfumes.
The materials scientists, headed by Christopher Kiely of Lehigh, have determined the structure of a type of gold-palladium nanoparticle, which is the active component of
Intracellular observation of RNA metabolism will help identify disease-associated RNAs
For the first time, researchers can now peer inside intact cells to not only identify RNA-binding proteins, but also observe–in real-time–the intricate activities of these special molecules that make them key players in managing some of the cell’s most basic functions. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine who developed the new technology see this advance as one o
Identification of precursor cell may lead to tumor immunotherapy as well as new treatment for rare disorder
Mount Sinai School of Medicine researchers have identified the precursors of cells in the skin that are part of the first line of defense against invading pathogens. The study will appear on Nature Immunology’s website this week and will be published in a future issue.
A tight network of cells covering the entire body is formed in the skin by a group of cells
Study finds genetically engineered muscle-derived stem cells improved cartilage repair in rats
Damage to articular cartilage (cartilage covering the ends of bones where they meet in a joint) frequently occurs due to injury or illness, and can lead to degenerative disease. Treatments and experimental approaches to repair this articular cartilage have achieved limited results, but currently there is no method to fully restore this type of injured cartilage. Tissue engineering in
The initial excitement from sightings of at least one 17 – 18 foot northern bottlenose whale in the Thames in London turned to drama as the animal continued to be sighted and finally stranded. Emma Webb, a senior researcher from the Biscay Dolphin Research Programme (BDRP) and a volunteer marine medic for the British Divers Marine Life Rescue Service (BDMLR) was on site participating with the rescue attempt.
Following an update from BDMLR headquarters regarding two nocturnal strand
An EU funded Specific Targeted Research Project (STREP) entitled “Tumor-Host Genomics” has been launched at the University of Helsinki, Finland. The Tumor-Host Genomics project links together the resources of five European leading-edge laboratories studying major signaling pathways in mesenchymal and hematopoietic cells, forming a concerted effort to understand tumor-host interactions, and to identify novel therapeutic targets.
The European Union will fund the project with a tota
Aston Academy of Life Sciences, the clinical research hospital of Aston University, has recently been commissioned to assess the efficacy and safety of a specialist drug, Posurdex (Allergan Ltd, UK), which is used in the treatment of patients who suffer from a sight threatening condition, called macular oedema.
It is estimated that the condition, which is caused by occlusion (blockage) of the central or branch retinal veins in the eye, affects over two and a half million people w
The treatment of inflammatory bowel disease, which includes Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, has very high costs and can include admissions and surgical interventions. Until now, there was no precise tools to predict the evolution and prognosis of these diseases. A new biochip, IBDchip, (Inflammatory Bowel Disease DNA Chip) is a pioneering programme which has the aim to have a direct influence in the quality of life of patients.
This chip has been created by the biotechnology
Ever since the advent of recombinant-DNA technology, scientists have conceived that it will be feasible to create entirely new enzymes for specific needs. In an article in today’s issue of the journal Science, researchers from Uppsala and Korea present concrete proof of this. They have succeeded in converting an enzyme involved in normal human metabolism into an enzyme that is custom-designed to break down a specific substance, cefotaxime.
“The product in this case is not the
Cataracts are a leading cause of blindness worldwide. Using a rat model of cataract formation, Masayuki Mori and researchers at Shinshu University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan have now found a link between cataracts and cholesterol.
The study, appearing online on January 26 in advance of print publication in the February 2006 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation reports that a primary genetic defect in cataractogenesis is combined mutation of the lanosterol synthase
Two studies in the Jan. 27, 2006 Cell have yielded evidence that could prove a boon for stem cell therapies aimed at patients with Parkinson’s disease and those with compromised immune systems due to intensive cancer therapy or autoimmune disease, according to researchers. The basic findings in mice revealed critical factors that determine the fate of one type of nerve cell progenitor and that set bone marrow stem cells into action.
Researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden
Finding the variants that human history has favoured
Sequence differences in less than 0.2% of the 3-billion-base human genome play a vital role in a bewildering variety of human disease. Today, researchers from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the Cambridge University’s Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, together with international colleagues report in PLoS Genetics their detailed maps of differences implicated in disease as well as genes that are unchanged in r
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