University of Alberta researchers pioneer gene therapy to restore alveoli and lung capillaries in damaged rat lungs; first step in one day helping premature babies
The good news is that medical advances in perinatal care have allowed us to save many more premature babies. The bad news is they’re often at risk of developing bronchopulmonary dysplasia–a chronic lung disease caused by having to place the tiny infants on ventilators and oxygen-rich therapy for acute respiratory fai
Screening glioblastoma brain tumors for two gene variations can reliably predict which tumors will respond to a specific class of drugs, a new study shows. The findings may lead to improved treatment for this devastating disease. The study was funded in part by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and appears in the November 10, 2005, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.*
Glioblastomas ar
A deep-voiced black-capped chickadee may wonder why other birds ignore it, but there may be a good reason behind the snub, says a University of Alberta study that looked into how the bird responds to calls.
Dr. Isabelle Charrier and Dr. Chris Sturdy modified the black- capped chickadee calls, played those sounds back to the bird and observed how they reacted. They found that the chickadee relies on several acoustic features including pitch, order of the notes and rhythm of the call
Two key groups of neurons control morning and evening activity
A Brandeis University study published this week in Nature shows for the first time that a molecular signal maintains coherence among brain clock cells that regulate daily activity of Drosophila melanogaster (fruit flies). The two key groups of neurons control morning and evening activity and are maintained in synch even when the flies are plunged into darkness for extended periods of time.
This daily reset
First there was green, then yellow and now red-fleshed kiwifruit. A team of researchers in Italy and New Zealand has found that a newly developed variety of red-fleshed kiwifruit contain anthocyanins, bright red pigments that are highly potent antioxidants, which are thought to provide protection against heart disease and cancer.
Kiwifruit already have the reputation of being among the most nutrient dense of all popular fruit and they are also high in antioxidant activity. Now, kiwis
Researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and University Hospitals of Cleveland announced that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved plans to begin a study to evaluate the safety of using adult stem cells from bone marrow to treat chronic ischemia, a serious form of heart disease.
The FDA has approved a Phase I study designed to test the safety of the procedure. It will involve injecting bone marrow stem cells at varying doses into the co
Professors publish case study of successful nutritional treatment for cancer
Ron Pardini is not a medical doctor. Yet he is seen as a hero by his cancer-stricken neighbor, “D.H.” Pardini helped the 78-year-old after D.H. was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.
“In 2000 he was told by his doctor he had only a few months to live,” said Pardini, a professor of biochemistry and associate director of the Nevada Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of Nevad
Researchers at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI) have found that Chlamydia pneumoniae, a bacterium linked to heart disease and capable of causing chronic inflammation, was present in the diseased eye tissue of five out of nine people with neovascular, or “wet,” age-related macular degeneration (AMD). However, it was not found in the eyes of more than 20 individuals without AMD, providing more evidence that this disease may be caused by inflammation. The study is described in the
Three young scientists in the University of York’s Department of Chemistry have developed a gel that could spare cancer patients some of the unpleasant and dangerous side-effects of radiotherapy.
PhD students Andrew Wilson and Paul Watson, together with post-doctoral research fellow Mark Godber, have developed the gel which will help doctors to target cancer tumours more efficiently.
Now, the group has secured £30,000 under the Bioscience Yorkshire Enterprise Fellowship s
Findings reported in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine (November 3 issue) highlight promising findings from two Seattle-based researchers on the origins of bacterial vaginosis (BV).
In a collaborative effort to identify specific bacterial markers for bacterial vaginosis in vaginal-fluid samples, David Fredricks, MD, of the Program in Infectious Diseases, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Jeanne Marrazzo, MD, MPH, of the University of Washington and Harborv
Implications for study of memory, learning, and cognition
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered that nerve-cell dendrites have the capacity to splice messenger RNA (pre-mRNA), a process once believed to only take place in the nucleus of cells. By uncovering this capability in dendrites, the investigators hope to relate this capacity to memory and learning, as well as cognitive dysfunction. Senior author James Eberwine, PhD, Professo
Researchers at Yale have brought to light a mechanism that regulates the way an internal organelle, the Golgi apparatus, duplicates as cells prepare to divide, according to a report in Science Express.
Graham Warren, professor of cell biology, and his colleagues at Yale study Trypanosoma brucei, the parasite that causes Sleeping Sickness. Like many parasites, it is exceptionally streamlined and has only one of each internal organelle, making it ideal for studying processes of more
The Quaking gene, first described as a mutation in mice that causes rapid tremor, is thought to suppress tumor formation and protect humans from cancer.
Now, a team of researchers from Northwestern University and the University of Wisconsin has shown that the Quaking gene likely suppresses tumor growth by inhibiting production of a protein associated with GLI1, a cancer-causing oncogene highly associated with severe birth defects and several childhood cancers.
The gr
Queen’s researchers may have opened the door to more effective treatment of a deadly strain of the E. coli bacteria with the discovery of a previously unknown protein.
A team led by biochemistry researcher Zongchao Jia and graduate student Michael Suits has identified a protein that allows the bacterial strain known as E. coli 0157:H7 to obtain the iron it needs for survival in the body.
Iron is a catalyst for bacterial growth, so when a human body detects bacterial i
A pre-clinical research project coordinated by The University of Manchester, which will advance understanding of how cancer cells evade the immune system, has been awarded nearly €12m by the EU. The European Union Framework Programme (FP6) will enable doctors to improve ‘T-cell mediated immunotherapy’, which has the potential to fight a broad range of cancers.
The five year ‘ATTACK’ Project (Adoptive engineered T-cell Targeting to Activate Cancer Killing), involves an internat
Humans exposed to malaria get infected and sick to varying degrees, and some of that variation is due to differences in genetic makeup between individuals. But how important are genetic factors compared with environmental ones? Margaret Mackinnon and colleagues (from the University of Cambridge) have an answer which they report in the international open-access medical journal PLoS Medicine.
Rather than focusing on specific genes, Mackinnon and colleagues were interested in the
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