Bees have a much more sophisticated visual system than previously thought, according to a new UCL (University College London) study in which bees were able to solve complicated colour puzzles. The findings shed light on how brains resolve one of the most difficult challenges of vision – namely, recognizing different surfaces under different colours of illumination – by suggesting that bees solve this problem using their experience with meaningful colour relationships between objects in a scene. T
Results from the first and only interim analysis of an important trial assessing the potential of Herceptin (trastuzumab) to improve disease-free survival (DFS) in HER-2 positive breast cancer patients after adjuvant chemotherapy, have shown that Herceptin affords a significant survival advantage. These new findings were released at the 13th European Cancer Conference (ECCO) on the recommendation of the Independent Data Monitoring Committee.
The study in question, an internation
Monkeys have a semantic perception of numbers that is like humans’ and which is independent of language, Duke University cognitive neuroscientists have discovered. They said their findings demonstrate that the neural mechanism underlying numerical perception is evolutionarily primitive.
Jessica Cantlon and Elizabeth Brannon described their findings with macaque monkeys in an article published online the week of Oct. 31, 2005, in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of th
Keeping the body and mind healthy depends on keeping cells healthy and functioning. This means that cells need a very robust quality-control system to repair or remove damaged or misshapen proteins. Protein handling is especially important in neurons because damage or death of brain cells causes neurological disease.
Researchers in the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine have identified a protein, called CHIP (C-terminal heat shock protein 70-
Attempts to improve the chemotherapeutic efficacy and radiotherapy-sensitivity of the anticancer agent, gemcitabine, using gene therapy have yielded interesting results in preclinical glioma models presented at the 13th European Cancer Conference (ECCO).
Investigators took the enzyme that activates gemcitabine, deoxycytidine kinase (dCK) and inserted it into a viral carrier – Ad-dCK. In vitro assay cells from mice, rats and humans, and mice infected with glioma (tumours originatin
Pediatric researchers at Yale School of Medicine have identified a gene on human chromosome 6 called DCDC2, which is linked to dyslexia, a reading disability affecting millions of children and adults.
The researchers also found that a genetic alteration in DCDC2 leads to a disruption in the formation of brain circuits that make it possible to read. This genetic alteration is transmitted within families.
“These promising results now have the potential to lead to impro
Picky female frogs in a tiny rainforest outpost of Australia have driven the evolution of a new species in 8,000 years or less, according to scientists from the University of Queensland, the University of California, Berkeley, and the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service.
“That’s lightning-fast,” said co-author Craig Moritz, professor of integrative biology at UC Berkeley and director of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. “To find a recently evolved species like this is excep
The discovery, by scientists at Monash University and the Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York, of how communication between cancer cells is controlled has promised new treatment options for malignant tumours.
Senior research fellow Dr Martin Lackmann from Monash’s Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology is part of the team that has discovered the structure of the molecular switch that controls communication between tumour cells. The “switch” involves a cell-su
The brain is a “time machine,” assert Duke neuroscientists Catalin Buhusi and Warren Meck. And understanding how the brain tracks time is essential to understanding all its functions. The brain’s internal clocks coordinate a vast array of activities from communicating, to orchestrating movement, to getting food, they said.
In a review article in the October 2005 Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Buhusi and Meck discuss the current state of understanding of one of the brain&
For years biomedical researchers have known that high density lipoproteins, commonly called HDLs or “good cholesterol,” are responsible for protecting humans from certain parasites, but couldn’t explain how. Now MBL scientists have discovered that human HDLs work this bug-repelling magic by serving as a platform for the assembly and delivery of two naturally occurring proteins that combine to create a super-toxic antimicrobial.
The research, published in the September 30 issue of th
Increasing the activity of two enzymes better known for their role in oxidative stress metabolism turns normally relaxed mice into “Nervous Nellies,” according to research conducted at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and reported in the early online edition of Nature.
Locally overexpressing either glyoxalase 1 or glutathione reductase 1 in mouse brains significantly increased anxiety in usually relaxed mice and made already jittery mice even more anxiety-ridden. Inhib
Researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center have identified a second promising treatment target for glioblastoma multiforme, one of the most deadly types of brain tumors. The research results are reported in the October issue of Molecular Cancer Research.
“We’ve found that a particular protein may play a major role in the progression of these tumors, suggesting an attractive new treatment approach,” said Waldemar Debinski, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Brain T
In the high-tech 21st century, the most rudimentary natural products continue to reveal exciting ant-cancer properties to scientists, offering people relatively simple ways to help protect themselves from the disease.
Five studies presented today during the American Association for Cancer Research’s 4th annual Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research meeting in Baltimore, Md., add to the arsenal of research that shows adding certain vegetables and herbs to the diet can p
Discovery could lead to prostate-cancer-specific diagnostic test and more effective treatment
Scientists at the University of Michigan Medical School, in collaboration with researchers at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, have discovered a recurring pattern of scrambled chromosomes and abnormal gene activity that occurs only in prostate cancer.
In a paper being published in the Oct. 28 issue of Science, the research team indicates that these chromosomal rea
Undiscovered protein may help identify those whose disease will progress rapidly
Researchers have discovered a combination of tests that can more accurately predict who will develop type 1 diabetes. In the process, they’ve also uncovered signs of a new protein that may forecast a more rapidly developing form of the disease. Together, these findings could help researchers screen patients for clinical trials that eventually may lead to a vaccine or cure for type 1 diabetes.
A gene involved in B-cell development might play a role in multiple sclerosis. The results of a large study published today in the open access journal BMC Neurology reveal that multiple sclerosis (MS) patients are more likely to carry two specific genetic variations in the Early B-cell factor gene (EBF-1), than healthy individuals.
These variations – or polymorphisms – could play a causative role in MS or be located near other polymorphisms that do play a causative role in the disorder.
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