Issued by EPSRC on behalf of the UK e-Science Programme
Highlight from forthcoming e-Science All Hands meeting 2005
A challenge, presented at last year’s e-Science All Hands meeting, has resulted in an e-Science project achieving one of the holy grails of the pharmaceutical industry – the computational prediction of a previously unidentified crystal structure, or polymorph, of a drug molecule.
Researchers working on the e-materials project picked up the gauntlet
Test looks at 22 biomarkers; results more accurate than PSA
Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have identified a panel of 22 biomarkers that together provide a more accurate screening for prostate cancer than the current prostate specific antigen, or PSA, test. The study appears in the Sept. 22 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Researchers looked at blood samples taken from 331 prostate cancer patients prior to surgery, and
A cluster of genes on chromosome six is the only one that plays a significant role in multiple sclerosis (MS), according to the most complete genetic study to date in the disorder, presented at the 130th annual meeting of the American Neurological Association in San Diego.
“Our results confirm the strong role of the major histocompatibility complex genes in MS, and provides a definitive statement that no other region of the genome harbors a gene with a similar overall influence on
Researchers have identified a molecular suspect in a disorder similar to multiple sclerosis (MS) that attacks the optic nerve and spinal cord, according to a report presented at the 130th annual meeting of the American Neurological Association in San Diego. The protein, called aquaporin-4, is a channel protein that allows water to move in and out of cells.
“Aquaporin-4 is the first specific molecule to be defined as a target for the autoimmune response in any form of MS,” said
Aloe vera gel is best known for its therapeutic effect on burned or irritated skin, but in the future you could be eating the gel as a healthful additive to your fruits and veggies. Researchers in Spain say they have developed a gel from the tropical plant that can be used as an edible coating to prolong the quality and safety of fresh produce. The gel, which does not appear to affect food taste or appearance, shows promise as a safe, natural and environmentally-friendly alternative to conventi
By examining how proteins have evolved, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have discovered a set of simple “rules” that nature appears to use to design proteins, rules the scientists have now employed to create artificial proteins that look and function just like their natural counterparts.
In two papers appearing in the Sept. 22 issue of the journal Nature, Dr. Rama Ranganathan, associate professor of pharmacology, and his colleagues detail a new method for creating art
We all know that if you put your hand over an open flame it’s very painful. What you may not know is that, for some people, just lying under a blanket is painful as well. They have neuropathic pain–annoying, chronic pain that comes from a diseased nerve cell rather than a specific stimulus. Feeling phantom pain in a missing limb is another, more famous, example.
Experts say up to two percent of the U.S. population suffers from neuropathic pain. But this pain generally resp
Researchers have uncovered a significant contributing factor to interferon resistance of malignant melanoma cells. The finding represents a step forward in understanding the molecular events that govern the growth of this type of cancer and the changes in gene expression and cellular signaling that underlie resistance to established therapies.
Malignant melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer, and if not treated successfully, it can spread to affect the liver, lungs, or bra
By specially tagging the outer and inner membranes of red blood cells infected with the malaria parasite and tracking the cellular changes that precede the cell bursting event that disperses parasites to other blood cells, a group of researchers has deepened our understanding of how the malaria pathogen destroys the cells in which it resides. The work is reported in Current Biology by Joshua Zimmerberg and colleagues at the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
Malaria devastates
University of Pittsburgh researchers first to report function of tunneling nanotubules
Immune system cells are connected to each other by an extensive network of tiny tunnels that, like a building’s hidden pneumatic tube system, are used to shoot signals to distant cells. This surprising discovery, being reported by two University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers in the September issue of the journal Immunity, may explain how an immune response can be so exquisit
Yale School of Medicine researchers identified a gene prevalent in the population that controls the clinical severity of asthma, according to their report in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Richard Bucala, M.D., professor in the Department of Internal Medicine and senior author of the study, said that once you have asthma, there are genes that are going to control how bad it is.
“Asthma patients who have high production variants of t
He has labored for years over trying to understand and detail the behavior of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) receptor, a protein which plays an important role in tumor growth. Several years ago he and his co-workers discovered that normal cells lacking the IGF-1 receptor gene could not be made to turn cancerous. He found that when they “knocked out” IGF-1 receptors in cancer cells, the cells self-destructed, meaning the IGF-1 receptor was somehow necessary for tumor cell growth. Companie
Recent research suggested that ancient Neanderthals might have had an accelerated childhood compared to that of modern humans but that seems flawed, based on a new assessment by researchers from Ohio State University and the University of Newcastle .
They found that the rate of tooth growth present in the Neanderthal fossils they examined was comparable to that of three different populations of modern humans.
And since the rate of tooth growth has become a more-accepted to
A new study has identified a molecular defect in cardiac cells that may be a fundamental cause of heart failure, a progressive weakening of the heart that leaves the organ unable to pump blood through the body.
The findings, by researchers at the Ohio State University Dorothy M. Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute, show that specialized proteins called ryanodine receptors (RyRs) malfunction in the failing heart. The RyRs form channels that become leaky, leading to calcium
Researchers at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development have determined the sequence in which the malaria parasite disperses from the red blood cells it infects. The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development is one of the Institutes comprising the National Institutes of Health. The study appears in the September 20 Current Biology.
“This discovery provides the groundwork for possible new approaches to treating malaria, ” said Duane Alexander,
University of Cincinnati (UC) scientists have identified a possible new target for treating obesity and diabetes.
The new target, a molecule called hVps34, is activated by amino acids (nutrients) entering the cell. This molecule triggers the activation of an enzyme, S6 Kinase 1 (S6K1), whose function UC researchers linked last year to obesity and insulin resistance.
“Insulin and amino acids both play a critical role in growth and development,” said lead author George
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