The brain is bombarded by information about the physical proportions of our bodies. The most familiar sensations, such as a puff of wind or the brush of our own shirt sleeve, serve to constantly remind the brain of the body’s outer bounds, creating a sense of what is known as proprioception. In a new study, researchers report this week that the brain’s ability to interpret external signals and update its sense of bodily self is more dynamic than had been previously thought and that such u
Two patients enrolled in Phase I clinical trials at Hopkins
Final results of a study conducted at Johns Hopkins show that stem cell therapy can be used effectively to treat heart attacks, or myocardial infarction, in pigs. In just two months, stem cells harvested from another pig’s bone marrow and injected into the animal’s damaged heart restored heart function and repaired damaged heart muscle by 50 percent to 75 percent.
The Hopkins findings, first presented
Technique may allow scientists to repair brain cells damaged by disease, trauma or stroke
Using customized nanoparticles that they developed, University at Buffalo scientists have for the first time delivered genes into the brains of living mice with an efficiency that is similar to, or better than, viral vectors and with no observable toxic effect, according to a paper published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The paper describes how the UB
Multiple strains of the flu virus, circulating in a population at the same time, can reshuffle their genes and create a new virus, one capable of infecting many more people, according to a new study in the open-access journal PLoS Biology. This finding may help scientists make better predictions about which viral strains will attack during upcoming flu seasons and design more effective flu vaccines.
In the first large-scale effort to sequence the flu genome, Edward Holmes, David Lipman, an
In a paper in this month’s PLoS Medicine, researchers from the Genome Institute of Singapore describe the identification of a human cellular protein that has a significant effect on the replication efficiency of Hepatitis B virus. Lisa F. P. Ng and colleagues found the protein–hnRNPK–when they noted an association between one particular sequence in the Hepatitis B virus and high levels of the virus in some infected patients. They discovered that how well the virus replicated is determined
Colwellia psychrerythraea 34H reveals its subzero secrets
At home in the deep, dark Arctic Ocean, the marine bacterium Colwellia psychrerythraea 34H keeps very cool–typically below 5° degrees Celsius. How does the bacterium function in this frigid environment? To find out, scientists at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) and collaborators have sequenced and analyzed C. psychrerythraea’s genome.
That genome analysis, posted in the Proceedings of the National Acad
A gene that appears to help regulate normal embryonic development is found at high levels in virtually all forms of breast cancer, according to a new study led by Laszlo Radvanyi, Ph.D., associate professor of breast and melanoma medical oncology at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.
The finding, published in the Aug. 2, 2005, issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and available on-line July 25, shows that the gene, normally made in small
Researchers pinpoint chromosome region and genetic markers for macular degeneration in humans, rhesus monkeys
Age-related macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in older adults, yet researchers are still in the dark about many of the factors that cause this incurable disease.
But new insight from University of Florida and German researchers bout a genetic link between rhesus monkeys with macular degeneration and humans could unlock secrets about the earl
Biologists have discovered that a common corn fungus is by far nature’s most powerful known cannoneer, blasting its spores out with a force of 870,000 times the force of gravity. Farmers need not worry about being nailed by a fungal supergun, however. The infinitesimal spore travels only two-tenths of an inch (5 millimeters) before plummeting.
Nevertheless, said the biologists, the fungus Gibberella zeae outguns the previous record holder, the fungus Pilobolus, by almost a hu
A team of scientists has discovered three molecules –– from a search of 58,000 compounds –– that appear to inhibit a key perpetrator of Alzheimer’s disease.
Each of the three molecules protects the protein called “tau,” which becomes hopelessly tangled in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s. The finding is promising news for the development of drugs for the disease.
Ken Kosik, co-director of the Neuroscience Research Institute at the University of California, Sa
Variations in transforming growth factor beta receptor Type II can damage main artery
Scientists have identified the first genetic mutations that cause the aorta – the body’s main artery – to widen, tear and rupture.
Published online by Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, the findings of a team led by University of Texas Medical School at Houston researchers shed new light on the molecular causes of thoracic aortic aneurysms and dissections. T
High expression of TRAIL-R2, a cell surface receptor that triggers cell death, has been shown to be associated with a decrease the survival rates of breast cancer patients according to a study published by Yale Cancer Center researchers in Clinical Cancer Research.
Analyzing 20-year follow-up data from breast cancer patients, using an automated quantitative analysis system (AQUATM) to review tissue microarray specimens, the researchers identified increased intensity of TRAIL recep
New gene plays central role in plant architecture and crop domestication
In 1909, while harvesting a typical corn crop (Zea mays) in Illinois, a field worker noticed a plant so unusual that it was initially believed to be a new species. Its “peculiarly shaped ear” was “laid aside as a curiosity” and the specimen was designated Zea ramosa (from the Latin ramosus, “having many branches”). Due to the alteration of a single gene, later named ramosa1, both the ear and the tassel of th
Although domestic cats (Felis silvestris catus) possess an otherwise functional sense of taste, they, unlike most mammals, do not prefer and may be unable to detect the sweetness of sugars. One possible explanation for this behavior is that cats lack the sensory system to taste sugars and therefore are indifferent to them. Drawing on work in mice, demonstrating that alleles of sweet-receptor genes predict low sugar intake, we examined the possibility that genes involved in the initial transduction of
From thousands of genes to a single compelling new target
It started several years ago with the observation that a large group of seemingly unconnected genes were behaving differently in patients with stomach cancer. Now a multi-national research team led by the Melbourne Branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR) has joined the proverbial dots and identified a potential new target for stomach cancer therapy, according to a paper published today in the prestigious
University of Colorado at Boulder scientists have used a fluorescent marker to predict the individual life spans of identical worms that were genetically engineered to illuminate stress levels, implying living organisms have “hidden physiological states” that dictate their ability to deal with the rigors of life.
According to CU-Boulder Research Associate Shane Rea, the genetically identical nematodes were engineered with a green fluorescent “reporter” protein coupled to a st
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