Astronaut health is one of NASA’s top priorities.
Once beyond Earth’s atmosphere, astronauts are exposed to ionizing radiation and microgravity. Effects from these, along with the potential buildup of toxins in the enclosed environment of a spaceship, put astronaut health at risk.
Kansas State University professor Chris Culbertson has been working with NASA to investigate how such hazardous conditions affect humans at the cellular level and how to lessen such co
When the tick-borne bacterium that causes Lyme disease lacks a specific protein that responds to an incoming meal of blood, it is unable to be transmitted from the tick to a new animal host, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found. The findings suggest that the protein, called BptA, is essential for the bacterium Borrelia burgdorfei (Bb) to survive in the gut of its tick host and may offer a potential new target for agents aimed at eradicating Lyme disease.
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Research from Dartmouth Medical School, demonstrating how malaria parasites form mutations that make them stubbornly resistant to drug therapy, may hold the key to a new treatments for a disease that afflicts more than half a billion people worldwide.
The scientists developed disease models using yeast and successfully introduced five mutations that make malaria resistant to the anti-malarial drug, atovaquone. The study, featured as the cover story of the April 29 Journal of Biological C
A natural, non-toxic byproduct of glucose may prevent brain cell death and cognitive impairment in diabetics following an episode of severely low blood sugar, according to researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center (SFVAMC).
In research studies with rats, senior investigator Raymond A. Swanson, MD, and lead author Sang Won Suh, PhD, demonstrated the effectiveness of pyruvate, a naturally-occurring byproduct of glucose, when administered along with glucose after 30 minutes
Protein Found by UCLA Shows Generation of New Bone in Patients Who Lack It, as Well as Faster, More Reliable Healing of Fractures
By studying diseases in which the human body generates too much bone, UCLA researchers have discovered and isolated a natural molecule that can be used to heal fractures and generate new bone growth in patients who lack it.
Bioengineering Professor Ben Wu at UCLA’s Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Thomas R. Bales
UCLA AIDS Institute discovery points to new drug target
Scientists have long suspected that HIV hijacks immune cells called dendritic cells to infiltrate the immune system. Now UCLA AIDS Institute researchers have shown that blocking HIV’s access to a naturally occurring molecule on dendritic cells may cut their ability to smuggle the virus into other immune cells. Published in the May edition of the Journal of Virology, the discovery may lead to new drugs to prevent sexua
Using X-ray crystallography, researchers at Yale have “seen” the structural basis for antibiotic resistance to common pathogenic bacteria, facilitating design of a new class of antibiotic drugs, according to an article in Cell.
In recent years, common disease-causing bacteria have increasingly become resistant to antibiotics, such as erythromycin and azithromycin. Although the macrolide antibiotics in this group are structurally different, all work by inhibiting the protein synthe
West Nile virus alarmed Americans when it made its first U.S. appearance in New York City in 1999. It has since spread from coast to coast, sickened more than 16,000 Americans and killed more than 600. As the virus spread, medical investigators hastened research to develop an effective vaccine or therapy. None currently exist, but a newly published paper by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis points to a promising treatment. This research, published today online by Nature Medicine
Cells tugged in one direction sent biochemical signals in the opposite direction in the form of a signature pattern of fluorescent light
Researchers at UCSD and UC Irvine have captured on video for the first time chemical signals that traverse human cells in response to tiny mechanical jabs, like waves spreading from pebbles tossed into a pond. The scientists released the videos and technical details that explain how the visualization effect was created as part of a paper publishe
Prions made in vitro cause brain disease in hamsters
UTMB scientists offer strongest evidence yet that infectious misformed proteins cause mad cow disease and other mysterious brain disorders. Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) have produced the strongest proof yet that the mysterious and devastating brain diseases known as “transmissible spongiform encephalopathies” (TSEs) are transmitted by an infectious agent composed only of a malformed pr
Clues about how a suspect version of a gene may slightly increase risk for schizophrenia are emerging from a brain imaging study by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The gene variant produced a telltale pattern of activity linked to production of a key brain messenger chemical.
The study found that increased activity in the front of the brain predicted increases in the neurotransmitter dopamine in the middle of the brain in
In a genomics milestone, an international consortium of researchers has for the first time lifted the veil from a fungal plant pathogen by sequencing the genome – or set of all genes – of the most destructive enemy of rice: Magnaporthe grisea, the fungus that causes rice blast disease.
Dr. Ralph Dean, professor of plant pathology and director of North Carolina State University’s Center for Integrated Fungal Research, is the lead author of a research paper that describes the M. g
The power of a new technique to map connections among nerve cells in the brain has a UT Southwestern Medical Center scientist dreaming of solving the mysteries of sleep.
By tracking which nerve cells in the mouse brain stimulate others, researchers in Japan and at UT Southwestern found that a type of neuron responsible for keeping animals awake receives inhibitory signals from neurons active only during sleep, as well as reinforcing, positive signals from nerve cells that are very
Jeopardy answer: Death Valley and “ionic liquids.” Correct question: Where does a little bit of water make a whole lot of difference?
Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) report* that flow properties for a relatively new class of alternative solvents called ionic liquids are extremely sensitive to tiny amounts of water. For example, for one of these solvents, just a 0.01 percent increase in water dissolved into a sample, caused a 1 percent decrea
Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have identified an enzyme that helps trigger the development of leukemia, a cancer of blood cells.
The enzyme hDOT1L activates a set of genes that plays a key role in the rare and largely incurable acute myeloid leukemia (AML). This disease affects less than 2 percent of the estimated 16,000 individuals diagnosed with acute leukemia nationwide each year. The discovery, based on research using bone marrow cells from mice,
A NASA funded study has found a decline in winter and spring snow cover over Southwest Asia and the Himalayan mountain range is creating conditions for more widespread blooms of ocean plants in the Arabian Sea.
The decrease in snow cover has led to greater differences in both temperature and pressure systems between the Indian subcontinent and the Arabian Sea. The pressure differences generate monsoon winds that mix the ocean water in the Western Arabian Sea. This mixing leads to
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