Researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia say looking for genes that have been turned off by cancer cells may become a reliable and noninvasive way to detect and monitor cancer in the kidney. The data were presented today at the 96th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Anaheim, Calif.
Tumor-suppressor genes are part of the body’s natural defense against cancer. When inactivated–or “silenced”–they can no longer do their job, allowi
The body treats implanted medical devices – including everything from titanium hip replacements and blood vessel grafts – as invaders.
Cells surround and attack foreign material, resulting in an inflammatory response. This unfriendly reaction prevents implants from integrating into the body and functioning as well as they could.
While implanted biomaterials can be designed with different surface chemistries and roughness to influence inflammatory responses, the pr
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital discovery of genetic links to multi-drug resistance gives clinicians new insight into the cause of treatment failure and suggests targets for novel anti-leukemic drugs
The discovery of a specific pattern of gene expression linked to multiple-drug resistance of leukemic cells is giving researchers crucial information into why standard therapies fail to cure some children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). This finding, from investi
New research in mice provides more evidence that a brief bout of stress can give the immune system a beneficial boost – under certain conditions
Laboratory results showed that acute stress – stress that lasts for minutes to hours – temporarily mobilized all major types of immune cells, or leukocytes to potential battle stations in the body. In certain situations, this stress-induced boost in the number of immune cells may be advantageous, as leukocytes fight infections and other d
Newborn mice and dogs with hemophilia A were restored to normal health through gene therapy developed by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The technique introduced into the animals’ cells a gene that makes clotting factor VIII, a protein missing because of a genetic defect.
“We are really pleased with the results, because the animals produced about 20 times more factor than has been achieved in prior attempts using gene therapy for hem
A project launched at the University of Essex could lead to the development of drugs capable of reversing the effects of the anthrax bacteria.
Dr Metodi Metodiev has been awarded almost £62,500 by the National Institute of Health, USA, to investigate the deadly effects of the anthrax bacteria on human cells.
The aim is to create a screening platform by which scientists can select ’inhibitors’ capable of stopping the progress of anthrax.
Dr Metodiev said: ’Anth
Researchers from the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University have shown how an ingredient found in chocolate seems to exert its anti-cancer properties — findings that might be used one day to design novel cancer treatments. The study, published in the April issue of the journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, explains how pentameric procyanidin (pentamer), a natural compound found in cocoa, deactivates a number of proteins that likely work in concert to push a cancer cell t
Understanding the interaction of Fragile X mental retardation protein and kissing complex RNAs
Fragile X syndrome is the most common inherited form of mental retardation, affecting approximately 1 in 3600 males and 1 in 4000-6000 females. Fragile X syndrome results from loss of expression of the Fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP), the product of the FMR1 gene. Now, Drs. Robert and Jennifer Darnell and colleagues, from The Rockefeller University, report the uncovering of
Finding explains the development of different forms of the disease
Frequently referred to as a silent killer, ovarian cancer offers few clues to its presence, often until it has spread beyond the ovary to other tissues. Early detection has been difficult because ovarian cancer is not a single disease, but appears in many forms, with each form behaving differently. Now researchers from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have explained how and why different forms
Understanding the large-scale processes that shape distributions of species diversity is a long-standing challenge in ecology and can also help set conservation priorities. Regions with highly diverse or unique organisms may be targeted for conservation, but how such a region acquired its species could affect how they should be protected.
Without near-perfect records of where organisms have occurred throughout the past, it can be difficult to determine the processes underlying dive
South American floras are famous for their high species diversity. However, because of the undersampled South American plant-fossil record, remarkably little is known about how long this floral richness has existed. The Patagonian region of Argentina is an ideal place to study the history of South American plant diversity: fifty million years ago, Patagonia had humid subtropical forests with luxuriant vegetation, and today some of these forests are beautifully preserved in desert rock exposures a
Although large evolutionary radiations producing many species have captured the attention of biologists, comparison of the sizes of evolutionary lineages show that unusually small groups with few species are more frequent than one would expect from a model of random speciation and extinction.
Among songbirds (Passeriformes), more than 30 of 106 tribe-level taxonomic groups have five or fewer species, compared to the average size of 54 species and a maximum of more than 10 times tha
Ever wondered where your family’s ancestors roamed 60,000 years ago?
Now you can find out by participating in the world’s most ambitious project tracing the genetic and migratory history of the human race. Members of the general public from all over the world can supply their DNA to the Genographic Project, and scientists at The University of Arizona in Tucson will do the genetic analysis. The public DNA sampling is part of a larger undertaking to unravel the origins and migra
Researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have developed a way to test whether the new targeted therapy Tarceva and the widely used chemotherapy drug Taxol are effectively killing tumor cells. They say that with further refinement, the test may make it possible to accurately assess whether patients are responding to these agents, as well as potentially others, within days of beginning therapy.
In two different studies being presented at the annual meetin
Researchers from the Viikki Biocenter, University of Helsinki, show that atomic structures can reveal evolutionary history of viruses in a similar fashion as fossils did for the dinosaurs and reptiles. Their article is published in the April 15 issue of Molecular Cell.
These “molecular fossils” also revealed that viruses and proteins of immune system share the same structure. One plausible explanation may be that viral building blocks served as precursors for the evolutionary more re
University of California, San Diego biologists and their colleagues have discovered that the genetic system controlling the development and repair of insect cuticle—the outer layer of the body surface in insects—also controls these processes in mammalian skin, a finding that could lead to new insights into the healing of wounds and treatment of cancer.
The UCSD biologists’ study, published April 15 in the journal Science identifies a master gene called grainyhead that activates
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