Curious female rats, more willing to step out and explore their environment, survive breast and pituitary tumors longer than their more cautious sisters, says a Penn State researcher.
Dr. Sonia Cavigelli, assistant professor of biobehavioral health, says that her study of 80 female rats from birth to death shows that the curious ones with tumors lived, on average, an additional six months, or 25 percent longer lives, than the cautious ones.
“It’s difficult to extrapola
A student from St John’s High School, Dundee, scooped one of the top prizes at the prestigious national BA CREST Science Fair in London. The fair, held at the Royal Society on 28 February, showcases science and technology projects from students aged 11-18 across the UK.
Gurjit Singh Sidhu was awarded the International Science and Engineering Fair Prize 2005 for his project testing equipment to measure the dose of radiation that cancer cells received during radiotherapy. He has
A genome-wide scan in hypertension in the East Finland founder population has re-affirmed the majority of genes previously known to be associated with hypertension. The new genes discovered include also ones, which appear to give humans a strong protection against hypertension. The scan was conducted by a novel approach.
The DNA samples used in the study were collected in the 1980’s from a genetically-homogeneous population that can be accurately traced back to a few hundre
Love the warmth of woollen clothes but dislike having to dry clean them? Europeans will soon get familiar with the advantages of the new biotech process allows wool garments to be washed in water without shrinking or pilling.
The Washwool process can be used with woven fabrics and garments as well as knitted garments. As a bonus, it adds enticing softness to materials. Yet Washwool-treated wool is tough enough to withstand repeated washes without matting or shrinking.
The environme
A surprisingly large number of beetles are missing one of their testes, the male gonads of insects. As far as the researchers who discovered this can tell, the insects are not in any way bothered or impaired by this absence.
The discovery is striking because most animals are bilaterally symmetrical, which means the left and right sides of the body roughly mirror each other. This bilateralism extends to many internal organs, although some systems, such as the human heart and li
Nematodes comprise a worm family so large it literally covers the earth. They range in size from less than a micron in length to as much as 26 feet. Worldwide interest has begun to focus on microscopic nematodes that live with symbiotic bacteria.
“We study these nematodes – which are actually insect killers – not only to understand how diverse they are, but also to use them as biological control alternatives,” says Patricia Stock, a nematomologist in the University of Arizona C
Impaired function of a receptor that regulates release of a mood elevating hormone in the brain may be responsible for causing depression, anxiety and cardiovascular disorders, according to a Yale study in Pharmacogenetics and Genomics.
The genetic variant that causes this malfunction is nearly 15 times as prevalent in African-Americans as Caucasians and might explain why African-Americans have a higher rate of congestive heart failure, according to the first author, Alexander N
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine and the University of Utah have developed a mouse model of Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of blindness in people over age 55, and Stargardt Macular Degeneration (STGD), a form of the disease that affects children and young adults.
The mouse model*, which was reported in the March 4, 2005 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, “now permits th
Researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center have shown that surgery combined with inserting heated chemotherapy drugs directly into the abdomen can improve survival rates and quality of life in patients with several cancers that historically have a poor prognosis.
Results of four separate studies are being presented at the Society of Oncology Surgeons national meeting March 3-5 in Atlanta. The types of cancer reported at the meeting that have been treated with a c
UCLA AIDS Institute study
A UCLA AIDS Institute study has discovered that two chemical compounds may help the immune systems of HIV-infected persons fight the disease without invasive gene therapy. Presented March 5 at the 2005 Palm Springs Symposium on HIV/AIDS, the new research demonstrates that the new chemicals activate telomerase — a protein that boosts immune cells’ ability to divide, enabling them to continue destroying HIV-infected cells.
“The immune cells that
Uncoupling the clock
A biologist at Washington University in St. Louis is giving the VIP treatment to laboratory mice in hopes of unraveling more clues about our biological clock. VIP is not “very important person,” but vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP), a neuropeptide originally found in the gut, that is also made by a specialized group of neurons in the brain.
Erik Herzog, Ph.D., Washington University assistant professor of Biology in Arts & Sciences, has discover
New light on a complex mechanism
A cluster of brain cells less than half the size of a pencil eraser tells you when to wake up, when to be hungry and when it’s time to go to sleep. The same cells also cause you to be disoriented after you’ve flown across multiple time zones. The human circadian clock, comprised of about 20,000 time-keeping cells, has mystified scientists since it was pinpointed in the brain about 30 years ago. Now, a researcher at the University of Calgar
A paper to be published in the journal Biology of Reproduction offers evidence that a protein circulating in the blood of mammals delivers the dietary micronutrient selenium to germ cells, enabling these cells to develop into normal sperm.
Previously, the function of this protein, selenoprotein P, was unknown, although it was believed to play a role as an antioxidant and to transport selenium throughout the body.
Dietary selenium is essential for normal sperm developmen
Researchers at Columbia University have received more than $3 million in funding from the Spinal Muscular Atrophy Foundation to conduct research on spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a neuromuscular disease that is the leading genetic killer of infants and toddlers. The funding will enable the institution to significantly expand its already substantial SMA research.
With an estimated 55,000 people afflicted with the disease in the United States, Europe and Japan, spinal muscular at
The hydrothermal vents were miles from where anyone could have imagined. One massive seafloor vent was an unheard of 18 stories tall. And all were creamy white and gray, suggesting a very different composition than vent systems studied since the 1970s.
Scientists who named the spot Lost City knew they were looking at something never seen before when the field was serendipitously discovered in December 2000 during a National Science Foundation expedition to the mid-Atlantic.
Discovery offers hope for treatment of dyslexia
A gene which is likely to be one of the causes of dyslexia in children has been discovered by researchers at Cardiff University.
They believe the major finding will give researchers a better understanding of what causes the brain disorder which disrupts reading and writing skills.
It is now hoped that follow-up research will also lead to the discovery of treatments which could help children susceptible to dyslexia. The
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