Reactive oxygen species (ROS), or ’oxygen radicals’, have been identified as major contributors to signs of premature aging, increased cancer prevalence linked to inflammation-associated syndromes and a variety of human diseases. Now scientists at the University of California, San Diego Branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR) have identified a key network of DNA repair and cell cycle control genes in yeast that prevents the deleterious effects of ROS.
The human brain is like a general in a bunker. Floating in its bubble of cerebrospinal fluid, it has no direct window to the outside world, so the only way for the brain to observe, comprehend, and order the body into action is to rely on information it receives. This information comes to it through a sophisticated system of sensory neurons that connect the brain to organs like the eye, ear, nose, and mouth.
In recent years, biologists and neuroscientists have been trying
Discovery gives clinicians new targets for making existing therapies more effective and developing drugs to inhibit the growth of cancers
A team of researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton and the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute in Toronto have discovered how a key enzyme involved in repairing DNA is put together and how it works–a development that opens up new therapies for making cancer cells more vulnerable to attack. The team has crystallized–or characterized
An international team of medical scientists has made an important advance in our understanding of the second most fatal form of cancer in the industrialized world. Professor Jeremy R. Jass, who holds a Canada Research Chair in Gastrointestinal Pathology at McGill University in Montreal, and colleagues in Australia and Japan have shown that in some cases colorectal cancer can be inherited.
The new syndrome is characterized by distinctive clinical, pathological and molecular featur
Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered a genetic marker that may pave the way for a fast, inexpensive blood test to predict one type of deadly stroke that strikes 30,000 people in the United States annually.
The article and an editorial appear in the March edition of the Journal of Neurosurgery, http://www.thejns-net.org/jns/issues/toc_pre.html. The Mayo Clinic researchers report that people with key variations in a gene that affects the ability of blood vessels to relax are 10 ti
Cholesterol, often stigmatized for its role in heart disease, has long been known to be essential for the health of the fat-laden membranes that surround individual cells. New findings by researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center highlight a novel role for cholesterol inside the cell itself – anchoring a signaling pathway linked to cell division and cancer.
These findings appear in the March 4 issue of Science and are available online. “Cell signals have to be tightly control
The first experimental evidence that birds can be deceived by camouflage in the same way that humans are deceived, is published today in Nature [3 March 2005].
The idea that bold contrasting colours help to break-up the body’s outline was rapidly adopted by many armies as long ago as the First World War. And in biology this idea of ‘disruptive colouration’ has long been used to explain how insects such as moths conceal themselves from predators, shaping the evolution of protectiv
High and volatile UK gas prices reached new levels over the last few days and have left some chemical companies no choice but to shut down operations. The Chemical Industries Association (CIA) now calls upon the DTI and OFGEM to take immediate, urgent action to resolve the situation before sites are closed down and companies make the decision not to manufacture in the UK.
The gas system operator, Transco, stated at a meeting today that there is ample gas to meet demand. Judith Ha
Research by a University of Nottingham expert has shed new light on a genetic mystery that has its origins millions of years ago.
A study by Dr Angus Davison has helped to uncover new facts about the most common organic compound found on earth — a substance called cellulose. Cellulose is found in large amounts in all crops and plant life, making it one of the foundations of modern farming, human diet and the global economy.There is just one problem with it: most animals are unable to
Proteins also link cellular aging and response to calorie restriction in mammals
In the March 3 issue of Nature, Johns Hopkins researchers report that two proteins best known for very different activities actually come together to turn the liver into a sugar-producing factory when food is scarce. Because the liver’s production of sugar is a damaging problem in people with diabetes, the proteins’ interaction might be a target for future drugs to fight the disease, the researchers sa
For wild turkeys, at least, helping your brother find a willing and eager mate is a better way to pass on your genes than chancing the mating game alone, according to a new study by a University of California, Berkeley, graduate student.
The American wild turkey is a textbook example of cooperative courtship, where subordinate male turkeys help dominant males attract a mate, even though they themselves do not get a chance to breed. When this cooperative courtship was first report
Clearance of beta amyloid accumulation within neurons stops memory decline in mice
Researchers at UC Irvine have identified a trigger at the molecular level that marks the onset of memory decline in mice genetically engineered to develop brain lesions – in the form of plaques and tangles – associated with Alzheimer’s disease. The trigger is a protein called “beta amyloid” that accumulates within neurons in the mice’s brains. Although several researchers have studied the
Fragile X Syndrome is one of the most commonly inherited forms of mental retardation, with an incidence of 1 in 4,000 males and 1 in 8,000 females. Not many medications exist to help Fragile X patients. Now, in a fruit fly model of the disease, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and their colleagues have shown that it is possible to reverse some of the symptoms of the disorder using drugs that dampen specific neuronal overactivity. Their findings appear in the Mar
Scientists at the University of Michigan Medical School have discovered a gene called NPHP5 and found mutations in this gene that cause a rare genetic disease called Senior-Loken syndrome. Children with this syndrome develop a type of cystic kidney disease called nephronophthisis*, as well as a form of blindness called retinitis pigmentosa.
In both the eye and the kidney, U-M scientists found that mutations in NPHP5 produced defects in hair-like cellular structures called cilia,
If there were no bench for second-string players on a football team, who would substitute for tired or injured team members? A team of Weizmann Institute scientists has found that, if the team were made up of genes, they might pull athletes who can play a little football in a pinch from nearby basketball or rugby teams. Their findings were published in the March issue of Nature Genetics.
Dr. Yitzhak (Tzachi) Pilpel and graduate students Ran Kafri and Arren Bar-Even, of the Institu
Weizmann Institute findings might advance search for new therapies for injured nerve fibers
Long distance messengers star in many heroic tales, perhaps the most famous being the one about the runner who carried the news about the victory of the Greeks over the Persians in the fateful battle of Marathon. A team of researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science has now discovered how molecular messengers perform a crucial role in the ability of injured nerve cells to heal them
Feedback
