Mayo Clinic researchers are the first to identify an interaction between two cellular proteins — Skp2 and FOXO1 — that is important for the growth and survival of cancer cells. Researchers also show that this interaction can be chemically reversed to stop cancer tumor growth — a strategy that may lead to new and better cancer treatments.
Their report appears as an electronic advance article of PNAS, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ( http://www.pnas.org/cgi
A Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) professor and 138 of his undergraduates have co-authored a paper that provides the first genome-wide estimate of vital genes that are also essential for eye development of the common fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. The undergraduates are students in a unique biology class taught by HHMI professor Utpal Banerjee at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Banerjee and his students identified 501 essential genes responsible for proces
To gauge the toxicity of Pfiesteria, the important single-celled fish predator that was the culprit behind a number of fish kills and fish diseases along the East Coast in the 1990s, researchers need to both use the proper study methods and recognize that certain populations of the organism, called strains, are toxic while others are not.
That’s the main result of a wide-ranging study by Dr. JoAnn M. Burkholder, professor and director of the Center for Applied Aquatic Ecology at N
New and effective treatments for lung cancer may rest on their ability to hinder the action of estrogen in lung cancer cells, according to two studies published in the current issue of Cancer Research. The University of Pittsburgh studies build on current knowledge about the relationship between estrogen and lung cancer growth and suggest that blocking estrogen may be vitally important to improving survival from the disease.
Since 1930, a 600 percent increase in death rates from
A multi-disciplinary team of scientists from the Universities of Sheffield, Nottingham, Manchester and Glasgow has been awarded a £3m research grant to develop a new nanotechnology tool which they have called the ‘Snomipede’. The team, led by Professor Graham Leggett at the University of Sheffield, hopes that once developed, the Snomipede could enable advances in areas as diverse as the understanding of the origins of disease and the low-cost commercial manufacture of plastic computer chips.
Developing compounds to block activation pathway
Researchers from Tufts-New England Medical Center have identified a long-sought-after enzyme that interacts with a specific protease-activated receptor, PAR1, on breast cancer cells. The study authors identified metalloprotease-1 as the molecular scissors that activates PAR1 resulting in cancer cell invasion and tumor growth. They were able to block the spread of the breast cancer in animals using novel compounds called pepducin
A compound may improve the chances that stem cells transplanted from a patient’s bone marrow will help take over brain functions
A compound similar to the components of DNA may improve the chances that stem cells transplanted from a patient’s bone marrow to the brain will take over the functions of damaged cells and help treat Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological illnesses.
A research team led by University of Central Florida professor Kiminobu Sugaya found tha
Boosting these cellular signals may lead to new treatments
Using a revolutionary technique to turn off chemical signals inside the cell, scientists at Joslin Diabetes Center have discovered that the different metabolic abnormalities present in type 2 diabetes can be caused by knocking out two key signals in liver cells. Their findings in mice may someday lead to strategies in humans to boost these two different signals, providing a powerful new way to treat the different meta
The Lychnis moth (Hadena bicruris) is laying more eggs on white campion (Silene latifolia), due to the increasing fragmentation of the countryside. Dutch researcher Jelmer Elzinga studied how many white campion seeds were eaten by Lychnis moth caterpillars at various locations along the River Waal.
Elzinga discovered that at small and isolated locations, Lychnis moth caterpillars consumed more white campion seeds. This increased consumption was thought to be due to a decrease i
Bei rund 20 Millionen Menschen in der Bundesrepublik, etwa einem Viertel der Bevölkerung, tickt eine Zeitbombe. Sie haben das, was Ärzte seit einigen Jahren als Stoffwechsel- bzw. metabolisches Syndrom bezeichnen. In den USA sind schätzungsweise 47 Millionen Menschen davon betroffen. Die Patienten haben eine Reihe verschiedener Erkrankungen, die sich gegenseitig hochschaukeln. Dazu zählen vor allem starkes Übergewicht (Adipositas), Bluthochdruck, Typ-2 Diabetes und Fettstoffwechselstörungen.
Treatments for mood and anxiety disorders are thought to work, in part, by helping patients control the stresses in their lives. A new study in rats by National Institutes of Health (NIH) grantees provides insight into the brain mechanisms likely involved. When it deems a stressor controllable, an executive hub in the front of the brain quells an alarm center deep in the brainstem, preventing the adverse behavioral and physiological effects of uncontrollable stress.
“It’s a
New research is shedding light on why estrogenic hormones produce unintended results in women, giving hope to the idea that new drugs might reach their targets and work more effectively. Ultimately it could mean that postmenopausal women would know that hormone-replacement therapy would have only its intended result.
“It’s very difficult right now for women to make a choice about taking estrogen or other estrogen-like compounds, and, I think, it’s equally difficult for
Firefly protein illuminates virus’ hunt of metastasized melanoma cells in live mouse
Camouflaging an impotent AIDS virus in new clothes enables it to hunt down metastasized melanoma cells in living mice, reports a UCLA AIDS Institute study in the Feb. 13 online edition of Nature Medicine. The scientists added the protein that makes fireflies glow to the virus in order to track its journey from the bloodstream to new tumors in the animals’ lungs. “For the past 20 years, g
A team of scientists led by Peer Bork, Ph.D., Senior Bioinformatics Scientist at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, report today in the journal Genome Research that they have identified a new primate-specific gene family that spans about 10% of human chromosome 2. Comprised of eight family members, the RGP gene cluster may help to explain what sets apart humans and other primates from the rest of the animal kingdom.
Human chromosome 2 has always intrigued primate biologist
A decision has now been taken on the grant that the EU’s Sixth Framework Programme is to provide for EICOSANOX, a major research project coordinated by Karolinska Institutet’s Professor Jesper Z. Haeggström. The project, which ranked highest in its category, is an Integrated Project (IP) and is to be allocated research funding of 10.7 million euro over the course of five years. A total of 15 research groups from six European nations will be merged into a very large multi-disciplinary consortiu
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have shown how the transplantation of stem cells improves recovery from spinal injury. However, a painful condition can also develop, which can be prevented if the stem cells are supplemented with a certain gene that controls their maturing process. The results are important for planning of stem cell therapy trials on patients with spinal injury.
Spinal injury confines some 150 Swedes a year to wheelchairs. The damage cause the loss of movement
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