Yerkes-based finding may help researchers develop sex-specific therapies for humans to guard against age-related memory loss
When it comes to aging, women may have another reason to be thankful. Research conducted in nonhuman primates at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University shows male nonhuman primates are more susceptible to age-related cognitive decline. The February issue of Behavioral Neuroscience reports this finding, which the researchers say has imp
A little-studied outcome of animal migration is whether these long journeys can limit the spread of parasites by weeding out diseased animals. Monarch butterflies in eastern North America fly up to thousands of kilometers from Canada to Central Mexico – one of the longest migrations of any insect species.
Emory University researchers found that monarchs infected with a protozoan parasite fly slower, tire out faster and expend more energy flying than healthy monarchs. These result
A project to create a common platform throughout Europe for researchers working in the field of ‘biological crystallography’ is underway thanks to a grant of 10 million euros from the EU’s 6th Framework Programme (FP6).
The BIOXHIT (Biocrystallography on a Highly Integrated Technology Platform) project plans to integrate and further develop the best of current technologies at major European centres for research in structural biology. It will then weave them into a single standardis
A steroid hormone released during the metabolism of progesterone, the female sex hormone, reduces the brain’s response to stress, according to research in rats by scientists at Emory University School of Medicine, the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Atlanta’s Center for Behavioral Neuroscience. The scientists found evidence that the progesterone metabolite allopregnanolone reduces the brain’s response to corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), a peptide hormone that play
Uncharted area of umbilical cord offers hope
University of Toronto researchers have discovered an ample source of stem cells in an uncharted part of the umbilical cord, providing new hope for bone marrow transplants and tissue repair.
The study, published in the February issue of Stem Cells, outlines how researchers discovered that the jelly-like connective tissue surrounding the blood vessels of the human umbilical cord, the so-called “Wharton’s Jelly,” is rich in me
An international team of scientists has used gene therapy in two separate studies to renew brain cells and restore normal movements in monkeys and rats with a drug-induced form of Parkinson’s disease.
The research, detailed online in the scientific publications Brain and The Journal of Neuroscience, essentially describes one strategy to halt Parkinson’s disease at its onset and another strategy to treat the devastating side effects that occur when treating the d
Ancient wisdom, technological savvy
Researchers at the University of Washington have blended the past with the present in the fight against cancer, synthesizing a promising new compound from an ancient Chinese remedy that uses cancer cells’ rapacious appetite for iron to make them a target.
The substance, artemisinin, is derived from the wormwood plant and has been used in China since ancient times to treat malaria. Earlier work by Henry Lai and Narendra Singh, both UW
From person to piranha to petunia, it’s pretty easy to spot different species in the human-scale part of the plant and animal kingdoms. But a new study shows that species differences aren’t so clear, at least as currently measured, when it comes to microscopic bacteria.
MSU researchers have spotted significant differences in genetic libraries among thought-to-be similar bacteria strains. The results, published this week in the journal the Proceedings of the National
University of Rochester scientists investigating the link between PCBs, pesticides and Parkinson’s disease demonstrated new and intricate reactions that occur in certain brain cells, making them more vulnerable to injury after exposures.
In two papers published in the journal NeuroToxicology (Dec. 2004 and Feb. 2005), the group describes how polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) disrupt dopamine neurons, which are the cells that degenerate during the course of Parkinson’s disease. Re
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) want to attract some of the world’s most promising scientists to Central Europe. To help them establish their first independent laboratories there, the organizations are launching the EMBO/HHMI Startup Grants – three-year awards of $75,000 U.S. annually. The new scheme was announced at the EMBO/HHMI Meeting of Central European Scientists in Budapest, Hungary.
The EMBO/HHMI Startup
Regulating metabolism of fat is an important challenge for any animal, from nematodes to humans. Central players in the regulatory network are the nuclear hormone receptors (NHRs), which are transcription factors that turn on or off a set of target genes when bound by specific lipid molecules. In the premier open-access journal PLoS Biology, Keith Yamamoto and colleagues show that the nuclear hormone receptor nhr-49 controls two different aspects of fat metabolism, which interact to form a f
With new model, researchers fish for answers
Researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have found an important clue about the origins of the deadly skin cancer melanoma. Using black-and-white-striped zebrafish to model human melanoma, they showed that a specific mutation in a gene called BRAF is critical to the development of moles, and when combined with a separate mutation, leads to cancer. Their findings appear in the February 8th issu
St. Jude study shows the level of this DNA in the blood appears to directly reflect the ability of the transplant recipient’s thymus gland to process donated stem cells and turn them into effective T cells
Measuring the quantity of a certain type of immune cell DNA in the blood could help physicians predict whether a bone marrow stem cell transplant will successfully restore a population of infection-fighting cells called T lymphocytes in a child. This research, by investigators
The opportunity to annotate the genome of the glow-in-the-dark bacterium, Vibrio fischeri, which lives in symbiotic harmony within the light organ of the bobtail squid, has helped a Virginia Tech microbiologist advance her research on quorum sensing, or how cells communicate and function as a community.
Researchers studying the newly sequenced genome of the marine bacterium V. fischeri, described this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), have so f
Findings could lead to new treatment based on individual genetic profiles
Children who suffer from acute asthma attacks share a genetic profile that appears to be unique to these children, according to a new study by researchers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. The discovery opens the door to the possibility of designing treatments specifically tailored to children who suffer from the severest forms of asthma. The findings appear in the Feb. 10 issue of
Nano-sized particles embedded with bright, light-emitting molecules have enabled researchers to visualize a tumor more than one centimeter below the skin surface using only infrared light. A team of chemists, bioengineers and medical researchers based at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Minnesota has lodged fluorescent materials called porphyrins within the surface of a polymersome, a cell-like vesicle, to image a tumor within a living rodent. Their findings, which represent
Feedback
