Stem cell transplants have become the standard of care for Patients with relapsed lymphoma, but not for Patients who suffer from both this disease and HIV. A new study showing that this treatment is a viable option for select Patients with HIV-associated lymphoma will be published in the January 15, 2005, issue of Blood, the official journal of the American Society of Hematology.
Because of the immunodeficiency associated with HIV, HIV-positive Patients are more likely to deve
They’re the third type of mammal shown to have this skill
Mammals other than humans can distinguish between different speech patterns. Neuroscientists in Barcelona report that rats, like humans (newborn and adult) and Tamarin monkeys, can extract regular patterns in language from speech (prosodic) cues. The report appears in the January issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, which is published by the American Psychological Association.
Salton Sea find shares ’gene-jumping’ history with its oceanic relatives
Scientists at the University of Oregon have discovered a form of blue-green algae that lives independently in California’s Salton Sea, using near-infrared light for photosynthesis, according to an article published in this week’s online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
“This new strain of Acaryochloris is unique because it is able to live on its own,” says UO
Groundbreaking research project may help boost vaccine development
In an innovative project with implications for malaria vaccine development, scientists have used genomics, proteomics and gene expression studies to trace how malaria parasites evolve on a molecular level as they move between their hosts and insect vectors.
That focus on the parasites’ complex life cycle is helping researchers understand when different genes switch on and off as the pathogens metamorphose th
COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) is one of the most common fatal diseases worldwide. In Germany alone, there are about 3-5 million patients affected. COPD includes both chronic obstructive bronchitis and emphysema. Both represent irreversible changes of the central and lower respiratory tract which are accompanied by coughing, mucus production and difficulty in breathing.
The increased production of mucus is induced by the immigration of neutrophilic granulocytes a
Holoprosencephaly (HPE) is the most common developmental forebrain anomaly in humans and is caused by the failure of the embryonic forebrain (the prosencephalon) to sufficiently divide into the two lobes of the cerebral hemispheres. The result is a single-lobed brain structure and severe skull and facial defects. About 1 in 250 pregnancies miscarries as a result of severe HPE. In less severe cases, about one in 16,000 babies is born with minor brain developmental and facial deformities that may
Winter colds can give you a blocked up nose that stops you smelling chimney smoke, roasting chestnuts, warming winter puddings and the other seasonal scents. Now researchers funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have not only discovered how air moves through the nose bringing you those smells but their work may lead to new ways of unblocking it and helping you to breathe more easily. They have even found that the airflow through the human nose is more compli
Mums to be have known for some time that what they eat when pregnant affects their unborn child but now scientists believe that the diet of our mothers during pregnancy may even affect our predisposition to illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure in late life.
Studies with animals have shown a link between diet and the life long health of offspring but experiments with pregnant women or unborn children is clearly not possible. Researchers funded by the B
Chemical byproducts of dry cleaning and silicon chip production are dechlorinated by the microbe dehalococcoides ethenogenes
Scientists have deciphered the genome sequence of a microbe that can be used to clean up pollution by chlorinated solvents – a major category of groundwater contaminants that are often left as byproducts of dry cleaning or industrial production.
The study of the DNA sequence of Dehalococcoides ethenogenes, which appears in the January 7 issue of Scien
People with more copies of a gene that helps to fight HIV are less likely to become infected with the virus or to develop AIDS than those of the same geographical ancestry, such as European Americans, who have fewer copies of the gene, according to a study funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The findings help to explain why some people are more prone to HIV/AIDS than others.
Scientists beli
The explosion of data from microbial genome sequencing has sparked intense new interest in the field of systems microbiology. Systems microbiology treats microorganisms or microbial communities as a whole, integrating fundamental biological knowledge with genomics and other data to create an integrated picture of how a microbial cell or community operates.
According to a new report, “Systems Microbiology: Beyond Microbial Genomics,” released by the American Academy of Microbio
Scientists are taking the first steps to find out how a gene that is mutated in many cancer cells functions in healthy cells.
The researchers hope that learning how this gene, called Rb, operates in health cells will give them a better idea of how cancer develops and progresses. While mutations in Rb, are linked to several types of cancer including the childhood disease retinoblastoma, Rb normally keeps cell division in check. That means Rb is a tumor suppressor gene, which keeps
Discovery in Texas has medical implications
It was a transforming moment. Researchers could barely believe their eyes. A molecular blob of a protein reshaped itself into a molecular Pacman in order to free new viruses from the inside of a bacterial cell. It’s the sort of thing where your graduate student tells you the results of an experiment and you say, ’You must have made a mistake,’ said Dr. Ryland Young, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station biochemist. But then, a good scie
It is now significantly easier to search long stretches of DNA for genetic changes associated with disease, thanks to scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
The researchers developed a method called direct genomic selection that accelerates the transition between family or population-based studies of disease inheritance patterns and identification of genetic variations that may contribute to disease. That transition normally slows down dramatically wh
University of Florida stem cell scientists reported today (Jan. 3) that they have prevented blindness in mice afflicted with a condition similar to one that robs thousands of diabetic Americans of their eyesight each year.
Writing in the current issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers describe for the first time the link between a protein known as SDF-1 and retinopathy, a complication of diabetes and the leading cause of blindness in working-age Americans.
Peter W. Atkinson, a University of California, Riverside professor of entomology and member of the university’s Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, is part of a team that has linked the movement of small pieces of DNA, known as transposable elements, to a process called V(D)J recombination that produces the genetic diversity responsible for the production of antibodies. This will help scientists understand the mixing and matching of DNA in organisms and the role this mixing plays in healthy
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