In a study that could benefit medical and food-safety research, scientists have used comparative genomics tools to find clues about why some strains of the bacterium Campylobacter – which each year cause more than 400 million cases of gastrointestinal disease – are more virulent than others.
The study, which appears in the January 2005 issue of PLoS Biology, compares the complete genome sequences of two strains of Campylobacter jejuni – the species most often associated with h
The replenishment of missing neurons in the brain as a treatment for Parkinson disease reached the stage of human trials over 15 years ago, however the field is still in its infancy. Researchers from Kyoto University have now shown that dopamine-producing neurons (DA neurons) generated from monkey embryonic stem cells and transplanted into areas of the brain where these neurons have degenerated in a monkey model of Parkinson disease, can reverse parkinsonism. Their results appear in the January
Fox Chase Cancer Center researchers have made new discoveries that shed new light on the mystery of why human tissues, such as skin, age. The findings focus on the composition and assembly of key chromosomal protein complexes involved in shutting down reproduction of aging cells. The report by molecular and cell biologist Peter D. Adams, Ph.D. and his colleagues appears in the January 2005 issue of Developmental Cell.
“In the lab, aging cells are called senescent cells. Senesce
Using naturally-occurring mutant mice with a defective collagen gene, scientists at Harvard have identified a signaling molecule involved in one of the most common causes of disability among the elderly in the United States, osteoarthritis. Inhibitors of this molecule’s signaling may eventually be used to slow down the progression of the disease, thus helping to relieve chronic pain in a large segment of the population.
The research appears as the “Paper of the Week” in the
A recently developed mouse model of brain tumors common in the genetic disorder neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1) successfully mimics the human condition and provides unique insight into tumor development, diagnosis and treatment, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
After validating their animal model, the team made two important discoveries: New blood vessels and immune system cells may be essential to the initial formation of tumors and
Undergrad discovered natural form in venomous snails in 1979
The natural form of Prialt – a new drug for severe pain approved this week by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration – was discovered at the University of Utah in 1979 by an incoming freshman studying toxins produced by cone snails.
The student, J. Michael McIntosh, worked in the laboratory of University of Utah biologist Baldomero “Toto” Olivera, the summer before his freshman year as the result of a scholars
Shrubs have become more abundant in the Arctic over the past 30 years as air temperatures have increased, a change that is likely to affect the grazing of caribou and the communities that rely on them for food. According to an article in the January 2005 issue of BioScience, a variety of evidence now suggests that winter biological processes form a positive feedback mechanism that is contributing to the expansion of shrubs in the Arctic. The effect could have important implications for the global c
May help decipher regulator proteins’ roles in cell differentiation, cancer, and more
Finding out where gene-regulator proteins bind to DNA and identifying the genes they regulate just got a step easier thanks to a new technique developed by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory. The technique could greatly speed the process of unraveling the role these proteins play in turning on and off the genes that establish the very identity of cells —
An Oregon Health & Science University-led development of a technique for identifying control elements that drive the expression of genes in brain cells could unleash the disease-fighting potential of the much-hailed human genome.
Scientists at the OHSU Vollum Institute, which headed the multidisciplinary study appearing in the Dec. 29 edition of the journal Cell, are calling the approach a significant advance in understanding the genome. The Vollum’s director, Richard Goodman,
The genes that regulate brain development and function evolved much more rapidly in humans than in nonhuman primates and other mammals because of natural selection processes unique to the human lineage. Researchers reported their findings in the cover article of the Dec. 29, 2004, issue of the journal Cell.
“Humans evolved their cognitive abilities not due to a few accidental mutations, but rather, from an enormous number of mutations acquired though exceptionally intense sel
This week, researchers report new findings that elucidate the role of NOD2, a key molecular player in Crohn’s Disease, in the cellular signaling pathways that control inflammatory responses. NOD2’s clinical relevance is clear from the fact that it is encoded by a Crohn’s Disease susceptibility gene. Understanding NOD2 has posed a particularly intriguing challenge for researchers because it appears able to somehow both activate and inhibit inflammatory cytokine responses in the
Findings reported this week reveal how an evolutionary innovation involving the sharing of genes between two ant species has given rise to a deep-seated dependency between them for the survival of both species populations. The new work illustrates how genetic exchange through interbreeding between two species can give rise to a system of interdependence at a high level of biological organization–in this case, the production of worker ants for both species.
Millions of years befor
Ubiquitination protects against improper Notch signaling
The Notch pathway is an important molecular signaling mechanism whose existence has been known, or at least hinted at, for nearly a century since the identification of a mutant strain of Drosophila fruit flies with “notched” wings in Thomas Hunt Morgan’s lab in 1910. Later studies revealed that the Notch gene encodes a receptor protein that extends through both sides of the cell membrane and which is capable of interac
Genes that control the size and complexity of the brain have undergone much more rapid evolution in humans than in non-human primates or other mammals, according to a new study by Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers.
The accelerated evolution of these genes in the human lineage was apparently driven by strong selection. In the ancestors of humans, having bigger and more complex brains appears to have carried a particularly large advantage, much more so than for other ma
New study shows animals experience severe stress response at slightest contact with researchers
Mice, rabbits, rats, beagles, geese, and other animals all show measurable physiological stress responses to routine laboratory procedures that have been up until now viewed as relatively benign. The findings come in a new report published in Contemporary Topics in Laboratory Animal Science, based on an extensive review of the scientific literature by ethologist Jonathan Balcombe, Ph.
Scientists have identified genes that promote the growth and recurrence of skin cancer
Dr. Andrzej Dlugosz and colleagues at the University of Michigan and the National Cancer Institute have examined the functions of the Hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway in basal cell carcinoma, the most common form of cancer, and have uncovered a subset of tumor cells that are resistant to inhibition of the Hh pathway. This new finding has important implications for the treatment of this widesprea
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