To date epilepsy research has mainly concentrated on the transmission of the nerve cell signals to what are known as the synapses. However, recent observations by medical researchers from the US, France and the University of Bonn support the idea that in ’falling sickness’ the signal processing in the nerve cells (neurons) is altered: normally specific ion channels absorb the neuronal activity. In rats suffering from epilepsy, however, this signals brake seems impaired: they have far fewer functioni
The director of the Nanobioengineering Laboratory of the CREBEC and sub-director of the Parc Científic de Barcelona (PCB, Barcelona Science Park), Josep Samitier, will coordinate the research lines on the application of nanobiotechnologies for the differentiation of stem cells in the European project entitled CellPROM, the most funded project in the first call of the VI Framework Programme. Josep Samitier will preside the CellPROM Scientific Committee on Nanotechnologies and will join its Management
Competing theories about why brain cells die in Huntington’s disease may not be competitors after all, according to a report published July 23, 2004, in the online edition of the Annals of Neurology.
Researchers report finding minor molecular abnormalities of the sort proposed by these different theories in cells throughout the brain and even in the skin. Yet only select groups of cells in a few movement centers of the brain are so vulnerable to these disruptions that they degenerate a
A new gene mutation identified by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in Houston is part of the constellation of genes associated with susceptibility to developing type 1 diabetes. It could also play a role in the devastating complications of diabetes such as kidney failure.
The gene called SUMO-4 contributes a portion of the risk of getting this form of diabetes, which typically strikes youngsters, said Drs. David Owerbach, Kurt Bohren and Kenneth Gabbay. Owerbach and Bo
A protein characterized by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine plays an important role in communication between neurons. This protein is overactive (up-regulated) in children with Down’s Syndrome.
Identifying this protein – Dap160 — and its function is an important step in understanding how neurons communicate with one another, said Dr. Hugo Bellen, BCM professor of molecular and human genetics, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, and director of the program
Antibiotics can save lives. But the increasing occurrence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria presents a number of challenges for researchers in medicine.
Veterinary medicine is no exception and Dr. Elizabeth Davis, assistant professor of equine internal medicine at Kansas State University, is working to help improve alternative methods for combating infectious diseases in horses. “In veterinary medicine and medicine in general, we’re running out of antibiotics, so we have to be
A team of European researchers plans to perfect techniques for producing antibodies and vaccines, obtained from plants, to prevent and treat major human diseases, such as AIDS, rabies and TB. The idea is to use genetically modified (GM) crops eventually to produce plant-based pharmaceuticals. Pharma-Planta is a consortium of eleven European countries and South Africa which, thanks to €12 million in EU funding, plans to produce vaccines and other treatments for major diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, rab
EMBO fellowships extend eligibility criteria to promote equal opportunities
The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) today announced pioneering new eligibility criteria for its long-term and short-term fellowships. The new criteria cater for applicants with childcare commitments and scientists returning to work after a career break for childcare reasons. Further amendments aim to attract applicants from outside Europe and to encourage international mobility and collaborati
Researchers at the University of Dundee with colleagues at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine have discovered how the sand-fly spreads one of the world’s most serous tropical diseases – Leishmaniasis.
With reported British deaths due to the sand-fly bite, the researchers have worked out how the Leishmania parasite has manipulated the sand-fly as the perfect transmission system for itself.
This paper, to be published in Nature by Matt Rogers and Paul Bates from the Liverpool
New sources of computing power – derived from such novel areas as neuron-like cells and powerful chemical reactions – could form the heart of the next generation of computers. The University of the West of England and four research partners have just won £1.8 million in government funding to carry out research into computers that are inspired by nature. This means UWE is playing a key role in two out of only five nationally funded projects aimed at such exciting multidisciplinary research.
A biological process in plants, thought to be useless and even wasteful, has significant benefits and should not be engineered out — particularly in the face of looming climate change, says a team of UC Davis researchers.
The researchers have found that the process, photorespiration, is necessary for healthy plant growth and if impaired could inhibit plant growth, particularly as atmospheric carbon dioxide rises as it is globally. Their findings are published this week in the Proceedings
A University of California scientist working at Los Alamos National Laboratory with collaborators from the University of Cambridge (England) and the World Health Organization National Influenza Center at Erasmus Medical Center, (Rotterdam, Netherlands) have developed a computer modeling method for mapping the evolution of the influenza virus. The method could soon help medical researchers worldwide develop a better understanding of certain mutations in influenza and other viruses that allow diseases
West Nile virus has become a widespread human health concern, yet little attention is given to the grave situation facing certain wildlife species dying from the deadly disease, says a University of Alberta scientist. Cameron Aldridge is part of a research team to have shown that the West Nile Virus represents a significant new stressor on the sage-grouse—a species already on the endangered list in Canada and under current consideration for federal listing in the United States. “We don’t yet kn
Can doping athletes be stopped? With the Athens Olympics about to open, scientists are increasingly concerned that sophisticated techniques for evading drug tests will make it difficult for testers to catch athletes using steroids and other drugs, especially at future athletic competitions when genetic-based enhancements are expected to be prevalent.
In the August/September issue of Update, the magazine of the New York Academy of Sciences, writer Diane Kightlinger documents how advances in
Can a dose of Geritol (iron) really save them?
One might not think that our North Atlantic cod are taking their marching orders from the ghost of Genghis Khan but indeed they may well be. It is all about the story of dust in the wind. Here at the Planktos Foundation we have been working on this story of on how the oceans are being degraded by rising CO2. The key is the link between the oceans and land and the dependency the oceans have on dust born iron and other micro-nutrients. I
A research team at Aston University has received funding to try and develop an efficient vaccine for badgers against Tuberculosis (TB). Special algae beads could be used to deliver the vaccine to the animals.
In the UK, badgers are often infected with bovine Tuberculosis (TB) and there is evidence that they may be linked with TB infection in cattle, which has resulted in randomised badger culling since 1998. Obviously this isn’t the most humane way of dealing with the problem, so resear
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