Ohio State University engineers and their colleagues have successfully automated a particular medical test on a compact disc (CD) for the first time — and in a fraction of the normal time required using conventional equipment.
The ELISA biochemical test — one of the most widely used clinical, food safety, and environmental tests — normally takes hours or even days to perform manually. Using a specially designed CD, engineers performed the test automatically, and in only one hour.
A study of more than 2000 children of women with gestational diabetes (the diabetes that some women get during pregnancy) has revealed that obesity in mothers is one of the most decisive factors contributing to the appearance of congenital malformations in their children, even more so than the seriousness of the diabetes. The research, published in the european journal Diabetologia, has been carried out by a research team from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and Hospital de Sant Pau in Barcelo
A team of researchers from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) has discovered that transposons, small DNA sequences that travel through the genomes, can silence the genes adjacent to them by inducing a molecule called antisense RNA. This is a new mechanism for evolution that has been unknown until now. The research has been recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Transposons are repeated DNA sequences that move through the genomes. For a l
Determining exactly how proteins connect with specific DNA sequences in human cells has eluded researchers and scientists for years. While it has been possible to record the speed at which a protein could bond with DNA, little was known about how proteins located and connected with a specific pattern of DNA to allow genes to express themselves in the form of traits such as facial appearance, hair and eye color or behaviors.
In the July 16 issue of the journal Science, Rutgers-Newark chemi
Cinnamon oil shows promise as a great-smelling, environmentally friendly pesticide, with the ability to kill mosquito larvae, according to a new study published in the July 14 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.
The researchers also expect that cinnamon oil could be a good mosquito repellant, though they have not yet tested it against adult mosquitoes.
Besides bein
Autoimmune diseases are quite complex and this is due to the fact that these illnesses do not depend on just one gene. Thus, in order to find a suitable treatment, it is not enough to identify a gene involved in the development of the disease – each and every one has to be identified. To this end, a number of strategies have been design; for example, many geneticists have begun to analyse the genetic differences between healthy individuals and ill ones. A team at the Leioa campus of the University
Using a combination of therapies and cell grafts, a team of University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine researchers has promoted significant regeneration of nerve cells in rats with spinal cord injury.
The therapeutic approach successfully stimulated new nerve fibers called axons to grow and extend well beyond the site of the injury into surrounding tissue, following surgically induced spinal cord damage.
These results prove that combinational therapy can promot
A tarantula venom peptide, GsMTx4, known to affect many organs, can be manipulated to withstand destruction in the stomach, making it a promising candidate for drugs that could treat cardiac arrhythmias, muscular dystrophy and many other conditions, University at Buffalo biophysicists have shown.
Moreover, the peptide, which is amphiphilic — meaning fat-soluble on one side and water-soluble on the other, much like a detergent — affects mechanically sensitive ion channels in membranes in a
Despite challenging obstacles, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration views plant-made pharmaceuticals as a highly promising means of building and securing the world’s drug supply, said FDA Acting Commissioner Lester Crawford at the Institute of Food Technologists Annual Meeting and Food Expo here this week.
Speaking at a special forum on the topic Tuesday, Crawford explained that the FDA is working closely with the USDA’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Service to monitor and keep isolated p
By studying rodent models of the relatively rare inherited form of Lou Gehrig’s disease and tissue samples from a patient with the condition, scientists have discovered the first evidence that damage to nerve cell powerhouses is directly responsible for these cells’ death. The findings appear in the July 9 issue of Neuron.
The research team from the University of California San Diego, Johns Hopkins and elsewhere discovered that dysfunctional proteins clog the transport system that
EMBL and partners begin MitoCheck, a multinational research project on cell cycle regulation
Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) join forces with top scientists from eleven research institutes in Austria, Germany, Italy, France and the United Kingdom for “MitoCheck” – the largest integrated research project on cell cycle control within the European Commission’s 6th Framework Programme (FP6). The partners will receive an 8.5 million Euro grant to address a
Perhaps the most commonly mutated of all cancer-linked genes is the gene for a tumor suppressor called p53. Scientists estimate that at least half of human cancers involve mutant p53. In the course of performing its regular duties, the normal p53 protein binds to DNA, and a number of cancer-linked p53 mutations affect the DNA-binding region of the p53 protein.
But precisely how does the p53 protein bind to DNA? Since DNA binding is crucial to the protein’s usual function, the answer to thi
Canine genome available now to research community worldwide
The first draft of the dog genome sequence has been deposited into free public databases for use by biomedical and veterinary researchers around the globe, the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), announced today.
A team led by Kerstin Lindblad-Toh, Ph.D., of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Mass., and Agencourt Bioscience Corp., Beverl
Adult stem cells in the brains of mice possess a broader differentiation potential than previously thought and may be capable of developing into other cell types including those involved in the formation of new blood vessels, according to a new study supported by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), a part of the National Institutes of Health. The finding could help resolve a critical question about these promising, but still mystifying cells. The report by Fred H. Gage, Ph.D., and colleagues at t
An Oregon Health & Science University research team has uncovered a novel form of transmission between neurons in the brain that is mediated by dopamine. The neurons are found in parts of the brain associated with movement, substance abuse and mental disorders.
Scientists at the Vollum Institute, OHSU School of Medicine, reported in a study published in the journal Neuron that the neurotransmitter dopamine is released from midbrain nerve cells in a much more precise, targeted manner than previo
Researchers seeking to direct cancer-killing immune cells against the deadliest brain tumors have three new targets that show promise in laboratory studies and in a Phase I patient trial, according to two articles in the July 15 issue of the journal Cancer Research.
The antigens, previously associated with several other types of cancer cells, were recently found to be expressed in the most common and aggressive type of malignant brain tumor, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Scientists at Ce
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