Neuroscientists at Jefferson Medical College have shown for the first time that low levels of lead have a profound effect on the growth and development of embryonic stem cells.
According to Jay Schneider, Ph.D., professor of neurology, pathology, anatomy and cell biology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, researchers have known for years the potentially devastating effects of even low levels of lead exposure on the cognitive abilities of children. Lead exposure is
A team of researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder is developing a “Flu Chip” that will aid physicians in swiftly diagnosing respiratory illness for future flu seasons.
The Flu Chip will allow doctors and public health officials to differentiate between three types of influenza and other viruses that cause similar clinical symptoms, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.
The CU team, led by Professor Kathy Rowlen and co-principal investigator and Associate
While examining the flight behavior of flesh flies, Cornell University entomologists have discovered that males of the species (Sarcophagidae: Neobellieria bullata ) — traveling at very high speed, soaring in sexual pursuit and swiveling their heads like gun turrets — literally can lose sight of a target female. Yet the males compensate for the momentary loss of vision and still catch up to mate.
A detailed explanation of this quirk in vision physiology and neurological processing could h
With the sequence of the human genome largely in hand and the majority of genes now available for study, scientists have increasingly turned their attention to better understanding the process of gene regulation. How is a gene turned on? How is a gene turned off? Estimates are that only one in ten genes is active in a given cell at a given time, so these questions are biologically significant. And in many ways, health turns on the appropriate and reliable control of genes. An array of disease conditi
A newly discovered mechanism by which an infectious fungus evades the immune system could lead to novel methods to fight the fungus and other disease-causing microbes, according to Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators at Duke University Medical Center.
Disruption of a key enzyme in the fungus Cryptococcus neoformans — a common cause of infection of the central nervous system in patients such as organ transplant recipients who lack a functioning immune system — led to a significan
Alistair Lees spends much of his research time hoping to see the light.
Using tools that improve by several orders of magnitude on the accuracy of microscopes and stopwatches, Lees is working at the molecular level to explore the effect of light on chemical systems. The field is called photochemistry and Lees’ efforts could help to find less-expensive ways to produce gasoline, make the environment cleaner and safer, and enhance the quality of microcircuitry and the equipment that re
Pesticides attack same cellular targets as rotenone – already implicated in Parkinson’s disease
Scientists at Emory University School of Medicine have found in laboratory experiments that several commonly used pesticides are just as toxic or even more toxic to the mitochondria of cells than the pesticide rotenone, which already has been implicated in the development of Parkinson’s disease. The Emory neurologists, led by Tim Greenamyre, MD, PhD and Todd B. Sherer, PhD, will p
Scientists at Emory University School of Medicine were able to enhance significantly the re-growth of damaged peripheral nerves in mice by treating them with enzymes that counteracted a growth-blocking mechanism. The research offers the potential for improving functional recovery after peripheral nerve injuries. The Emory scientists were led by Arthur English, PhD, professor of cell biology, with faculty colleagues Robert McKeon, PhD and Erica Werner, PhD and former Emory student M.L. Groves. Results
Scientists are closing in on genetic contributors to high blood pressure and other causes of heart and cardiovascular disease. At the American Society for Human Genetics annual meeting in Los Angeles, Hopkins research associate Yen-Pei Christy Chang, Ph.D., will present evidence that a region of chromosome 1 is involved in appropriately regulating blood pressure. Her talk is scheduled for 10:15 a.m., Saturday, Nov. 8.
The scientists conducted a genome-wide analysis of 1,875 people in 585 fa
Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, have documented what they are calling possibly the most extreme case of animal structure elongation documented to date.
In a paper published in the November 6 issue of the journal Nature, Suzanne Dufour and Horst Felbeck show that a clam from a certain species can extend its foot (clams have only one foot) up to 30 times the length of its shell to reach chemicals in marine sediment necessary for th
In the animal world, it’s common for females to mate with several males during one and the same reproductive period. This leads to sperm competition, that is, sperm from several different males compete to fertilize the egg at the same time.
The most common response to increased sperm competition is for males to increase the number of sperm cells to inseminate a female with. Since males’ sperm reserves are not unlimited, males should be economical in using their sperm resources. Therefore, a
Despite the rich knowledge scientists now have of the genes that constitute the human genome, researchers have yet to unravel the precise choreography by which they work – or malfunction – together in the cell in response to triggers from the outside world.
“There is a code we need to understand to determine what happens to a cell under many different conditions, and ultimately to make predictions of how an entire genome is regulated,” explains Julia Zeitlinger, a postdoctoral associate at
While the medical community has been exploring the use of bacteriophages, a form of virus that can be used to manage bacteria that have become resistant to antibiotics, plant pathologists with the American Phytopathological Society (APS) now say that this same approach may also help fight plant disease.
According to Jason Gill, a phage researcher at the University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, phages have been proposed as plant-pathogen control agents in a process known as phage therapy–the
The Monty Python song was right: every sperm is sacred – if you’re living in the promiscuous world of chickens that is. Scientists studying the evolution of reproductive behaviour have shown that cockerels use sophisticated strategies to maximise reproductive return from limited sperm reserves.
University of Leeds researcher Dr. Tom Pizzari said: “When females are promiscuous, several males inseminate the same female, and their ejaculates compete inside the hen. This is ‘sperm competition’,
Cognitive abilities are influenced by an interplay of genes and environment. With regard to the genetic component, multiple genes are assumed to be responsible for interindividual variation in cognitive abilities. Despite tremulous progress in molecular genetics, little is known about specific genes that contribute to this complex behavior. In an attempt to further delineate the genetic component of cognitive abilities, the authors investigated the relationship between a genetic variation in the prio
Mayo Clinic researchers have identified a genetic syndrome — an inherited birth disorder characterized by learning disabilities, facial malformations, impaired organs and mental retardation. It has been previously misdiagnosed or undiagnosed.
Researchers also discovered the syndrome’s genetic basis: a rearrangement of DNA called “microduplication.” When microduplication occurs, DNA segments are repeated and this causes a surplus of genes. Microduplication is a little-studied mec
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