Researchers have identified a new way to promote recovery after spinal cord injury with an advance in stem-cell technology. A study conducted by members of the New York State Center of Research Excellence in Spinal Cord Injury and published today in the open access journal Journal of Biology reveals that rats recover from spinal cord injury following transplantation with immature support cells of the central nervous system generated from stem cells. Transplanting immature support cells called astro

Biophysicists at the Institut Curie/CNRS, in collaboration with CNRS and University Pierre et Marie Curie physicists and biologists, have just demonstrated the remarkable elasticity of chromatin, the DNA-protein complex that makes up the chromosomes. Observed by nanomanipulation of individual DNA molecules, this resilience facilitates the work of the enzymes that “read” the genetic material and of those that repair it if damaged. When alterations – mutations – remain in the DNA, there is a risk that

The neurons in the central nervous system (CNS) are reported to have a previously unknown ability to regulate the immune system and suppress inflammatory conditions of the CNS.

This was published by scientists at Lund University in Sweden in an article in the journal of Nature Medicine. This pioneering discovery paves the way for future therapeutic targets for inflammatory and degenerative diseases of CNS like multiple sclerosis (MS), Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s.

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The European starling – long known as a virtuoso songbird and as an expert mimic too – may also soon gain a reputation as something of a “grammar-marm.” This three-ounce bird, new research shows, can learn syntactic patterns formerly thought to be the exclusive province of humans.

Led by Timothy Q. Gentner, assistant professor of psychology at the University of California, San Diego, a study published in the April 27 issue of Nature demonstrates that starlings have the capaci

New animal studies conducted at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies show that the only human gene therapy treatment to date considered to be largely successful, is, in fact, riskier than realized.

The Salk researchers, led by Inder Verma, Ph.D., a professor in the Laboratory of Genetics, discovered that the healthy copy, which replaces the defective gene can itself promote cancer development. Their findings appear in this week’s issue of the journal Nature.

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A study led by UCL (University College London) scientists has designed a new drug that inhibits the adverse effects of C reactive protein (CRP), a protein that contributes to tissue damage in heart attacks and strokes. The findings, published in the journal Nature, suggest that targeting CRP may produce both immediate and long-term clinical benefits following a heart attack.

CRP is normally present at trace levels in the blood but its concentration increases sharply in almost all diseas

Researchers have predicted how effective public health and medical interventions will prove in the event of an influenza pandemic.

The letter published today in Nature shows how the team from Imperial College London, John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and RTI International used computer modelling to predict how a variety of interventions, including travel restrictions, school closures and antiviral treatment, would affect the spread of flu.

Professor Neil Fer

Aston University in Birmingham, UK has announced a new and unique course specifically for audiologists and other NHS workers. Comprising of six workshops, the course will begin on 4 May 2006. It is the only one of its kind that specifically teaches practitioners how to use new cognitive techniques on patients with the hearing deficiency, tinnitus.

Within the UK tinnitus is a relatively common condition, affecting approximately five per cent of the adult population. The most common sym

Henar Hevia Pérez, researcher in the area of Genic Therapy and Hepatology at the Applied Medicine Research Centre (CIMA)of the University of Navarra, has discovered the protective role of the methylthioadenosine (MTA) molecule in an in vivo inflammation model. The doctor has recently defended her PhD thesis at the Faculty of Sciences.

According to the biochemist, the inflammatory component is key in the development of many diseases, including those affecting the liver and, therefore, of

A research group of the Animal Nutrition Unit at Zaidín Experimental Station, which is owned by the Higher Board of Scientific Research, located in Armilla (Granada), have demonstrated that leguminous plants can have beneficial effects on the body. Amongst others, eating these foods can reduce the probability of suffering cancer of the colon, as they reduce the replication ratio of tumour cells.

In collaboration with scientists at Milan University, who had already demonstrated the ben

Scientists of the University of Jaen, members of the ‘Peptides and peptidases’ research group of the Faculty of Experimental Sciences, are working on the protective effects exerted by olive oil on an animal model of diabetes and on the role of the different components of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (SRAA). This is the first study of its kind that is carried out in Spain.

Diabetes is one of the world’s most serious health problems. This chronic disease occurs when the pancrea

New research shows how topping up the levels of a hormone found in the gut could help reduce the appetite and increase activity in overweight and obese people.

The study now being pre-published online in the International Journal of Obesity shows how the team from Imperial College London gave injections of oxyntomodulin to fifteen overweight but healthy volunteers from Hammersmith Hospital, and monitored how this affected their food intake, and levels of activity.

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Gene regulation is a major issue in biology – how are different genes activated in different tissues or at different times in life, and how and which genes interact with each other? A major breakthrough in the understanding of this issue is about to be published in the scientific journal “PLoS Biology” by Miguel R. Branco and Ana Pombo, two Portuguese scientists at the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre, Imperial College London, UK. The two scientists show that chromosomes in the nucleus of metabolical

The Nowgen Centre, the new multi-million pound, Manchester-based centre for genetics in healthcare and home of the North West Genetics Knowledge Park, will be officially opened on 25 April by Dr John Stageman, Vice President for Global Sciences and Information at AstraZeneca.

The Centre, which cost £4 million, has been jointly funded by the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The Nowgen project is a collaboration betw

The researchers at the University of Helsinki, Finland, and University Hospital of Bonn, Germany, have coined the novel term “Bioportfolio” to describe viral genomic material remaining in the human body after infection. Using human erythrovirus as the example, the authors have demonstrated that viral genomic material persisting in the human body yields valuable information on viral phylogeny and on molecular epidemiology of infection.

Although these results are of greatest interest to th

Animal study shows promise for treatment of Alport syndrome

The discovery that bone-marrow derived stem cells can regenerate damaged renal cells in an animal model of Alport syndrome provides a potential new strategy for managing this inherited kidney disease and offers the first example of how stem cells may be useful in repairing basement membrane matrix defects and restoring organ function.

Led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), the findi