Roughly 15 percent of the population carries a gene variant that may increase the risk of developing cancer. The cause of this increased risk has been unknown until now. But now a research team at Stockholm University in Sweden can explain why.

“The variant makes the cell motor sputter and mutate, so cancer can arise,” says Associate Professor Thomas Helleday, who leads the research team at the Department of Genetics, Microbiology, and Toxicology, Stockholm University.

Even thou

The glow emitted by a variety of sea coral helped Russian scientists harness the protein that generates the light to create a tiny fluorescent tag that responds to visible light. The two-color tag should help researchers follow individual proteins as they dart around inside living cells.

Under a microscope, the two-color tag—called Dendra because it is derived from the sea coral Dendronephthya—first shows up as a green glow, highlighting the otherwise invisible protein to which

Novel application of MRI leads to new tools for online dissection of preserved fishes

The same medical technology used to image brain tumors and torn knee ligaments is now taking the field of marine biology to a new dimension: anyone with Internet access will be able to look at fish as never before.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded researchers at the University of California at San Diego’s (UCSD) Keck Center for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Humans commonly use referential gestures that direct the attention of recipients to particular aspects of the environment. Because the recipient of a referential gesture must infer the signaler’s meaning, the use of these gestures has been linked with cognitive capacities such as the ability to recognize another individual’s mental state. Researchers have now found evidence that such referential gesturing is a natural part of chimpanzee behavior. The observations, which shed light on

Viruses are famous for evolving quickly, but the organisms they infect can’t be expected to sit idly by. There is now new evidence that animals in fact do an impressive job of keeping up in the ongoing evolutionary arms race between viruses and their hosts. Studying a special class of genes thought to have evolved in part as a defense system against viruses, researchers have found evidence that these genes are indeed among the fastest-evolving in the genome of the fruit fly, Drosophila.

Rutgers researchers have identified a gene – and the molecular function of its protein product – that provides an important clue to further understanding obesity and may point the way to new drugs to control fat metabolism.

The scientists found that the human protein known as lipin is a key fat-regulating enzyme. “Lipin activity may be an important pharmaceutical target for the control of body fat in humans, treating conditions that range from obesity to the loss of fat beneath

New research at the University of Liverpool suggests that environmental contaminants, such as pesticides, are more influential in causing cancer than previously thought.

Previous studies in cancer causation have often concluded that exposure to carcinogenic or endocrine-disrupting chemicals, for example, organochlorines (OC) – found in pesticides and plastics – occurs at concentrations that are too low to be considered a major factor in cancerous disease. Now new research at th

Scientists at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have helped to identify a molecule that can be used as a vaccination agent against growing cancer tumours. Although the results are so far based on animal experiments, they point to new methods of treating metastases.

The results are presented in the online edition of the prestigious scientific journal Nature Medicine, and represent the collaborative efforts of researchers at KI and Leiden University Medical Centre in Holland.

Scientists at the London School of Economics, UK and Simon Fraser University, Canada have described the first hypothesis grounded in evolutionary genomics explaining the development of autism.

In an article to be published in a forthcoming issue of Journal of Evolutionary Biology, Dr Christopher Badcock and Professor Bernard Crespi explore the ‘imprinted brain hypothesis’ to explain the cause and effect of autism and autistic syndromes such as Asperger’s syndrome, highlighted b

Could also protect against other intracellular bacterial pathogens

When bacterial pathogens attack the surface of a cell, vaccine-induced antibodies can mount a formidable defense and fend off the bad bugs. The trouble comes when antibodies cannot recognize the pathogen because the bacteria have infected the cell and are hidden, growing inside the cell’s wall.

To mount a defense against these cloaked attackers, Darren Higgins, Associate Professor of Microbiology at H

Infertility is a growing problem in our society. The number of embryo transfers performed in Europe (the last human-controlled step of the in-vitro fertilisation technique) increased by 8% between 1999 and 2003. Recent studies confirm this rising trend.

Despite the advances in IVF and other assisted reproduction technologies (ART), only 25% of embryo transfer attempts will lead to a successful pregnancy. In the remaining 75% of cases, the embryo fails to implant into the mo

A research team at Uppsala University has shown in a new study that the size of the spot on a collared flycatcher’s forehead is important in the choice of a mating partner and reflects how well the immune defense system combats viruses. The findings are being presented on the home page of the journal Acta Zoologica on March 18 and in the print edition on March 20.

Evolutionary biologists have long attempted to explain why individuals of a species differ in appearance and why

Researchers at Purdue University have shown how a new ultra-fast chemical-analysis tool has numerous promising uses for detecting everything from cancer in the liver to explosives residues on luggage and “biomarkers” in urine that provide an early warning for diseases.

The analytical chemists have most recently demonstrated how the technology, called desorption electrospray ionization, or DESI, rapidly detects the boundaries of cancerous tumors, information that could help ens

Forget about buckets. Most maple syrup is now made with an assortment of machines and tubes so complex that some sugarmakers call their final product “technosyrup.” Chat with a few of them, boiling sap one evening, and you’re likely to hear debate about reverse osmosis sap extractors, “steam-away” units and air injectors. They’ll all agree that today’s maple syrup is produced more quickly than it was a generation ago, and many will argue that the new devices produce a syrup finer in quality — th

Vulnerability to both alcohol and nicotine abuse may be influenced by the same genetic factor, according to a recent study supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

In the study, two genetically distinct kinds of rat – one an innately heavy-drinking strain bred to prefer alcohol (“P” rats), the other strain bred to not prefer alcohol (“NP” rats) — learned to give themselves nicotine injections

Scientists at Stanford University have determined that the buildup of sticky mucus found in cystic fibrosis is caused by a loss in the epithelial cell’s ability to secrete fluid. This research appears as the “Paper of the Week” in the March 17 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, an American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology journal.

Cystic fibrosis is the most common, fatal genetic disease in the United States. It causes the body to produce thick, sticky mucus