The initial excitement from sightings of at least one 17 – 18 foot northern bottlenose whale in the Thames in London turned to drama as the animal continued to be sighted and finally stranded. Emma Webb, a senior researcher from the Biscay Dolphin Research Programme (BDRP) and a volunteer marine medic for the British Divers Marine Life Rescue Service (BDMLR) was on site participating with the rescue attempt.

Following an update from BDMLR headquarters regarding two nocturnal strand

An EU funded Specific Targeted Research Project (STREP) entitled “Tumor-Host Genomics” has been launched at the University of Helsinki, Finland. The Tumor-Host Genomics project links together the resources of five European leading-edge laboratories studying major signaling pathways in mesenchymal and hematopoietic cells, forming a concerted effort to understand tumor-host interactions, and to identify novel therapeutic targets.

The European Union will fund the project with a tota

Aston Academy of Life Sciences, the clinical research hospital of Aston University, has recently been commissioned to assess the efficacy and safety of a specialist drug, Posurdex (Allergan Ltd, UK), which is used in the treatment of patients who suffer from a sight threatening condition, called macular oedema.

It is estimated that the condition, which is caused by occlusion (blockage) of the central or branch retinal veins in the eye, affects over two and a half million people w

The treatment of inflammatory bowel disease, which includes Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, has very high costs and can include admissions and surgical interventions. Until now, there was no precise tools to predict the evolution and prognosis of these diseases. A new biochip, IBDchip, (Inflammatory Bowel Disease DNA Chip) is a pioneering programme which has the aim to have a direct influence in the quality of life of patients.

This chip has been created by the biotechnology

Ever since the advent of recombinant-DNA technology, scientists have conceived that it will be feasible to create entirely new enzymes for specific needs. In an article in today’s issue of the journal Science, researchers from Uppsala and Korea present concrete proof of this. They have succeeded in converting an enzyme involved in normal human metabolism into an enzyme that is custom-designed to break down a specific substance, cefotaxime.

“The product in this case is not the

Cataracts are a leading cause of blindness worldwide. Using a rat model of cataract formation, Masayuki Mori and researchers at Shinshu University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan have now found a link between cataracts and cholesterol.

The study, appearing online on January 26 in advance of print publication in the February 2006 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation reports that a primary genetic defect in cataractogenesis is combined mutation of the lanosterol synthase

Two studies in the Jan. 27, 2006 Cell have yielded evidence that could prove a boon for stem cell therapies aimed at patients with Parkinson’s disease and those with compromised immune systems due to intensive cancer therapy or autoimmune disease, according to researchers. The basic findings in mice revealed critical factors that determine the fate of one type of nerve cell progenitor and that set bone marrow stem cells into action.

Researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden

Finding the variants that human history has favoured

Sequence differences in less than 0.2% of the 3-billion-base human genome play a vital role in a bewildering variety of human disease. Today, researchers from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the Cambridge University’s Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, together with international colleagues report in PLoS Genetics their detailed maps of differences implicated in disease as well as genes that are unchanged in r

A new cellular pathway leads to destruction of a protein that promotes growth of breast, prostate and similar cancers and could provide a new avenue through which to pursue treatment of such diseases, said a researcher at Baylor College of Medicine.

“It is another intervention point where one can now attack tumors. It’s especially important for endocrine tumors such as those of the breast, prostate, ovary and pituitary gland,” said Dr. Bert O’Malley, chair of the BCM

Fingerprints are usually used to identify people but, this time, they gave Penn State chemical engineers the crucial clue needed to discover an easy, versatile new method for making nanofibers that have potential uses in advanced filtration as well as wound care, drug delivery, bioassays and other medical applications.

The new technique is based on the way forensic scientists develop fingerprints from a crime scene and is easier and more versatile than either of the current met

Could help explain why women who have mutations in their BRCA1 gene are susceptible to ’hormone-dependent’ cancers including breast, endometrial and cervical cancers

It’s been known that the breast cancer susceptibility gene BRCA1 regulates use of estrogen in breast and other cells, but now researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center have discovered that it also controls activity of a second sex steroid hormone, progesterone.

The findings, conduct

Scientists use genomics to reveal secrets of ocean microbes

Scientists have sequenced and compared the genomes of planktonic microbes living throughout the water column in the Pacific Ocean. The pioneering study yielded insight into the specialization of microbial communities at each depth–ranging from 40 to more than 13,000 feet.

“By reading the information stored in the genomes of entire microbial communities, we can begin to measure the pulse of this marine ecosys

New research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine has identified a protein that may control blood clotting by keeping blood platelets from sticking together.

Uncontrolled interactions between blood platelets such as those that occur during heart attacks and strokes contribute to these leading causes of death nationwide.

The study, which appears in the Jan. 17 edition of the Journal of Cell Biology, indicates that CIB1 binds to and keeps t

Implications for treating Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy

In a surprising discovery with implications for treating muscular dystrophy, researchers at the University of Utah School of Medicine and other institutions have identified a major source of origin for two groups of adult cells that regulate muscle repair.
The researchers found that these muscle repair cells, satellite and side population (SP) cells, arise from somites–transient blocks of tissue in the embryo that give ri

The Danone Institute has provided a fellowship for basic research to Ana Antón Solanas, a research assistant in the Dietetics and Diet Therapy Unit of the University of Navarra. With the help of this fellowship, the researcher will collaborate in a program for defining individualized treatments for each type of obesity.

The grant will finance her participation in the project entitled “Effects of a Hypocaloric Diet and Physical Training in the Metabolic and Hormonal Response in a

Mayo Clinic researchers have found that frequent headaches in children appear to be associated with sleep problems. More than two-thirds of children studied who suffer from chronic daily headache also experience sleep disturbance, especially delay in sleep onset. For children with episodic headaches, one-fifth had sleep problems. The findings will be presented this week at the 24th Annual Conference on Sleep Disorders in Infancy and Childhood in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

“What’