Result supports interaction between bone formation and production of blood, immune cells

Scientists at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Center for Regenerative Medicine and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HCSI) have defined a molecule that dictates how blood stem cells travel to the bone marrow and establish blood and immune cell production. The discovery may help improve bone marrow stem cell transplantation and the treatment of several blood disorders.

As published in the January 15th issue of G&D, Dr. Joel Richter’s laboratory at UMASS Medical School has identified a critical role for the RINGO/Spy protein in the control of cytoplasmic polyadenylation. CPEB is a highly conserved, sequence-specific RNA-binding protein that modulates polyadenylation, and thereby mRNA translation. Dr. Richter and his graduate student, Kiran Padmanabhan, now show that CPEB phosphorylation (and subsequent activation) is regulated by RINGO/Spy in Xenopus oocytes

Researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center say they have jumped a significant hurdle in the use of RNA interference (RNAi), believed by many to be the ultimate tool to both decode the function of individual genes in the human genome and to treat disease.

Reporting in the journal Genes and Development, investigators have developed a simple way to use the RNAi approach to silence a selected gene in a specific tissue in a mouse to determine the function o

Research in monkeys suggests that the natural plant estrogens found in soy do not increase markers of breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women. In fact, they may provide a protective effect in some women. The research is reported today in Cancer Research.

“Even at high doses, we found no evidence that the estrogen-like compounds in soy, called isoflavones, stimulate cell growth or other markers for cancer risk in breast tissue,” said Charles E. Wood, D.V.M., Ph.D., lead rese

A component of many proteins has been found to constitute one of the most powerful and resilient molecular “springs” in nature, researchers have discovered. The engineers and biologists from Duke University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute say their discovery could lead to a new understanding of mechanical processes within the living cell. The discovery also could provide potent nanoscale “shock absorbers” or “gate-opening springs” in tiny nanomachines.

The team’s fin

A team of scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science, led by Prof. Michal Schwartz of the Neurobiology Department, has come up with new findings that may have implications in delaying and slowing down cognitive deterioration in old age. The basis for these developments is Schwartz’s team’s observations, published today in the February issue of Nature Neuroscience, that immune cells contribute to maintaining the brain’s ability to maintain cognitive ability and cell renewal throughout life.

Every year, heart disease claims an estimated 7 million lives, according to the World Health Organization. Scientists have struggled to pinpoint the precise genes behind this complex disease. Now, however, they have a new research ally: the designer rat.

In a four-year study published in the January 15 advance online publication of Nature Genetics, researchers at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) and the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) systematically bred and studie

RSV, other stealth bugs often the culprit for what’s bugging you

The flu hasn’t even hit hard yet this year, but it seems like everyone’s getting sick. What’s the deal?

Simply put, there are a lot more infectious invaders besides the flu to worry about. They don’t get the big headlines, but they still knock people down for days or weeks and cause thousands of deaths each winter.

Metapneumovirus. Rhinoviruses. Coronaviruses. Parainfl

There’s one more reason not to smoke during pregnancy. A mother’s cigarette smoking increases the risk that her newborn may have extra, webbed or missing fingers or toes, according to a study in the January issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
Although the overall risk of these abnormalities in fingers and toes is relatively low, just half a pack of cigarettes per day increases the risk to the baby by 29 percent, compared to non-smokers. Because limbs develop very early in

Researchers at Erasmus Medical Center have demonstrated systemic spread of avian influenza virus in cats infected by respiratory, digestive, and cat-to-cat contact. The paper by Rimmelzwaan et al., “Influenza A virus (H5N1) infection in cats causes systemic disease with potential novel routes of virus spread within and between hosts,” appears in the January issue of The American Journal of Pathology and is accompanied by a commentary.

Avian influenza (H5N1) is of great concern because

In their latest finding on the brain’s role in controlling appetite and weight, researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine have shown that reducing levels of fatty acids in the hypothalamus causes rats to overeat and become obese. Their results suggest that restoring fatty-acid levels in the brain may be a promising way to treat obesity. The study, published in the January 15th on-line edition of Nature Neuroscience, was led by Dr. Luciano Rossetti, director of the Diabetes Resea

Molecular biologists, developmental biologists and computer scientists at the Universtity of Helsinki, Finland, came together to advance towards cracking the code for how gene expression is controlled. The results of this work were published in Cell, in January 2006.

A genome milestone was reached in 2001 when sequencing of the human genome was completed. This has been followed by complete chemical read-outs of DNA sequence for several species, for example mouse, dog, cow and chi

Chemistry teams from two universities – Lomonosov Moscow State University and Texas A&M University (USA) have improved the efficacy of pharmaceutical substance synthesis by simplifying the process. The Russian team is guided by Academician Irina Beletskaya, and the US team by Professor David Edward Bergbreiter. These two teams play on the same side because the nanoreactor concept they are using will in the long run allow to simplify in many respects chemical and pharmaceutical technology and, mo

Not long ago, the biochemist’s main tool was a chromatograph or an electrophoresis plant, but now specialists in bio-informatics use special software to simulate biochemical processes and the behaviour of complex molecules.

This approach was used to research factitious proteins of the cytochrome P450 family by researchers from the V.N. Orekhovich Research Institute of Biomedical Chemistry, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, guided by A.V. Lisitsa, Ph.D. (Biology), and their colle

An approach to treating intestine cancer is being developed by Russian researchers from the Bioengineering Centre, Russian Academy of Sciences, under Anna Prokhorchuk’s guidance jointly with American colleagues sponsored by the international CRDF foundation and the Federal Agency for Science and Innovation (Rosnauka).

Any cancerous disease changes the genetic landscape – some genes are suppressed, others get activated, which results in tumour growth, the formation of metastases, and can

Study of cuddly creatures focuses on walking stability with applications for elderly, robots

With their feathery tuxedoes and charming Chilly Willy-waddle, penguins are the quintessence of cute. Small wonder they’re featured in Coke commercials, movies like “Madagascar” and “March of the Penguins” and children’s toys galore.

But one University of Houston professor is looking into a serious side of these ultra-cute creatures. Dozens of teeter-tottering pengui