Samir Mitragotri, a professor of chemical engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara, says the myriad shortcomings of injections have led to active research and development of needle-free methods of immunization. While most people prefer to avoid injections, the stakes are enormously higher than just helping people avoid a disagreeable prick of a needle. In third world countries, improper and unsafe use of the needles used in injections causes millions of cases of hepatitis B and h

Researchers have developed a new line of prostate cancer cells that they hope will provide a better model to study the disease.

This new cancer-cell line has already provided some help. One new study in mice identified a promising possible therapy to reduce skeletal pain that accompanies prostate cancer. Scientists found that a substance called anti-nerve growth factor appeared to be more effective in controlling pain in mice than even morphine.

But the work would not hav

Doctors and scientists nationwide will today for the first time be able to join together over the internet to start the search for genes that underlie a range of chronic diseases.

Patients across Britain with cancer, heart and other common diseases have been providing blood samples for research since 2000. They are part of a project hosted by The University of Manchester that will allow more researchers than ever before to study genes in chronic diseases. The project – called

Scientists have found some additional evidence that environmental exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) may be associated with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, according to a study published in the December 1 issue of Cancer Research.

By comparing blood levels of PCBs in 100 pairs of healthy volunteers and non-Hodgkin lymphoma patients, Anneclaire De Roos, Ph.D., assistant professor of epidemiology, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and colleagues determined that high levels o

Syndrome linked to neurological abnormalities

Researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center have found that chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) may be rooted in distinct neurological abnormalities that can be medically tested. Although the sample studied was small, this research provides objective, physiological evidence that the controversial disorder can be considered a legitimate medical condition.

Chronic fatigue syndrome defines a range of illnesses including

Exposure to household endotoxin levels poses a significant risk for asthma, according to the first nationwide sampling of house dust.

The study appears in the first issue for December 2005 of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published by the American Thoracic Society.

Endotoxins are toxic substances associated with the outer membrane of certain gram-negative bacteria. These molecules are bound to the bacterial cell wall and are released

Risk of adverse gastrointestinal outcomes in patients taking cyclo-oxygenase-2 inhibitors or conventional non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs: population based nested case-control analysis [BMJ Volume 331, pp 1310-12]

There is no evidence to back up claims that the new generation of anti-inflammatory drugs (COX-2 inhibitors) are less harmful to the stomach lining than many traditional anti-inflammatory drugs, concludes a study in this week’s BMJ.

These drugs were

One of the most important stages in the drug discovery process is the ability to determine binding sites on proteins for potential ligands.

When attempting to find the correct pose of a protein-ligand complex, there are an infinite number of possible solutions. The position, geometry and conformation of a ligand are all continuous variables – this leads to the “Docking Problem”. To explore all possible docking modes, an enormous amount of calculation must be done – the complexity,

A paper published in the December 1st issue of Genes & Development reveals a novel role for the p53 tumor suppressor pathway in organogenesis during embryonic development. Dr. Jinrong Peng and colleagues show that the zebrafish Def protein is an organ-specific factor that represses expression of a newly identified p53 isoform to coordinate digestive organ growth. def-mutant zebrafish display hypomorphic digestive organs that result from defects in organ expansion and maturation.

Fu

Dr. Michael Snyder (Yale University), Dr. Elizabeth Grayhack (University of Rochester Medical Center) and colleagues have constructed an unprecedented yeast genomic library, which will serve as an important research tool for the entire scientific community. The authors cloned over 5000 yeast open reading frames (ORFs) into a movable C-terminally tagged expression vector – creating what the authors call a “moveable ORF” or “MORF” collection.

To illustrate the utility of their MORF co

A collaboration of researchers from Harvard Medical School and the University of Virginia, led by Dr. Anindya Dutta, has created an artificial mammalian origin of replication that will facilitate the future study of mammalian DNA replication.

Dr. Dutta and colleagues recruited known mammalian replication initiation factors (either ORC or CDC6) to a defined GAL4 DNA-binding site on a plasmid, demonstrating that replication initiation factor recruitment is sufficient to specify a DNA replic

Technique identifies candidate amino acid sites that control protein functions

With more and more protein sequence data available, scientists are increasingly looking for ways to extract the small subset of information that determines a protein’s function. In addition to sorting out what makes related proteins differ, such information can also help scientists engineer proteins to do new jobs.

Now scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Labor

North Carolina Sea Grant researchers have isolated a new peptide antibiotic from the American oyster that may have implications for managing many diseases in oysters.

The new antimicrobial peptide “American oyster defensin” (AOD) may protect against bacteria in Crassostrea virginica, a species that is native to North Carolina and important economically to Atlantic and Gulf Coast fisheries.

“This peptide may be helpful in selecting disease-resistant oysters for aquaculture and fi

Researchers identify key gene sequences that promote growth of new arteries when existing arteries are blocked

Researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center have uncovered part of the genetic mechanism that causes new arteries to grow in response to blocked arteries. A team led by SFVAMC vascular surgeon Rajabrata Sarkar, MD, PhD, has demonstrated in mice that the MMP2 gene is essential for the growth of new arteries when the femoral (leg) artery is blocked.

Th

A startling new study published in the science journal Nature this week (Nature Vol 438, issue 7068, pp 667-670) reveals that inhalers used by asthmatics for symptomatic relief of their condition might actually increase the likelihood of an acute attack.

The study by an international team of researchers, including Professor Mike Silverman of the University of Leicester, uses mathematical modelling techniques to try and ’predict’ when an asthma attack might occur in an i

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition is the peer-reviewed journal of international reference in the field of nutrition. In its latest issue, of November, it published an article which demonstrated that non-fat milk products can reduce the risk of hypertension by 50%, while nevertheless there is no appreciable connection between that disease and the consumption of whole milk.

The research was carried out by a team of researchers from the University of Navarra and Álvaro Alonso, curre