An experiment that began as a “fantasy pipe dream” just three years ago is now a reality. Researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California at Berkeley, combining nanotechnology with biochemistry, have created unique synthetic membranes that, for the first time ever, enable them to directly control signaling activity in living T cells from the immune system. Already their experiments have yielded surprising results.

“This m

A world-first test that assesses the damage people have done to their skin through sun exposure is being launched to the public at clinics throughout the UK.

The scientific test, whose launch comes as holidaymakers make plans to top up their tans during warm winter breaks, is able to reveal extent of the damage that sunbathers have inflicted on their skin’s genetic material, DNA, over many years.

The new test, called ‘skinphysical’, draws on pioneering work by skin c

By coating the surfaces of tiny carbon nanotubes with monoclonal antibodies, biochemists and engineers at Jefferson Medical College and the University of Delaware have teamed up to detect cancer cells in a tiny drop of water. The work is aimed at developing nanotube-based biosensors that can spot cancer cells circulating in the blood from a treated tumor that has returned or from a new cancer. The researchers, led by Eric Wickstrom, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Jefferson

There’s hope for the less-than-perfect male – if you’re a swordtail fish, that is. As the size and age of female swordtail fish increase, so does the preference for males with asymmetrical markings, according to a new Ohio University study.

Molly Morris, associate professor of biological sciences, and colleagues found that older female swordtails spent more time with asymmetrically striped males than symmetrical males when offered a choice.

These findings are the first

Research shows disruption to key immune cells in mice

Although lead is a well-known human health hazard, researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center have discovered a new aspect of how it may work in mice to harm the function of T-cells, which regulate the body’s immune response to bacteria, viruses and other bugs.

The discovery adds insight to the latest trend in lead research, as scientists shift their emphasis from the immediate public health threat t

Presentations: American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2005

Cardiology researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center have found that a single injection of a harmless virus engineered to carry a beneficial, mutant gene enabled animals to manufacture their own supply of the gene’s protein product that protects against plaque buildup in blood vessels. As a result, the amount of plaque was significantly reduced, as was an immune reaction that can lead to plaque buildup and r

Candidate is a subtype of HDL cholesterol that promotes inflammation

Groundbreaking research reported at the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology indicates that a certain form of the normally “good” high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol linked to cardiovascular health plays a counterproductive role in people with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and rheumatoid arthritis, promoting atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) and heart disease in many of

Finding could lead to more effective, less toxic radiosensitizing drugs for cancer patients

UC Davis Cancer Center researchers have discovered a genetic switch that causes cancer cells to become more sensitive to a drug administered to enhance radiation therapy effectiveness. The switch does not make the drug more toxic.

The discovery may help scientists design new anti-cancer agents that enhance the effectiveness of radiation therapy with less toxicity than currently ava

Scientists from Imperial College London have successfully converted human embryonic stem cells into cartilage cells, offering encouragement that replacement cartilage could one day be grown for transplantation.

Cartilage is the dense connective tissue usually found between bones to allow the smooth movement of joints.

Research to be published in Tissue Engineering shows how the Imperial team directed embryonic stem cells to become cartilage cells. This could allow doctors

A fledgling bio-business developing products to combat deadly hospital infections like MRSA has won a prestigious industry award.

Ai2, a University of Manchester spin-out company incorporated in April this year, took the Biotechnology Start-Up of the Year prize at the Northwest Regional Development Agency’s Bionow awards.

The company, set up by Dr Curtis Dobson in the University’s Faculty of Life Sciences, specialises in the development of novel antibacterial compounds.

Swedish chemists synthesizing substances for blood clots, malaria, and hepatitis C.

Chemists at Linköping University in Sweden have developed three types of molecules, protease inhibitors, that can be further developed into drugs for cardiovascular diseases, malaria, and hepatitis C.

Proteases are a group of enzymes that play a major role in the course of certain diseases. If there is a molecule present that prevents the protease from working, the disease can be cure

Researchers have gained the most detailed view yet of the heart of the translocon, a channel through which newly constructed proteins are inserted into the cell membrane. The process of transporting proteins across or into membranes is a critical function that occurs in every cell.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Joachim Frank at the Wadsworth Center and his colleagues reported their detailed study of the translocon’s core, called the protein-conducting chann

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine have developed a series of transgenic mouse models of multiple system atrophy, a progressive, fatal neurological disorder. The work is reported in the November 16 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience by Eliezer Masliah, M.D., Professor of Neuroscience and Pathology at UCSD and Cliff Shults, M.D. Professor of Neuroscience at UCSD and Neurologist at the VA San Diego Healthcare System.

The mouse models are im

Biswarup Mukhopadhyay and Eric Johnson from the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech have discovered a novel enzyme that represents an ancient detoxification system and provides a clue to the development of early metabolism on earth.

The research appears in the Nov. 18, 2005 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, in the article “A New Type of Sulfite Reductase, a Novel Coenzyme F420-dependent Enzyme, from the Methanoarchaeon Methanocaldococcus jannaschii”.

In new research that helps to reveal the nature of schizophrenia at the cellular level, UCLA scientists report the discovery of unique DNA sequence variations associated with increased risk for schizophrenia, impairments in short- and long-term memory, and other cognitive deficits.

“I hope this is the opening salvo in a new molecular approach to fighting schizophrenia,” said Tyrone D. Cannon, UCLA’s Staglin Family Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry and Human Genetics. “If

When amateur fossil finder Van Turner discovered a small vertebra at a construction site near Dallas 16 years ago, he knew the creature was unlike anything in the fossil record. Scientists now know the significance of Turner’s fossil as the origin of an extinct line of lizards with an evolutionary twist: a land-dwelling species that became fully aquatic.

Turner took the remains to paleontologists at the Dallas Museum of Natural History, but it took several years before scientis