Johns Hopkins scientists have identified a protein in fruit flies whose counterpart product in humans may help cause cancer.

The researchers report in the Aug. 12 issue of Cell that a protein dubbed Yorkie directly controls the fruit fly’s organ size and, when overabundant, causes increased cell growth and decreased cell death, hallmarks of cancer. Yorkie’s relative in mammals, called YAP, appears to do the same thing, the researchers report, which suggests that in human

Findings may provide new target for treating the disease

Using the newest DNA chip technology, scientists at Joslin Diabetes Center have discovered a new gene implicated in the cause of type 2 diabetes. In a new study appearing in the August 12 issue of the journal Cell, the investigators first identified genes that were altered in their level of expression in islets isolated from people with type 2 diabetes. The researchers then went on to show that when they created a defect in o

Findings could lead to gene therapy cure

In findings that could lead to curing some forms of congenital blindness through gene therapy, researchers at UCLA have discovered that RPE65, a gene missing in infants born with the blinding disease Leber congenital amaurosis, is also a key enzyme in the visual cycle. The identity of this enzyme has long been a mystery to scientists.
The study, “Rpe65 is the Retinoid Isomerase in Bovine Retinal Pigment Epithelium,” is published in th

Researchers have uncovered how members of one family of antibiotics kill bacteria that make people sick.

This new knowledge may help drug developers make slight changes to these antibiotics to make them more effective against drug-resistant strains of bacteria, said Irina Artsimovitch, a study co-author and an assistant professor of microbiology at Ohio State University.

The antibiotics studied belong to the rifamycin family. Until now, researchers believed that these antibi

Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have harnessed a mobile gene from the cabbage looper moth and modified it for routine use to determine the function of genes in mice and other vertebrates. If the new tool works as they expect, it will speed understanding of genes involved in human biology and disease and accelerate the search for effective new therapies.

The researchers report their study in the August 12, 2005, issue of the journal Cell.

Certain genes or

RIT showcases landmark medical imaging project

Using revolutionary medical imaging technology, researchers at Rochester Institute of Technology are providing a better understanding of the human body and its many secrets.

Led by Richard Doolittle, RIT’s director of the department of medical sciences, and Paul Craig, professor of chemistry, a team of students has created never-before-seen virtual images of the pancreas, detailed pictures of the human skull and DNA-level image

This is all underground, and naked mole-rats prefer it that way: Momma naked mole-rat is the only one having babies, and she’s got several naked mole-rat boyfriends.

Were it human, the family would argue it out on a national talk show. As it is, the social behavior of these tiny rodents has scientists intrigued, right down to their naked mole-rat molecules.

“African mole-rats are very good models for studying social structure. I’m interested in the genetic markers as

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have defined a key step in the production of beta-amyloid, a short protein that is thought to be responsible for the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Understanding this step may aid in the discovery of drugs that could help block the disease from developing.

In Alzheimer’s disease, too much beta-amyloid is produced by an enzyme that has many other essential roles. As a result, simply blocking the whole enzyme knocks out many

Because atherosclerotic plaque typically builds up without symptoms and leads to more than 1 million deaths in America each year, the search is on to develop early detection devices that will enable physicians to offer treatment before the disease progresses to advanced stages.

Now, in a study involving laboratory rabbits, a device that stimulates, collects and measures light emissions from body tissues has been able to detect the presence of inflammatory cells that are associa

A collaborative project between American and Chinese researchers developed a way to study the function of genes in mice and man by using a moveable genetic element from moths, according to a report in the journal Cell.

“We know how many genes are in the mammalian genome, but that does not tell us how they carry out their jobs,” said senior author Tian Xu, Professor and Vice Chair of Genetics at Yale University School of Medicine and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Invest

A pioneering vaccination programme for children has virtually wiped out a killer bug in the Gambia – and could save hundreds of thousands of young lives across Africa.

The vaccinations have slashed the incidence of the disease, which causes meningitis and other diseases in babies and infants, to virtually zero.

Paul Milligan of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine said: “This is an extremely valuable result. It proves that a routine vaccination to eradica

Placing gadolinium in DNA-sized carbon tubes boosts performance, reduces toxicity

Researchers at Rice University, the Baylor College of Medicine, the University of Houston and the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland have created a new class of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents that are at least 40 times more effective than the best in clinical use.

The new agents — dubbed gadonanotubes — use the same highly toxic metal, gadolinium, th

The figure is famous: a deceptively simple line drawing that at first glance resembles a vase and, at the next, a pair of human faces in profile. When you look at this figure, your brain must rapidly decide what the various lines denote. Are they the outlines of the vase or the borders of two faces? How does your brain decide?

It does so in a fraction of a second via special nerve circuits in the brain’s visual center that automatically organize information into a “whole” even

Seven member countries of the OECD’s Global Science Forum have launched a project to promote international collaboration among scientists and create new ways of sharing and analysing data to improve our understanding of how the human brain works.

Advances in information technology are enabling scientists to develop increasingly sophisticated methods of measuring a brain’s functions. To spur developments in this new research field, called neuroinformatics, the seven founding countries (th

About half of new marine vibrio bacteria discovered in the last five years, can kill fish and crustacea, according to researchers at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.

The most common disease of vibrios is cholera, which has caused millions of cases of illness and fatality in humans. Recent interest in this genus of bacteria has led to the discovery of many new species, especially from seawater and marine animals.

New species have been found in a wide range of marine e

First Imaging Study to Implicate Brain Opioids Could Explain Addictive Nature of Behavioral Disorder, Say Johns Hopkins Researchers

The role of the brain’s opioid receptor system—or endorphin system—may hold the key to understanding and treating bulimia nervosa, according to research reported in the Society of Nuclear Medicine’s August issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

“Involvement of the opioid system may explain the addictive quality of this behavioral dis