In a study published in the latest issue of Current Biology, University College London (UCL) scientists have shown that the human brain holds and continuously updates an internal map of the body. The UCL team hope their findings will help explain how the processes in the brain which create a coherent body map may go wrong in people with neurological or psychiatric disorders.

Using a body illusion to fool volunteers, UCL researchers found that volunteers’ brains rapidly adjusted t

An innovative new statistical method, described in the open-access journal PLoS Biology, streamlines the computation required to identify all the potential locations in the genome that influence a particular physical trait, or phenotype. Thanks to the new method developed by John Storey, Joshua M. Akey, and Leonid Kruglyak, researchers have a more efficient genome-mining technique to help them identify all the genomic elements that produce specific traits. In brewer’s yeast alone, Storey and collea

Researchers have found new evidence suggesting that the ability to taste bitter compounds has been strongly advantageous in human evolution.

Animals rely on chemical perception, including the senses of taste and smell, for protection against the harmful compounds found in nature. It is widely believed that behavioral and dietary choices may have reduced the importance of such chemical perception in higher primates, and particularly in humans.

In new work, researchers

The brain is bombarded by information about the physical proportions of our bodies. The most familiar sensations, such as a puff of wind or the brush of our own shirt sleeve, serve to constantly remind the brain of the body’s outer bounds, creating a sense of what is known as proprioception. In a new study, researchers report this week that the brain’s ability to interpret external signals and update its sense of bodily self is more dynamic than had been previously thought and that such u

Two patients enrolled in Phase I clinical trials at Hopkins

Final results of a study conducted at Johns Hopkins show that stem cell therapy can be used effectively to treat heart attacks, or myocardial infarction, in pigs. In just two months, stem cells harvested from another pig’s bone marrow and injected into the animal’s damaged heart restored heart function and repaired damaged heart muscle by 50 percent to 75 percent.

The Hopkins findings, first presented

Technique may allow scientists to repair brain cells damaged by disease, trauma or stroke

Using customized nanoparticles that they developed, University at Buffalo scientists have for the first time delivered genes into the brains of living mice with an efficiency that is similar to, or better than, viral vectors and with no observable toxic effect, according to a paper published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The paper describes how the UB

Multiple strains of the flu virus, circulating in a population at the same time, can reshuffle their genes and create a new virus, one capable of infecting many more people, according to a new study in the open-access journal PLoS Biology. This finding may help scientists make better predictions about which viral strains will attack during upcoming flu seasons and design more effective flu vaccines.

In the first large-scale effort to sequence the flu genome, Edward Holmes, David Lipman, an

In a paper in this month’s PLoS Medicine, researchers from the Genome Institute of Singapore describe the identification of a human cellular protein that has a significant effect on the replication efficiency of Hepatitis B virus. Lisa F. P. Ng and colleagues found the protein–hnRNPK–when they noted an association between one particular sequence in the Hepatitis B virus and high levels of the virus in some infected patients. They discovered that how well the virus replicated is determined

Colwellia psychrerythraea 34H reveals its subzero secrets

At home in the deep, dark Arctic Ocean, the marine bacterium Colwellia psychrerythraea 34H keeps very cool–typically below 5° degrees Celsius. How does the bacterium function in this frigid environment? To find out, scientists at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) and collaborators have sequenced and analyzed C. psychrerythraea’s genome.

That genome analysis, posted in the Proceedings of the National Acad

A gene that appears to help regulate normal embryonic development is found at high levels in virtually all forms of breast cancer, according to a new study led by Laszlo Radvanyi, Ph.D., associate professor of breast and melanoma medical oncology at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

The finding, published in the Aug. 2, 2005, issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and available on-line July 25, shows that the gene, normally made in small

Researchers pinpoint chromosome region and genetic markers for macular degeneration in humans, rhesus monkeys

Age-related macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in older adults, yet researchers are still in the dark about many of the factors that cause this incurable disease.

But new insight from University of Florida and German researchers bout a genetic link between rhesus monkeys with macular degeneration and humans could unlock secrets about the earl

Biologists have discovered that a common corn fungus is by far nature’s most powerful known cannoneer, blasting its spores out with a force of 870,000 times the force of gravity. Farmers need not worry about being nailed by a fungal supergun, however. The infinitesimal spore travels only two-tenths of an inch (5 millimeters) before plummeting.

Nevertheless, said the biologists, the fungus Gibberella zeae outguns the previous record holder, the fungus Pilobolus, by almost a hu

Rates of breast biopsy (removal of tissue for diagnostic evaluation) remained stable over a 12 year period even as mammogram use increased and new and less invasive biopsy techniques were introduced, according to a study in the July 25 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Changes in the guidelines for breast cancer screening have resulted in increased use of mammography. However, some women screened by mammography may have a false positive res

A systematic review of the evidence for the many drug treatments used in post herpetic neuralgia (the pain that persists after shingles) concludes that long-established treatments such as tricyclic antidepressants and some opioids are as effective as newer drugs such as gabapentin, tramadol, and pregabalin, and supports the use of tricyclic antidepressants as first line treatment. The review, from researchers led by Andrew Rice at Imperial College London, and published in PLoS Medicine in July also

A paper published in this month’s PLoS Medicine suggests that combination therapy based on artemisinins (one of the newer antimalarial classes of drug) might not be the ideal treatment for uncomplicated malaria in Africa. If used alone, artemisinins will cure the most severe type of malaria -falciparum malaria -in seven days. However, when used on their own, they have a high risk of the malaria coming back and hence must be combined with other antimalarials to work best. Artemisinins may als

A dramatic new approach to tissue engineering

An international team of biomedical engineers has demonstrated for the first time that it is possible to grow healthy new bone reliably in one part of the body and use it to repair damaged bone at a different location.

The research, which is based on a dramatic departure from the current practice in tissue engineering, is described in a paper titled “In vivo engineering of organs: The bone bioreactor” published online next wee