A group of scientists at The Scripps Research Institute is reporting a discovery that sheds light on an area of research fundamental to everything from the normal processes that govern the everyday life of human cells to the aberrant mechanisms that underlie many diseases, including cancer and septic shock.

The discovery concerns tiny fragments of RNA known as microRNA and their relationship to the genetic transcripts known as messenger RNA (mRNA). All genes expressed in the

A new tumor-suppressor gene has been discovered by a team of researchers at Penn State, which also has discovered how the gene works with another tumor suppressor to control tissue growth. The team’s genetic and biochemical studies will be published in the 11 March 2005 issue of the journal Cell. “This discovery extends our understanding of how tissue growth is controlled both during normal development and during the formation of tumors, and it raises the possibility that the function of t

A worldwide health problem, tuberculosis kills more people than any other bacterial infection. The World Health Organization estimates that two billion people are infected with TB, and that two million people die each year from the disease.

However, due to multi-drug resistance and a protracted medication regimen, it is extremely difficult to treat. Hence, there is still a great deal of interest in developing new anti-tubercular drugs. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvani

In a discovery that could point to new treatments for a wide range of neurodegenerative diseases, Jackson Laboratory researchers have found that high-dose radiation and bone marrow transfer treatments on glaucoma-susceptible mice completely blocked the development of glaucoma, by preventing neurodegeneration.

Glaucomas are among the most common neurodegenerative diseases, and a leading cause of blindness in the United States. Many patients with glaucoma have high intraocular pressu

Chemical pathways allow plant cells to develop in interlocking patterns, adding strength to leaves

Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have unlocked the molecular give and take that allows cells in thin structures such as leaves to develop in a jigsaw-like pattern, providing the leaf a surprising degree of strength. The findings were published in today’s edition of the journal Cell.

Zhenbiao Yang, a professor of plant cell biology at the UCR’s Center for

Part of the immune system’s pro-inflammatory response to bacterial invasion is to increase nitric oxide levels with an enzyme called inducible nitric oxide synthase. In a study published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, scientists report that the predominantly anti-inflammatory enzyme, endothelial nitric oxide synthase, is also involved in nitric oxide production in response to infection. This discovery may eventually provide a new target to treat sepsis, which is caused by overpr

Scientists at Uppsala University and the Swedish University for Agricultural Sciences have been participating in an international collaborative project to map the wild origins of the domesticated pig. The findings show that the wild boar was domesticated several times in different parts of Europe and Asia. The study is being presented in today’s issue of the scientific journal Science.

The domestication of animals and plants some 10,000 years ago led to the most significant soc

Numerous case reports and a few clinical studies have examined the association between tongue piercing and receding gums, and oral piercing, typically involving the tongue and/or the lip, has been associated with periodontal complications. However, there are no such studies on lip piercing.

A research group from the Ohio State University in Columbus recruited, from the community, 29 young adults with lip piercing (mean age, 21 years, 8 months; 15 females) and 29 without (mean a

After infecting a susceptible cell, the human immunodeficiency virus hijacks that cell’s normal machinery to produce carbon copies of itself. New HIV particles roll off the cellular assembly lines, burst like bubbles out of the cell, and float off to invade other cellular factories. Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigators have now identified an early step in HIV particle assembly. The findings, published March 11 in Cell, could lead to new drugs that combat HIV infection by shutt

Weight status of children ages 8 to 15 predicts obesity and high blood pressure in adulthood

New research shows that children between 8 and 15 years old who are in the upper half of the normal weight range are more likely than their leaner peers to become obese or overweight as young adults. This research was conducted over nearly a decade at the Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention and Children’s Hospital Bos

A new study by Tulane University researchers, published in the March edition of Molecular Endocrinology, provides insight into one of the ways diethylstilbesterol (DES) may alter the development of the uterus.

DES, a synthetic estrogen, was prescribed to prevent miscarriage in many women who were pregnant between 1941 until 1971. In 1971, DES was banned in the United States due to concerns about the occurrence of cancer and infertility in the daughters of women who took it.

Increasing ventilation within aircraft cabins can reduce the spread of infectious diseases in-flight, suggests a review published in this week’s issue of The Lancet.

Mark Gendreau (Lahey Clinic Medical Centre, MA, USA) and colleagues reviewed data from studies looking at the transmission of diseases during commercial air travel. They found that while commercial airlines are a suitable environment for the spread of pathogens carried by passengers or crew, the environmental cont

The Biaffin GmbH & Co KG is one of nine European partners of a new EU “Specifically Targeted Research Project (STREP)” started on 1 st of January 2005 for a period of three years. The project is entitled “Function of small RNAs across kingdoms (FOSRAK)” to study the hitherto unrecognised cellular role of various classes of short non-coding RNAs in regulating gene expression in a variety of organisms across different biological kingdoms like eubacteria, protists, plants and animals.

The

Biologists at the University of Liverpool have discovered how the plagues of the Middle Ages have made around 10% of Europeans resistant to HIV.

Scientists have known for some time that these individuals carry a genetic mutation (known as CCR5-Ä32) that prevents the virus from entering the cells of the immune system but have been unable to account for the high levels of the gene in Scandinavia and relatively low levels in areas bordering the Mediterranean. They have also been puz

Boston University biomedical engineers, chemists collaborate on novel method

The ability to select and develop compounds that act on specific cellular targets has just gained a computational ally — a mathematical algorithm that predicts the precise effects a given compound will have on a cell’s molecular components or chemical processes. Using this tool, drug developers can design compounds that will act on only desired gene and protein targets, eliciting therapeutic respon

By injecting a therapeutic gene directly into the brain, researchers have treated a naturally occurring genetic disease in cats. This is the first genetic disease affecting the central nervous system to be successfully treated in an animal larger than mice and rats. If this approach can be successfully applied to humans, say the researchers, it might one day treat an entire class of diseases called lysosomal storage disorders, which cause severe, sometimes fatal, disabilities in about one in