University of Rochester scientists investigating the link between PCBs, pesticides and Parkinson’s disease demonstrated new and intricate reactions that occur in certain brain cells, making them more vulnerable to injury after exposures.

In two papers published in the journal NeuroToxicology (Dec. 2004 and Feb. 2005), the group describes how polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) disrupt dopamine neurons, which are the cells that degenerate during the course of Parkinson’s disease. Re

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) want to attract some of the world’s most promising scientists to Central Europe. To help them establish their first independent laboratories there, the organizations are launching the EMBO/HHMI Startup Grants – three-year awards of $75,000 U.S. annually. The new scheme was announced at the EMBO/HHMI Meeting of Central European Scientists in Budapest, Hungary.

The EMBO/HHMI Startup

The spread of tuberculosis may have killed off leprosy in Europe in the Middle Ages, according to research published in the latest issue of the Royal Society Proceedings B.

A collaborative study led by University College London (UCL) scientists, following the discovery of a shrouded body in a sealed chamber overlooked by tomb robbers, found evidence of both diseases in a range of archaeological remains dating from the 1st to the 15th centuries.

An initial examination of

Scientists have given us another reason to eat carrots – a compound found in the popular root vegetable has been found to have an effect on the development of cancer.

A team of researchers, from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in England and Denmark, found the natural pesticide falcarinol reduced the risk of cancer developing in rats by one third. Although experts have recommended that people eat carrots for their anti-cancer properties, it has not been known exactly what

Assay to be made commercially available

If you’re an organization dedicated to humane alternatives to the use of animals in research and you want to conduct research of your own that requires using animals as part of the testing, what do you do? In the case of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, you invent your own test.

PCRM president Neal Barnard, M.D., announced today that PCRM has developed the world’s first cruelty-free insulin assay, a test u

Chronic nicotine exposure increases tangles in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease

UCI researchers have determined that chronic nicotine exposure worsens some Alzheimer’s-related brain abnormalities, contradicting the common belief that nicotine can actually be used to treat the disease.

In the latest online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers report that chronic nicotine exposure increases neurofibrillary tangles – the bundles

Regulating metabolism of fat is an important challenge for any animal, from nematodes to humans. Central players in the regulatory network are the nuclear hormone receptors (NHRs), which are transcription factors that turn on or off a set of target genes when bound by specific lipid molecules. In the premier open-access journal PLoS Biology, Keith Yamamoto and colleagues show that the nuclear hormone receptor nhr-49 controls two different aspects of fat metabolism, which interact to form a f

With new model, researchers fish for answers

Researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have found an important clue about the origins of the deadly skin cancer melanoma. Using black-and-white-striped zebrafish to model human melanoma, they showed that a specific mutation in a gene called BRAF is critical to the development of moles, and when combined with a separate mutation, leads to cancer. Their findings appear in the February 8th issu

St. Jude study shows the level of this DNA in the blood appears to directly reflect the ability of the transplant recipient’s thymus gland to process donated stem cells and turn them into effective T cells

Measuring the quantity of a certain type of immune cell DNA in the blood could help physicians predict whether a bone marrow stem cell transplant will successfully restore a population of infection-fighting cells called T lymphocytes in a child. This research, by investigators

The opportunity to annotate the genome of the glow-in-the-dark bacterium, Vibrio fischeri, which lives in symbiotic harmony within the light organ of the bobtail squid, has helped a Virginia Tech microbiologist advance her research on quorum sensing, or how cells communicate and function as a community.

Researchers studying the newly sequenced genome of the marine bacterium V. fischeri, described this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), have so f

Findings could lead to new treatment based on individual genetic profiles

Children who suffer from acute asthma attacks share a genetic profile that appears to be unique to these children, according to a new study by researchers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. The discovery opens the door to the possibility of designing treatments specifically tailored to children who suffer from the severest forms of asthma. The findings appear in the Feb. 10 issue of

Nano-sized particles embedded with bright, light-emitting molecules have enabled researchers to visualize a tumor more than one centimeter below the skin surface using only infrared light. A team of chemists, bioengineers and medical researchers based at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Minnesota has lodged fluorescent materials called porphyrins within the surface of a polymersome, a cell-like vesicle, to image a tumor within a living rodent. Their findings, which represent

A new version of Overcoming Bulimia, the self-help CD-ROM which uses the proven cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) approach to the treatment of bulimia has been launched by Media Innovations Ltd, to coincide with National Eating Disorders Awareness Week which takes place on 6-12 February 2005.

The new version of the CD-ROM is based on feedback from clinicians who regularly use the package to treat patients and from patients themselves. The CD-ROM has been designed to address the

The eyes are not only a mirror of a soul, but also a medical record. Their thermal radiation can indicate a disease even before clinical signs appear. Investigations in this area conducted by Russian scientists have been supported by the research program of the Russian Academy of Sciences called “Abstract Sciences for Medicine”.

Russian biophysicists under the guidance of G.R. Ivanitsky, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, are developing the system for rapid dis

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have identified the mechanisms behind the serious, congenital heart condition that can sometimes develop in children of women with a rheumatic disease.

This serious form of congenital heart disease, known as AV heart block, develops when a certain type of antibody is transferred from the mother to the foetus during pregnancy. The antibodies are targeted against endogenous proteins and cause the inflammation and calcification of the foetal ca

Project A.L.S. funds breakthrough research

A significant proportion of patients suffering from ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease or motor neuron disease, have a marker of retrovirus activity in their blood, reports the February 8 issue of the medical journal Neurology. The study was led by Dr. Jeremy A. Garson of University College London, UK and Dr. Ammar Al-Chalabi of King’s College London, UK, and was funded in full by Project A.L.S.