In a finding that may one day help researchers better understand age-related memory and hearing loss, scientists have shown that two key nervous system proteins interact in a manner that helps regulate the transmission of signals in the nervous system.

Researchers report online in Nature Neuroscience that they’ve connected neuregulin-1 (Nrg-1), a protein linked to schizophrenia, and postsynaptic density protein-95 (PSD-95), a protein associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

’Nature’ article describes sequence of eight chromosomes

A team of scientists at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine has helped decode the genome sequence of Cryptosporidium hominis, an insidious parasite identified as one of the most common causes of waterborne diseases in humans and classified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a potential bioterrorist agent. The researchers’ findings are reported in today’s issue of the journal

A controversial theory about how diabetes causes extensive tissue damage will appear in the November issue of Diabetes. At stake in the heated debate over the theory are researchers’ efforts to find new ways to reduce loss of vision, kidney failure, heart damage and other side effects of diabetes.

The American Diabetes Association estimates that 18.2 million Americans have diabetes. Diabetes’ links to heart attack and stroke make it the sixth leading cause of death, a

Scientists have uncovered a significant new link in the chain of immune system events through which estrogen prevents bone loss and that contribute to bone loss when estrogen is deficient. Through research in mice, the scientists discovered that an immune signaling molecule called type b transforming growth factor (TGFb) is responsible for a cascade of events that leads estrogen to prevent bone loss. When TGFb signaling in T cells is blocked, the bone-sparing effects of estrogen are lost. The fi

A spray that halves the healing time of burns and wounds is being designed for immediate use. Marina Murphy explains how the spray could be the difference between having a disfiguring scar or not in Chemistry & Industry magazine.

Tissue Therapies of Brisbane, Australia are developing an active ingredient that could help avoid the need for skin grafting sheets, significantly reduce scarring in children and help in healing chronic diabetic ulcers. ‘Our aim is to reduce healing time

Researchers at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Cancer Cell Unit, Cambridge have gained an important new insight into the role of the breast cancer gene known as BRCA2. It appears to have a key function in cell division which needs to happen accurately for normal cell reproduction and repair, otherwise disease occurs. The findings are published today (29 Friday October 2004) in the journal Science.

Around 30 to 50 per cent of breast cancers that run in families are thought to

Findings may lead to treatments for hemochromatosis and anemia of chronic disease

A new UCLA and University of Utah study found how a hormone called hepcidin regulates the iron uptake from the diet and its distribution in the body. The study may help develop future treatments for chronic anemia and for diseases of iron overload, such as hemochromatosis. Published online in the journal Science this week, researchers discovered that the hormone hepcidin controls ferroportin, an

Smoking cessation efforts could be improved by studying nicotine interactions with acetaldehyde, according to UCI tobacco use researchers

Acetaldehyde, one of the main chemical components of tobacco smoke, appears to increase the addictive properties of nicotine, according to animal studies conducted by the UC Irvine Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center (TTURC). In addition, the researchers found that adolescents are most vulnerable to the rewarding effects of the nic

Europe should take all possible measures to enhance the existing collaboration between paediatric oncologists, both in the treatment and research of childhood cancers. Paediatric oncologists are concerned that current and proposed EU legislations could jeopardise this collaboration and, as a consequence, could impact on the provision of optimal treatment for children with cancer. This was the warning given at a Lunch Debate at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France (on Wednesday 27th Octo

Researchers hope to save millions and speed studies of toxic chemicals by using a tiny organism with genetic ties to humans

A primitive roundworm called Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) is being evaluated in a Duke University laboratory as a cheaper and quicker alternative to rats and mice in testing chemicals for several kinds of toxicity.

In its natural environment, C. elegans spends its brief life dining on microbes in the soil. But Jonathan Freedman of Duke&#14

University of California, San Diego neurobiologists have discovered a chemical responsible for the bursts of electrical activity in the brain that guide the development of the visual system, a finding that may bring rewiring of damaged visual circuits closer to reality.

The scientists, who presented their evidence at a session of the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego, said their discovery could also lead to a better understanding of birth defects in children born

University of Leeds life sciences company Syntopix Ltd has secured further capital of just under £180,000 through a consortium of regional investors.

Formed in 2003, Syntopix is based on the leading research of husband and wife team Drs Jon Cove and Anne Eady, both microbiologists in the University’s Skin Research Centre. Their work focuses on developing novel therapeutics for dermatological diseases, including acne and Staphylococcus aureus infections such as the ‘superbug’ MRSA.

A little over a year ago, the Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology (VIB), the D. Collen Research Foundation, and the Catholic University of Leuven invested in the acquisition of a new technology provided by the zebra fish. This small aquarium fish can be used to aid the study of the function of human genes. That this investment is reaping returns is evident from the study that VIB researchers at the Catholic University of Leuven are publishing today in the renowned journal Nature.

Research published today (Thursday 28 October) in Europe’s leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction[1] , has found evidence that women with endometriosis[2] are at higher risk of having migraine.

A team from the University of Genoa in Italy studied 133 women with endometriosis and a control group of 166 women, and found that the prevalence of migraine was significantly higher among the women with endometriosis. Double the number of women in the endometriosis

A test that generally is used to measure the amount of vitamin B12 in the body is not sensitive enough to detect a deficiency of the vitamin, which has been linked to several neurological conditions, according to Saint Louis University research. The findings were presented this month at a meeting of the American Neurological Association.

“B12 deficiency is associated with dementia, peripheral neuropathy and spinal cord disease,” says Florian Thomas, M.D., Ph.D., associate profess

Treating patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer more aggressively by giving them higher doses of radiation helps keep the disease from spreading and allows some patients to live longer, according to a new study published in the November 1, 2004, issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, the official journal of ASTRO, the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology.

An estimated 45,000 to 50,000 people were diagnosed with loc