A well-known enzyme present in the skin and other tissues turns out to be a molecule-sized motor that extracts its fuel from the road it runs on, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Their discovery appears in the Oct. 1 issue of Science.

The enzyme, MMP-1, is a member of a group of enzymes that breaks down collagen, a fibrous substance that constitutes the foundation of the extracellular matrix that supports the cells in the body&#146

Leukemia, or cancer of the bone marrow, strikes some 700 Belgians each year. Medical science has been at a total loss regarding the origin or cause of some forms of this disease − including T-cell acute lymphatic leukemia, or T-ALL. But now, researchers from the Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology (VIB), connected to the Catholic University of Leuven, have discovered the possible cause of the disease in 6% of the T-ALL patients. The scientists have found small circular DNA fra

For the very first time, the genetic make-up of a planktonic marine alga has been sequenced. During this process, a team of international scientists found unexpected metabolic pathways in the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana. The results will be published in the scientific journal ‘Science’ this week.

The fact that Thalassiosira pseudonana operates a urea cycle, has been a special discovery. Up to now, this metabolic pathway for ammonia detoxification was known only from the liver c

A systematic review and meta-analysis (pooled analysis) of previously published randomised trials in this week’s issue of THE LANCET provides strong evidence that antioxidant supplements (such as vitamin supplements) are not effective in protecting against gastro-intestinal cancer. Some combinations of supplements may slightly increase gastro-intestinal cancer risk, whereas selenium may be associated with a risk reduction.

The human diet is a complex mix of oxidants and antioxidants.

Results of a European study in this week’s issue of THE LANCET suggest that shorter courses of chemotherapy for children with Wilms’ tumour may be as effective as conventional treatment duration, but have the advantage of reduced toxicity and health-care costs.

Wilms’ tumour, a kidney cancer in under 15-year-olds, affects around 5 children per million every year. Current treatment for this disease (involving chemotherapy and surgical tumour removal) is very successful; efforts are no

A study in this week’s issue of THE LANCET describes how two different types of analysis used in conjunction on samples of tonsil tissue is the ‘gold standard’ method for confirming clinical variant CJD, and that a large-scale screening programme of tonsil tissue is the only way of identifying the true incidence of vCJD infection.

Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) is thought to be caused by dietary or other exposure to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) prions; 142 people

A seminar in this week’s issue of THE LANCET discusses the under-reported and complex subject of elder abuse. The topic is also covered by an editorial in this week’s issue (p 1192) which concludes that ‘elderly people should not be seen as marginalised victims in society but as fully participating and valuable citizens. Anything less is inhumane and unsustainable’.

Mark S Lachs (The Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York City, USA) and Karl Pillemer (Cornell Univers

A five-year study conducted in multiple centres nationwide revealed that a type of radiofrequency method used in treating heart rhythm disorders is very safe and effective in children.

Patients aged 0-16 years old with various forms of heart problems were recruited to participate in this study, published in the Journal of Cardiovascular Electrophysiology, where radiofrequency ablation, a non-surgical procedure, was used to treat various heart rhythm disorders. Short and long-term ris

MR imaging is significantly better than mammography in detecting additional breast cancers in women who have already been diagnosed with the disease–an important finding that could ultimately affect the treatment of a significant fraction of new breast cancer patients, a new study shows.

The study (The Italian Trial for Breast MR in Multifocal/Multicentric Cancer, promoted by The Italian Society of Medical Radiology) included 90 women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer. So

The probability of acute appendicitis is very low if there is no distinctly apparent appendix on the CT scan, and in the absence of any secondary CT signs of appendicitis, says a study by researchers from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

For the study, the researchers analyzed the CT scans of 366 patients with abdominal pain who were referred to rule out the diagnosis of appendicitis. In 46 of the patients, the a

Technique could ease discovery of countless reactions by linking organic fragments to DNA strands

Scientists have developed a powerful way of mining the chemical universe for new reactions by piggybacking collections of different small organic molecules onto short strands of DNA, which then gives the reactants the opportunity to react by zipping together. Their work draws upon an innovative technique, known as “DNA-templated synthesis,” that uses DNA to code not for RNA or proteins

A team of researchers at the University of Georgia has discovered a new way that genetic entities called transposable elements (TEs) can promote evolutionary change in plants.

The research, published Sept. 30 in the journal Nature, was led by Dr. Susan Wessler, a Distinguished Research Professor of plant biology at UGA. The Wessler lab studies TEs, which are pieces of DNA that make copies of themselves that can then be inserted throughout the genome. The process can be highly effici

A revolutionary approach to angiogenesis[1] by a team of Belgian researchers could make cancer treatment more effective at killing tumours.

Dr. Olivier Feron and his team from the University of Louvain Medical School in Brussels have turned the whole concept of targeting tumour blood vessels on its head. Instead of the conventional approach of trying to starve tumour cells of the blood supply they need to grow, they are doing the opposite – opening up the tumour blood supply to allow

McGill research shows increased carbon dioxide levels decrease algae growth

The doomsayers may be right: our children may not inherit a bountiful and green world. According to researchers at McGill University, we have been overestimating the ability of plants to counteract the greenhouse effect. Their findings, published in the September 30 issue of Nature, suggest changing conditions in the earth’s atmosphere may have more harmful effects on plant life than previously believe

In a whole new approach to asthma research, scientists at Yale have discovered that a molecule called Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) likely plays an important role in the development of the disease and raises the possibility of new asthma drugs that block VEGF receptors and signaling pathways.

VEGF is normally associated with the growth of new blood vessels in the lung and other organs. Yale researchers found, however, that in addition to this function, VEGF can also indu

An experimental cancer vaccine using defanged listeria bacteria is showing great promise in animal studies, successfully treating new cancers that have spread into the lungs of mice.

The mouse study, reported in the Sept. 21 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by scientists at Cerus Corp. in Concord, Calif., employs a genetically engineered listeria bacteria based on a strain created by coauthor and University of California, Berkeley, microbiologist