The body’s own defences could be programmed to attack disease to order if two University of Leeds’ scientists succeed in proving their innovative theory.

Dr Graham Cook and Dr Erica de Wynter from the Molecular Medicine Unit have secured £125,000 to investigate the unique way antibody genes are assembled and how they can be harnessed to fight disease.

Scientists don’t often get funding for research where there is no preliminary data or background information but the pair have been f

A team of scientists, led by the Institute of Food Research (IFR) in the UK, has discovered an immune system malfunction that is likely to play a profound role in food allergy.

Food allergy can be life threatening, but understanding the cause has remained a challenge for science. The international team has found that two types of cells stop communicating. “Either they are not listening to each other or they stop talking”, said research leader Dr Claudio Nicoletti of the IFR. This means that

Hundreds of stretches of DNA may be so critical to life’s machinery that they have been “ultra-conserved” throughout hundreds of millions of years of evolution. Researchers have found precisely the same sequences in the genomes of humans, rats, and mice; sequences that are 95 to 99 percent identical to these can be found in the chicken and dog genomes, as well.

Most of these ultra-conserved regions do not appear to code for proteins, but may instead play a regulatory role. Evolutionary

Profos vervollständigt Bakteriophagenprotein Patentportfolio

Das Biotechnologieunternehmen Profos AG hat sich weltweit exklusive Patentrechte des britischen Institute of Food Research (IFR) und des Instituts für Mikrobiologie der Technischen Universität München zur gezielten Identifizierung und Zerstörung gram-positiver Bakterien mittels Bakteriophagenproteine gesichert. Damit hat Profos sein Patentportfolio wesentlich erweitert, das sich bisher bereits u. a. auf den Nachweis und die

The world’s oldest known modern hummingbird fossils have been discovered in Germany. The tiny skeletons are also the first modern-type hummingbird fossils ever found in the Old World. These creatures, with strikingly similar resemblances to today’s hummingbirds, lived in present-day Germany more than 30 million year ago. Although hummingbirds are currently restricted to the Americas, their long-extinct Old World “look-alikes” may have helped determine the shape of some Asian and African flo

Researchers comparing the human genome with the genomes of other species have discovered a surprising number of matching DNA sequences in a variety of vertebrate species, including the mouse, rat, dog, and chicken. The fact that these sequences have remained unchanged over long periods of evolutionary history indicates that they are biologically important, but for now their functions are largely a mystery.

Published May 6 by Science Express (the online edition of the journal Science), these

Dutch researcher Niels Cornelisse used computer models to study the electrochemical communication between cells from rat kidneys and cells from the pituitary gland of a toad species. He found many similarities in the coupling of chemical and electrical signals in these completely different cells.

Cells transmit electrical and chemical signals to other cells to coordinate the various cellular activities in the organism. Cornelisse made a mathematical model for the link between the chemical c

New research in two papers published this week in The Journal of Pathology gives greater insight into why the virus is so deadly, and shows that it could transfer from person to person via breath, urine, faeces and even sweat.

Searching for SARS

Scientists in China used markers that only bind to SARS-CoV to analyse tissues from four people who had died of the infection. They found the virus in the lungs, trachea/bronchus, stomach, small intestine, distal convoluted renal tubu

A review article in this week’s issue of THE LANCET discusses how autoantibody detection in the blood of healthy individuals could have potential as a marker for future autoimmune diseases such as Rheumatoid arthritis and Lupus syndrome.

Hal Scofield from the Oklahoma Research Foundation, USA, discusses recent evidence suggesting that autoantibodies (antibodies that attack the body’s own tissue) are often apparent several years before an illness becomes manifest. He cites recent research am

Further research will explore extent of genes’ role in sudden cardiac death

Imagine walking down the street, collapsing without warning and dying within minutes. According to the American Heart Association, about 250,000 Americans suffer sudden cardiac death each year, and half of them may have no prior warning. And, in 5 to 10 percent of all cases, these sudden cardiac deaths remain unexplained since the heart may have no visible abnormality.

In an effort to explore if

Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have found that a protein they discovered three years ago in the male reproductive tract is a potent anti-bacterial agent.

In addition to protecting the male against invading bacteria, the protein may aid fertilization by protecting sperm from harmful organisms encountered in the female reproductive tract.

A report of the study, now online, will be published in the July issue of the journal Endocrinology. Designated DEFB1

Looks can be deceiving, the saying goes, and the same can be said of animals in the marine environment. To the casual observer, it would appear that the mighty great white shark and the common tuna don’t have a lot in common. In fact, just the opposite is true, according to new research led by scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, and their colleagues in Germany.

In the first exploration of muscle dynamics in live lamnid sharks (a

If DNA can be compared to an architect who gets all the glory for designing the building, RNA can be compared to the engineer who often goes unrecognized, but is needed to turn the blueprints into a real three-dimensional, functional and safe structure. RNA has numerous functions in a cell, including translating the genetic blueprints found in DNA and catalyzing reactions in the cell to build proteins.

In order to carry out its functions, strands of RNA molecules will bind with other RNA mo

Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers at Harvard University have discovered that insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas that are attacked in type 1 diabetes are replenished through duplication of existing cells rather than through differentiation of adult stem cells.

Although the experiments, which were done using mice, do not rule out the possibility that there are adult stem cells in the pancreas, the researchers say that they do suggest strongly that embryonic stem cell

Results published in May 6 Issue of Nature

It has taken more than 50 years to accumulate the current body of knowledge on Escherichia coli, a bacterium which is one of the best studied organisms in biology. Now, bioengineers at the University of California San Diego have integrated this knowledge into the first genome-scale model of the gene regulatory system in E. coli. The computational model helps to define the rules governing cell function and quickly enabled an exponential increa

Genetic testing identifies illnesses that might be linked to our genes. It can help recognise hereditary diseases, tailor cures to an individual’s genetic make-up and develop new drugs. But its use also has important ethical implications.

At a conference on “Human genetic testing: what implications?” organised by European Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin in Brussels today and tomorrow, a High Level expert group will present a report and 25 recommendations on how genetic testing can be