For the first time, Imperial College London researchers at the Hammersmith Hospital studying a rare bone marrow disease have found an association between ’telomere shortening’ – changes in the lengths of DNA repeats at the end of chromosomes – and the time of development and severity of disease symptoms in patients.

Reporting in Nature Genetics today (18 April 2004), the Hammersmith team, collaborating with scientists at the Washington University School of Medicine in the USA, is

The phrase “biological clock” has expanded from scientific observation to American slang. When we hear this phrase, many of us assume it refers to the amount of time left for a woman to start a family. For the scientist, the biological clock refers to a process that took millions of years to evolve – the conditioning of plants and animals by a light cycle that starts with dawn and ends with sunset.

The cycle of dawn and dusk changes with the seasons everywhere in the world (except at the eq

New target blocks B-ALL, boosts Gleevec’s effectiveness against CML in mice

Three years ago, using the first of a new class of drugs known as “small molecule kinase inhibitors,” medicine slammed shut a door used by cancer. Researchers at The Jackson Laboratory just found another door that kinase inhibitors may close to cancer.

The gene BCR-ABL1 causes two types of leukemia: chronic myelogeneous leukemia (CML) and B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL). In both canc

Researchers find drug that may suppress genetic mutation using a novel screening approach

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have developed a way of identifying promising new drugs that may get around a major challenge in drug discovery. In the May issue of Nature Biotechnology the team from the MGH Cardiovascular Research Center (CVRC) describes using an animal model to screen for a compound that suppresses a serious genetic mutation. Their success did not rely on first i

Johns Hopkins scientists report that restricting the shape and personal space of human stem cells from bone marrow is more important than any known molecular signal in determining the cell type they become.

Understanding the signals that tell stem cells what type of cell to become, and then harnessing those cues to get a single desired cell type, is key to any effort to use these or more primitive embryonic stem cells to regenerate or repair damaged tissue.

In the April issue of D

Key decisions in the genetic shuffling that occurs before eggs or sperm are formed are made earlier than thought, rewriting textbook genetics, according to recent papers from researchers at UC Davis, Harvard University and UC San Diego.

For sexual reproduction to occur, organisms have to form gametes (in animals, gametes are eggs or sperm) with half the usual number of chromosomes, so that when two gametes fuse during fertilization the offspring will have an equal genetic contribution from

Nightmares of doctors or dentists with oversized hypodermic needles could soon be a thing of the past. A new painless way of delivering drugs through the skin is described in the journal BMC Medicine this week – and needles are not involved.

The technique, called microscission, uses a stream of gas to bombard small areas of the skin with tiny crystals of inert aluminium oxide. The sharp particles remove the rough surface-layer of the skin, and create tiny holes, known as microconduits, in t

Patients with inflammatory diseases such as arthritis, chronic infections and some types of cancer, often become anemic – a condition called anemia of chronic disease (ACD). While ACD rarely kills patients, it can make their lives miserable. A discovery at EMBL, in collaboration with researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School, now links the gene HFE to ACD. The HFE gene is mutated in patients suffering from the common iron overload disease hemochromatosis. This finding gives

Speaking at Experimental Biology 2004, Dr. Mina Bissell describes research showing how manipulation of the extracellular matrix (a network of fibrous and globular proteins that surrounds breast cells) of non-malignant breast cells can lead to genomic instability via oxidative damage. She describes how manipulation of the microenvironment can allow malignant breast cancer cells to revert to normal cells again. She also describes how the tissue culture of the extracellular matrix affects the cancerous

Testing for DNA changes in stools might provide a new, accurate, and less invasive way to screen patients for colorectal cancer, conclude the authors of a research letter in this week’s issue of THE LANCET.

Colorectal cancer is one of the most common cancers in the industrialised world, and early detection might help to reduce the risk of death from the disease. However, although several methods of detection are available, these procedures are either uncomfortable for the patient or

Researchers from Taiwan report the identification of a new form of drug-resistant salmonella bacterium in this week’s issue of THE LANCET.

Salmonella enterica serotype choleraesuis usually causes infections that require antimicrobial treatment. Multidrug-resistant strains have been identified, but the antimicrobial ceftriaxone has been effective against them so far.

Professor J T Ou, from Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Taoyuan, Taiwan, and colleagues isolated a s

A study showing how the expression of genes changes when the brain tissue of fruit flies becomes cancerous is published this week in BMC Genomics. As the function of many of these genes is conserved across evolution, the researchers expect their results will help us to understand why human brain tumors develop.

The causes of brain tumor development are largely unknown. To investigate this question, researchers from University of Basel, Switzerland and University of Freiburg, Germany, used mi

Results of a small trial in this week’s issue of THE LANCET suggest that electrical stimulation of the sacral nerve could be a future treatment option for faecal incontinence.

Anal incontinence affects an estimated 2% of the general population. Prevalence rises with age, affecting up to 11% of men and 26% of women after age 50 years. Treatment options are limited for patients with faecal incontinence in whom conservative treatment (eg, alterations to diet, pelvic-floor exercise to increase

A breast cancer treatment based on MIT radar research that was originally aimed at detecting space-borne missiles is showing promise in the final phase of clinical testing.

Preliminary results to be presented on Wednesday, April 21 at the 9th International Congress on Hyperthermic Oncology in St. Louis show that women with early-stage breast cancer who received the MIT treatment prior to lumpectomy had a 43 percent reduction in the incidence rate of cancer cells found close to the surgica

New insights into how tumours neutralise CD8 T cells, and a strategy for overcoming the tumour’s response to attack.

It has long been recognised that the immune system is able to recognise and destroy cancer cells, but although the immunological battle might slow the progression or spread of cancer, it’s usually the cancer that eventually wins the war. Scientists have speculated that this may be because the immune response is not strong enough, or because it does not last long enough

Each year over 50,000 patients undergo life-saving kidney, liver, or heart and lung transplant surgery. Unfortunately, organ transplantation remains a significant challenge because of the shortage of organ donors and differences in tissue type between donor and recipient that can cause rejection of the donor organ by the recipient’s immune system. If this rejection reaction is not successfully treated through the administration of immunosuppressive drugs, the donor organ is normally destroyed wi