When the gene, called Foxm1b, was deleted from liver cells in laboratory mice, the animals failed to develop tumors. Even when the researchers attempted to induce the formation of these tumors artificially, using a standard laboratory technique, the mice remained cancer free.

“To my knowledge, this is the first time a gene has been directly linked to the growth of cancer cells in live animals,” said Robert Costa, professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics in the UIC College of Medicine

Scientists have generated and begun to analyze the rat genome, paving the way for comparisons with the two other mammalian genomes sequenced so far — human, and mouse. The primary results of the Rat Genome Sequencing Project Consortium (RGSPC) are presented in the April 1 issue of Nature, and an additional thirty manuscripts describing further detailed analyses are contained in the April issue of the journal Genome Research.

The cover image of Genome Research (see end of release) was produ

Lab discovers way to keep short-lived catalysts active for longer than five months

Enzymes, the workhorses of chemical reactions in cells, lead short and brutal lives. They cleave and assemble proteins and metabolize compounds for a few hours, and then they are spent.

This sad fact of nature has limited the possibilities of harnessing enzymes as catalytic tools outside the cell, in uses that range from biosensing to toxic waste cleanup.

To increase the enzyme’s lon

Scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have designed a potential roadmap to use a biosynthetic pathway taken from a common microorganism to produce compounds that could serve as precursors to explosives or components in everyday devices such as liquid crystal displays or anti-cancer agents.

In a presentation at the 227th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Illinois doctoral student Wenjuan Zha reported how the fatty acid biosynthetic pathway of Brevibact

At the Curie Institute in Paris, CNRS researchers have discovered a new proliferation marker : the CAF-1 complex. Since deregulated cell proliferation is one of the most characteristic features of tumor cells, this discovery represents a breakthrough in the cancer field. The researchers from the Curie Institute have already validated the use of this complex as a tumor marker in the context of breast cancer, the most frequent cancer in women.

By combining this marker with other tumor indicato

Although it is tea that usually receives the favourable publicity as far as health benefits are concerned, contrary to popular belief, coffee may also be good for you! For the first time scientists have identified the antioxidants found in coffee in substantial amounts and they appear to be in a form that can be absorbed readily by the body. Professor Alan Crozier (University of Glasgow) will present his findings on Friday 2nd April at the SEB Annual Meeting at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh whe

The psychoactive ingredient of the drug cannabis exerts its effects on the human brain by activating proteins known as cannabinoid receptors. Dr. Maurice Elphick of Queen Mary, University of London has uncovered the first evidence that cannabinoid receptors may not be unique to humans and other vertebrates.

The genome of the sea- squirt was recently sequenced, revealing a cannabinoid receptor gene in an invertebrate for the first time. This means that these receptors were present in the com

Researchers identify first gene variant that appears to increase risk of autism in significant portion of the population

Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine are first to strongly link a specific gene with autism. While earlier studies have found rare genetic mutations in single families, a study published in the April issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry is the first to identify a gene that increases susceptibility to autism in a broad population.

Approximat

A first-of-its-kind x-ray microscope being built for the Advanced Light Source (ALS) of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) holds forth the promise of “cat scans” for biological cells, and other unprecedented capabilities for cell and molecular biology studies. The new microscopy resource also promises a better understanding of human diseases at the molecular level and possibly new discoveries for treating those diseases. Now, researchers with Berkeley Lab and the University of

Research in mice examines how embryo protects itself from oxidative stress

Mouse embryos missing a gene that aids in the repair of DNA damage are at greater risk of developing birth defects, say U of T scientists. The finding has implications for research into the cause of birth defects in humans.

The gene, also found in humans, produces an important protein called ATM which senses DNA damage caused by reactive oxygen species and directs other proteins to repair it. Reactive

Adding a small molecule, dubbed a “molecular midwife,” researchers increased the rate of DNA formation in a chemical reaction 1,000 fold over a similar reaction lacking a midwife. The discovery is an important step in the effort to trace the evolution of life back to the earliest self-replicating molecules. The results are reported in the April 2 edition of the German chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie.

“We are working to uncover how molecules similar to RNA and DNA first appeared on Earth

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI) and Stanford University report today the completion of the sequencing of human chromosome 19, the most gene-rich of all the human chromosomes. This achievement is described in the April 1, 2004 edition of the journal Nature.

“Culminating 18 years of research, this partnership exemplifies DOE’s commitment to advancing our understanding of the complex interplay between our human health and the environment,” said Energy S

Researchers at Northwestern University have devised a method to induce embryonic stem cells to develop into bone marrow and blood cells. Injecting the stem cells into the bone marrow cavity of mice whose bone marrow cells had been depleted restored production of blood cells, including cells of the immune system, which normally are created in the bone marrow.

As reported by Richard K. Burt, M.D., and colleagues in April issue of The Journal of Experimental Medicine, the method was effective e

Chemists at Ohio State University and their colleagues may have settled a 70-year-old scientific debate on the fundamental nature of ice.

A new statistical analysis mechanical theory has confirmed what some scientists only suspected before: that under the right conditions, molecules of water can freeze together in just the right way to form a perfect crystal. And once frozen, that ice can be manipulated by electric fields in the same way that magnets respond to magnetic fields.

Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered that a component in green tea helps kill cells of the most common leukemia in the United States.

The research using laboratory cell cultures shows that a component of green tea known as epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) [epi-gallo-cat-ekin-3-gal-ate] helps kill leukemia cells by interrupting the communication signals they need to survive. The findings are reported in an early electronic article in the journal Blood (http://www.bloodjournal.org/

Chewing gum may just be the latest in a growing list of functional foods

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have found that Big Red — the popular cinnamon-flavored chewing gum made by Wrigley’s — reduced bacteria in the mouth that cause bad breath.

The finding was presented at the recent annual meeting of the International Association for Dental Research.

Given that the gum contains cinnamic aldehyde, a plant essential oil used for flavorin