Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered genetic mutations in heart patients that make them vulnerable to heart failure because they produce an abnormal protein that can’t decode stress messages from the body.

Mayo researchers are the first to realize that these proteins do not recognize the stress alarm. As a result, they can’t properly respond to cue adjustments within the heart that normally manage stress. These defects make the heart muscle susceptible to damage. The Mayo Clini

A device invented at Ohio State University has dramatically boosted the production of a chemical that performs tasks as diverse as scenting perfume and flavoring Swiss cheese.

Engineers here have used their patented fibrous-bed bioreactor to genetically alter a bacterium so that it produces 50 percent more of the chemical propionic acid than the organism produces normally. And it did so without the aid of chemical additives employed in industry.

The device also reduced the amount of

Purveyors of snake oil and its mythical powers may not have had it all wrong, if preliminary findings with the Florida cottonmouth, bloodstains and a washing machine stay on target.

An enzyme extracted from the viper’s venom appears to help launder out notoriously stubborn blood spots on clothing, according to a report presented here today at the 227th national meeting of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

“We have partially isolated a

Virginia Tech students and faculty members are creating releasable coatings and thin films using the same chemistry that nature uses to bind the double helix of DNA.

They will present their research at the 227th national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Anaheim, Calif., March 28-April 1, 2004.

“We are coating a patterned surface with accepting molecules then applying donating molecules – that is, using molecular recognition — to create a molecular zipper,” explains Tim

A multi-university research team led by Virginia Tech University Distinguished Professor of Chemistry David G.I. Kingston has succeeded in enhancing the structure of paclitaxel (Taxol™) to make it more effective in killing cancer cells.

Having determined how paclitaxel fits into a cancer cell’s reproductive machinery, the team is optimistic that simpler molecules can be designed as future medicines.

Kingston will present the research that brought the team to this point a

Developing electronic paper that can be written on and then erased with the touch of a button is a challenge. Sometimes the ink must adhere to the paper and other times bead up.

Getting it just right requires knowing how, on a molecular level, the liquid ink interacts with the solid paper.

Now Jeanne E. Pemberton has clarified why changing the electrical charge on electronic paper affects how well ink will stick.

The finding will further efforts to make a reusable tablet

Researchers at Brown Medical School in Providence, R.I., have reported that stent placement should be considered the standard of care for treating patients with abnormal circulation, or “ischemia” to the legs, due to obstruction of the iliac arteries. The iliac arteries are large arteries in the pelvis that supply blood to the legs. The study appears in the April issue of the journal Radiology.

Lower-extremity ischemia, a type of peripheral vascular disease (PVD), occurs when arteries in th

A pilot study using radiofrequency (RF) ablation to treat small breast cancers has found the procedure feasible and safe, according to an article appearing in the April issue of the journal Radiology.

“This study has added another potential weapon to the breast cancer treatment arsenal,” said the study’s lead author, Bruno D. Fornage, M.D., who is a professor of radiology and surgical oncology at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

RF ablation tre

Researchers tap modified plant viruses to ward off cervical cancer-causing infections; and a Pied Piper progesterone receptor antagonist leads breast cancer cells toward death

New vaccinations to prevent infections that lead to cervical cancer and targeted therapeutics aimed at breast cancer were examples of research highlights presented by scientists today at the 95th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. Scientists described advances that feed into the drug

Stem cells that act as seek-and-destroy missiles appear to be able to find cancer wherever it hides out – at least, so far, in animals.

This novel approach at gene therapy, reported by researchers from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, may have use in a wide variety of both solid and blood cancers.

“This addresses our great need for cancer gene therapies aimed at curbing the metastatic spread of cancer cells,” says Michael Andreeff, M.D., Ph.D., professor in th

The blood-sucking ticks that spread microbes, causing disease in livestock and people, are very sensitive to the weather. So different sorts of microbes cycle between ticks and their hosts in the UK and in other parts of Europe where the summers are warmer and drier. This has obvious implications for the possible effects of global warming on the spread of vector-borne diseases, such as malaria, Oxford University scientists said today, Monday 29 March 2004, at the Society for General Microbiology’s meet

Yet another extraordinary ability of the active ingredient in aspirin, salicylic acid, has just been identified by plant scientists working at the University of Cambridge, researchers heard today, Monday 29 March 2004, at the Society for General Microbiology’s meeting in Bath.

“We all recognise its bitter taste and pain-killing abilities, but the importance of the active ingredient of aspirin, called salicylic acid, is even greater”, says Dr John Carr of the Department of Plant Sciences

Viruses, often able to outsmart many of the drugs designed to defeat them, may have met their match, according to new research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The findings show that the introduction of a harmless molecule that uses the same machinery a virus needs to grow may be a potent way to shut down the virus before it infects other cells or becomes resistant to drugs. The results are published in the March issue of the journal, Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

A group of scientists at The Scripps Research Institute, at the University of California in San Diego, and at the Oregon Hearing Research Center and Vollum Institute at Oregon Health & Science University have discovered a key molecule that is part of the machinery that mediates the sense of hearing.

In a paper that will appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Nature, the team reports that a protein called cadherin 23 is part of a complex of proteins called “tip links” that are on hair ce

Protein hydrogels can be genetically engineered to promote the growth of specific cells

Johns Hopkins University researchers have created a new class of artificial proteins that can assemble themselves into a gel and encourage the growth of selected cell types. This biomaterial, which can be tailored to send different biological signals to cells, is expected to help scientists who are developing new ways to repair injured or diseased body parts.

“We’re trying to give an

Fluorescent nanoparticles that can be attached to biological molecules are being developed for use in microscopic sensor devices. Philip Costanzo, a graduate student in chemistry at UC Davis, and Timothy Patten, associate professor of chemistry, have prepared nanoparticles of cadmium sulphide and silicon dioxide coated with polymer chains with biotin attached to the ends. When avidin, a protein that binds to biotin, is added, the nanoparticles cluster into larger aggregates. The researchers used dyna