Scientists zero in on five chromosome regions

Scientists at the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center, working with colleagues in the U-M School of Public Health, have significantly narrowed the range of chromosomal locations where they expect to find genes associated with age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

In a paper published in the March issue of American Journal of Human Genetics, Kellogg scientist Anand Swaroop, Ph.D., and his team of researchers have confirmed

The catastrophe that extinguished the dinosaurs and other animal species, 65 million years ago also brought dramatic changes to the vegetation. In a study presented in latest issue of the journal Science, the paleontologists Vivi Vajda from the University of Lund, Sweden and Stephen McLoughlin from the Queensland University of Technology, Australia have described what happened to the vegetation month by month. They depict a world in darkness where the fungi had taken over.

It´s known that an

One hallmark of most cancer cells is that they have the incorrect number of chromosomes, a state called aneuploidy. Now, researchers at the University of Virginia Health System, writing in a recent issue of the journal Current Biology, think they know how cells protect themselves from aneuploidy when they divide in a process known as mitosis. “During mitosis, the cell divides replicated chromosomes to two daughter cells. We are studying a mitotic system that ensures that each cell receives the right

Lengthy sequences of DNA — with their component triplet of nucleotides repeated hundreds, even thousands of times — are known to be abnormal, causing rare but devastating neurological diseases. But how does the DNA get this way? How does it go haywire, multiplying out of control?

In the current issue of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Sergei Mirkin, professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, explains the mechanism, providi

Two new studies, one to be published on 5 March 2004 in the journal Cell and the other published on 27 February 2004 in Molecular Cell, reveal a surprising relationship among the hordes of gene regulatory molecules that are the ultimate controllers of life processes. The surprise is that only a small portion of all genes–those needed to respond to emergencies–within a simple organism such as baker’s yeast are heavily regulated. Most other genes, in contrast, typically control more routine hous

Department of Energy-funded researchers at the Institute for Biological Energy Alternatives (IBEA) have sequenced microbes in the Sargasso Sea and have discovered at least 1,800 new species and more than 1.2 million new genes. The results will be published in the journal Science. IBEA researchers’ discoveries include 782 new rhodopsin-like photoreceptor genes (only a few dozen have been characterized in microorganisms to date).

“What excites the Department and our Office of Science abo

Geneticists at the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy (IGSP) and the University of Basel have unveiled the complete genome sequence of the pathogenic plant fungus Ashbya gossypii, which infects agricultural crops including cotton and citrus fruits in the tropics. The fungus has the smallest genome yet characterized among free-living eukaryotes. Eukaryotes are the single-celled and multicellular organisms that include fungi, plants and animals.

The team — led by Fred Dietrich, Ph

Every cell in the body has what James Spudich, PhD, calls “a dynamic city plan” comprised of molecular highways, construction crews, street signs, cars, fuel and exhaust. Maintenance of this highly organized structure is fundamental to the development and function of all cells, Spudich says, and much of it can be understood by figuring out how the molecular motors do the work to keep cells orderly.

Spudich, biochemistry professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and Stanford ph

Researchers create first movie starring DNA, RNA, and protein

In 1958, five years after he helped discover the double helix structure of DNA, Francis Crick coined the term “Central Dogma” to characterize the all-important cellular processes whereby DNA is “transcribed” into RNA and RNA is “translated” into protein. Since then, researchers have typically examined individual aspects of the Central Dogma in isolation, by developing separate systems for studying transcription or translati

News is usually good since most people overestimate their risk

A computer-based program can help people understand their estimated risk for colorectal cancer (CRC), according to an article in the April issue of Journal of Health Communication, co-authored by Neil D. Weinstein, Ph.D., professor in the department of human ecology at Rutgers University and associate investigator at the Arizona Cancer Center.

“Our program helped individuals better understand their true risk for

Saint Louis University study: We need clearer messages about what to eat

People would eat sweet potatoes on more days than Thanksgiving if Susie Nanney, Ph.D., acting director of the Obesity Prevention Center at Saint Louis University, had her way.

“People aren’t eating the fruits and vegetables that contain the most nutrients,” says Nanney, who is the author of new research in the March issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. “People are quite frankl

OHSU study finds patients with massive skin cancers improve overall quality of life after free tissue transfer surgery

Dorothy Fahland says she was as a typical blue-eyed blonde with freckles growing up on Long Island, N.Y. She spent her days playing on the beach and sailing with friends. “No one ever thought to wear sunscreen back then,” she said. “As a teenager, the goal was to get as tan as possible, so I was in the sun a lot.”

Today Fahland, 72, of Olympia, Wash., regrets

Long before a woman feels an ominous lump in her breast, Victoria Seewaldt, M.D., can test her for subtle signs that breast cancer may be brewing in a few errant cells amidst thousands of healthy ones. Never before has such a possibility existed, and Seewaldt is brimming with excitement.

“This is potentially the ’breast pap smear’ that we never had before,” said Seewaldt, a scientist and breast oncologist at the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center. “Just as we do with a cervical pap

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), coupled with the use of the contrast dye gadolinium, may help pediatricians better diagnose children with ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, according to a study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.

Results of the study, published in the March issue of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, showed that the gadolinium-enhanced MRI (G-MRI) confirmed these diagnoses in more than 90 percent of the children in the study who had inflammator

Scientists have believed for decades that the sequencing of the human genome would automatically yield the sequences of proteins, the functional products of genes, and thus lead to the unraveling of the mechanisms behind human cell biology and disease. However, a paper published in Science today by the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR) describes a novel cellular process that casts some doubt on the accepted paradigm of deducing a protein’s sequence from the DNA sequence of its gene.

A team of reproductive biologists from the United States and Japan has succeeded in fertilizing rabbit oocytes with “dead” freeze-dried rabbit sperm. The fertilized eggs continued to develop into embryos, some of which were transplanted into female rabbits.

The researchers—from the University of Connecticut, the University of Hawaii, and Hirosaki University—note that rabbit sperm share many similarities with human sperm, so their results suggest that the freeze-drying technique could be