Amylin, a hormone secreted by the same cells that produce insulin in the pancreas, prevents bone loss, said Baylor College of Medicine researchers and an international group of collaborators in a report in today’s issue of the Journal of Cell Biology.

The finding may point the way toward treatments for osteoporosis, a disease of low bone mass that usually affects post-menopausal women but that is also observed in Type 1 diabetes patients, said Dr. Gèrard Karsenty, professor of molecular

A new tablet could hold the key for men who suffer premature ejaculation, reports Marina Murphy in Chemistry & Industry Magazine. Trials by a US company have shown the pill, compound LI 301, to have an effect on everyone tested. Trials suggest the drug starts working within two hours, so it could be taken on an as-needed basis.

Currently, there are no approved treatments for premature ejaculation. There is no definite date set for the release of LI 301 although some estimates suggest it coul

No matter how funny the joke, many women try not to laugh. They worry about coughing or sneezing unexpectedly, afraid the pressure on the bladder will cause a loss of control. Regardless of how recently they’ve been to the ladies’ room, many women feel the need to go again, victims of an “overactive” bladder that tends to contract even when it isn’t full. Unfortunately, many of these women – and those with other types of urinary incontinence – live in fear, frustratio

Researchers have successfully cloned a mouse using mature olfactory neurons as the genetic donor. The scientists credit the idea for the experiments to Woody Allen whose classic comedy Sleeper depicted scientists who try to clone a dead dictator from his nose.

The current study aims to answer longstanding questions about the developmental potential of mature cells. In doing their experiments, the researchers were seeking to determine whether a single mature olfactory neuron, when introduced

Scientists have created an unlimited supply of a type of nerve cell found in the spinal cord – a self-renewing cell line that offers a limitless supply of human nerve cells in the laboratory. Such a supply has long been one goal of neurologists anxious to replace dead or dying cells with healthy ones in a host of neurological diseases.

In this study, appearing in the March issue of Nature Biotechnology, the scientists then used the cells to partially repair damaged spinal cords in laborator

The fossil remains of early humans gave generations of scientists the clues needed to piece together much of our ancestral lineage. Chi-Hua Chiu now leads us into another dimension in the study of human origins: the underlying developmental and genetic processes that led to these remarkable evolutionary changes.

“To develop a better understanding of the genetic basis of human evolution, we must discover specific relationships between particular genetic changes and their resulting effects on

Advances in genetics during the last decade not only have influenced modern medicine, they also have changed how human evolution is studied, says an anthropologist from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Using her own research on the teeth of baboons as a case in point, Leslea J. Hlusko said that some of the traits considered important to human evolution, such as the thickness of molar enamel, may be too simplistically interpreted by some paleontologists.

Hlusko organ

The successful cloning of three mules and their excellent health is important to the horse industry, a University of Idaho scientist said Monday at Seattle.

More important is the potential human health aspects of the cloning project. Dr. Gordon Woods, UI professor of animal and veterinary science, said the work aided understanding of calcium’s role in cell signaling and possibly in the progression of human disease.

Woods, who directs the Northwest Equine Reproduction Laboratory

Since the advent of Darwinism in the mid-19th century, a variety of movements have jousted for the intellectual high ground in the epic evolution versus creationism debate.

At one end of the spectrum reside the “naturalistic evolutionists” who argue that life neither requires nor benefits from a divine creator. At the other pole, “scientific creationists” compress the entire history of the cosmos into 6,000 years and insist that the heavens and Earth and all life arose in one six-day creati

A group of scientists at The Scripps Research Institute has solved the structure of a protein that regulates the expression of genes by controlling the stability of mRNA — an intermediate form of genetic information between DNA genes and proteins.

“Gene expression can be controlled at many levels, ” says Scripps Research Professor Peter Wright, Ph.D., who is chairman of the Department of Molecular Biology and Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Investigator in Medical Research at Scripps Research.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), components of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), today launched the first public database of results from clinical blood and marrow stem cell transplants involving unrelated donors. Accessible at http://www.ncbi.nih.gov/mhc, this centralized resource provides genetic as well as age, gender and ethnicity data on more than 1,300 tr

Researchers have identified an astounding 4,000 distinctive proteins in human blood plasma, a critical step toward cataloging biological markers for early diagnosis of cancer and other diseases.

“This is 10 times the number of proteins identified” and previously reported, said Richard D. Smith, a senior scientist and Battelle Fellow at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The proteomics advance was announced Saturday at the American Association for the Advan

Diarrhoea, a worldwide killer, could be diagnosed more rapidly thanks to a new diagnostic test devised by researchers at the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England. It is anticipated that this will lead to the development of a device capable of diagnosis at the bedside, saving both lives and money.

The new test produces a chemical fingerprint for different strains of viral and bacterial infection and allows them to be differentiated from ‘normal’ controls, according

An observational study in this week’s issue of THE LANCET sheds more light on the theory that ageing is associated with a shortening of chromosomes in somatic (ie. non-reproductive) cells. Results of the study suggest that the gene responsible for telomere shortening is inherited via the X chromosome.

Previous research including a 2003 Lancet paper (Lancet 2003; 361: 393-95) has shown that the relative length of the ends of chromosomes (telomeres) is associated with age-related illness and m

Loss of restraint may contribute to lupus, other autoimmune disorders

When they’re not busy battling invaders, some of the cells that act as the attack dogs of the mouse immune system have to be kept on a genetic leash to prevent them from mounting inappropriate attacks on the mouse’s own tissues, researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found.

The findings, reported in this week’s issue of Science, are the first scientific p

In the world of molecules, DNA tends to get top billing at the expense of RNA, which is critical for turning DNA’s genetic blueprint into working proteins. Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have published significant insights into how the RNA molecule completes this task in two back-to-back papers in the Feb. 13 issue of Science.

All the genetic information contained in DNA is silent, said Roger Kornberg, PhD, the Mrs. George A. Wizner Professor in Medicine and