Scientists have discovered just how a genetic defect disrupts the cellular “garbage disposal” of a cell, resulting in a horrific childhood disease that kills most patients before the age of 25.

For nine years researchers have known the precise genetic flaw that causes Batten disease. But understanding how a straightforward mistake in life’s blueprint translates to a disease that ravages roughly 1,000 children in the United States each year has been a challenge. Now, in a paper in the D

Older men with lower levels of free, or unbound, testosterone circulating in their bloodstreams could be at higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD) than their peers, according to new research. This prospective observational study is believed to be the first to associate low circulating blood levels of free testosterone with AD years before diagnosis.

The study appears in the January 27, 2004 issue of the journal Neurology. This work was conducted by investigators at the Natio

A retrospective analysis by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center published in The New England Journal of Medicine found no causal relationship between testosterone replacement and prostate cancer or heart disease risk.

The comprehensive review of 72 studies, addresses the current controversy about testosterone replacement therapy and its potential health risks to men.

“We reviewed decades of research and found no compelling evidence that testosterone replacement the

Method has potential of changing the metal’s properties; many new applications possible

Researchers from the Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico have developed a new way of mimicking photosynthetic proteins to manipulate platinum at the nanoscale. The method has the potential of changing the metal’s properties and benefiting emerging technologies.

“While we are in the early stages of research, we see the possibi

Even well-studied proteins can reveal surprises. University of Iowa scientists have discovered a new enzyme activity for the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR). CFTR is the protein that is defective in cystic fibrosis, a common life-threatening genetic disease that affects primarily the lungs and pancreas of young people. The discovery, which appeared in the Dec. 26, 2003 issue of Cell, helps solve a long-standing puzzle about how this important protein works.

CFTR f

Operation time somewhat longer, but benefits seen

In the first-ever direct comparison of robot-assisted and traditional surgery for children’s heart defects, University of Michigan surgeons report that the robot’s help reduces patients’ recuperation time and surgery-related trauma and scarring, while extending the length of the operation by just over half an hour.

Their finding suggests that the minimally invasive surgical techniques made possible by the surge

Didn’t get your flu shot this season? A study published in the February 1 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases supports the efficacy of an adjunct to influenza vaccination.

Researchers examined the common influenza season scenario of a household in which a family member is infected with influenza virus. They found that when the family member with influenza was treated with the antiviral drug oseltamivir, post-exposure oseltamivir prophylaxis of all other family members significa

Statins and ACE inhibitors for peripheral arterial disease studied

The same drugs that help millions of heart patients can also aid people who have painful blockages in the blood vessels of their legs, new research from the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center shows.

Drugs called statins and ACE inhibitors can save those patients’ lives, or their limbs, if they take the medications before having a leg bypass operation, the study finds.

But the U-M rese

Incidental abnormalities detected in cancer patients by radiologists using positron emission tomography (PET) may signal new, unrelated malignancies, according to a study appearing in the February issue of the journal Radiology.

“The unexpected abnormalities we followed up on were significant,” said the study’s lead author, Harry Agress Jr., M.D., who is director of nuclear medicine at Hackensack University Medical Center’s PET center. “Approximately 71 percent of the lesions that

Kidney dialysis patients with higher cholesterol levels die at a lower rate than those with lower cholesterol levels, which is opposite of the general public. However, a study by researchers at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health determined that the lower mortality rate of those with higher cholesterol is likely due to the cholesterol-lowering effects of inflammation and malnutrition, two serious complications of kidney dialysis, and not a benefit of high cholesterol. The study is publ

Common and small mutation in the fragile X gene, once thought to have no health effects in male carriers, now linked to tremors, balance problems and dementia.

A team of researchers, led by physicians at the UC Davis M.I.N.D Institute, have discovered a new, progressive neurodegenerative disorder that predominantly affects men over age 50 and results in tremors, balance problems and dementia that become increasingly more severe with age.

A significant but currently unknown

Oxygen played a key role in the evolution of complex organisms, according to new research published in BMC Evolutionary Biology. The study shows that the complexity of life forms increased earlier than was thought, and in parallel with the availability of oxygen as an energy source.

In the largest study to date that does not focus on vertebrates, researchers from Pennsylvania State University used molecular dating methods to create a new timeline of eukaryotic evolution. By adding informatio

Scientists, led by NYU paleoanthropologist Katerina Harvati, use computer imaging techniques to settle the issue of the Neanderthal role in human evolution

In the most recent and mathematically rigorous study to date determining whether Neanderthals contributed to the evolution of modern humans, a team of anthropologists examining the skulls of modern humans and Neanderthals as well as 11 existing species of non-human primates found strong evidence that Neanderthals differ so greatly

C-reactive protein, already accepted as indicating a risk of heart disease, also participates in the process of atherosclerosis that narrows heart arteries, said a Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) researcher.

In a report that went online in the “rapid track” portion of the website of Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association, today, Dr. Lawrence Chan, chief of the BCM division of diabetes, endocrinology and metabolism, and members of his laboratory said that when mice genet

When someone’s spinal cord is completely severed, brain signals can no longer reach the legs to tell the legs to walk.

A study in this month’s journal Spinal Cord shows that those who have suffered a spinal cord injury can generate muscle activity independent of brain signals. Dan Ferris, now an assistant professor of kinesiology at U-M, led the research as part of his post-doctorate work with Susan Harkema at University of California Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medi

The Commission of the European Union has awarded 12,000,000 Euro to 24 bioinformatics groups based in 14 countries throughout Europe to create a pan-European BioSapiens Network of Excellence in Bioinformatics. The network aims to address the current fragmentation of European bioinformatics by creating a virtual research institute and by organizing a European school for training in bioinformatics.

Data overload is reaching epidemic proportions among molecular biologists. As genome-sequencing