For some brain tumors, the key to success is not just what you know but who you know, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

In trying to develop a mouse model of neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1), a genetic disorder that predisposes children to certain types of brain tumors, the team discovered that tumors only developed when all brain cells were genetically abnormal, not just the cell type that becomes cancerous. The study is featured on the cover of th

Neuropeptide Y (NPY) is a neurotransmitter that is integral to neurobiological functions such as anxiety, pain, memory and feeding behaviors.

Researchers have found that a compound that blocks NPY activity decreases both the onset as well as the repetition of alcohol consumption.

These findings have important implications for the treatment of both alcohol abuse and dependence. Peptides are a class of neurotransmitters, chemicals used by brain cells to commu

AIDS immunisation is still to be improved. Russian scientists suggest that rectal vaccination could be the most effective prevention of HIV transmission. The work is supported by the Interdepartmental Research and Technical Program “Vaccines of new generation and medical diagnostic systems of the future”.

Researchers all over the world strive to obtain a vaccine preventing AIDS. Most promising are DNA-vaccines, which contain genes of human immunodeficiency virus. These genes function within

Microbes are everywhere, but when they are in mined soils, they react with the mineral pyrite to speed up acidification of mine run-off water. Scientists have been trying to understand the chemistry behind this process that eventually leads to widespread acidification of water bodies and deposition of heavy metals. What a new study has found seems to defy the laws of chemistry: microbes react with the pyrite surface, coating it with chemicals that would be expected to hinder further reactions. Despit

ADARs do more than alter codon sequence in RNA

Recent studies at the University of Utah suggest new ways of regulating the behaviors that allow us to smell food, learn, and remember.

Brenda L. Bass, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry at the U School of Medicine and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, and Leath A. Tonkin, a graduate student in her lab, published their findings in the Dec. 5 issue of the journal Science.

With the help of a tiny worm, C. ele

Scientists at UCSF’s Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center have identified a single brain protein that can account for most of the intoxicating effects of alcohol. The finding pinpoints perhaps the best target yet for a drug to block alcohol’s effect and potentially treat alcoholism, the scientists say.

The mechanisms by which alcohol acts on the brain are thought to be similar throughout the animal kingdom, since species from worms and fruit flies to mice and humans all become

New ’global’ technique a dividend of NSF’s Arabidopsis 2010 effort

A new “gene expression” map is helping scientists track how a complex tissue ultimately arises from the blueprint of thousands of genes.

Focusing on the root of a small flowering mustard plant, Arabidopsis thaliana, a research team led by Duke University biologist Philip Benfey created a detailed mosaic of cells showing where and when about 22,000 of the plant’s roughly 28,000 genes are activated within grow

Cells may help researchers in skin and hair therapies; tool can be used to find other body stem cells, including cancer stem cells

Researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at The Rockefeller University have discovered a new method to track and isolate elusive stem cells. The new animal model they developed was successfully tested by isolating and characterizing skin stem cells, but may also be valuable in searching for stem cells that produce the cells of the heart, pancreas

Researchers based at the University of Glasgow, using X-ray data collected at the Synchrotron Radiation Source (SRS) at CCLRC Daresbury Laboratory, have made a major advance in our understanding of the process by which sunlight is converted to food energy, without which life on earth could not exist. The work is published this week (12 December 2003) in the journal Science.

Green plants convert the sun’s energy to a usable form in a process called photosynthesis, which ultimately gives us al

Physicians can now identify overweight people at very high risk of developing heart disease, thanks to research published this week in BMC Cardiovascular Disorders. People who suffer from heart disease are more likely to produce smaller versions of a protein called apolipoprotein(a).

Being overweight increases your risk of suffering from heart disease. However other factors, such as having high levels of low-density lipoprotein in the blood, also play a role. Now it seems that the size of

Authors of a hypothesis article in this week’s issue of THE LANCET propose that the emergence of Crohn’s disease in the second half of the 20th century-the same time that domestic refrigerators became widely available-is no coincidence. The authors suggest that certain types of bacteria that can survive in refrigerated food may be implicated in Crohn’s disease.

Crohn’s disease is thought to be caused by environmental factors (diet, lifestyle, smoking) among genetically susceptible individua

Researchers at Johns Hopkins say that combining various types of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging techniques more accurately sorts cancers from benign masses in breast tissues than any single imaging techniques. Their findings are presented in the October issue of Radiology.

Magnetic resonance imaging scanners can be calibrated to take images that highlight a specific type of human tissue. For example, so-called T1-weighted imaging sequences are best at imaging fatty tissues, while T2-weight

The introduction and widespread use of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) for HIV-infected persons in San Francisco in the late 1990s reduced their risks of infecting partners by 60 percent, according to a study conducted by researchers from the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) and UCSF.

“While we found that antiretroviral use alone may account for a 60 percent reduction in risk of HIV transmission, a concurrent increase in risk behavior meant that rates of new in

IBM collaborated on the industrial design and is manufacturing the new medical device

Mayo Clinic today announced it has developed a series of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) devices that make it easier to diagnose injuries and diseases that affect wrists, forearms, elbows, hands and fingers. Mayo has obtained FDA approval to market and commercialize these devices, making them available to other medical centers nationwide.

Named Mayo Clinic BC-10 MRI Coils, these devices ar

Results from the EU-funded BIONIC EAR project will be presented by the European Commission at this year’s annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB). The meeting opens tonight in San Francisco

The European Union is funding the 4-year BIONIC EAR project with €1.53 million out of a total budget of €2.77 million . BIONIC EAR looks into ways of repairing the inner ear whose hair cells are damaged by trauma, antibiotics or ageing, thus resulting in an irreversible

Populations of several European passerines that winter south of the Sahara have undergone a marked decline. The causes of negative population trends are largely unknown, but ecological conditions during winter in Africa may have carry-over effects during northward spring migration and reproduction.

In the January issue of Ecology Letters, Saino, Szép, Romano, Rubolini, and Møller analyse the effect of ecological conditions in the winter quarters on timing of arrival of barn swallows (Hirund