In amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), neighborhood may be everything, if a new study in mouse models of the disease holds true for patients.

ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, brings about a gradual death of the motor neurons that activate muscles. Paralysis follows. But according to work described today in the journal Science, the cells that are next to motor neurons — but aren’t themselves nerve cells — can play a major role in advancing or limiting the disease.

“What w

Gene expression profiling can help doctors accurately identify subtypes of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), according to the October 15, 2003, issue of Blood, the official journal of the American Society of Hematology. Diagnosing a subtype of ALL can allow physicians to customize a treatment program based on a patient’s likelihood of responding to therapy.

Pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia has a number of subtypes, each with unique cellular and molecular characteristi

Many women are concerned that hysterectomy may affect their sexual attractiveness, but a study in this week’s BMJ finds that sexual pleasure improves after hysterectomy.
Researchers in the Netherlands compared the effects of three types of hysterectomy (vaginal, subtotal abdominal, and total abdominal hysterectomy) on the sexual wellbeing of 413 women.

All women completed a questionnaire before and six months after surgery about their sexuality, frequency of sexual activity, and problems

To the average person, the turkey genome may seem to be a lot of “gobbledygook.” But a just-published study in the journal, Genome, will help to ensure that the turkey that we “gobble down” at our Thanksgiving feasts will be a bird that is truly best of breed.

For the first time, researchers from the University of Minnesota and Nicholas Turkey Breeding Farms in California have collaborated to produce the first genome map, or genetic blueprint, of the domestic turkey (Meleagris gallopavo).

Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have found a novel way to boost the paltry survival rate of cloned mammals: When two genetically identical cloned mouse embryos are combined, the aggregate embryo is considerably more likely to survive to birth.

A team from Penn’s School of Veterinary Medicine reports the results in the Oct. 1 issue of the European Molecular Biology Organization Journal.

“At the blastocyst stage, an early embryonic stage just prior to implantation,

Affymetrix Announces Commercial Launch of Single Array for Human Genome Expression Analysis

— More than 1 million probes analyze expression level of nearly 50,000 RNA transcripts and variants on a single array the size of a dime —

Affymetrix, Inc., (NASDAQ: AFFX) today launched its new GeneChip® brand Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array, offering researchers the transcribed human genome on a single commercially available catalog microarray. The HG-U133 Plus 2.0 Array analyzes

Airway scarring can be disrupted by targeting eosinophils

Researchers in London and Montreal report today that they have discovered an important link in the development of the body’s response to allergic asthma.

They have found that one type of white blood cell, an eosinophil, which was known to cause inflammation of lung airways, is also responsible for driving the process which leads to an excessive ‘repair response’ by the body.

The response, which is called air

The Brain Tumor and Air Pollution Foundation today announced the beginning of a research project led by an internationally renowned neurosurgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to explore a possible link between brain cancer and air pollution. The study will be led by Keith Black, M.D., director of the Cedars-Sinai Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute and Division of Neurosurgery in Los Angeles. The Brain Tumor foundation recently awarded $559,250 to the research project, with funding from t

Clemson University researchers have developed an injectable tissue implant that could be used to repair damage caused by breast cancer surgeries.

The work is headed by Karen Burg, a Clemson bioengineer just named to MIT’s Technology Review 100 top innovators list. Burg’s work with injectable transplants could one day provide breast-cancer patients a viable reconstructive surgical solution for damage left by lumpectomies and other invasive procedures. The implant, made of do

PENN researchers find how heme harms – And how to prevent the damage

Heme, the iron-bearing, oxygen-carrying core of hemoglobin, makes it possible for blood to carry oxygen, but researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have determined how free-floating heme can also make traumatic events worse by damaging tissue. The Penn researchers present their findings in the October 2nd issue of the journal Nature. Fortunately, the researchers also identified a chemical

New studies, ASTEROID and ORION, combine CRESTOR™ with cutting-edge imaging techniques, to be at the forefront of the fight against atherosclerosis

Details of two new studies announced by AstraZeneca at the XIIIth International Symposium on Atherosclerosis (ISA) could provide the clearest picture yet of the effects of statins on atherosclerosis, the main cause of coronary artery disease.

Each study is combining the highly effective statin CRESTOR (rosuvastatin) with cutting-

Researchers at McMaster University have turned a corner in the race to develop a vaccine for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

A breakthrough has come with the work by professor Jim Mahony who cloned the gene that marks an important nuclear protein of the SARS virus. A research team at McMaster then inserted the nuclear protein gene into an engineered common cold virus, or adenovirus vector, and will shortly test this in animals for the protective effects.

The team, headed

Airway scarring can be disrupted by targeting eosinophils

Researchers in London and Montreal report today that they have discovered an important link in the development of the body’s response to allergic asthma.
They have found that one type of white blood cell, an eosinophil, which was known to cause inflammation of lung airways, is also responsible for driving the process which leads to an excessive ’repair response’ by the body.

The response, which is

Immune responses in the skin are mediated by effector T cells migrating to the inflamed and injured area. Inhibition of this migration has long been an attractive, though challenging, basis for anti-inflammatory treatment strategies. The migration is regulated, in part, by the proteins E-selectin and P-selectin present within endothelial cells of the skin. In a new study, Charles Dimitroff and colleagues from Harvard Medical School introduce a new strategy for the inhibition of selectin ligand produc

More than a third of children who die from a particularly deadly form of leukemia would be saved if doctors used three existing drugs more aggressively – administering them at much higher doses and over a longer period of time. That is one of several important conclusions drawn from a long-term study, published in the October issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, that tested a high-dose drug regimen in 125 young leukemia patients and tracked their outcomes for an average of nine years.

An exciting and powerful service, using a new tool to investigate the genetics of human diseases, is announced today [1st October]. MRC geneservice, located in Cambridge, UK, is now able to supply researchers with fast and sensitive Affymetrix SNP genotyping in order to identify genome-wide linkage of diseases to particular markers in the human genome.

The GeneChipâ Mapping Assay kit from Affymetrix enables genotyping of more than 11,500 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on a single arr