Also found in humans – could explain why some get sicker than others

University of Michigan scientists have discovered a gene that turns a chronic inherited neurological disorder – which produces tremor and muscle weakness in laboratory mice – into a lethal disease that paralyzes and kills them within a few weeks of birth.

Called Scnm1 for sodium channel modifier 1, the gene is one of a small group of recently discovered modifier genes that interact with other genes to alte

Evolutionary biologists have developed a wide range of techniques to reconstruct the evolutionary history of particular groups of plants and animals. These techniques reveal much about the diverse patterns of evolution of life on earth, but few generalities have emerged, leading many scientists, such as the late Stephen Jay Gould, to conclude that each group of living things evolves in its own idiosyncratic manner. But now biologists at Washington University in St. Louis have proposed a general patte

Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have found that Hirschsprung disease, one of the most common genetic disorders, is caused by a defect that blocks neural stem cells from forming nerves that control the lower intestine.

Hirschsprung disease occurs in one in 5,000 live births and causes a potentially fatal disorder that prevents the proper transport of food through the gut. The new findings suggest that it might one day be possible to correct the disease by transplanting neural ste

A paper in Nature today (14 August) reveals that certain ocean viruses invade the cells of cyanobacteria (known as blue-green algae) and use the energy the cells produce through photosynthesis for their own purposes.

Researchers at the University of Warwick, led by Professor Nick Mann, have shown that when the viruses infect the bacteria they inject their genetic material into their host, a transfer that may be temporarily advantageous to the host.

Part of the injected DNA codes fo

The world’s smallest photosynthetic organisms, microbes that can turn sunlight and carbon dioxide into living biomass, will be in the limelight next week. Three international teams of scientists, two funded in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF), will announce the genetic blueprints for four closely related forms of these organisms, which dominate the phytoplankton, the tiny floating plants of the oceans. The work will be reported in the August 13 online issues of Nature and t

Multi-Species Approach Provides Unprecedented Glimpse Into Function and Evolution of the Human Genome

In one of the most novel and extensive comparisons of vertebrate genomic sequences performed to date, a team led by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) today reported results that demonstrate how such comparisons can reveal functionally important parts of the human genome beyond the genes themselves.

In a study published in the journal Nature, the researcher

Led by UCLA physiologist H. Ronald Kaback (Sherman Oaks), an international research team’s 12-year mission to solve the structure of an important protein has paid off. Kaback and his colleagues recently captured the three-dimensional structure of lactose permease (LacY), which moves lactose across the cell membrane of E. coli, a common bacterium.

According to Kaback, LacY is a model for a large family of related transport proteins, many of which are associated with human disease.

Researchers use new synthetic hydro-gel

Carnegie Mellon University’s Jeffrey Hollinger and his research team will receive $1.12 million over the next four years from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop a new therapy for regenerating bone.

Bone, often called the structural steel and reinforced concrete of the human body, supports the body the way a steel framework supports a skyscraper, and it protects its vital organs the way a cast-concrete roof protects

Every year, malaria kills as many as 2.5 million people. Ninety percent of these deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa, and most are children. While four species of the single-celled organism Plasmodium cause malaria, Plasmodium falciparum is the deadliest. Harbored in mosquito saliva, the parasite infects its human host as the mosquito feeds on the victim’s blood. Efforts to control the disease have taken on an increased sense of urgency, as more P. falciparum strains show resistance to anti-malar

Researchers at Ohio State found that endostatin has a dual effect on head and neck cancer cells – the compound prevented the cells from developing new blood vessels and also hindered the mechanism cancer cells use to migrate throughout the body and invade other tissues.

Head and neck cancers originate on the epithelium – the layer of tissue covering the outermost surfaces of the body, including the skin and mucus membranes. Kaposi’s sarcoma tumors arise from the endothelium, the cells that

Babies are more vulnerable to serious head injury during a fall than had been previously thought, according to new research that may also begin to help child abuse investigators distinguish between accidental and intentional injury.

Whitaker investigator Susan Margulies of the University of Pennsylvania found that rotational forces generated by a baby’s head hitting a hard surface can cause widespread, potentially serious brain injury. This can include internal bleeding, which can dama

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in the world today. With 4.9 million tobacco-related deaths per year, no other consumer product is as dangerous, or kills as many people, as tobacco. But with the adoption of a new, ground-breaking international treaty, the scene is now set to protect billions of people from the devastating impact of tobacco consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke.

May 21st 2003 was a historic day for global public health. At the 56th World Heal

They still don’t have a personality, and they’re waiting for the maturity call. Stem cells in our bone marrow usually develop into blood cells, replenishing our blood system. However, in states of emergency, the destiny of some of these stem cells may change: They can become virtually any type of cell – liver cells, muscle cells, nerve cells – responding to the body’s needs.

Prof. Tsvee Lapidot and Dr. Orit Kollet of the Weizmann Institute’s Immunology Department have fo

The most important antibiotics in general use today are the b-lactam family of products, but the medical community faces a serious problem with these antibiotics: the increasing development of drug resistance. The resistance is caused by hydrolysis of the b-lactam by a bacterial lactamase enzyme, but fortunately it can often be overcome by the use of a serine b-lactamase inhibitor in combination with the drug. This approach is successfully used already, for example clavulanic acid is used in combinat

Study suggests hope for better treatment of Alzheimer’s and stroke

Until now, scientists have been unable to distinguish between dementia caused by Alzheimer’s disease and that caused by poor blood flow to the brain. But, researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center have now used a combination of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and a related technique knows as MR spectroscopy to differentiate between the two kinds of dementia. Their work offers hope of improving the t

Developing more efficient ways of storing tissues and organs

Carnegie Mellon University’s Yoed Rabin and Paul Steif have received $1.3 million over the next four years from the National Institutes of Health to develop more efficient ways of storing transplant tissue and organs in cryogenic temperatures. Mechanical Engineering professors Rabin and Steif are working to improve techniques of cryopreservation, the process of storing biological materials in extremely low temperatures.