Working with blue crabs, biologists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have discovered what may turn out to be a previously unrecognized, fundamental and widespread support mechanism in crabs, lobsters, insects and other arthropods that periodically shed their hard external skeletons.

Doctoral student Jennifer R.A. Taylor and William M. Kier, professor of biology, have found that rather than being flaccid and mostly immobile after molting, crabs switch to what’s called

The University Fertility Consultants at the Oregon Health & Science University have successfully frozen human eggs that have resulted in the birth of a baby boy to a Forest Grove couple. It is the first successful birth using this method on the West Coast, according to David Battaglia, Ph.D., who utilized a technique that was developed in Bologna, Italy. He is also an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology. Egg freezing technology is just emerging as a viable option for patients and this bi

May be factor in human infertility as well as cancer and aging

Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) have discovered a gene mutation in mice that causes premature ovarian failure, a form of infertility affecting an estimated 250,000 women in the United States.
The investigators say the discovery will lead to unique animal models of premature ovarian failure (POF), or early menopause, useful for further studying the poorly understo

A study on mice suggests that a type of stem cells found in blood vessels may someday be able to regenerate wasting muscle in muscular dystrophy (MD) patients.

The authors caution that more research must be done before researchers consider applying these findings to humans. Nonetheless, their results provide a possible new direction for efforts that have met largely with frustration thus far. The study appears in the journal Science, published by AAAS, the science society.

For the first time, African Heads of State, the UN, the World Bank, DFID, The Global Fund, The Gates Foundation and other powerful actors are due to place HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis at the centre of their agenda in an open forum with the rest of the world.

In July 2003, the second annual Summit of the African Union will take place in Maputo to mark the changing of chairmanship from President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, to President Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique. This event

Researchers at the University of Virginia Health System have defined a molecular mechanism by which the activity of low-voltage-activated calcium channels can be decreased. Low-voltage-activated, T-type calcium channels are found in many types of tissue and alterations in their activity can contribute to several pathological conditions, including congestive heart failure, hypertension, cardiac arrhythmias, epilepsy and neuropathic pain. The findings will be published in the July 10 edition of Nature.

As the old Hawaiian love song says, tiny bubbles really do make some people feel fine. Chemists, that is. But there is no wine involved this time, just water.

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) chemists reported in the June 24 online edition of Langmuir that a process called microboiling shows promise for quick, simple and inexpensive chemical sensing. The process involves the formation of tiny vapor bubbles on a 200-nanometer-thick film of precious metal immersed in wat

New study discovers unusual structural features implicated in disease

A detailed analysis of the reference sequence of chromosome 7 has uncovered structural features that appear to promote genetic changes that can cause disease, researchers from the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium said today.

In a study published in the July 10 issue of the journal Nature, a multi-institution team, led by the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, reported it

Scientists have long thought gene exchange between individuals of unrelated species to be an extremely rare event among eukaryotes — the massive group of organisms that counts among its members humans, oak trees, kelp and mushrooms — throughout the group’s 2 billion year history.

But a new Indiana University Bloomington study in this week’s Nature suggests that such genetic events, called horizontal gene transfers, have happened more often than previously thought during the evol

Researchers from Cornell University have developed a miniaturized DNA-based biological testing system that fits on a silicon chip and can be customized to detect a wide variety of microorganisms. They present their research today at the American Society for Microbiology’s (ASM) Conference on Bio- Micro- Nano-systems.

The chip consists of two areas. The first area captures the DNA from the sample and purifies it. The second is a reaction chamber where a process called polymerase chain react

Today the Commission adopted a proposal for guidelines on EU-funded human embryonic stem cell research. The EU 6th Research Framework Programme (FP6 2003-2006), as adopted by the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament in 2002, allows for the funding of human embryonic stem cell research in relation to the fight against major diseases.

Such research, in particular when it involves the derivation of stem cells from human supernumerary embryos, can only take place within a fra

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers have discovered a prime regulator of the mechanism by which human cells migrate in health and in illness, a process crucial to sustaining life.

Their work helps explain how cells can stick to a surface long enough to pull themselves and move forward and then release that grip so that they can continue and not be anchored to one spot.

Cai Huang, a graduate student about to complete his doctorate in cell and developmental biolo

Doctors treating lung failure need to focus on the whole patient to improve the chance of patient survival. Research published on 9th July in Critical Care shows that the survival rate of patients admitted to hospital with lung failure alone is good, but diminishes if other vital organs fail.

Hans Flaatten and colleagues carried out the 30-month study on intensive care unit (ICU) patients at the Haukeland University Hospital, Norway. They followed 529 patients diagnosed with acute respirator

Difficulties that children with autism have in pointing and showing objects to other people may emerge from earlier problems with simple face-to-face interaction, according to new research sponsored by the ESRC.

Findings from a two-year study led by Dr Susan Leekam, of the Department of Psychology, University of Durham, could be important for understanding the early language and communication problems found in these children.

Dr Leekam said: “We have known for a long time that chil

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, in collaboration with investigators at five other centers, have finished sequencing human chromosome 7. The findings are published in the July 10 issue of the journal Nature.

Chromosome 7 is the largest human chromosome to be sequenced so far. The analysis revealed that the chromosome has about 1,150 genes and 940 so-called pseudogenes, stretches of DNA that closely resemble genes but contain some genetic change that prev

Agenix Limited [ASX:AGX, NASDAQ: AGXLY] today announced it had made a significant breakthrough in the detection of blood clots at Royal Brisbane Hospital.

Agenix’s blood clot imaging agent ThromboView® successfully detected a Deep Vein Thrombosis (blood clot in the leg) of a patient as part of a Phase 1b clinical trial.

“This is a very pleasing result,” said Dr David Macfarlane, co-investigator of the ThromboView® trial. “The medical world has been eagerly seeking a better meth