University of Pittsburgh researchers report results of first U.S. comparison study at the American Transplant Congress

A new organ preservation solution offers comparable results to a solution currently in widespread use but it is more cost-effective and has several logistical advantages that makes it more practical for keeping donated livers viable before being transplanted, conclude University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) researchers who performed the first U.S. study to comp

Most breast cancer patients with more than 10 nodes that are affected by the cancer have a poor prognosis, yet some survive long-term. Physicians now believe that certain genes in the breast cancer tissue, removed at diagnosis, can help them predict which patients will survive.

With this information, doctors can recommend the most appropriate therapy for an individual patient, for example sparing a woman with a poor prognosis the rigors that accompany aggressive chemotherapy, and enabling h

Research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests that the accurate diagnosis of early stage endometrial cancer requires that the abdominal lymph nodes always be removed and checked for signs of cancer. The recommendation extends even to women with tumors that seem to have the smallest risk of spread. The study will be presented June 2 at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in Chicago, Ill.

The study indicates that by examining the lymph nodes i

Theories abound as to why organisms favour sexual reproduction, but testing these has been notoriously difficult. A common view is that sexual reproduction helps to reduce the effects of damaging mutations within a population. Now researchers from the Rockefeller University have tested this premise, using careful measurements of bacterial populations, and provide evidence against it. The research published today in Journal of Biology examines how mutant bacteria respond to different forms of

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have begun unraveling the network of genes and proteins that regulate the lives of cells. The investigators compared the genome of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae (S. cerevisiae) to those of five other yeast species to identify all the locations at which molecules known as regulatory proteins attach to DNA to turn genes on and off. The study is published in the May 30 issue of the journal Science.

Among the many potenti

Scientists have discovered that seaweeds defend themselves from specific pathogens with naturally occurring antibiotics. The finding helps explain why some seaweeds, sponges and corals appear to avoid most infections by fungi and bacteria, according to a study published May 19 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“Seaweeds live in constant contact with potentially dangerous microbes, and they have apparently evolved a chemical defense to help resist disease,” said lead author

Protein could be used as a treatment for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s disease

A team of researchers from Imperial College London, the Charing Cross Hospital and University College London have identified a protein which could be used to protect against neuro-degenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, motor neurone diseases and the damage caused by strokes.

According to research published today in The Journal of Biologi

Assisted reproduction can safely help HIV positive men to become fathers without infecting their partners, according to new research from French fertility experts.

But, the news is not so good for HIV positive women. Assisted reproduction techniques do not seem to provide the same success for them, the researchers reported today (Thursday 29 May) in Europe’s leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction[1].

Dr Jeanine Ohl and her Strasbourg-based team carried out various

Scientists are using new imaging technology to help them perform “virtual biopsies,” – biological profiles of specific tumors that may help predict a patient’s response to treatment and probability of long-term survival. This whole new realm of imaging is called functional MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), a process that offers insight into a tumor’s character, not just its superficial structure.

Using functional MRI, Dr. Michael Knopp, a radiologist and a member of The Ohio State

A new approach to providing medication for adult diabetics (type 2 diabetes) that is not dependent on insulin has been developed by a doctoral student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. For his work, which he did for his Ph.D. thesis in pharmacology, Arie Gruzman was awarded one of this year’s Kaye Innovation Awards at the Hebrew University.

Unlike other conventional drugs that require active insulin-producing cells in the pancreas and that often fail to overcome a companion problem of

Virologists at Jefferson Medical College may have discovered a new way by which HIV, the AIDS virus, can evade both anti-viral drugs and vaccines.

Researchers had reported last summer that a protein called CEM15 is a natural inhibitor of HIV, acting as a brake on HIV’s replication. They also showed that an HIV-encoded protein, Vif, or Virion infectivity factor, counteracts CEM15. Vif, in effect, is a shield to protect HIV from a host cell’s defenses.

But how CEM15 worked was somet

Research from a team at the Swiss Ornithological Institute, to be published in a forthcoming Proceedings B, a learned journal published by the Royal Society, reveals complex effects of global warming on migratory habits of birds. These effects may constitute a serious threat to some species – in particular those with longer migratory flights.

Over the past two decades spring temperatures in temperate regions have increased. This effect, due to global warming, has advanced the start of the r

Early evolution of life as we know it may have depended on DNA’s ability to absorb UV light. This insight into the early moments of life on Earth comes from research published today in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology.

The research fills in one of the major gaps in our understanding about the origins of life: how single molecules were able to join together to create the self-replicating long chain molecules of RNA, the precursors of DNA. It “sheds new light on the earliest steps of evo

Genes come in pairs, one copy from your mom and one from your dad. In some genetic conditions, inheriting one bad, or mutant, gene copy from either parent is sufficient to cause disease. University of Iowa researchers have shown that it is possible to silence a mutant gene without affecting expression of the normal gene.

The findings suggest that the gene-silencing technique might one day be useful in treating many human diseases, including cancer, Huntington’s disease and similar genetic

Human beings may have made their first journey out of Africa as recently as 70,000 years ago, according to a new study by geneticists from Stanford University and the Russian Academy of Sciences. Writing in the American Journal of Human Genetics, the researchers estimate that the entire population of ancestral humans at the time of the African expansion consisted of only about 2,000 individuals.

“This estimate does not preclude the presence of other populations of Homo sapiens sapiens [mode

BU invention could ’sweeten’ diabetes therapy within five years

C.J. Zhong hopes that within the next three to five years diabetics the world could see their quality of life enhanced by his tiny invention-a chip-sized pump with no moving parts. The device is also expected to find its way into myriad industrial and environmental applications, where it could mean huge savings in manufacturing and monitoring processes.

Zhong’s patent on the low-power, electrically