The identification and duplication of a gene that controls production of plants’ outermost protective coating may allow Purdue University researchers to create crops with increased drought resistance.

Scientists cloned the gene WAX2 after they discovered a fast-wilting mutant of Arabidopsis, a commonly used experimental plant. The gene is directly associated with the synthesis of the protective layer of plants, called the cuticle, and its contained waxes, according to the study publ

A study of a common wild mouse by two University of Illinois at Chicago biologists has found evidence of dramatic evolutionary change in a span of just 150 years, suggesting genetic evolution can occur a lot faster than many had thought possible.
The findings are the first report of such quick evolution in a mammal and appear in the May 22 issue of the journal Nature.

Oliver Pergams, a conservation biology researcher with the Chicago Zoological Society in Brookfield, Ill. and visiting

Almost every week we hear of a new genome sequence being completed, yet turning sequence information into knowledge about what individual genes do is very difficult. An article published in Journal of Biology this week will simplify this task, as it describes a new online tool that dramatically improves predictions of how individual genes are regulated. Dr. Wyeth Wasserman and his team have created this powerful new two-step method for identifying which regulators of gene expression, called

An innovative medical discovery that has the potential to vastly improve the lives of people suffering from coronary artery disease was implanted today in the first human patient. The antibody coated stent, developed by Dr. Michael Kutryk, a cardiologist and clinician scientist with St. Michael’s Hospital and assistant professor, University of Toronto, was implanted into the first human patient at Thoraxcenter, University Hospital Rotterdam in Holland. The procedure was transmitted via a live fe

An enzyme crucial to formation of Alzheimer’s plaques and tangles may hold promise as a target for future medications, suggest studies in mice and cells. By blocking the enzyme, lithium stems the accumulation of beta amyloid, which forms Alzheimer’s plaques, scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) report in the May 22, 2003 Nature. Inhibiting the enzyme, glycogen synthase kinase – 3 alpha (GSK-3 alpha), also blocks formation of neurofibrilary tangles by the tau protein.

One-year study shows diet may be as effective and safe as conventional diets

A 3-center study led by researchers at the Weight and Eating Disorders Program of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine reports the results of the first controlled trial of the Atkins Diet. The Atkins Diet limits carbohydrates but permits unrestricted amounts of protein and fat. Compared to a conventional, high- carbohydrate, low-calorie approach, Atkins dieters lost twice as much weight at 3 and

A microbiological survey of households finds little significant difference in levels of bacteria or antibiotic resistance between those that use antibacterial cleaning products and those who do not. Researchers from Tufts University School of Medicine report their findings today at the 103rd General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.

“The use of biocides, also called antibacterials, has become increasingly popular for regular household use. While originally developed to contr

ESA telemedicine technology enables specialist physicians to perform detailed patient consultations from hundreds of kilometres away.

High-resolution video images and data signals sent via satellite links have already made ’’teleconsulting’’ a routine procedure in one part of Europe. The Agency’’s involvement with satellite telemedicine began back in 1996, when ESA provided a satellite communication system to link Italian hospitals with a field hospital in Sarajevo in Bosnia, enablin

Feeding birds display similar habits to human consumers shopping for food, according to research published in the current edition of the Proceedings of the Royal Society.

A two-year study has discovered it is possible to influence hummingbirds’ choice of food by changing the options available to them, in the same way supermarkets can manipulate customers’ preferences by clever positioning of products.

The study is published in the current edition of Proceedings of the Royal Society

Using a laser range-finder, neurobiologists have scanned real-life scenes to gather millions of distance measurements to surfaces in each scene — analyzing the mass of data to explain a series of long-known but little-understood quirks in how people judge distances.

The measurements reveal, for example, that the tendency of people to estimate the distance of isolated objects as being six to 12 feet away arises because that is the average distance of actual objects and surfaces in the visual

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have designed a new way to make vaccines against drugs of abuse that could become a valuable tool for treating addiction by helping the body clear the drug from the bloodstream.

The latest vaccine they created using this approach induces the body to clear nicotine.

“These new vaccines greatly suppress the reinforcing aspects of the drug,” says principal investigator Kim D. Janda, Ph.D. “Blocking it before it gets to the brain–th

A new antibiotic appears effective against deadly strains of tuberculosis resistant to nearly all currently available treatments for the infectious disease. The antibiotic, called linezolid, recently saved the lives of four women and one girl who were gravely ill with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis and who were hospitalized at Bellevue Hospital in New York City, according to a report by physicians at NYU School of Medicine. The patients, ranging in age from 10 to 54, were resistant to at least eigh

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) may damage more of the intestine than previously thought, according to images taken by a swallowable, capsule-size camera pill used in a Baylor College of Medicine study.

According to the study, announced today at the Digestive Disease Week 2003 conference in Orlando, capsule endoscopy detected NSAIDs-related injury in the small bowel, an area of the gastrointestinal tract unreachable by other diagnostic tools such as endoscopes. The tool detec

Compounds found in tea can stop the growth of bacteria that cause bad breath, according to researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Polyphenols, chemical components of tea, prevent both the growth of bacteria responsible for bad breath and the bacteria’s production of malodorous compounds, the UIC researchers found. The findings were presented today at the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Washington, D.C. by Christine Wu, professor of periodonti

USC researchers find ways to improve effectiveness against tumors

Researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California have isolated a protein fragment derived from the cancer immunotherapy drug interleukin 2 (IL-2) that seems to enhance the uptake of chemotherapeutic agents into tumors.

In fact, says Alan Epstein, M.D., Ph.D., professor of pathology at the Keck School of Medicine, when this patented protein fragment is attached to a tumor-ta

University of Colorado at Boulder researchers have discovered four new kingdoms of life in the high alpine environment of Colorado, findings that have potential applications in the fields of agriculture and global change.

Doctoral student Allen Meyer and Professor Steven Schmidt of the environmental, population and organismic biology department discovered the new microbe kingdoms in barren, boulder-filled tundra slopes west of Boulder.

At altitudes of 11,000 feet to 13,000 feet in