Provides more information than conventional x-rays or other scanning methods

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, in collaboration with researchers at Rush Medical College, have demonstrated the effectiveness of a novel x-ray imaging technology to visualize soft tissues of the human foot that are not visible with conventional x-rays. The technique, called Diffraction Enhanced Imaging (DEI), provides all of the information imparted by conventio

Ravi Kane Receives Grant From the National Institutes of Health

Ravi Kane, assistant professor of chemical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, is designing brand-new molecules that may one day fend off an HIV infection. Bolstering the body’s molecular defenses is a novel method that may lead to highly effective treatments for HIV, the virus that can lead to AIDS.

Kane has received a two-year, $150,000 grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Di

An Oxford University study has found a gene which predisposes people to asthma and atopy, a form of hypersensitivity which causes allergies. This discovery, published on Sunday [18 May] online in nature genetics, has the potential to lead to better classification of asthma and to new treatments.

Asthma affects one child in seven in the UK and there are 155 million cases of the disease in the world today. Asthma and allergies run strongly in families and have a genetic basis.

Funded

The production of lariat RNAs is a key step in the biologically important process of splicing. Because splicing changes the protein that is made from a given gene, a fundamental understanding of splicing is critical for comprehending the connections between genes and proteins. The study of splicing, however, has been very difficult in part because lariat RNAs have been nearly impossible to make artificially.

Now, chemistry professor Scott K. Silverman and graduate student Yangming Wang at th

A bacteria-killing virus found in the feces of some sheep could help remove the dangerous foodborne bacteria Escherichia coli O157:H7 from livestock. Researchers from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington present their research today at the 103rd General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.

“Here we report a promising new natural way of reducing pathogen concentrations in livestock. This takes advantage of bacteriophages – bacteria-killing viruses, harmless to humans a

Study identifies potential target for diabetes drugs

Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have traced runaway sugar production in the liver – an important feature of diabetes – to flaws in a two-protein combination at the heart of a molecular switch that responds to insulin.

The findings, to be posted by the journal Nature on its Web site on May 18, suggest that drugs designed to block the interaction of the two switch proteins might be effective in treating diabetes,

MGH research suggests strategies for improving drug delivery to cancer cells

The best cancer drugs in the world are not much good if they cannot get to tumor cells. That problem has been challenging cancer physicians and researchers for years because the physical structure of many tumors can prevent anticancer agents from reaching their targets. In a study appearing in the June issue of Nature Medicine, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) describe a new technique for

A new anti-herpes agent derived from a common herb effectively treats and prevents the disease in animals. Researchers from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia present their data today at the 103rd General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.

“Prunella vulgaris [also known as self-heal] is a perennial plant commonly found in China, the British Isles, Europe, and North America. In herbal literature, P. vulgaris has been described as a hot water infusion to treat sores in the mou

The apparent increase in marine biodiversity over the past 50 million to 100 million years is real and not just a false reading produced by the inconsistencies of the fossil record, says a team of paleontologists led by the University of Chicago’s David Jablonski. This finding, published in the May 16 issue of the journal Science, may help scientists place the future of global biodiversity in its proper context. “If you want to understand what’s going to come in the future you need

As scientists create molecular complexes to perform increasingly minute operations — such as molecular level switches or memory devices — it is critical that the association forces that hold the molecular components together be accurately understood.

But measurements of association constants are often not accurate, according to an article by Virginia Tech Ph.D. student Jason Jones and chemistry professor Harry W. Gibson, published in May 15, 2003 online issue of the Journal of the America

The gene for an enzyme that is key to natural disease resistance in plants has been discovered by biologists at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research (BTI) and at Cornell University. The researchers say that by enhancing the activity of the enzyme they might be able to boost natural disease resistance in crop plants without resorting to pesticides or the introduction of non-plant genes.

The research, reported in the latest (May 16) issue of the journal Cell , describes the discov

Dutch PhD student Cathelijne Kloks has discovered that the so-called Cold Shock domain of the human YB-1 protein looks like a bucket with two extra ears. These ears lead the DNA to the binding site on the protein and keep it there.

Kloks investigated the structure and function of one of the three domains of the human protein YB-1. This protein plays an important role in the production of new proteins. The central domain, the so-called Cold Shock domain, ensures the binding of the protein to

Dutch chemist Ivan Buijnsters from the University of Nijmegen has successfully produced a diamond layer on a steel substrate. This opens up the possibility of wear-resistant tools. The secret to this technique is an adhesive layer between the steel and the diamond layer.

Buijnsters made diamond layers by allowing methane gas diluted in hydrogen gas to dissociate on a hot wire just above the substrate. The carbon atoms present in the methane dropped onto the substrate and formed a thin layer

The link between environmental tobacco smoke and coronary heart disease and lung cancer may be considerably weaker than generally believed, conclude James Enstrom of the University of California, Los Angeles and Geoffrey Kabat of New Rochelle, New York, in this week’s BMJ.

This study will add to the already controversial debate on the health impact of passive smoking.

Their analysis involved 118,094 California adults enrolled in the American Cancer Society cancer prevention study in

Painless bone substitute could offer new era for surgeons

In an operating room in Carle Hospital in Urbana, Ill., on May 7, as scientists from the University of Illinois (UI) and Sandia National Laboratories watched, surgeon Michael Goldwasser fitted a highly unusual ceramic prosthetic device into the mouth of an elderly woman who had lost most of her teeth and along with it, much of the bone of her lower jaw.

The fitting operation was to determine whether the implant – crea

Work published in Journal of Medical Genetics indicates break may lead to an understanding of an important piece of the puzzle

Researchers at the University of Alberta have discovered a genetic flaw in a family suffering with schizophrenia that may help to explain an important biochemical process implicated in the onset of the disease.
Studying a British mother and daughter, the researchers discovered that both were found to have a “break” in a large gene on human chromosome 14,