One key to platelet integrin receptor found in transmembrane region

Integrin receptors allow cells to attach to other cells and to connective tissue which is necessary to form tissues, organs, or even people, for that matter. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have demonstrated that a key to activating αIIbβ3, the integrin that allows platelets to form blood clots, can be found in the part of the molecule embedded within a platelet’s outer

Results from Model-based functional genomics research provides new insight on the pathogenetic mechanism which causes diseases such as ALS

Ingenium Pharmaceuticals AG and a coalition of international research organizations announced today the publication in Science of research describing a fundamental discovery about the genetic and molecular basis for Motor Neuron Disease (MND), which includes Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). The research explains a key pathogenetic mechanism of

In the fall of 1952, Stanley Miller, now a chemistry professor emeritus at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), began simulating primitive earthly conditions in an experiment that produced the basic building blocks of life. When he published the results in Science on May 15 the following year, he kick-started research on the origin of life and transformed modern thinking on a dormant area of science.

Jeffrey Bada, a professor of marine chemistry at Scripps Institution of Oceanogr

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have created the first mammalian gametes grown in vitro directly from embryonic stem cells. The work, in which mouse stem cells placed in Petri dishes — without any special growth or transcription factors — grew into oocytes and then into embryos, will be reported this week on the web site of the journal Science.

The results demonstrate that even outside the body embryonic stem cells remain totipotent, or capable of generating any of the body&

Although cells generally tend to “stay at home”, they may sometimes wish to take a look elsewhere, and this wandering has a whole range of consequences. During embryonic development, cells must migrate to give birth to new tissues. This roving spirit is essential to the modeling of the future living organism. In contrast, when tumor cells acquire the capacity to move around and invade other tissues, there is a risk that metastases will develop, thus rendering the treatment of cancer more difficult.

The death of sensory hair cells when they try to multiply suggests need for caution in attempts to restore many kinds of lost cells through gene therapy

Researchers may have found a link between progressive hearing loss and a gene called p19Ink4d (Ink4d), according to results of a study that measured loss of hearing in mice lacking that gene. Normally, the Ink4d gene keeps healthy cells “quiet” – from inappropriately dividing.

Mice lacking the Ink4d gene become progressively

Solving a longstanding scientific puzzle, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have not only discovered how the body’s first line of defense against dangerous microbes inadvertently helps HIV rapidly infect the human immune system.

They’ve filmed the process as well.

In a remarkable series of movies created with images from time-lapse microscopy, UIC microbiologists Thomas Hope and David McDonald have documented how HIV enters human T cells, where it multip

Scientists at Bristol University have found evidence for a new protein in the heart that could one day aid development of new drugs to regulate the heart.

The ability of the heart to function as a pump that drives blood around the body depends on the electrical behaviour of muscle cells from various regions of the heart. Different cardiac regions have distinct electrical events, specialised for their particular roles in the heart.

While studying the electrical activity of he

ONR-sponsored Bonnie Bassler looks at bacterial communication

She thinks they’re everywhere. What’s more, she thinks they talk to each other.
But don’t snicker…ONR-sponsored Bonnie Bassler won a MacArthur Foundation ’genius award’ last year for her research on how some of the most deadly microbes we know – cholera, plague, TB, just to mention a few – communicate surprisingly well.

In her Princeton Lab, Bassler (and the rest of the microbiology community) calls it ’quor

Two papers in the May 1 issue of Genes & Development reveal unexpectedly widespread genomic binding by the Myc protein – prompting scientists to consider that this highly studied human oncogene may still have a few secrets to reveal.

Independent research groups led by Drs. Robert Eisenman (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center) and Bruno Amati (European Institute of Oncology) report on the first genome-wide analyses of in vivo Myc targets in the Drosophila and human genomes, respectively. As the my

As a fiber, spider silk is so desirable that scientists have spent decades trying to find a way to mimic it. A team at MIT has been tackling the problem from two directions.

“The main goal is to be able to reproduce the enormous energy absorption and strength-bearing properties of spider silk,” said Paula T. Hammond, an associate professor in MIT’s Department of Chemical Engineering. “[We want] to be able to obtain a material in large quantities and cheaply … without DNA techniques, which a

New knowledge will provide insight into organisms important to agriculture, medicine, the environment and commerce

In the April 24, 2003, issue of the journal Nature, scientists, including UC Riverside’s Katherine A. Borkovich, assistant professor in the department of plant pathology, and her postdoctoral fellow, Svetlana Krystofova, present the entire list of genes found in the Neurospora genome. (A genome is all the DNA in an organism, including its genes.) The scientists’ analysis

Lung injury due to infection, such as in sepsis, accounts for hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations a year. Sepsis occurs in 2 percent of hospital admissions and is associated with a death rate of about 50 percent. Many of these patients require ventilation to support their breathing, which may in itself produce additional injury to the lung. Yet, there are few available treatments for lung injury associated with sepsis or ventilation.

Now, scientists at Northwestern University have demo

Monoamniotic twins: An 8-year experience

With intensive and constant in-hospital fetal monitoring of monoamniotic (MA) twins, delivery can be delayed to beyond 34 weeks, and the live discharge rate can approach that of other twin pregnancies. This is significant because, historically, twins who shared a common amniotic sac had only about a 50 percent chance of both twins surviving. Those who did survive were typically delivered prematurely, resulting in a higher risk of severe health

By blocking a protein key to prostate cancer cell growth, researchers at the Lombardi Cancer Center at Georgetown University have discovered a way to trigger extensive prostate cancer cell death. This finding opens a new window for developing targeted treatments aimed at destroying prostate cancer cells before they have the opportunity to grow or spread. The study is published in the April 29 online issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

“By preventing the Stat5 protein from being a

Humans are not alone in creating ‘signposts’ to help them find their way, according to new research published in the open access journal BMC Ecology. Wood mice, say scientists, move objects from their environment around using them as portable signposts whilst they explore.

The finding is significant as this is the first time such sophisticated behaviour has been identified in any mammal except humans. According to the authors,

“This is precisely how a human might tackle the pro