A deactivation of the immune system in patients infected with HIV could be one way to inhibit progression to the immunodeficiency diseases associated with AIDS, researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and Emory University report.

A study comparing the effects of immunodeficiency virus in humans to its effects in sooty mangabey monkeys, which do not become ill when infected, revealed two major differences in the monkeys’ responses to the infection. The findings could o

Opiates and cannaboids, apart from being drugs, have curative properties. Thus, opiates (morphine, methadone, etc.) have been used for some time as a pain-reducer and many cannaboids have also analgesic properties.

Regarding their curative aspects, it is very important to know the effects produced after a prolonged period of treatment. Carrying out this analysis with opiates and cannabinoids, two important problems arise: given that they are drugs, they create psychological dependency and, i

Scientists at Rockefeller University and Weill Medical College of Cornell University have discovered how estrogen initiates physical changes in rodent brain cells that lead to increased learning and memory — a finding, the researchers contend, that illustrates the likely value of the hormone to enhance brain functioning in women.
Their study, published in the March 15 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience, describes for the first time a chain of molecular events that is activated in the brain&#1

Imagine a mask that could allow a person to breathe the oxygen in the air without the risk of inhaling a toxic gas, bacterium or even a virus. Effectively filtering different kinds of molecules has always been difficult, but a new process by researchers at the University of Rochester may have paved the way to creating a new kind of membrane with pores so fine they can separate a mixture of gases. Industries could use these types of membranes for extracting hydrogen from other gases for fuel cells tha

Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania and the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia have found that exposure to male perspiration has marked psychological and physiological effects on women: It can brighten women’s moods, reducing tension and increasing relaxation, and also has a direct effect on the release of luteinizing hormone, which affects the length and timing of the menstrual cycle.

The results will be published in June in the journal Biology of Reproduction and

Fox Chase Cancer Center researchers and their colleagues have developed a mouse model of the most prevalent and deadly form of human ovarian cancer — epithelial ovarian cancer. The mouse model provides a better opportunity to study the cause of ovarian cancer, examine the genes involved and test preventive, diagnostic and treatment approaches that could be applied to human ovarian cancer.

“These transgenic mice offer us a valuable scientific tool that never before has been available to ova

Scientists from Imperial College London, the University of Leicester, and Hammersmith Hospital have found a way to stop certain types of genetic diseases from occurring by modifying the way DNA is turned into proteins.

The research published in this month’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Science shows how the researchers have been able to restore proper expression of defective genes, and that this might potentially have a positive effect in genetic diseases such as spina

Study may open way to using bone marrow stem cells as diabetes treatment

In a finding that may open a new avenue to treating diabetes, researchers show that cells from the bone marrow give rise to insulin-producing cells in the pancreas of mice. These morphed cells actually produce the hormone insulin in response to glucose and display other characteristics demonstrating that they truly function as pancreas cells, according to a new study by researchers from NYU School of Medicine.

New data suggests that a novel molecule appears to be involved in the intestine’s response to infection. The study was a collaboration between researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Institut Curie in Paris. It appears in the March 13 issue of the journal Nature.

“This is the first identified function for this molecule,” says co-senior author Susan Gilfillan, Ph.D., research instructor in pathology and immunology at the School of Medicine. “Our findings s

The Goualougo Triangle, nestled between two rivers in a Central African rain forest, is so remote that primate researchers who traveled 34 miles, mostly by foot, from the nearest village through dense forests and swampland to get there, have discovered a rare find: chimpanzees that have had very little or no contact at all with humans.

The chimpanzees’ behavior when first coming in contact with the researchers was a telltale sign of lack of human exposure — the chimpanzees didn’t run and

Discovery highlights molecular screening work at Institute of Chemistry and Cell Biology
Boston, Mass. — Scientists studying how cells know when and where to divide now have a new tool to study the final fast stage of cell division. The first experiments using this new tool reveal some of the molecular conversation that helps a cell tightly choreograph the time and place of pinching into two cells. In the March 14 Science, researchers from Harvard Medical School (HMS) and colleagues report

Penn study find people respond poorly, while feeling only ’slightly’ tired

Sleep: Don’t be too sure you’re getting enough of it.

Those who believe they can function well on six or fewer hours of sleep every night may be accumulating a “sleep debt” that cuts into their normal cognitive abilities, according to research conducted at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. What’s more, the research indicates, those people may be too sleep-deprived to know it.

Scientists from Imperial College London, the University of Leicester, and Hammersmith Hospital have found a way to stop certain types of genetic diseases from occurring by modifying the way DNA is turned into proteins.

The research published in this month’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Science shows how the researchers have been able to restore proper expression of defective genes, and that this might potentially have a positive effect in genetic diseases such as spinal muscular a

Study featured on cover of the journal Nature

Hormones and neurotransmitters secreted from cells via bubble-like vesicles are released using age-related criteria, with the youngest vesicles getting first shot at releasing their contents, according to research led by a University of Southern California (USC) physiologist. This is a “complete reverse” from what had previously been presumed to be the process behind hormone secretion, notes Robert Chow, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of

Binghamton University electronics engineering center charts new directions at ’micro’ and ’nano’ scale

Imagine a diagnostic “pill” that doctors can navigate through your system to collect video and chemical data about what’s going on in your body. Or how about a space age, two-ply, self-assembling organic-inorganic thin film that makes expensive mirrors and lenses such as those used by NASA virtually indestructible.

Each of these items is at the hear

To study the genetic components of disease, researchers rely on mice or other research models in which particular genes are silenced, or turned off. In recent years, researchers discovered that they can selectively silence genes using small pieces of RNA called siRNA (short interfering RNA).

Unfortunately, sorting out which siRNA sequences block expression of which genes has proven to be truly daunting. Researchers at Whitehead Institute, however, recently released for public use a new comp