With 46 chromosomes and six feet of DNA to copy every time most human cells divide, it’s not surprising that gaps or breaks sometimes show up in the finished product – especially when the cell is under stress or dividing rapidly, as in cancer.

But what is surprising – according to Thomas Glover, Ph.D., a geneticist at the University of Michigan Medical School – is that the breaks don’t always occur at random. They happen at a few specific locations on chromosomes, when cells are u

As mammals, our internal (circadian) clock is regulated by the patterns of light and dark we experience. But how that information is transmitted from the eye to the biological clock in the brain has been a matter of scientific debate. Scientists had suspected that a molecule called melanopsin, which is found in the retina, plays an important role.

Now researchers at Stanford University and Deltagen Inc. have confirmed that melanopsin does indeed transmit light information from the eye to th

Genome of Ciona intestinalis yields new insights into the origins of complex biological systems

The streamlined genome of Ciona intestinalis, a common sea squirt closely related to vertebrates on the evolutionary tree, is providing new clues about the origins of key vertebrate systems and structures including the human hormone, nervous and immune systems.

In an article for the December 13, 2002 issue of the journal Science, an international consortium of researchers reports

A Phase II clinical trial conducted at Duke University Medical Center and five other U.S. institutions has shown that an agent made of purified human hemoglobin appears safe and may be effective when used instead of transfused human blood to replace blood lost during heart surgery.

If the benefits of the agent, known as hemoglobin raffimer, are proven in subsequent Phase III clinical trials, physicians would not need to use as much donated blood during surgery, the researchers said. An esti

Work has implications for repairing human heart muscle after heart attacks

Experiments on zebrafish provide important clues that could eventually lead to the ability to regenerate damaged human heart muscle, say researchers from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Children’s Hospital Boston. Reporting in the Dec. 13 issue of Science, a team led by HHMI investigator Mark T. Keating, MD, senior associate, department of Cardiology, showed for the first time that zebrafish can reg

Using clusters of gold atoms and a microscopic lever, University of Toronto chemists have created a tiny circuit critical to the future of electronic engineering.

“When things are this small, they are fantastically sensitive,” says Professor Al-Amin Dhirani. “Such a circuit could make possible a bio-sensor that is activated by the reaction of just one molecule.” This has the potential for detecting important biological molecules including DNA, he notes.

Dhirani found that when the

Key step in process of developing targeted therapeutics to combat epilepsy

Scientists from Toronto’s Princess Margaret Hospital are able to depict for the first time how an important molecule called IP3 and its receptor interact to control calcium levels in cells, a process that is vital to normal brain function.

The study is published in this week’s edition of the international scientific journal Nature, and is a collaboration between scientists at Princess Margar

Scientists all over the world hunt for anti-mutagens, substances protecting against mutations. Where they can find them? It was suggested and later proved that most anti-mutagens are located in those organs and biological liquids, which are connected with the process of reproduction. The latter is the key point in the life cycle, in which genome disorders should be minimal. Anti-mutagens were found in seeds, spores, eggs, and sperm. It was also established that anti-mutagens are formed in certain bac

In stunning color images using time-lapse microscopy, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have for the first time captured the very earliest stages of HIV infection in living cells.

The researchers filmed individual HIV particles as they traveled to the nucleus of a human cell and began taking over its genetic machinery — the first step in the destruction of the body’s immune system that leads to AIDS.

The movies not only offer tantalizing glimpses of HIV in acti

The simple worm has at least one talent that could benefit most Americans.

It can convert Omega-6 — a group of fatty acids abundant in the Western diet with the potential to promote inflammation – into Omega-3, another class of fatty acids that decreases inflammation, helping keep vessel walls smooth and blood free-flowing.

The question one Medical College of Georgia researcher is asking is whether the enzyme these C. Elegans, or nematodes, use can work the same magic in peo

Could Spare Half of Women From Chemotherapy

Oncologists at the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center are testing a new technique called gene expression profiling that subtypes each breast cancer tumor by its genetic defects so that doctors can tailor their treatment to inhibit that particular tumor.

The researchers believe the technique could spare millions of women from needlessly receiving toxic chemotherapy, and they are leading a national clinical trial to study gene profili

New analysis challenges results of previous research

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia, the Earth Institute at Columbia University, and other institutions conclude that the increase in the incidence of malaria in East Africa parallels warming trends over the last several decades. The new findings challenge the results of a study, “Climate change and resurgence of malaria

Mental health experts at Cedars-Sinai shed light on seasonal affective disorder With the Holiday celebrations to attend and family gatherings to prepare for, the winter season can be a busy and joyful time of year. But for many, changes in light and temperature combined with the stresses of holiday events and heightened expectations can increase anxiety and cause depression. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a mood disorder associated with depression episodes and related to seasona

A team of researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center have linked an area of chromosome 10p to families with a history of bulimia nervosa, providing strong evidence that genes play a determining role in who is susceptible to developing the eating disorder.

The finding, gleaned from blood studies of 316 patients with bulimia and their family members, is the result of the first multinational collaborative genome-wide linkage scan to lo

Rush is first site in the Chicago area to obtain the stereotaxis technology and one of only two in the world with an emphasis on neurosurgical applications

Neurosurgeons at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center have become the first in the Chicago area to use a radically new, magnetically controlled system to enter the brain and its vascular system to treat a variety of diseases without surgically opening up the skull and brain.

“Magnet-guided neurosurgery allows

A new clinical trial has shown that reducing the interval between successive doses of a commonly used chemotherapy regimen improves survival in women whose breast cancer has spread to the lymph nodes. While previous research has evaluated the use of various forms of “dose dense” chemotherapy, this is the first major controlled study to show a clear survival benefit for women with node-positive breast cancer. The study was conducted by Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) for the Breast Cancer Intergro