Laboratory experiments led by Hopkins scientists have revealed that so-called “jumping genes” create dramatic rearrangement in the human genome when they move from chromosome to chromosome. If the finding holds true in living organisms, it may help explain the diversity of life on Earth, the researchers report in the current (Aug. 9) issue of Cell.

“Jumping genes,” or retrotransposons, are sequences of DNA that are easily and naturally copied from one location in the genome and inserted els

A sort of biochemical scaffold for a compound that enables blood pressure to be low, heart bypass grafts to remain open and nerves to communicate has been identified by Medical College of Georgia researchers.

Researchers say identifying the framework for how these and other very positive health benefits occur should help them find ways to augment the benefits and identify new treatments for cardiovascular disease, which may result when the support structure falls apart.

“It’s

A DMS professor is leading the way in using computer technology for medical education with a pioneering virtual clinic to teach “Genetics in Clinical Practice.” Joseph V. Henderson, MD, a professor of community and family medicine who heads Dartmouth Medical School’s Interactive Media Lab (IML), created a “virtual practicum in genetics” using state-of-the-art interactive multimedia and world leaders in genetics research to foster more effective continuing medical education at DMS.

Hend

Nearly one in ten adults suffers from migraine
UK male sufferers alone lose 4m working days with an estimated productivity loss of £750m
Migraine accounts for more than half of all headaches New collaborative research by City University, the University of Essex and the Institute of Optometry, London shows that coloured filters are effective in reducing migraine symptoms for some sufferers.

Professor Bruce Evans, of City University`s renowned Department of Optom

Find has implications for preservation of endangered species, livestock

With pinhead-sized grafts of testicular tissue from newborn mammals, scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have induced mice to produce fully functional sperm from evolutionarily distant species. The result has important implications for preserving the germ lines of critically endangered species as well as prized livestock.
The study, in which male mice produced functional gametes first from other mice

Stress happens, and over the eons all species of living things have evolved all sorts of ways to cope. Now, new research has revealed that organisms as diverse as humans and plants share a common set of stress-protection maneuvers that are choreographed by the metabolic machinery in their cells.

The research led by Sarah M. Assmann, the Waller Professor of Plant Biology at Penn State, will be published in the 15 August 2002 issue of the journal Nature.

“We have shown, in more deta

Biologists at Vanderbilt and the University of Missouri have uncovered what could be a major clue into the mysterious molecular processes that direct cells to the correct locations within a developing embryo.

Understanding the molecular basis of these processes, and how they can go wrong, may ultimately lead to treatments for many birth defects, such as spina bifida that afflicts between 800 to 1,000 babies born each year in the United States.

Writing in the August issue of the sc

To make an omelet, you need to break some eggs. Not nearly so well known is that breaking eggs also can lead to new information about the evolution of birds and dinosaurs, a topic of hot debate among leading biologists.

Drs. Alan Feduccia and Julie Nowicki of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have done just that. They opened a series of live ostrich eggs at various stages of development and found what they believe is proof that birds could not have descended from dinosaurs. Th

Very light smokers significantly increase their risk of a heart attack, shows research in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. Furthermore, women are much more susceptible than men to the detrimental effects of tobacco, even if they don’t inhale.

The findings are based on a population sample of over 12,000 men and women taking part in the Copenhagen City Heart Study, which began in 1976.

The participants, all aged 20 or older at the start of the study, were monitored up

The thigh length of babies in the womb is as strong an indicator of subsequent childhood – and potentially adult – blood pressure as birthweight, suggests a study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Researchers scanned 707 developing fetuses to measure the dimensions of their abdomen and head circumferences and the length of the thigh bones (femurs). The growing babies were scanned five times each between 18 and 38 weeks of pregnancy. Blood pressure was then measured in 300

Finding May Present a New Target for Anti-Cancer Drugs

Researchers at the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center have found that a known cancer-causing gene, Ras, may exert its influence through very different pathways in humans than in mice, a finding that could offer tantalizing new targets for anti-cancer therapy.

While studying the Ras, gene, Duke researchers unexpectedly found that it activates an obscure group of proteins in humans, but not in mice, in order to turn normal c

A new laser procedure that requires only local anesthetic is effective in treating nasal passageway obstructions associated with a deviated nasal septum, according to an article in the July-September issue of The Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. The procedure uses heat generated by a laser to soften cartilage abnormalities so that they can be flattened or shaped to clear the nasal passages.

The septum is the cartilage wall that divides and separates the

Researchers have developed a unique vaccine that destroys a deadly toxin produced by the parasite that causes malaria, which kills more than two million people each year. The vaccine appears extremely promising in animal studies, they say.

If the drug works in humans, it could become a more effective and longer lasting anti-malarial vaccine than those currently available, according to the researchers.

Details of the research will be presented next week (Aug. 21) in Boston at the 2

’Something new and exciting’ found serendipitously

A compound that could potentially immobilize the AIDS virus or selectively extract radionuclides from nuclear wastes at various U.S.high-level storage sites has been developed by a researcher at Sandia National Laboratories who wasn’t even looking for it.

An article in the current issue of Science describes characteristics of the newly discovered, extremely active compound, called niobium heteropolyanions (het

An innovative combination of two medical procedures-gene therapy and radiation therapy–can increase cancer cure rates by significant amounts compared to the cure rates offered by conventional radiation therapy alone, a Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) team has concluded. The researchers presented their results last month in Montreal at the annual conference of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

Known as genetic radiotherapy, the combined treatment can potentially inc

For some time doctors have been using a vitamin A derivative, retinoic acid (RA), to treat several cancers, particularly prostate cancer and leukemia, and they are now experimenting with the drug to treat breast cancer. The great drawback to RA, however, is that it requires high levels of the medication in order to turn genes “on” and “off,” often triggering devastating and potentially fatal side effects.

Now, a Cornell University biochemist has learned how to make tumor cells up to 1,000 t