A new study using mouse “knockouts” shows that genes that control limb formation in insects have similar functions in mammals.

Split hand/foot malformation (SHFM) or ectrodactyly (the “lobster claw” anomaly), is a severe congenital malformation syndrome characterised by a profound median cleft of the hands and/or feet, typically associated with absence or fusion of the remaining fingers. This condition is quite frequent as about 6 cases of SHFM are observed for every 10,000 human births.

Journal of Biology ( http://www.jbiol.com ) is a new international journal, published by BioMed Central, which provides immediate open access to research articles of exceptional interest. It will only publish research articles of the highest standard, similar to those published by Nature, Science or Cell. While these journals restrict access to only those who pay for a subscription, all research articles published in Journal of Biology will be permanently

Scientists from Imperial College London have successfully directed mouse stem cells to turn into the type of cells needed for gas exchange in lungs, bringing the prospect of being able to regenerate damaged lung tissue, and even the creation of artificially grown lungs one step closer.

Dr Anne Bishop, from Imperial College Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Centre at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, comments: “This research will make it possible eventually to repair lungs that hav

Two studies in this week’s issue of THE LANCET highlight how a new class of synthetic antithrombotic drug could be more effective than conventional therapy in reducing the risk of potentially fatal blood clots associated with hip-replacement surgery.

Between 16 and 30% of patients who undergo Hip-replacement surgery have a risk of developing deep-vein thrombosis (DVT)-even when anti-clotting agents such as heparin and warfarin are used. DVT from hip surgery can occasionally result in deat

People with liver cancer that cannot be treated with surgical resection or transplantation could have an increased two-year survival if they are given chemoembolisation-a procedure in which blood supply to the tumour combined with the effect of chemotherapy inhibits cancer growth.

There is no standard treatment for liver cancer when surgery, transplantation, or percutaneous treatment is not possible, which applies to around three-quarters of all liver cancer cases. Arterial embolisation-the

Scientists at UCL have developed a drug to treat a serious medical condition linked to Alzheimer`s disease and type 2 diabetes. The research, supported by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and reported in NATURE, is the culmination of 25 years of basic and clinical research and the UCL scientists hope that it may be the key to the treatment of other serious diseases.

Crucially, Professor Mark Pepys and his team have managed for the first time to remove from the human body a naturally occurr

A dose of heavy housework will meet new recommended targets for daily physical activity levels, but there is no evidence that it is good for health, finds research in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. Brisk walking is a much healthier option, shows the study.

Over the past 10 years, there has been shift in policy from recommending three bouts of vigorous exercise a week to more moderate activity that fits into a daily routine. This includes housework, gardening, and DIY, on t

The problems and issues of sea lice infection in farmed salmon are a major and topical concern for the whole industry. A special issue of the Society of Chemical Industry (SCI) journal, Pest Management Science to be published in May 2002 reports on the prospect of developing an integrated pest management programme for sea lice control.

Presenting an up-to-date comprehensive view of the sea lice problem the twelve papers in this special issue provide overviews on veterinary medicines, biologi

Are our thoughts made of electricity? Not the familiar kind of electrical signals that travel up and down wires in our computer or nerves in our brain, but the distributed kind of electromagnetic field that permeates space and carries the broadcast signal to the TV or radio.

Professor Johnjoe McFadden from the School of Biomedical and Life Sciences at the University of Surrey believes our conscious mind could be an electromagnetic field. “The theory solves many previously intractable proble

PURAC and Greenomics™ (Plant Research International B.V.) announced the completion of the whole-genome sequencing of a production strain of PURAC that produces high amounts of lactic acid. Greenomics™ conducted the shotgun cloning and high quality sequencing of the genome up to a zero-gap situation. The closed genome is accompanied by an automated annotation and a functional classification of all the genes by bioinformatics tools.

The positive results obtained so far has encouraged PURAC to

Physicians have long marveled at the body’s ability to heal itself. Over time, breaks, tears, burns and bruises can often disappear sans medical intervention. Less well-understood are the similarly extraordinary repairs that take place on the molecular level, in DNA. To that end, findings announced today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may prove insightful. According to the report, researchers have found that a protein known as ATR appears to sense damage to DNA and touch off

New research published in BMC Molecular Biology explains how a new technique for introducing genes into mammalian cells using the virus responsible for warts could be a major step forward in developing gene therapy treatments for people with familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), a genetic disease that affects around 12 million people worldwide.

People with FH have a genetic defect that prevents their liver cells from absorbing chlolesterol in the form of low density lipoprotein (LDL). This lea

Of the estimated 10,000 to 100,000 microbial species that inhabit our planet, scientists can only coax a few thousand to grow in the laboratory. As a result, efforts to categorize the vast diversity of microbes are lagging far behind attempts to classify plants, animals and insects. Now a report published in the current issue of the journal Science suggests that some of these so-called uncultivable microorganisms might not be so out of reach after all.

Tammi Kaeberlein, Kim Lewis and Klava

A research team jointly involving the IRD, the CEA and the CNRS has very recently found phytochromes in a strain of nitrogen-fixing bacterium, Bradyrhizobium (1), symbiont on certain tropical leguminous plants (the Aeschynomene). Techniques of molecular biology, biophysics and biochemistry revealed that the newly-discovered phytochrome has an essential role as regulator of the bacterium’s photosystem synthesis. An identical function was shown in the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodopseudomonas palustris

A model of a system for growing plants to plan biological experiments in space has just left the company of ROVSING, in Ballerup near Copenhagen, on its way to ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands.

The full name of this experiment reference model is European Modular Cultivation System Experiment Reference Model (EMCS ERM). This will be used at ESTEC to plan and carry out experiments for growing plants in space. Then in 2003 the EMCS Flight Model will

Researchers in the University of Warwick’s Molecular Medicine Research Centre have found the “Bin Laden” of cancer causing faulty proteins. They have undermined the old complex model of how many cancers start and identified a single protein known as c-Myc as a “mission-critical target for effective cancer therapies.”

Fighting cancer is similar to the war against terrorism. Current cancer models suggest that a network of several cell mutations is needed to begin a cancer. Both terrorism and c