Human heart tissue has for the first time been created in the laboratory.

Generated from embryonic stem cells at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, the tissue could be used for testing and creating new drugs, for genetic studies, for tissue engineering and for studying the effects of various stresses on the heart.

“Everyone imagines the possibilities of embryonic stem cells in repairing broken hearts, but stem cell technology offers even more — and it offers it muc

Nicotine administration in humans is known to sharpen attention and to slightly enhance memory. Now scientists, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), have identified those areas of the brain where nicotine exerts its effects on cognitive skills.

Their findings suggest that nicotine improves attention in smokers by enhancing activation in the posterior cortical and subcortical regions of the brain–areas traditionally associated with visual attention, arousal, and motor a

Through the study of fat storage in nematode worms, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have formulated a new model for understanding the mechanisms of obesity and diabetes in humans.

Their work appears in today’s issue of Developmental Cell.

“Obesity and its associated diseases are now among the most important medical conditions in the world,” said Dr. Jonathan M. Graff, senior author of the study and associate professor in the Center for Developmen

ADE Biotec and the INASMET Foundation, both from the Basque Country, after three years of working together, have developed a new purification technique for purines. The technique is based on electroflotation and could be very beneficial for agriculture as it has a high level (80%+) of purification and very low costs (1 euro/m3). Most of the development project has been carried out at a pilot plant on a Toledo pig farm.

Nowadays purines (excrements plus sewage water from farms) constitute one

Researchers have identified a protein fragment that keeps at least one major tumor suppressor gene from preventing cancer like it should. The fragment belongs to a class of proteins known as apoptotic enhancers (ASPP), named for their ability to stimulate programmed cell death, or apoptosis, by the p53 gene.

But a study published in Nature Genetics finds that one member of this group, called iASPP, actually inhibits p53’s normal cell killing power. When iASPP levels were reduced in experime

With a high-tech fix for faulty cellular editing, scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have moved a step closer to developing treatments for a host of diseases as diverse as breast cancer, muscular dystrophy, and cystic fibrosis.

Many human diseases have been linked to defects in a cellular editing process called pre-messenger RNA splicing. Adrian Krainer, a molecular biologist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, has spent years investigating this complex editing process, which t