- Caltech Researchers Show Efficacy of Gene Therapy in Mouse Models of Huntington's Disease
Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have shown that a highly specific intrabody (an antibody fragment that works against a target inside a cell) is capable of stalling the development of Huntington's...
(Issue date: 03 November 2009)
- Researchers identify promising therapeutic target for central nervous system injuries
Scars can serve as double-edged swords in spinal cord injuries--saving a victim's life, but sealing his or her fate as a paraplegic or quadriplegic. The scar forms a wall around the wound, preventing the injury from spreading,...
(Issue date: 03 November 2009)
- USU Scientists Report Major Advance in Human Antibody Therapy Against Deadly Nipah Virus
A collaborative research team from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU), Australian Animal Health Laboratory and National Cancer Institute, a component of the National Institutes of Health, reports a...
(Issue date: 03 November 2009)
- Bacteria "launch a shield" to resist attack
Bacteria that cause chronic lung infections can communicate with each other to form a deadly shield against the body’s natural defences. Studying these interactions could lead to new ways of treating bacteria that are resistant...
(Issue date: 03 November 2009)
- Study uncovers key to how ‘triggering event’ in cancer occurs
Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have discovered what leads to two genes fusing together, a phenomenon that has been shown to cause prostate cancer to develop. The study found that pieces of...
(Issue date: 03 November 2009)
- Seeing Previously Invisible Molecules for the First Time
A team of Harvard chemists led by X. Sunney Xie has developed a new microscopic technique for seeing, in colour, molecules with undetectable fluorescence. The room-temperature technique allows researchers to identify previously...
(Issue date: 25 October 2009)
- Study paves way for liver cell library
The University research could revolutionise the development of drugs to treat diseases and pave the way for the creation of a library of liver cells. These cells could be used to assess the reaction of drugs for different...
(Issue date: 25 October 2009)
- Messenger RNA with FLASH
A study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has identified a key player in a molecular process essential for DNA replication within cells. The new findings highlight a protein called FLASH, already shown to play...
(Issue date: 25 October 2009)
- UNMC research team makes major breakthrough in stem cell research
A University of Nebraska Medical Center research team led by Iqbal Ahmad, Ph.D., professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences, has reprogrammed regular body cells to resemble embryonic stem cells without the use of potentially...
(Issue date: 25 October 2009)
- Immune System Quirk Could Lead to Effective Tularemia Vaccine
Immunologists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC have found a unique quirk in the way the immune system fends off bacteria called Francisella tularensis, which could...
(Issue date: 25 October 2009)
- Fish Vision Discovery Makes Waves in Natural Selection
Emory University researchers have identified the first fish known to have switched from ultraviolet vision to violet vision, or the ability to see blue light. The discovery is also the first example of an animal deleting a...
(Issue date: 19 October 2009)
- Cell death occurs in the same way in plants, animals and humans
Research has previously assumed that animals and plants developed different genetic programs for cell death. Now an international constellation of researchers, including research teams from the Swedish University of Agricultural...
(Issue date: 19 October 2009)
- Spaghetti’ scaffolding could help grow skin in labs
Scientists are developing new scaffolding technology which could be used to grow tissues such as skin, nerves and cartilage using 3D spaghetti-like structures.
The new structures are being developed by scientists from the...
(Issue date: 19 October 2009)
- TraDIS technique tackles typhoid
For the first time, researchers are able to look at the need for every gene in a bacterial cell in a single experiment. The new method will transform the study of gene activity and the search for weaknesses in bacterial...
(Issue date: 19 October 2009)
- Bug barcode readers hold out promise of universal vaccines
Veterinary scientists have made a discovery that promises to deliver a new approach to fast development of cheap vaccines that are effective in all mammals – not just humans or another particular species. They propose that by...
(Issue date: 19 October 2009)
- Unusual Bacteria Help Balance the Immune System in Mice
Medical researchers have long suspected that obscure bacteria living within the intestinal tract may help keep the human immune system in balance. An international collaboration co-led by scientists at NYU Langone Medical Center...
(Issue date: 19 October 2009)
- ID3 Provides Career Counseling for Blood Progenitors, Driving the Creation of Gamma-Delta T Cells
Like an unusually forceful career counsellor, the Id3 protein decides the fate of a given white blood cell precursor, according to researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center. Their findings describe how Id3 directs blood cell...
(Issue date: 19 October 2009)
- Landmark genotyping study demonstrates the power of 454 sequencing systems for immunogenetics
A study published in the prestigious Nature Medicine journal reports that researchers at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center, USA, have explored a new high-throughput method for decoding one of the most critical...
(Issue date: 14 October 2009)
- Establishing Standard Definitions for Genome Sequences
In 1996, researchers from major genome sequencing centres around the world convened on the island of Bermuda and defined a finished genome as a gapless sequence with a nucleotide error rate of one or less in 10,000 bases. This...
(Issue date: 11 October 2009)
- Common herbicides and fibrates block nutrient-sensing taste receptor found in gut and pancreas
According to new research from the Monell Center and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, certain common herbicides and lipid-lowering fibrate drugs act in humans to block T1R3, a nutrient-sensing taste receptor also present in...
(Issue date: 11 October 2009)
