- Human cardiac master stem cells identified
Harvard Stem Cell Institute researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have identified the earliest master human heart stem cell from human embryonic stem cells - ISL1+ progenitors - that give rise to a family of cells that...
(Issue date: 07 July 2009)
- Oxygen key to ‘cut and paste’ of genes
Oxygen is an essential source of energy, which is why jet pilots and climbers need their own oxygen supply, but it also influences how our genes are expressed. An oxygen-sensitive enzyme has been found to play a key role in how...
(Issue date: 07 July 2009)
- BGU Researchers Reveal Connection Between Cancer and Human Evolution
Researchers at BGU have discovered that gene mutations that once helped humans survive may increase the possibility for diseases, including cancer. The team of researchers from BGU's National Institute for Biotechnology in the...
(Issue date: 07 July 2009)
- A*STAR Scientists’ Dual Claim to ‘FAIM’ Novel role of ‘Fas-apoptosis inhibitory molecule’ (FAIM) may provide key to treating liver and neurodegenerative diseases
Scientists from the Immunology Group at A*STAR’s Bioprocessing Technology Institute (BTI), Drs Jianxin Huo and Shengli Xu, have made a novel discovery about how a gene, ‘Fas-apoptosis inhibitory molecule’ (FAIM), protects both...
(Issue date: 07 July 2009)
- Researchers find new actions of neurochemicals
Although the tiny roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans has only 302 neurons in its entire nervous system, studies of this simple animal have significantly advanced our understanding of human brain function because it shares many...
(Issue date: 07 July 2009)
- New Drug Targeting Cancer Weakness Shows Great Promise
Scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and The Royal Marsden Hospital, working with pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, have completed a Phase I clinical trial demonstrating the great promise of a completely new...
(Issue date: 28 June 2009)
- Researchers Identify a Novel Mechanism that could be targeted to Prevent Cancer Spread
Researchers have discovered a key to the function of a specific protein that helps control the levels of other critical proteins within cells, including a protein that suppresses the spread of cancer. The new information about...
(Issue date: 28 June 2009)
- Potent Metastasis Inhibitor Identified
Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston have isolated a potent inhibitor of tumour metastasis made by tumour cells, one that could potentially be harnessed as a cancer treatment. Metastasis-the migration of cancer cells to...
(Issue date: 28 June 2009)
- A Trio of Signals Converge to Induce Liver and Pancreas Cell Development in the Embryo
Understanding the molecular signals that guide early cells in the embryo to develop into different organs provides insight into ways that tissues regenerate and how stem cells can be used for new therapies. With regenerated...
(Issue date: 28 June 2009)
- Uncovering how cells cover gaps
Researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, came a step closer to understanding how cells close gaps not only during embryonic development but also during wound healing. Their study...
(Issue date: 28 June 2009)
- BRIT1 Allows DNA Repair Teams Access to Damaged Sites
Like a mechanic popping the hood of a car to get at a faulty engine, a tumour-suppressing protein allows cellular repair mechanisms to pounce on damaged DNA by overcoming a barrier to DNA access. A research team led by scientists...
(Issue date: 22 June 2009)
- JOHNS HOPKINS RESEARCHERS EDIT GENES IN HUMAN STEM CELLS
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have successfully edited the genome of human- induced pluripotent stem cells, making possible the future development of patient-specific stem cell therapies. The team altered a...
(Issue date: 22 June 2009)
- Link between light touch, Merkel cells solves 100-year mystery
Light touch - the sense that lets musicians find the right notes on a keyboard, a seamstress revel in the feel of cool silk, the artisan feel a curve in material and the blind read Braille – truly depends on the activity of...
(Issue date: 22 June 2009)
- Researchers Observe Single Protein Dimers Wavering Between Two Symmetrically Opposed Structures
Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute, the University of California, San Diego, and Ohio State University have used a very sensitive fluorescence technique to find that a bacterial protein thought to exist in one...
(Issue date: 22 June 2009)
- Green Tea May Affect Prostate Cancer Progression
According to results of a study men with prostate cancer who consumed the active compounds in green tea demonstrated a significant reduction in serum markers predictive of prostate cancer progression.
"The investigational agent...
(Issue date: 22 June 2009)
- Good fences make good neighbours
Our genome is a patchwork of neighbourhoods that couldn't be more different: Some areas are hustling and bustling with gene activity, while others are sparsely populated and in perpetual lock-down. Breaking down just a few of the...
(Issue date: 17 June 2009)
- UNC scientists identify growth factor as possible cancer drug target
To grow and spread, tumours need new blood vessels, a process called angiogenesis. One growth factor that causes angiogenesis has been identified - vascular endothelial growth factor or VEGF - and drugs to inhibit VEGF are...
(Issue date: 17 June 2009)
- GARP makes the difference
Scientists from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, Germany and the Medical School Hannover, Germany (MHH) have succeeded in treating immune cells in a way that enables them to inhibit unwanted...
(Issue date: 17 June 2009)
- Novel Discovery In Dendritic Cell Signalling Pathways Pave The Way For New Therapeutic Targets
Scientists from A*STAR’s Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN) and the University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy, have discovered another signalling pathway for the activation and apoptosis, or programmed cell death, of dendritic cell....
(Issue date: 17 June 2009)
- Early calcium increase triggers the formation of olfactory long-term memory in honeybees
Synaptic plasticity associated with an important wave of gene transcription and protein synthesis underlies long-term memory processes. Calcium (Ca2+) plays an important role in a variety of neuronal functions and indirect...
(Issue date: 17 June 2009)
