lateral

Wisconsin scientists grow critical nerve cells

...ments of degenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. With healthy cells grown in the lab, scientists could, in theory, replace dying motor neurons to restore function and alleviate the symptoms of disease or injury. Much sooner in the future, the ad...

Genome of deadly amoeba shows surprising complexity, evidence of lateral gene transfer

...pparent gain of other bacterial-like genes through lateral transfer. "This study will provoke interest in what secrets may lie undiscovered in the sequences of other supposedly 'simple' amoeba genomes." Named for its effectiveness in killing other cells, E. histolytica was long considered to be a 'primitive...

Antibiotic might fight HIV-induced neurological problems

... other diseases -- multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, stroke and more. The drug is being tested in early clinical trials for some non-HIV-related conditions. "Last year we discovered that SIV triggers some of the same biological pathways of cell death and inflammation as...

Key mechanism in genetic inheritance during cell division identified

...crotubule is thought to be largely governed by the lateral interactions between adjacent protofilaments," the...gely electrostatic in nature. This could allow for lateral sliding or diffusion of Dam1 rings along microtubules. Analysis of the Dam1 rings after disassembly ...

Silence the gene, save the cell: RNA interference as promising therapy for ALS

...ted gene that causes inherited cases of amytrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), substantially delaying both the onset and the progression rate of the fatal motor neuron disease. Their results will be published in the April issue of Nature Medicine, and in the journal's advanced online publication March 13. In a...

Brain-mapping technique aids understanding of sleep, wakefulness

... which are found in a part of the brain called the lateral hypothalamus. The researchers found that some of the upstream neurons in the anterior hypothalamus, known to be active only during sleep, send inhibitory signals to orexin neurons preventing them from releasing orexin. "Neurons producing orexin keep...

Some Brain Cells 'Change Channels' To Fine-tune The Message

...n people with Lou Gehrig's disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), some muscle-controlling nerve cells die because too much of the brain chemical glutamate binds to the cells' AMPA receptors, and so too much calcium gets inside. If these threatened nerve cells can swap their calcium-allowing channel...

At long last, scientists figure out how plants grow

...ack the moving sun. Auxins also stop the growth of lateral branches. Since auxins are produced in shoot tips, lopping off the tip can cause numerous side shoots to appear, giving a plant a denser, more sculpted look. Auxin also promotes fruit development. In strawberries, for example, auxin produced by the ...

Where bacteria get their genes

...edical implications because such gene-swapping, or lateral gene transfer, is the way many pathogenic bacteria...t's important to monitor the rates and patterns of lateral gene transfer," said team member Howard Ochman, a UA professor of biochemistry and molecular biophys...

Some Brain Cells Change Channels

...n people with Lou Gehrig's disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), some muscle-controlling nerve cells die because too much of the brain chemical glutamate binds to the cells' AMPA receptors, and so too much calcium gets inside. If these threatened nerve cells can swap their calcium-allowing channel...

Map of life on Earth could be used on Mars

...to another without reproducing by a process called lateral gene transfer. Modular metabolic genes, which are ...not critical for cell production, account for most lateral gene transfers between microbes. "There is a lot we're beginning to understand in terms of bacteria...

Genome study of beneficial microbe may help boost plant health

...ters of genes, called genomic islands, by means of lateral transfer from phages or other microbes." ...

The making and breaking of microtubules

...sulting in a curved protofilament that cannot form lateral contacts. By contrast, in tubulin that binds the ... between the subunits are straight enough to allow lateral interaction between growing protofilaments. Says Nogales, "Such contacts appear semiconserved with r...

Researchers discover stem cell 'guide' that may be key for targeting neural stem cell treatments

...g ones. One area is the subventricular zone of the lateral ventricles, which are fluid-filled cavities in both brain hemispheres connected the central canal of the spinal cord. Zhou and his colleagues discovered how PK2 guides the migration of neurons born from neural stem cells from the subventricular zone...

Where Bacteria Get Their Genes

...edical implications because such gene-swapping, or lateral gene transfer, is the way many pathogenic bacteria...t's important to monitor the rates and patterns of lateral gene transfer," said team member Howard Ochman, a UA professor of biochemistry and molecular biophys...

Scientists find microRNAs regulate plant development

...ts of the auxin response, such as the formation of lateral roots (roots that grow off the main tap root below...plants overaccumulated NAC1 mRNA and produced more lateral roots. It was also found that accumulation of the microRNA that targets NAC1 mRNA is induced by auxi...

Rodent social behavior encoded in junk DNA

... social behavior and parenting (olfactory bulb and lateral septum). They also checked out female odors and greeted strangers more readily and were more apt to form pair bonds and nurture their young. "If you think of brain circuits as locked rooms, the vasopressin receptor as a lock on the door, and vasopre...

Molecular trigger for Huntington's disease found

... some forms of Parkinson's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease. Ironically, p53 is the same regulatory protein that is inactivated in a large fraction of cancers. This inactivation allows abnormal cancer cells to escape the cell's protective "suicide program" that would normal...

Brain networks change according to cognitive task

...ifically active for each of the studied tasks: the lateral temporal cortex (LTC) for the rhyming task and the intraparietal sulcus (IPS) for the spelling task. In addition to the task-specific regions, the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and the fusiform gyrus (FG) were engaged by both tasks. Dynamic Causal Mo...

Biologist Discovers What May Be World’s ‘Pickiest?Mates

...rms and hands “The California fiddler crabs use a lateral wave that looks much like a human beckoning 'come here??deRivera said. “It also seems to serve as a 'come hither' signal, as a male waves, standing at his burrow entrance, and interested females come over.?/p> Interested females initially eye the...

Cyberkinetics, Case to develop system to help restore extremity function

...he BrainGate System in those with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig's disease) and other motor neuron diseases. The study is being conducted at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). About FES (Functional Electrical Stimulation) FES is a method of applying low level electrical currents to t...

New neurons take baby steps in the adult brain

...n diseases like muscular dystrophy and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or nerves that are damaged by trauma or injury. In none of these systems are new neurons formed or integrated to any great extent naturally. ...

Gene controls whether fear is a factor

...ion occurs in a portion of the amygdala called the lateral nucleus. As a first step to unravel the molecular...l genes present at particularly high levels in the lateral nucleus and in the structures that relay information about learned and instinctive fear to the amygd...

Machinery of the 'marijuana munchies'

...their studies, the researchers concentrated on the lateral hypothalamus (LH) of the brain, known to be a center of control of food intake. Their studies involved detailed electrophysiological measurements of the effects of specific neurons that they had identified in previous studies as being important in en...

Zooming in on the protein-conducting channel

... then opens either a pore that is perpendicular or lateral to the cell membrane to feed the new protein eithe...can explore the mechanisms of perpendicular versus lateral transport,?Frank said. ...

Lateral thinking produces first map of gene transmission

...re shared between bacteria. The study highlights lateral genetic transfer ?a process where genes are transf...irectly related. The map has traced the paths of lateral gene transfer, from the bacteria that donated the genes to the ones that received them. Their resu...

A salty tale: New bacterial genome sequenced from ancient salterns

...eal species, in an unusual example of cross-domain lateral gene transfer. "Scientists are increasingly lear...e type of rhodopsin and acquired the other through lateral gene transfer from the archaeal species also living in the salterns." This study is the first to doc...

Neurons find their place in the developing nervous system with the help of a sticky molecule

...ce ?injecting an interfering RNA molecule into the lateral ventricle, a fluid-filled space next to the neocortex. Application of an electrical current forced the RNA into neural progenitor cells, and it was subsequently inherited by their neuronal progeny that form layer 2/3 and blocked their ability to mak...

Pleasing plant shapes explained by new computer model

...nts achieve phyllotaxis ?the unique arrangement of lateral organs around a central axis that results in the spiral patterns seen in most plants ?beginning at the molecular-level. "Biologists have many theories about why phyllotaxis exists but have always wondered how it happens," said Smith. "This model is ...

MIT: Oceans are a major gene swap-meet for plankton

...ictable environmental changes. "We postulate that lateral gene transfer ... is an important mechanism for local specialization in the oceans," they wrote in Science. Eventually the scientists hope to provide a unified understanding of genomic evolutionary mechanisms and their impact on microbial ecology in ...

How the brain learns to become addicted

...ory peptides released by a brain center called the lateral hypothalamus. It was also known that orexins tend to activate circuitry in a region called the ventral tegmental area (VTA), known to be a critical site of neural adaptation, or plasticity, induced by addictive drugs. However, it wasn't known whether...

U of MN researchers identify ataxia gene

...insight into other diseases, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease) and Duchenne muscular dystrophy.The research will be published in the February print issue of Nature Genetics, and posted online Jan. 22, 2006. Ataxia is a hereditary disease that causes loss of coordination resultin...

Weizmann Institute suggests that immune cells help to maintain cognition and brain cell renewal

...'s and Parkinson's diseases, glaucoma, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and the nerve degeneration that results from trauma or stroke. In their earlier research, Schwartz and her team provided evidence to suggest that T cells directed against CNS components do not attack the brain but instead, recruit t...

Lizard 'third eye' sheds light on evolution of color vision

...ecule found in human photoreceptors as well as the lateral eyes of the lizard - those on the sides of its head. But when the lizard's third eye sees green light, the green pigment triggers a different molecule called Go, known as "G-other," which also signals light responses in the light-sensing cells of the...

UF scientists trace origin of shark's electric sense

...aper. The process mirrors the development of the lateral line that allows fishto mechanically sense their e...cestors emerged from the sea, they discarded their lateral lines as well as their ability to sense electrical fields. "Our fishy ancestors had the anatomy for...

Chemical signaling helps regulate sensory map formation in the brain

...ermines the topographic connections by providing a lateral directed mapping force." ...

Evolution mystery: Spider venom and bacteria share same toxin

...ed. "A pattern like this raises the possibility of lateral gene transfer as a explanation." Lateral gene tran...tor," Cordes said. "Aside from being an example of lateral transfer between very distantly related organisms, this study is an unusual example of using structu...

Mechanism identified for promising neurological drug

...n's disease, Huntington's disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), all of which cause brain and nerve cell degeneration as a consequence of inflammation. However, says Swanson, "it's really been unclear up till now how minocycline works to prevent the inflammatory response." Swanson credits the st...

Neurons grown from embryonic stem cells restore function in paralyzed rats

...inal cord injury, transverse myelitis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and spinal muscular atrophy. The study was funded in part by the NIH's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). The researchers, led by Douglas Kerr, M.D., Ph.D., of The Johns Hopkins University School of Med...

Autistic brain has fewer neurons for processing emotion

... to an abnormality of the amygdala, especially the lateral nucleus—a major emotion-processing area with connections to parts of the brain responsible for higher cognitive functions. "These new findings, based on cell counting, complement other independent studies that suggest amygdala abnormalities likel...

Discovery of agile molecular motors could aid in treating motor neuron diseases

.... A well-known motor neuron disease is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease). Using a specially-constructed microscope that allows researchers to observe the action of one macromolecule at a time, the team found that a protein motor is able to move back and forth alon...

Even when faint, ovary scent draws sperm cells

...perm cells, which allows researchers to follow the lateral movement of sperm as the cells swim through a liquid medium. The device feeds three streams of liquid into a single chamber. Beyond the chamber, flows are split into three exit streams. Flow rate can be regulated simply by raising or lowering the h...

The brain's executive is an 'event planner'

...l planning in this higher brain region, called the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC). The researchers, led by...on. They concentrated on a brain region called the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC), which many studies have shown to be involved in such higher brain functions...

Himalayan forests disappearing

...l planning in this higher brain region, called the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC). The researchers, led by...on. They concentrated on a brain region called the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC), which many studies have shown to be involved in such higher brain functions...

Variations in detoxifying genes linked to Lou Gehrig's disease

... a risk factor for developing sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease), and possibly responsible for a reported twofold increased risk of ALS in Gulf War veterans. These findings, from a study led Teepu Siddique, M.D., and colleagues at Northwestern University, open the door to...

Test reveals effectiveness of potential Huntington's disease drugs

...eimer's disease, and riluzole, used in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, did protect the cells. Memantine demonstrated a stronger effect in the study. Memantine has also shown evidence of retarding the progression of Huntington's in people, while riluzole has helped relieve some symptoms. "Our results provi...

With record resolution and sensitivity, tool images how life organizes in a cell membrane

...e scientists analyzed a model system to reveal its lateral organization. First they used lipids with either '... of lipid resided in an area. ''We're looking for lateral organization of some sort believed to be present in membranes,'' Boxer said. ''There is now no reall...

UNC scientists solve mystery of how largest cellular motor protein powers movement

...and mimics the symptoms of people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). ...

Neural stem cells lend the brain a surprising capacity for self-repair

...cal remodeling can indeed happen along the brain's lateral ventricular wall, and further insights into this process should shed light on whether SVZ neural stem cells participate in stroke/trauma-induced brain remodeling and postnatal/adult brain tumor formation. Furthermore, understanding how the SVZ cells ...

Human stem cells delay start of Lou Gehrig's disease in rats

...succumb to Lou Gehrig's, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The study is published in this week's issue of Transplantation. "We were extremely surprised to see that the grafted stem cells were not negatively affected by the degenerating cells around them, as many feared introducing healthy ...

From a lowly yeast, researchers divine a clue to human disease

...cal diseases, including a rare form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease, and movement disorders. By exploring how Sen1 works in yeast, Brow provides a powerful tool other researchers can use to better understand the interplay of the protein and gene regulation in huma...

Scientists design simple dipstick test for cocaine, other drugs

...tructed colorimetric sensors that are based on the lateral flow separation of aptamer-linked nanostructures,"...n be selected from a large DNA library. By using lateral flow devices as platforms to separate aptamer-linked nanoparticle aggregates, Lu, postdoctoral resea...

Neural networking nanotubes

...branched neurons. A voltage could then be applied, lateral to the SWNT film layer, and a so-called whole cell...e any electrical effect on the nerve cells. When a lateral voltage is applied, a relatively large current is carried along the surface but only a very small cu...

American scientist's research of life's first cells

...pplication of RNAi to diseases such as Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Schwarz' thesis work was recognized with a 2005 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award. She is currently a Jane Coffin Childs postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Erin K. O'Shea at Harvard University where she studies stress respo...

Growth factor stimulates rapid extension of key motor neurons in brain

...that die in motor neuron diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease). In the November 2006 issue of Nature Neuroscience, two investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute describe how insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) dramaticall...

Biologically inspired sensors can augment sonar, vision system in submarines

...organs along the sides of their bodies, called the lateral line. Now, a research team led by Chang Liu at the...linois at Urbana-Champaign has built an artificial lateral line that can provide the same functions in underwater vehicles. "Our development of an artificial ...

Gene hunters close in on Lou Gehrig’s disease

...netic roots of the most common form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Johns Hopkins scientists have newly identified 34 unique variations in the human genetic code among 276 unrelated subjects with ALS. The 34 so-called single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, represent good candidate genes predispos...

Neural bottleneck found that thwarts multi-tasking

...tral bottleneck was caused by the inability of the lateral frontal and prefrontal cortex, and also the superior frontal cortex, to process the two tasks at once. Both areas have been shown in previous experiments to play a critical role in cognitive control. "We determined these brain regions responded to...

Using brain scans, researchers find evidence for a two-stage model of human perceptual learning

...d a particular region in participants' brains, the lateral occipital cortex, which had also been found by oth...d again that cars selectively activated an area in lateral occipital cortex, but that now neurons in that area appeared to be finely tuned to small car shape d...

Bisexual fruit flies show new role for neurochemical

...earn to debilitating illnesses such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, post-traumatic stress syndrome and schizophrenia is influenced by the number of receptors on nerve cells. The more receptors each cell has at its communication points, or synapses, the better that messages are carried t...