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Tag: "jefferson" at biology news

Jefferson Virologists Coax HIV Out of Hiding

When researchers came up with the powerful.cocktail of anti-HIV drugs known as highly active antiretroviral.therapy (HAART), they hoped they had found a way to finally rid the.body of the virus. But they were wrong. The virus instead goes into.hiding, dormant and practically undetectable in the body ?and.impervious to attack. While HAART manages to keep the virus at bay,.it’s still quite capable...

Jefferson researchers find nanoparticle shows promise in reducing radiation side effects

A gene responsible for the production of a protein called vasostatin may prove a promising new way of treating pancreatic cancer, suggests research published ahead of print in Gut. . .. .. The research tea...

Jefferson biologist coaxing human embryonic stem cells to make dopamine with simpler, faster method

For clinicians, the ability to look routinely inside the body and see -- at the level of the cell -- how it confronts disease is a distant dream. But in a series of experiments with genetically engineered mice, a team of researchers from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) at the University of California Los Angeles has taken a key step toward realizing that vision by demonstrating the abi...

Jefferson scientists identify gene defect leading to abnormal skin development and cancer

For the rats of Hamelin, it was the Pied Piper's tune. For the destructive sea lamprey of the Great Lakes, it's a chemical attractant, or pheromone, released by lamprey larvae living in streambeds. Following the pheromone trail, adults are drawn to streams favorable for spawning. Researchers have long wanted to identify the pheromone so it could be synthesized and used to control the sea lamprey,...

Jefferson researchers building a better rabies vaccine

In an unexpected discovery, scientists at Jefferson Medical College have found that a tiny change in a rabies virus protein can turn a "safe" virus extremely deadly. The finding has enabled the researchers to refine a vaccine they previously created against rabies in wildlife, making it safer and more effective. . "We have identified a molecular mechanism involved in making the rabies virus patho...

Jefferson scientists identify gene mutation potentially involved in breast cancer initiation

Researchers at Jefferson Medical College and the Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York have found evidence suggesting that a mutation in a gene that normally helps block the formation of breast tumors could play a role in the initiation of a major form of breast cancer. . The team, led by cell biologist Mich...

Immune cell communication key to hunting viruses, Jefferson immunologists show

Immunologists at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia have used nanotechnology to create a novel "biosensor" to solve in part a perplexing problem in immunology: how immune system cells called killer T-cells hunt down invading viruses. . They found that surprisingly little virus can turn on the killer T-cells, thanks to some complicated communication among so-...

Jefferson researchers uncover new way nature turns genes on and off

Peering deep within the cells of fruit flies, developmental biologists at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia may have discovered a new way that genes are turned on and off during development. If they're right, and the same processes are at work in higher organisms, including mammals, the findings could eventually have implications for improving the understandi...

Jefferson scientists find aging gene also protects against prostate cancer development

Cancer scientists at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia have shown that a gene that is involved in regulating aging also blocks prostate cancer cell growth. The researchers, led by Kimmel Cancer Center director Richard Pestell, M.D., Ph.D., hope the newly found connection will aid in better understanding the development of prostate cancer and lead to new drugs...

Jefferson scientists find high glucose before surgery raises risk of dangerous complications

Patients who have high blood sugar before undergoing surgery run an increased risk of developing blood clots, deep vein thrombosis and even pulmonary embolism after surgery. . Boris Mraovic, M.D., assistant professor of anesthesiology in the Artificial Pancreas Center at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, and his colleagues examined records of nearly 6,500 h...

Jefferson researchers' discovery may change thinking on how viruses invade the brain

A molecule thought crucial to ferrying the deadly rabies virus into the brain, where it eventually kills, apparently isn’t. The surprising finding, say researchers at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, may change the way scientists think about how central nervous system-attacking viruses such as herpes viruses invade the brain and cause disease. . According to Matthias Schnell, Ph.D., pr...

Elderly spinal cord injuries increase five-fold in 30 years, Jefferson neurosurgeons find

The number of spinal cord injuries among senior citizens (age 70 and above) has increased five times in the past 30 years, as compared with younger spinal cord injury patients, researchers at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and Jefferson's Regional Spinal Cord Injury Center of the Delaware Valley recently reported. . As the population within the United States ages, it is estimated that 20 pe...

Jefferson scientists find rabies-based vaccine could be effective against HIV

Rabies, a relentless, ancient scourge, may hold a key to defeating another implacable foe: HIV. Scientists at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia have used a drastically weakened rabies virus to ferry HIV-related proteins into animals, in essence, vaccinating them against an AIDS-like disease. The early evidence shows that the vaccine ?which doesn’t protect against infection ?prevents devel...