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Tag: "functional" at biology news

Scratch no more: Gene for itch sensation discovered

...GRPR, so now we're trying to determine if there is functional redundancy in the itching pathway." GRPR knockout mice had normal reactions to painful stimuli, indicating that pain and itch are mediated by separate sets of genes in the spinal cord. This suggests that drugs can be used to suppress the itch sensat...

Nicotine rush hinges on sugar in neurons

... the theory that the buried water molecule plays a functional role. Chen called the group’s Nature Neuroscience study “one of the few times that you felt that you connected the dots.” The study also represents a tour de force of protein crystallography. Homologs of nAChR had been studied at the atomic scale...

Old memory traces in brain may trigger chronic pain

...omfort of burning your finger, for example. With a functional MRI, he found that chronic back pain shows up in the prefrontal cortex. By contrast, the acute sensory pain of the burned finger appears in the sensory part of the thalamus. Apkarian also found that the longer a person has been suffering from chr...

Modeling the restless brain

...rks as a whole. And while technologies such as functional MRI allow scientists to measure some kinds of neural connectivity, neuroinformatics approaches, which use extensive anatomical and physiological data sets to describe the macacque's brain, allowed Sporns and Honey to collect data on all the activity ...

Longer treatment benefits sleep apnea patients

... hours a night, depending on the measurement used, functional status or quality-of-life improvements were maximized after 7.5 hours of use each night. Although individual patient response to CPAP therapy can vary, these latest findings provide a yardstick to help clinicians assess whether a patient's use is opt...

Brain holds clues to bipolar disorder

...y of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and director of functional neuroimaging in emotional disorders at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic of UPMC, will discuss the emerging role of brain imaging techniques in psychiatry in general as well as in bipolar disorder. Using neuroimaging, Dr. Phillips has identifi...

Dual-imaging technique useful before -- and during -- brain surgery

...ging tools into the operating room can improve the functional abilities of patients who undergo brain surgery. ...re among the first in the United States to combine functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and “diffusion tensor tractography” data to outline important areas...

Migration alert -- How tumor cells home in on the lymphatic system

...oit this slow, one-way flow in order to migrate to functional lymphatic vessels. As part of their intercell...stence of continuous slow flow in the direction of functional lymphatics. This research could open new avenues for combating metastasis, says Swartz. “It imp...

Nurtured chimps rake it in

...enculturated chimpanzees successfully selected the functional rake, while the sanctuary chimpanzees chose randomly between the two hybrid tools. The captive laboratory chimpanzees failed both tests, as demonstrated in previously published work (2). According to Dr. Sarah Boysen, who led the study, “We think...

New findings challenge established views on human genome

...r effort to build a parts list of all biologically functional elements in 1 percent of the human genome. Carried...d blazed the way for future efforts to explore the functional landscape of the entire human genome,” said NHGRI Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. “Because ...

Exploring the dark matter of the genome

... are approaching a complete assembly, mapping, and functional analysis of those portions (other than simple repe...es that code for non-protein-coding RNAs and other functional elements, such as small RNAs that neutralize transposable elements, or transposons -- DNAs similar t...

Clot-dissolving agent may be beneficial in treatment of severe frostbite

...The preservation of limbs, which maximizes patient functional outcome, is perhaps the greatest benefit conferred by use of tPA in frostbite injury.” The researchers suspect tPA helps reduce the injury caused when frozen skin is warmed again. Inflammation during thawing typically stimulates clotting that bloc...

Reconstructing the biology of extinct species: A new approach

...ize into account. The research revealed that this functional tie between the semicircular canals and locomotor pattern is evident both within the primates alone and within the entire mammalian sample. "How an animal moves is a basic adaptation," says Walker, an expert in primate locomotion. "Now we have a ...

Human genetic 'deserts' are teeming with significant life

...titutes of Health, with the aim of identifying all functional elements in the human genome sequence. The pilot phase is focusing on 44 regions, totalling approximately 1% of the human genome. By testing and comparing existing methods for annotating the human genome the consortium members hope to find the most ...

Revealed -- Mosquito genes that could be controlling the spread of killer viruses

...mits malaria. Beyond the present descriptive work, functional studies will be needed to clarify exactly how this happens. “This study made us realise that the immune systems of insects are not static but evolve and differentiate rapidly, most likely in response to the different pathogens which each inse...

Putting feelings into words produces therapeutic effects in the brain

...stdoctoral fellow in Lieberman’s laboratory — used functional magnetic resonance imaging to study subjects’ brain activity. “When you attach the word ‘angry,’ you see a decreased response in the amygdala,” Lieberman said. “When you attach the name ‘Harry,’ you don’t see the reduction in the amygdala response...

A first -- Hebrew University scientist observes brain cell development in 'real time'

...earch, said Dr. Mizrahi, since "the structural and functional complexity of nerve cells remains one of the biggest mysteries of neuroscience, and we now have a model to study this complexity directly." The results of Dr. Mizrahi’s groundbreaking work appeared in the online edition of Nature Neuroscience. ...

Adult stem cells from human cord umbilical cord blood successfully engineered to make insulin

...it adds, are those "relevant to the engineering of functional equivalents of pancreatic, islet-like, glucose-responsive, insulin-producing cells to treat diabetes." The researchers said they tested adult stem cells in the laboratory to ensure that they were predisposed to divide. Then they used a previously ...

Genome of Clostridium botulinum reveals the background to world's deadliest toxin

...The availability of this tool should revolutionise functional genomic studies in clostridia." This remarkable, stable genome demonstrates the wide range of strategies used by bacteria to enhance their chances of survival. For the Clostridia, these range from the approach used by Cdiff — long-term interaction...

Human stem cell treatment restores motor function in paralyzed rats

... that the goal is to provide a significant gain in functional mobility of the patient’s legs. This study builds on Marsala’s previous work in rat models using human neuronal stem cells, published in October 2004 in the European Journal of Neurosciences. In that study, significantly improved motor function,...

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