Different strategies underlie the ecology of microbial invasions
...ne another, and they have found that each strategy seems to be particularly effective under different ecological circumstances--for example, depending on whether the bacteria are rare invaders or abundant residents. The findings, reported by a group of researchers including Sam P. Brown of the University o...New neurons could act to alleviate epilepsy
...insult, the functional connectivity of new neurons seems to develop in order to mitigate the dysfunction in the epileptic brain. These data provide further evidence for a therapeutic potential of endogenous neurogenesis." ...On the golf tee or pitcher's mound, brain dooms motion to inconsistency
...consistency is the standard of perfection, then it seems that nobody will ever be perfect. ...Hard-wiring the fruit fly's visual system
...s the visual map. In contrast, in flies the system seems to be completely hard-wired and only rely on genetic inputs." "The most obvious difference between the insect and vertebrate brain is their size and the number of neurons and connections that need to be made. A possible explanation for the finding...Changing length of days reverses how estrogen affects aggressiveness in mice
... you find something different," Nelson said. "This seems to be one of those instances where estrogen is working in a different way in long-day mice. But there is a lot more work to be done on this." These findings have many implications for humans, according to the researchers. For one, it suggests more...Too mellow for our predatory world
...teroid stress response", explains Thomas Roedl. It seems that the function of the stress axis can be retained even through long evolutionary periods with no predation pressure and that it can quickly regain its activity once predation resumes. "But changes in flight distance are too slight and insufficient...Quality not quantity important for immune response to HIV
...xplains Professor Goulder. "In our study group, it seems that the higher the response to the Gag proteins, ...s for the development of a HIV vaccine. "There seems to be clear evidence that 'Gag is good'," says Professor Goulder. "This means that rather than devel...Dragonfly's metabolic disease provides clues about human obesity
...ople who suffer from obesity," said Schilder. "It seems plausible that disturbance in the microbial commun...tion that affects metabolism," said Marden. "That seems akin to what's happening in humans when they get type-2 diabetes. It's not because there's been a c...Brains can recover from alcoholic damage but patients should stop drinking as soon as possible
...lt human brain, and particularly its white matter, seems to possess genuine capabilities for re-growth. Our findings show the ways that the brain can recover from the toxic insults of chronic alcoholism and substantiate the early measurable benefits of therapeutic sobriety. However, they also suggest that ...Hospital-acquired infections -- Inevitable?
...he American College of Medical Quality. The data seems to bear out the pervasive belief. In 2004, Pennsylvania's general acute care hospitals reported nearly 12,000 hospital-acquired infections (HAIs). These were associated with over 1,500 additional deaths, 205,000 additional hospital days, and nearly $...Two-faced protein can stop metastasis or promote it, researchers say
...searchers have noted that the p120 catenin protein seems mysteriously two-faced: while it normally strengthens cell-cell bonding, in some cases it can also negatively affect cell adhesion. They also have found that over production of p120 increases a cell's ability to move. But the significance of these ob...UCSD researchers create roadmap to integrin activation
...at most other cells in the body. "Talin binding seems to be what throws the activation switch," Ginsberg said. "By adding controllable amounts of talin and the enzyme protein kinase C ?an enzyme that modifies other proteins ?we found we can get the cell to respond to certain agents that, in turn, activa...Caterpillars tell us how bacteria cause disease
...s for a staggering length of evolutionary time. It seems likely that most virulence genes around today probably first evolved to work against these hosts". With funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council's (BBSRC) Exploiting Genomics Initiative, Dr Waterfield and his team ar...New mechanism underlying pain found
...rauma to nerves and the tissues that surround them seems to trigger a complicated cascade of events that results in an increase in the activity of these pacemaker ion channels and the resulting transmission of pain signals to the brain. We are encouraged by early evaluations of certain chemical structures ...Single molecular 'mark' seen as pivotal for genome compaction in spores and sperm
...itute and senior author on the study. "Also, there seems to be a similarity in the way the mark is used in organisms as different from each other as yeast and mammals, suggesting that compaction has been important throughout evolution." Berger speculates that compaction might answer a number of important ...Key to acute lung injury lies in Ang2 protein
...diatrics at Yale School of Medicine. "This protein seems to be a mediator of cell death in the settings of high oxygen concentrations in the lung causing acute lung injury and pulmonary edema." Bhandari said the study is an example of true bench-to-bedside translational research. "All the work was initi......n the mutant Apc mice, the loss of IGF2 imprinting seems to particularly affect the behavior of the adult stem cells that continually regenerate the colon in mice. This probably plays a role in the increased risk of colon cancer, says Feinberg. Spotting epigenetic markers like lost IGF2 in humans could ...Artificial cornea offers better results for infants, some blind patients
...s, Rochester doctors showed that the Boston device seems to be very effective in infants and children from six weeks to 13 years old, restoring vision and putting an end to long cycles of eye operations that dog many patients who have needed a cornea transplant. The study included 17 children who collec...Study illuminates how the plague bacteria causes disease
... half the picture," Stebbins said. "The GDI domain seems to have an even bigger effect on host cells in culture, and a significant impact on virulence." The results also add to broader themes in the evolution of bacterial diseases, the researchers added. "It is becoming increasingly clear that a common ...Mysterious 'neural noise' actually primes brain for peak performance
...ions. As counter-intuitive as it sounds, the noise seems integral to making those calculations possible. ...in your head. But the reality of the cranial world seems to be a confusing array of possibilities and probabilities, all of which are somehow, mysteriously, ...