Scratch no more: Gene for itch sensation discovered
...y, scientists regarded itch as just a less intense version of the pain sensation. As a result, research on itching has been somewhat neglected. "Many genes have been identified in the pain pathway," says Chen, associate professor of anesthesiology, psychiatry and molecular biology and pharmacology. "But itch...Cellular message movement captured on video
...cientists have captured on video the intracellular version of a postal delivery service. Reporting in the journal Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications (BBRC), bioengineering researchers at UC San Diego published videos of a key message-carrying protein called paxillin moving abruptly from hubs...Largest synthetic gene ever built offers insights into anti-malarial drug resistance
...s same technique to create and express a synthetic version of the much smaller PfCRT gene. PfMDR1 is made up ...rmans first invented chloroquine (CQ), a synthetic version of quinine, which quickly became the treatment of choice because it was inexpensive − now seven ce...Studies to find better ways to preserve human eggs, ovarian tissue under way
...ed in human eggs, says Dr. Emmi, who believes some version of vitrification likely offers a better option for ovarian tissue and eggs. In fact, many in vitro fertilization programs, including the one she directs at MCG Health System, are moving toward vitrification, which also seems to work faster, better an...Newly discovered antibody may be body's natural defense against Alzheimer's
...entists were able to measure and extract the human version of anti-oligomer antibodies from IVIG and then demonstrate that these antibodies are present in the blood of normal individuals. The basis for the selective recognition of oligomers by these antibodies appears to be their capacity to recognize t...Physicist cracks women's random but always lucky choice of X chromosome
...rviving any biological threat targeted at a single version of the X chromosome....Marine phytoplankton changes form to protect itself from different predators
...ected. In a paper published June 11 in the online version of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers report the first evidence that a common species of saltwater algae – also known as phytoplankton – can change form to protect itself against attack by predators that have very different ...Researchers demonstrate way to control tree height
... would fit nicely on a backyard deck. Or a 30-foot version that might be a better fit on urban streets. Or, in fact, just about any height in between. Other changes can also affect foliage shapes or color in very attractive ways, and some might have value in cleaning up environmental pollution. In their s...Vaccine prevents prion disease in mice
...vaccine could be considered for humans. "The human version of prion disease usually occurs spontaneously and only rarely because of eating contaminated meat," he said. "But if, for example, a more significant outbreak of chronic wasting disease in deer and elk occurs and if it were transmissible to humans, t...Warts vaccine -- 1 of many in pipeline
...ne said. Trial researchers aim to use a tweaked version of Professor Frazer’s cervical cancer vaccine to treat genital warts. Professor Frazer said this vaccine could be one of the first made locally at the biopharmaceutical production centre, which received $100 million in last night’s Federal Budget....Survival of the rarest: Fruit flies shed light on the evolution of behavior
...were competing for food, those that did best had a version of the foraging gene that was rarest in a particular population. For example, rovers did better when there were lots of sitters, and sitters did better when there were more rovers. "If you're a rover surrounded by many sitters, then the sitters ar...Researchers attach genes to minichromosomes in maize
...Science. A minichromosome is an extremely small version of a chromosome, the threadlike linear strand of DNA and associated proteins that carry genes and functions in the transmission of hereditary information. Whereas a chromosome is made of both centromeres and telomeres with much intervening DNA, a min...Decoding protein structures helps illuminate cause of diabetes
...ified and speeded up the process with an automated version of the 2-D IR technique. As described in the current study, they obtained a single structural scan of hIAPP in less than a second - more than 500 times faster than previously possible. The speed is crucial for trying to understand a dynamic proce...Researchers find link between food odors and lifespan in fruit flies
...earch papers that are published later in the print version of Science. Van Voorhies did the metabolic meas...earch papers that are published later in the print version of Science. Van Voorhies did the metabolic measurements for the study, using sensitive detectors ...Row over study puts Korea's scientific community under scrutiny again
...is that Dr Kim's name was not present in the later version of the paper and that in his place as lead author was Dr Cha, his former employer and the head of CHA Health Systems, a "global healthcare enterprise" whose interests include the CHA Stem Cell Institute and several hospitals and clinics in Korea and ...Mutation improves memory, may lead to memory-enhancing pill
...y-blocking protein. Animals that carry a defective version of this gene showed improved performance in classi...the researchers have now generated mice carrying a version of eIF2a that cannot be phosphorylated. The mutant mice have lower levels of phosphorylated eIF2a an...Veterinary scientists explore poultry virus as cancer killer
...or their ongoing work using a genetically modified version of NDV to treat prostate cancer in humans. Prostate cancer is the second most common type of cancer in men, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS). The ACS estimates there will be almost 219,000 new cases of prostate cancer reported in th...RNA splicing factor implicated in ovarian tumor cell growth
..." The research has been published in the online version of the journal Oncogene; it will appear in an upcoming issue of the journal's print version. Ovarian cancer is commonly referred to as "the silent killer," as it usually is not discovered until its advanced stages. If diagnosed and treated while t...Misclassified for centuries, medicinal leeches found to be 3 distinct species
.... The results appear in the April 10, 2007, online version of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. "This raises the tantalizing prospect of three times the number of anticoagulants, and three times as many biomedically important developments in areas like protease inhibitors," said Mark Siddall...Common gene version optimizes thinking -- but with a possible downside
Most people inherit a version of a gene that optimizes their brain's thinking ci...h, DARPP-32. The researchers identified a common version of the gene and showed how it impacts the way two key brain regions exchange information, affecting ...