Extend

UCSD discovery may help extend life of natural pesticide

A team led by biologists at the University of California, San Diego has discovered a molecule in roundworms that makes them susceptible to Bacillus thuringiensis toxin, or Bt toxin--a pesticide produced by bacteria and widely used by organic farmers and in genetically engineered crops to ward off insect pests. Their findings should facilitate the design and use of Bt toxins to prevent ins...

Affymetrix and bioMerieux Extend Their Agreement on GeneChip(R) Technology to Breast Cancer Diagnostics

Affymetrix Inc. (Nasdaq: AFFX) and bioMerieux announced today that Affymetrix has granted bioMerieux long-term and comprehensive access to its GeneChip(R) technology to develop and market in vitro diagnostic tests for breast cancer, as well as an option to expand the agreement into other cancer areas. The agreement, made under the Powered by Affymetrix(TM) program, gives bioMerieux non-exc...

Researchers extend mouse lifespan by protecting against free radicals

Scientists at the University of Washington and their colleagues at other research centers have found a way to significantly extend the lifespan of mice while reducing the impact of the aging process. Their study, which will be published online by the journal Science on May 5, lends more credence to the free-radical theory of aging. The theory suggests that very reactive chemicals, called "...

Caloric restriction won't dramatically extend life span in humans: UCLA research

Severely restricting calories over decades may add a few years to a human life span, but will not enable humans to live to 125 and beyond, as many have speculated, evolutionary biologists report. "Our message is that suffering years of misery to remain super-skinny is not going to have a big payoff in terms of a longer life," said UCLA evolutionary biologist John Phelan. "I once heard some...

HIV Therapy Greatly Extends Life of Key T Cells, Scientists Find

Interleukin-2 (IL-2), an immune-boosting drug used experimentally in HIV therapy, greatly increases the lifespan of certain subsets of immune system T cells in some HIV-positive people who respond to this therapy, discovered researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the NIH. A report desc...

Life-extending protein keeps blood sugar in check

A protein that extends lifespan in yeast, worms, and flies keeps blood sugar under control in mice, reports a new study in the August Cell Metabolism. The findings suggest therapeutic interventions for the prevention and treatment of metabolic disorders, such as type 2 diabetes, which frequently arise with age, the researchers said. The team found that mice with an excess of the protein Si...

Implantable pumps extend lives of patients too sick for transplant

Pumps implanted into the chest to maintain circulation can significantly extend the lives of the sickest patients in end-stage heart failure who are not candidates for heart transplantation, according to the results of a clinical trial led by Duke University Medical Center cardiologists. The pumps, known as left ventricular assistant devices (LVADs), are employed when the heart's left vent...

Combined treatment extends life expectancy for lung cancer patients

Combining thermal ablation with radiation therapy extends average life expectancy and decreases recurrences of tumors in patients who have early stages of inoperable lung cancer, according to researchers at Rhode Island Hospital. In a retrospective study looking at patients over seven years, the median survival rate at three years increased from 20 months after radiation alone to 42 month...

Antibody extends life of mice with breast cancer

A monoclonal antibody developed by researchers at the University at Buffalo has been shown to extend significantly the survival of mice with human breast-cancer tumors and to inhibit the cancer's spread to the lungs in the animals by more than 50 percent. The antibody, named JAA-F11, targets a particular disaccharide, an antigen known as TF-Ag, which aids the adhesion and spread of certain...

Powerful genome ID method extended to humans

A mathematical discovery has extended the reach of a novel genome mapping method to humans, potentially giving cancer biology a faster and more cost-effective tool than traditional DNA sequencing. A student-led group from the laboratory of Michael Waterman, USC University Professor in molecular and computational biology, has developed an algorithm to handle the massive amounts of data crea...

'Empty nester' parent birds use recruitment calls to extend offspring care

By studying a habituated population of pied babblers (Turdoides bicolor) in the Kalahari Desert, researchers have discovered a surprising new way in which parent birds can extend the period of their care of offspring. The findings are reported by Andrew Radford of the University of Cambridge and Amanda Ridley of the University of Cape Town and appear in the September 5th issue of Current Biology,...

Single molecule extends fat mice lives by reversing gene pathways associated with disease in obese

Researchers have used a single compound to increase the lifespan of obese mice, and found that the drug reversed nearly all of the changes in gene expression patterns found in mice on high calorie diets--some of which are associated with diabetes, heart disease, and other significant diseases related to obesity. The research, led by investigators at Harvard Medical School and the National Institu...