Factor in Biological News

UAB study reveals bone coupling factor key to skeletal health

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) have discovered a molecular coupling factor that helps bones grow and remodel themselves to stay strong, a finding that could lead to better bone-building therapies and new osteoporosis drugs, the researchers said Th...

Neural stem cell differentiation factor discovered

Neural stem cells represent the cellular backup of our brain. These cells are capable of self-renewal to form new stem cells or differentiate into neurons, astrocytes or oligodendrocytes. Astrocytes have supportive functions in the environment of neurons, while oligodendrocytes form the myelin lay...

Elsevier announces 2008 journal impact factor highlights

Amsterdam, 29 June 2009 Elsevier, the leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, today announced the highlights of its journal impact factor performance in 2008. Elsevier overall saw 75% of its journal impact factors (IF) increase from 2007 to 2008. ...

In the warming West, climate most significant factor in fanning wildfires' flames

The recent increase in area burned by wildfires in the Western United States is a product not of higher temperatures or longer fire seasons alone, but a complex relationship between climate and fuels that varies among different ecosystems, according to a study conducted by U.S. Forest Service and ...

Impact Factor names Cell top research journal

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., USA (June 23, 2009) For the second year in a row, Cell is ranked cell biology's top research journal, according to new data released in the 2008 Journal Citation Reports published by ThomsonReuters. In the report released June 19, Cell 's impact factor increased to 31.3 fr...

Researchers identify new risk factor gene for rheumatoid arthritis

Scientists at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research and a team of collaborators from across the country have identified a new risk factor gene for rheumatoid arthritis. The paper will be published in Nature Genetics and the finding brings light to the nature of the disease. The gene, dubb...

Penn researchers discover genetic risk factor for testicular cancer

(PHILADELPHIA) Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have uncovered variation around two genes that are associated with an increased risk of testicular cancer. Testicular cancer is the most common cancer among young men, and its incidence among non-Hispanic Caucasian ...

Newly discovered epidermal growth factor receptor active in human pancreatic cancers

Finally some promising news about pancreatic cancer, one of the most fatal cancers, due to the difficulties of early detection and the lack of effective therapies: Johns Hopkins University pathologist Akhilesh Pandey has identified an epidermal growth factor receptor aberrantly active in approxima...

Beverage consumption a bigger factor in weight

When it comes to weight loss, what you drink may be more important than what you eat, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Researchers examined the relationship between beverage consumption among adults and weight change and found that weight loss was po...

Common gene variants influence risk factor for sudden cardiac death

A new study has identified several common genetic variants related to a risk factor for sudden cardiac death. The report receiving early online release in the journal Nature Genetics identifies variants in genes, some known and some newly discovered, that influence the QT interval measured on th...

Hopkins scientists ID 10 genes associated with a risk factor for sudden cardiac death

One minute, he's a strapping 40-year-old with an enviable cholesterol level, working out on his treadmill. The next, he's dead. That an abnormality in his heart's electrical system had managed to stay on the Q.T. until it proved lethal is characteristic of sudden cardiac death, which an...

Exercise increases brain growth factor and receptors, prevents stem cell drop in middle age

BETHESDA, Md. (Nov. 18, 2008) − A new study confirms that exercise can reverse the age-related decline in the production of neural stem cells in the hippocampus of the mouse brain, and suggests that this happens because exercise restores a brain chemical which promotes the production and mat...

A second career for a growth factor receptor: keeping nerve axons on target

LA JOLLA, CA Neurons constituting the optic nerve wire up to the brain in a highly dynamic way. Cell bodies in the developing retina sprout processes, called axons, which extend toward visual centers in the brain, lured by attractive cues and making U-turns when they take the wrong path. How they...

Growth factor predicts poor outcome in breast cancer

The response to insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-I) in breast cancer cells predicts an aggressive tumor that is less likely to respond to treatment, said researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in a report that appears in the current issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The finding give...

MicroRNA implicated as molecular factor in alcohol tolerance

WORCESTER, Mass.In recent years, a class of small molecules known as microRNA have been found to play an important role in regulating gene products in most animal and plant species. A new study now indicates that microRNA may influence the development of alcohol tolerance, a hallmark of alcohol ab...

Significant impact factor boost for scientific journal Genome Research

COLD SPRING HARBOR, N.Y. (July 7, 2008) Earlier this month, ThomsonReuters released the 2007 Journal Citation Reports , which includes impact factors for the world's most important scholarly journals. The scientific journal Genome Research , published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, wa...

The benefits of green tea in reducing an important risk factor for heart disease

More evidence for the beneficial effect of green tea on risk factors for heart disease has emerged in a new study reported in the latest issue of European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation .1 The study found that the consumption of green tea rapidly improves the function of ...

Impact Factor names Cell top research journal

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., USA (June 25, 2008) Cell is ranked cell biology's top research journal, according to new data released in the 2007 Journal Citation Reports published by ThomsonReuters. In the report, released this month, Cell 's impact factor increased to 29.9 from 29.2 in prior year, pla...

Stowers Institute's Shilatifard Lab identifies new role for factor critical to transcription

The Stowers Institute's Shilatifard Lab has identified a new role for the elongation factor ELL in gene transcription by RNA polymerase II (Pol II) the enzyme that synthesizes messenger RNA to carry genetic information from DNA to the protein-synthesizing machinery of the cell. Precise contro...

Study of sugars on cell surface identifies key factor in flu infection

Scientists have identified a key factor that determines the ability of influenza viruses to infect cells of the human upper respiratory tracta necessary step for sustaining spread between people. The research, described in the January 6 online edition of Nature Biotechnology and funded by the Nati...

Lipids in the brain an important factor for Alzheimer's disease?

Brussels & Leuven, Belgium As the most common form of dementia in the Western world, Alzheimer's disease carries enormous implications for our ageing society. It is generally accepted that the disease is caused by Alzheimer peptide (A -peptide) protofibrils. Until now, the conditions under which ...

Pourquie Lab demonstrates role of growth factor in vertebrae formation

The Stowers Institutes Pourqui Lab has demonstrated the role of fibroblast growth factor (FGF) in the embryonic process of somitogenesis, an event required for vertebrae formation, in a paper posted to the Web site of the journal Development. The paper will appear in the November print issue of th...

Study identifies genetic risk factor for rheumatoid arthritis, lupus

A genetic variation has been identified that increases the risk of two chronic, autoimmune inflammatory diseases: rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (lupus). These research findings result from a long-time collaboration between the Intramural Research Program (IRP) of the Na...

Targeting nerve growth factor may cure liver cancer

Nerve growth factor (NGF), as the name says, is an essential peptide factor for the growth and differentiation of neuronal cells. Therefore we can imagine that this growth factor is important for the nervous system including brain. But a recent scientific report published in the October 7 issue of...

Female embryonic sexual development driven by universal factor

A gene essential to the growth and development of most organ systems in the body also is vital to female but not male embryonic sexual development, scientists report this month. The study, from researchers at the University of Illinois and the University of Texas, appears in Human Molecular ...

Scientists associate 6 new genetic variants with heart disease risk factor

Using new techniques for rapidly scanning the human genome, researchers have associated levels of cholesterol and triglycerides, two fats in the blood, to 18 genetic variants, six of which represent new DNA regions never before associated with the traits. The findings, appearing in the January 13 ...

Carnegie Mellon scientist uses mass spectrometer to weigh virus particle, von Willebrand factor

BOSTONWith unprecedented sensitivity, Carnegie Mellon Universitys Mark Bier has characterized large viral particles and bulky von Willebrand factors using a novel mass spectrometer. These exciting results may lead to new biological discoveries and represent a step closer to rapid disease diagnosis...

RNA splicing factor implicated in ovarian tumor cell growth

An RNA-binding protein that is overproduced in ovarian cancer may present a new target for diagnosis or treatment of ovarian and other cancers, according to researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Researchers in the UIC College of Pharmacy found that interfering with the production ...

FSU researchers determine a critical factor in workings of proteins

Scientists know that a better understanding of how proteins bond could lead to more effective treatments for genetic disorders and other life-threatening conditions. Now, a pair of Florida State University researchers' new theory has been proven to accurately predict the association rate for prot...

Scientists discover a new risk factor for Alzheimer's

Researchers led by Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) international research scholar Peter St George-Hyslop have identified a new genetic risk factor associated with the most common form of Alzheimer's disease. The research implicates a gene called SORL1 in late-onset Alzheimer's, which usually...

Growth factor stimulates rapid extension of key motor neurons in brain

A growth factor known to be important for the survival of many types of cells stimulates rapid extension of corticospinal motor neurons ?critical brain cells that connect the cerebral cortex with the spinal cord and that die in motor neuron diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Ge...

MatBase -- A new transcription factor knowledge base released by Genomatix

Genomatix Software GmbH, a pioneer and leader in the analysis of eukaryotic transcriptional regulation, releases MatBase, a knowledge base of transcription factors (TF). It contains genomic TF binding sites and protein binding domains, related literature, more than 27.000 known TF ?gene interact...

Nutrition a major factor in rise in twin pregnancies

The commonly held view that IVF is the only culprit in the steady increase in the numbers of twins born over the past thirty years was challenged by a scientist speaking at the 22nd annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Prague, Czech Republic, Wednesday 2...

UCI researchers discover key factor for survival of human embryonic stem cells

Human embryonic stem cells (hES) offer great hope for the treatment of some devastating diseases, but finding a way to keep enough of these cells usable and healthy for transplantation in patients has been an ongoing problem. Now scientists at UC Irvine have discovered a way to keep large quantitie...

New factor implicated in allergy and asthma attacks

For a person with allergies or asthma, breathing in pollen can be a very bad thing. Within minutes of inhalation by someone sensitive to their effects, these tiny particles can trigger severe inflammation of the respiratory passages, producing uncontrollable sneezing, coughing, or extreme shortness...

DNA size a crucial factor in genetic mutations, study finds

Researchers at Stanford University have created a larger-than-normal DNA molecule that is copied almost as efficiently as natural DNA. The findings, reported in the Oct. 25 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), may reveal new insights into how genetic mutatio...

Novel plague virulence factor identified

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have identified a previously unknown family of virulence factors that make the bacterium responsible for the plague especially efficient at killing its host. In the process, the team not only demonstrated that the use of the common roundworm is a vali...

The first impact factor for PLoS Biology ?13.9

The open-access journal PLoS Biology has been assessed by Thomson ISI to have an impact factor of 13.9*, which places PLoS Biology among the most highly cited journals in the life sciences. This is an outstanding statistic for a journal less than two years old, from a new publisher promoting a new ...

Embryonic Stem Cells Treated With Growth Factor Reverse Hemophilia In Mice: UNC Researchers

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers have made a discovery that may have implications for the treatment of liver-based genetic defects such as hemophilia A and B in humans. Mouse embryonic stem cells treated in culture with a growth factor and then injected into the liver reve...

NIH stimulus funding supports Emory biomedical scientists

...ood-clotting proteins can improve treatments for inherited hemophilia and cardiovascular disease. This study looks at one particular clotting protein, factor VIII. Biomarkers for Alzheimer's via magnetic resonance: Identifying patients who are developing Alzheimer's disease could help neurologists treat...