Findings

Surprising findings reported about iron overload

UAB and international scientists studying iron-overload disorders have made the unexpected discovery that Asians and Pacific Islanders have the highest levels of iron in their blood of all racial/ethnic groups who were screened. Individuals who develop hemochromatosis/iron overload absorb an excessive amount of iron from food and supplements ingested. The abnormality affects many people wo...

Findings have implications for tracking disease, drugs at the molecular level

Researchers in the laboratory of Boston College Chemistry Professor John T. Fourkas have demonstrated that gold particles comparable in size to a molecule can be induced to emit light so strongly that it is readily possible to observe a single nanoparticle. Fourkas, in collaboration with postdoctoral researcher Richard Farrer and BC undergraduates Francis Butterfield and Vincent Chen, coaxed the...

Study findings offer potential new targets for antibiotics

A new study of genetic changes in bacteria may ultimately help drug makers stay a step ahead of disease-causing bacteria that can become resistant to antibiotics. Many currently used antibiotics alter a ribosome's ability to make proteins, said Kurt Fredrick, a s...

Findings advance use of adult stem cells for replacement bone

In a significant advance for regenerative medicine, researchers at Rice University have discovered a new way to culture adult stem cells from bone marrow such that the cells themselves produce a growth matrix that is rich in important biochemical growth factors. The research, which appears online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is notable not just because...

Oops! Researchers publish new findings on the brain's response to costly mistakes

It happens to all of us, no matter how hard we try. Whether it's deleting a computer file and realizing a split-second later that we can't get it back, or dropping a bag of groceries, or realizing that our gas tank is nearly empty on a lonely stretch of highway, we all make mistakes that aren't just annoying, but potentially costly. Now, a team of University of Michigan researchers has loo...

Biodiversity key to sustainable biofuel according to University of Minn. researcher's findings

Ecosystems containing many different plant species are not only more productive, they are also better able to withstand and recover from climate extremes, pests and disease over long periods of time. These findings, published in the June 1 issue of Nature, are the culmination of 12 years of experiments conducted by David Tilman, Regents Professor of Ecology at the University of Minnesota,...

New findings offer more complete view of breast cancer gene mutations in US population

A large study funded by the National Institutes of Health today provided the clearest picture yet of the prevalence in the U.S. population of mutations in two genes associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. The genes are called Breast Cancer 1 (BRCA1) and Breast Cancer 2 (BRCA2). In addition, the study identified key predictors for assessing which women are most likely to carry these ge...

New stem-cell findings can help the body to cure itself

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have identified an important mechanism that regulates how many new cells are produced by each intestinal stem cell. The study is published in the latest issue of the prestigious scientific journal, Cell. "This might eventually help us develop new drugs for things like neurological disorders and anaemia," says Professor Jonas Frisén. In most organs of th...

New findings could lead to vaccine for severe malaria

The most severe form of malaria hits pregnant women and children the hardest. A joint study between Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and Makerere University in Uganda has now produced some important findings on how the malaria parasite conceals itself in the placenta. Plasmodium falciparium is the name of by far the most virulent of the four malaria parasites that infect man. It is particul...

New findings blow a decade of assumptions out of the water

The Atlantic Ocean doesn't receive the mother lode of fixed nitrogen, the building block of life, after all. Instead, comparing fathom for fathom, the Pacific and Indian oceans experience twice the amount of nitrogen fixing as the Atlantic, say researchers in the Jan. 11 issue of Nature. The title of an accompanying News and Views piece says it all, "Looking for N2 Fixation in all the Wron...

New findings challenge established views on human genome

An international research consortium today published a set of papers that promise to reshape our understanding of how the human genome functions. The findings challenge the traditional view of our genetic blueprint as a tidy collection of independent genes, pointing instead to a complex network in which genes, along with regulatory elements and other types of DNA sequences that do not code for...