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UCLA launches $20 million stem cell institute to investigate HIV, cancer and neurological disorders

Experts in bioengineering, imaging, molecular genetics, immunology, ethics, hematology/oncology and cellular biology to collaborate on Proposition 71 research Drawing together experts from fields as diverse as engineering to molecular biology, UCLA officials announced March 16 the formation of the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine to conduct embryonic and adult stem cell resear...

3D Atlas Will Help Navigate The Spinal Cord

Professor George Paxinos and Dr Yuri Koutcherov of the Spinal Injuries Research Centre at the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute have been awarded ~$200,000 by the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation to prepare a three-dimensional (3D) atlas of the rat spinal cord over the next two years. Christopher Reeve met with Institute scientists during his visit to Australia in 2003 and w...

Sensor web simulation investigates technique to improve prediction of pollution across the globe

For asthmatics and for anyone with respiratory problems, air pollution can significantly impair simple everyday activities. NASA is trying to tie together satellites and stations on the ground to develop a "sensor web" to track this pollution and improve air quality forecasts. Understanding how tropospheric or near-surface-level ozone is produced, distributed and transported from city to c...

Displaced songbirds navigate in the high Arctic

By experimentally relocating migratory white-crowned sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys gambelii) from their breeding area in the Canadian Northwest Territories to regions at and around the magnetic North Pole, researchers have gained new insight into how birds navigate in the high Arctic. In particular, the findings aid our understanding of how birds might determine longitudinal information--a cha...

Russian 'surrogate' alcohols are a killer

Heavy alcohol consumption contributes to numerous problems in Russia, not the least of which is a very high death rate. In an ongoing study of 25- to 54-year-old Russian men living in an industrial city, researchers have discovered that a significant proportion consume "surrogate" alcohols, otherwise known as products containing alcohol that are not legally sold for consumption. Researchers hav...

Targeted drug delivery achieved with nanoparticle-aptamer bioconjugates

Ground-breaking results from researchers at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA, disclosed at the 13th European Cancer Conference (ECCO) have shown for the first time that targeted drug delivery is possible using nanoparticle-apatamer conjugates. Nucleic acid ligands (referred to as aptamers) are short DNA or RNA fragments that can bind to target an...

USC researchers investigate protein that protects tumors

A protein that allows breast cancer cells to evade the body's natural immune responses could be a target of future cancer therapies, according to a study by scientists from the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. The study, published in the July 1 issue of the American Journal of Pathology, is the first to identify how EphB4 ?a protein that sits on the s...

Gatekeeping: Penn researchers find new way to open ion channels in cell membranes

Using an enzyme found in the venom of the brown recluse spider, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered a new way to open molecular pores, called ion channels, in the membrane of cells. The research team ?Zhe Lu, MD, PhD; Yajamana Ramu, PhD; and Yanping Xu, MD, PhD of the Department of Physiology at Penn ?screened venoms from over 100 poisonous invertebrat...

Arctic expedition will investigate alien-like glacier

A scientific expedition to a remote glacier field in Canada's High Arctic may help researchers unlock the secrets about the beginning of life and provide insights for future exploration of our solar system. A team assembled by the University of Calgary's Arctic Institute of North America plans to spend two weeks studying a sulfur-spewing spring on the surface of an ice field not far from t...

Temple University Hospital investigates treatment for cervical dysplasia

Temple University Hospital's Center For Women's Health is participating in a national study to determine the safety and effectiveness of an investigational treatment for cervical dysplasia. According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 500,000 women are diagnosed with high-grade cervical dysplasia each year, with roughly 10,000 cases progressing to cervical cancer. For numerous w...

Scientists reveal structure of gateways to gene control

Scientists at Penn State University will reveal in the 29 March 2007 issue of the journal Nature the first complete high-resolution map of important structures that control how genes are packaged and regulated throughout an entire genome. "For the first time, we are seeing in very high resolution on a genome-wide scale how nucleosomes control the expression of an organism's genes," said B. Fran...

New sensor detects gaseous chemical weapon surrogates in 45 seconds

Using lasers and tuning forks, researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have developed a chemical weapon agent sensing technique that promises to meet or exceed current and emerging defense and homeland security chemical detection requirements. The technique, called Quartz Laser Photo-Acoustic Sensing, or "QPAS," is now ready for prototyping and field testing. PNNL, a Departm...

Study investigates 'divorce' among Galapagos seabirds

Many Nazca booby females switch mates after successfully raising a chick, according to a Wake Forest University study scheduled for publication in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological...