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Wisconsin scientists grow critical nerve cells

After years of trial and error, scientists have coaxed human embryonic stem cells to become spinal motor neurons, critical nervous system pathways that relay messages from the brain to the rest of the body. The new findings, reported online today (Jan. 30, 2005) in the journal Nature Biotechnology by scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, are important because they provide c...

New push for public health, AIDS spending at African Union summit

Activists hope this weekend's African Union (AU) summit will net commitments to boost government spending on public health, helping to curb the spread of AIDS, which killed 2.3 million Africans in 2004. "We are definitely optimistic that this time there will be some movement, that this time there will be not just talk about an HIV strategy for the AU but how to tackle an action-oriented p...

UAB scientists discover the origin of a mysterious physical force

Ever since the 1970s, scientists have been trying to establish the cause of a repulsive force occurring between different electrostatically charged molecules, such as DNA and other biomolecules, when they are very close to each other in aqueous media. This force became know as hydration force. Jordi Faraudo, a researcher for the Department of Physics at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelo...

Topical treatment shown to inhibit HIV and herpes simplex virus infection

Mount Sinai School of Medicine researchers demonstrated that a gel applied in the vagina provides protection from both the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the herpes simplex Virus. The study, presented at the 12th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, is the first to show that a gel can retain anti-viral activity within the human vagina. The study, which was fund...

UCLA Study Shows One-Third of Drug Ads in Medical Journals Do Not Contain References Supporting Medical Claims

UCLA investigators reviewed pharmaceutical ads in American medical journals and found that nearly one-third contained no references for medical claims; while the majority of references to published material was available, only a minority of company data-on-file documents were provided upon request; and the majority of original research cited in the ads was funded by or had authors affiliated with...

Scientists Replicate Hepatitis C Virus in Laboratory

For the first time, scientists have replicated hepatitis C virus (HCV) in the laboratory. The ability to replicate HCV in cell culture will allow researchers to better study the life cycle and biology of this virus and to test potential antiviral compounds, which may lead to new therapies for the liver disease that results from infection with HCV. Scientists at the National Institute of Diabetes...

Another Look Finds Promising Proteomics Test is Not Biologically Plausible

In a new study, researchers present a “cautionary tale?about what may go wrong when using the fledgling science of proteomics to devise a diagnostic test for cancer. In the February 16 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, researchers from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center detail why an experimental test intended to identify early ovarian cancer from a...

Ecological destruction fuels emerging diseases

The destruction of habitat by human activity and the extinction of species around the world is more than a looming environmental catastrophe, warns a Canadian zoologist. This ecological damage also endangers human health by turning parasites into "evolutionary land mines." Dr. Daniel (Dan) Brooks, a parasitologist at the University of Toronto, says the decline of global biodiversity is li...

“Nano-scissors?laser shows precise surgical capability

)is quite a challenge; its about 1 mm in length. A research team fromthe University of Texas at Austin developed a method of laser-assistedsurgery to work on these little beasts, being able to section a singleaxon (the "arms" of a neuron) with g...

Finding Cures For Tropical Diseases: Is Open Source An Answer?

There's aparadigm in life science and drug development : only "lucrative""markets" get exploited by R&D companies. In many occasions I'veseen very promising drugs candidates or related research get cannedbecause no money was to be made with it, even if millions would havebeen saved worldwide. The usual strategy to avoid this fate is to finda drug candid...

NYU researchers simulate molecular biological clock

For many years, DNA and proteins have beenviewed as the real movers and shakers in genomic studies, with RNA seenas little more than a messenger that shuttles information between thetwo. But researchers from Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Researchand Massachusetts Institute of Technology have discovered that smallRNA molecules called microRNAs regulate thousands of human genes--morethan...

Mitochondrial DNA mutations play significant role in prostate cancer

Mutations in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) playan important role in the development of prostate cancer, according toresearch by scientists at Emory University School of Medicine and theUniversity of California, Irvine. The findings are published onlinethis week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences(PNAS). Mitochondrial DNA, which is separate from nuclear DNA, is foundin the hun...

Automatic extraction of gene/protein biological functions from biomedical text

With the rapid advancement of biomedical science and the development of high-throughput analysis methods, the extraction of various types of information from biomedical text has become critical. Since automatic functional annotations of genes are quite useful for interpreting large amounts of high-throughput data efficiently, the demand for automatic extraction of information related to gene func...

New imaging method gives early indication if brain cancer therapy is effective, U-M study shows

A special type of MRI scan that measures the flow of water molecules through the brain can help doctors determine early in the course of brain cancer regimen if a patient's tumor will shrink, a new study shows. Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center developed the assessment, which they call a functional diffusion map. They used a magnetic resonance imaging sc...

BRCA1 causes ovarian cancer through indirect, biochemical route

Mutated BRCA1 genes cause ovarian cancer indirectly, by interfering with the biochemical signals one ovarian cell sends to another, according to a team of researchers led by scientists at the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. Their work is being published in the March 29 issue of the journal Current Biology.</p...

Plant hemoglobins: Oxygen handlers critical for nitrogen fixation

Hemoglobins, key components of our blood, are ancient proteins with well-known roles in oxygen transport and respiration in animals. Hemoglobins are also present in plants and bacteria, but until now the physiological role of plant hemoglobins has been unclear. A group of researchers reveal this week that one such mysterious plant hemoglobin serves to assist in the fixation of nitrogen in the roo...

Essential mangrove forest threatened by cryptic ecological degradation

The recent killer tsunami has highlighted once more the importance of coastline protection. In natural conditions, this function is taken up by mangroves, forests thriving at the edge of land and sea that are ecologically and socio-economically important for local people in tropical countries on all continents. Using biology, geography, hydrology, socio-economic interviews, and 18th-century histo...

First 'atlas' of key brain genes could speed research on cancer, neurological diseases

Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institutehave compiled the first atlas showing the locations of crucial generegulators, or switches that determine how different parts of the braindevelop ?and, in some cases, develop abnormally or malfunction.The scientists say the map will accelerate research on brain tumors andneurological diseases that result from mutations in these switch genes?called...

Vital step in cellular migration described by UCSD medical researchers

A vital molecular step in cell migration, the movement of cells within the body during growth, tissue repair and the body's immune response to invading pathogens, has been demonstrated by researchers in the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine. Published in the March 27 online edition of Nature Cell Biology and the journal's upcoming April print edition, the study describ...

Critical role in programmed cell death identified

Dartmouth Medical School geneticists have found links in the cell death machinery of worms and mammals, opening new avenues for studying and targeting a process vital to development and implicated in cancer and autoimmune diseases. The work, reported in the February 17 issue of Nature, demonstrates the role of mitochondria, the cellular power plant, in prompting worm cells to self destruc...

Genetically modified natural killer immune cells attack, kill leukemia cells

Natural killer (NK) immune system cells can be genetically modified to brandish a powerful "on-switch" that prompts them to aggressively attack and kill leukemic cells. This finding, from researchers at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, suggests a way to improve the outcome of children who receive treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) or other blood cancers. Results of the...

Study shows nanoshells ideal as chemical nanosensors

'Nanoshells' enhance sensitivity to chemicaldetection by factor of 10 billionNew research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy ofScience finds that tailored nanoparticles known as nanoshells canenhance chemical sensing by as much as 10 billion times. That makesthem about 10,000 times more effective at Raman scattering thantraditional methods. Whenmolecules and materi...

Elephants imitate sounds as a form of social communication

Elephants learn to imitate sounds that are not typical of their species, the first known example after humans of vocal learning in a non-primate terrestrial mammal. The discovery, reported in today's Nature, further supports the idea that vocal learning is important for maintaining individual social relationships among animals that separate and reunite over time, like dolphins and whales, some bi...

A comprehensive response to HIV could prevent 10 million AIDS deaths in Africa by 2020

Based on successful animal studies, a novelvaccine that uses immune cells as factories to produce Her2/neu proteinmay offer a way to treat some human breast cancers, say researchers atThe University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. [Ed : is a protein often present / surexpressed in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/...

MSI releases 'moleculizer' - a new approach to simulation of intracellular biochemical networks

Dr. Roger Brent, President and Director of Research at the the release of a new approach to simulation of intracellularbiochemical networks in the January 2005 edition of NatureBiotechnology.The research article, entit...

An entropy-based gene selection method for cancer classification using microarray data

Accurate diagnosis of cancer subtypes remains a challenging problem. Building classifiers based on gene expression data is a promising approach; yet the selection of non-redundant but relevant genes is difficult. The selected gene set should be small enough to allow diagnosis even in regular clinical laboratories and ideally identify genes involved in cancer-specific regulatory pathways. Here an...

Ice core 'dipstick' indicates West Antarctic ice has thinned less than believed

Rising sea levels 20,000 years ago, as the last ice age was beginning to wane, often are attributed in part to melting in West Antarctica. But in a new study led by University of Washington researchers, an ice core of 1,000 meters was used as a sort of dipstick to show that a key section of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet probably never contained as much ice as scientists originally thought...

PANTHER Protein Classification System Database 5.0

PANTHER, a protein classification system fromApplied Biosystems, got updated to version 5.0. Proteins are classifiedby family, molecular and biological function (GO ontology) and knownpathways. Its main use is probably microarray analysis - it incorporateautomated GO surrepresentation analysis with graphical output. Best ofall, its available f...

New research indicates a 'troubled' greenhouse is brewing

Climates like those of the movie "Monsoon Wedding" may extend more widely into Africa, North America and South America, according to a University of Oregon geologist's analysis of an ancient greenhouse event. "We know the gathering greenhouse will be warm, but this new information confirms that the contrast between the rainy season and the dry season will increase dramatically," says Greg...

Devising Nano Vision for an Optical Microscope

Contrary to conventional wisdom, technology’s advance into the vanishingly small realm of molecules and atoms may not be out of sight for the venerable optical microscope, after all. In fact, research at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) suggests that a hybrid version of the optical microscope might be able to image and measure features smaller than 10 nanometers—a tiny fr...

White blood cell waste disposal system plays critical regulatory role

A new research study identifies a critical inhibitory step that is a key component of the feedback circuit regulating the balance between neutrophil production and destruction. The research, published in the March issue of Immunity, suggests that the process for disposal of dying neutrophils is actively linked to neutrophil production. A clear understanding of the processes that control neutrophi...

Breakthrough method in nanoparticle synthesis paves the way for new pharmaceutical and biomedical applications

The Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) has developed a novel method to simultaneously control the size and morphology of nanoparticles, which can be used in pharmaceutical synthesis and novel biomedical applications. This groundbreaking research was recently featured in the leading Chemistry journal, Angewandte Chemie, and a United States patent has been filed on the inv...

South America's vast pantanal wetland may become next everglades, UNU experts warn

South America's giant Pantanal wetlands, one of the world's most bio-diverse ecosystems, is at growing risk from intensive peripheral agricultural, industrial and urban development ?problems expected to be compounded by climate change, United Nations University experts warn. Covering more than 165,000 square kilometers ?an area roughly equal to Florida ?in the heart of South America, the P...

Sequencing of marine bacterium will help study of cell communication

The opportunity to annotate the genome of the glow-in-the-dark bacterium, Vibrio fischeri, which lives in symbiotic harmony within the light organ of the bobtail squid, has helped a Virginia Tech microbiologist advance her research on quorum sensing, or how cells communicate and function as a community. Researchers studying the newly sequenced genome of the marine bacterium V. fischeri, d...

Wiley announces publication of Databasing the Brain

Understanding the structure, function, and development of the brain in health and disease represents one of the great scientific challenges of our time. The emerging field of neuroinformatics integrates neuroscience with informatics to create unique databases and analytical tools for the large variety of neuroscience data types, applying them to brain research and linking them with databases with...

Towards precise classification of cancers based on robust gene functional expression profiles

Chemists say they have identified a gene that appears to play a key role in the development of type 1 diabetes, also known as insulin-dependent or juvenile diabetes, a disease that affects about one million people in the U.S. and is on the rise worldwide. They described their findings, which they say could lead to new drug interventions and possibly gene therapy, today at the 229th national meeti...

Antibiotic might fight HIV-induced neurological problems

By studying animals, Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered that the antibiotic minocycline might help alleviate HIV's negative effects on the brain and central nervous system, problems that can develop even though antiretroviral therapy controls the virus elsewhere in the body. Five monkeys infected with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), a very close relative of HIV, and treated wi...

Researchers develop rapid diagnostic tool for pathogen identification

Researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and the Columbia Genome Center have designed and developed a sensitive new diagnostic technology platform, called “Mass Tag PCR,?that can simultaneously screen for multiple infectious agents. The new technology is addressed in a paper published in the February issue of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Emerg...

Artifical cornea lets woman blind 20 years see

A severe allergic reaction to a medication robbed Elma Phifer of her vision two decades ago when she was 39. The reaction scarred her corneas and reduced the ability of her eyes to soothe their damaged surfaces by remaining moist. She came to rely upon family and friends to help her do many of the activities people with normal vision sometimes take for granted. Now, twenty years and severa...

Supercomputer Dedicated To Bioengineering, Computational Biology Installed

The University of California, San Diego, with support from the National Institutes of Health and the Whitaker Foundation, has installed a supercomputer dedicated to solving a wide range of challenging biological problems. The 210-node Dell PowerEdge Linux cluster capable of 2.6 trillion mathematical operations per second, the second most powerful computer cluster on campus, will be used to analyz...