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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...

Navigating an integrated yeast network

Scientists have for the first time mapped multiple complex biological interactions in a yeast cell in a simple graphical form, enhancing our understanding of how the networks of interaction by which components of a cell influence one another. New research published in the Open Access journal Journal of Biology shows that such maps can also reveal cryptic interactions and enable accurate predictio...

Cerebral navigation: How do nerve fibers know what direction to grow in?

Nervous system development requires billions of neurons to migrate to the appropriate locations in the brain and grow nerve fibers (axons) that connect to other nerve cells in an intricate network. Growth cones, structures in the tips of growing axons, are responsible for steering axons in the right direction, guided by a complex set of signals from cells they encounter along the way. Some signal...

Road salt affects mitigation wetlands

Sacrificing one wetland for the sake of five others may be the way to go when planning constructed wetlands to replace those destroyed during road building, but a Penn State Erie biologist is monitoring the salinity of the wetlands to see how the salt affects animals and insects. "I am currently doing research in wetlands that the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation constructed as mi...

Gladstone investigators discover how resting T cells avoid HIV infection

Scientists have discovered the mechanism that enables some CD4 T cells -- the main target of HIV -- to thwart the virus. The discovery, reported on April 13 in the online version of Nature, could open the door to an entirely new strategy for preventing the spread of HIV infection in the body's cells, according to the senior author of the study, Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology Direc...

SuperLigands - a database of ligand structures derived from the Protein Data Bank

Scientists have isolated the first human embryonic stem cell lines specifically tailored to match the nuclear DNA of patients, both males and females of various ages, suffering from disease or spinal cord injury. These ce...

How monarch butterflies are wired for navigation

In their extraordinary annual migration from North America to Mexico, monarch butterflies are known to use the angle of polarized sunlight as a celestial guide to help them keep to a straight and true path southward. But details of their navigational machinery have remained a mystery. Now, researchers, led by Steven Reppert of University of Massachusetts Medical School, Ivo Sauman of the C...

Investigating 'brain shrinkage' in alcoholics

Previous studies have demonstrated that the brains of alcoholics are smaller, lighter and "shrunken" when compared to nonalcoholic brains. Symposium speakers at the October 2004 Congress for the International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism in Mannheim, Germany reviewed what is known about the causes, consequences and clinical implications of alcohol-related brain shrinkage. Proceed...

Public collections of DNA and RNA sequence reach 100 gigabases

The world's three leading public repositories for DNA and RNA sequence information have reached 100 gigabases [100,000,000,000 bases; the 'letters' of the genetic code] of sequence. Thanks to their data exchange policy, which has paved the way for the global exchange of many types of biological information, the three members of the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration [INSDC,...

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...

Nanoscale method for investigating living systems

By observing how tiny specks of crystal move through the layers of a biological membrane, a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison electrical and computer engineers has devised a new method for investigating living systems on the molecular level. The discovery could lead to an entirely new level of manipulation, imaging and understanding of the inner workings of cells. The specks are know...

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...

Navigating the brain for sense of direction as paradigm for higher cognitive functions

No matter how healthy a life one leads, no person has managed to live much longer than a century. Even though the advances of the modern age may have extended the average human life span, it is clear there are genetic limits to longevity. One prominent theory of aging lays the blame on the accumulation of damage done to DNA and proteins by “free radicals,?highly reactive molecules produced by the...

MUHC investigators search for the root of sexual pain in women

A multidisciplinary team consisting of researchers from McGill/MUHC and the CHUM have been awarded a grant of nearly $700,000 by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to continue their groundbreaking research on pain suffered by some women during sexual intercourse. The new funding will allow the team, consisting of psychologists, gynecologists, physical therapists and statistician/ep...

Stem cells can repair torn tendons or ligaments

Weekend athletes who overexert themselves running or playing basketball may one day reap the benefits of research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem that shows that adult stem cells can be used to make new tendon or ligament tissue. Tendon and ligament injuries present a major clinical challenge to orthopedic medicine. In the United States, at least 200,000 patients undergo tendon or...

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...

Cigarette smoke blocks cell repair mechanism, University of Florida study shows

Cigarette smoke can turn normal breast cells cancerous by blocking their ability to repair themselves, eventually triggering tumor development, University of Florida scientists report. While some cells nonetheless rally and are able to fix their damaged DNA, many others become unable to access their own cellular first aid kit, according to findings from a UF study published today (Aug. 21...

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...

Halving daily cigarette quota has no health benefit

Halving the number of cigarettes smoked every day in the belief that it will stave off an early death makes no difference, suggests research in Tobacco Control. They base...

Cigarette smoking impedes tendon-to-bone healing

Orthopaedic surgery researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified yet another reason not to smoke. Studying rotator cuff injury in rats, the research team found exposure to nicotine delays tendon-to-bone healing, suggesting this could cause failure of rotator cuff repair following surgery in human patients. Smoking is implicated in a host of physical...

The effects of smoking on fractures and ligament injuries

Cigarette smoking, which causes over 8.6 million illnesses annually in the U.S., has been shown to have harmful effects on a variety of orthopedic conditions. Studies have shown that the numerous toxins contained in cigarette smoke can undermine fracture and ligament repair following injury. In addition, smokers have higher rates of hip fracture, fracture healing problems and bone infections and...

Gladstone investigators identify a new protective action for the powerful anti-HIV factor, APOBEC3G

Scientists at the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology (GIVI) have identified a previously unknown function of APOBEC3G (A3G), a protein that acts against HIV, a finding that may lead to new approaches for controlling HIV infection. The research, conducted by scientists...

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...

Re-analysis of cigarettes confirms tobacco companies increased addictive nicotine 11 percent

A reanalysis of nicotine yield from major brand name cigarettes sold in Massachusetts from 1997 to 2005 has confirmed that manufacturers have steadily increased the levels of this agent in cigarettes. This independent analysis, based on data submitted to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) by the manufacturers, found that increases in smoke nicotine yield per cigarette averaged 1...

New cigarette designs don't offer lower predicted cancer risks

The tobacco company's description of its new cigarette brand seems to promise a lot. "May present less risk of cancer associated with smoking," the company boasts on its Web site, making it a natural choice "for smokers who have decided not to quit, but who are interested in a cigarette that responds to concerns about certain smoking-related illnesses, including cancer." Another tobacco firm, in...

The penalty of having a sister -- why sibling sex matters for male saiga antelopes

Having a twin sister could put male saiga antelopes at a reproductive disadvantage, says new research published today. The study shows that male twins with a sister are born lighter than those with a brother, making them smaller than the optimal size for males. The research also shows that saigas are the supermums of the hoofed animal world with no other similar species investing more in their o...

Navigable nanotransport

To accurately transport pharmaceutical agents to their specific target organs or cell types, you need a good carrier: nanoscopic capsules with surface elements that can "recognize" the target in question could do the trick. To date, all methods for the production of such tiny capsules require preorganized structures or "molds" to shape hollow spheres and most methods require a lengthy, ted...

Investigating the measles virus as a tool to kill multiple myeloma

Mayo Clinic Cancer Center has opened a new Phase I clinical trial testing an engineered measles virus against multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow that currently has no cure. This is the third of a series of molecular medicine studies in patients testing the potential of measles to kill cancer. “This is the beginning of a long but exciting process,?says Angela Dispenzieri, M.D.,...

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...

Cigarette smoke alters DNA in sperm, genetic damage could pass to offspring

Canadian researchers have demonstrated in mice that smoking can cause changes in the DNA sequence of sperm cells, alterations that could potentially be inherited by offspring. The results of their study are published in the June 1 issu...