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Lack of enzyme turns fat cells into fat burners

Lack of the enzyme, acetyl CoA carboxylase 2or ACC2, appears to turn the adipose or fat cells of mice into fatburners, explaining in part why the animals can eat more and weigh lessthan their normal counterparts, said Baylor College of Medicineresearchers.The report that appears online today in the Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences. "Westudied the fat cells in these mic...

Placenta Is A Rich Source Of Blood Stem Cells

Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute report a surprising finding about embryonic development: the blood system begins to form not only in the embryo itself, but also in the placenta, the organ that nurtures the baby in utero. Meticulous experiments in mice revealed that the placenta harbors a large supply of hematopoietic (blood-forming) stem cells...

Stem Cell Research Shows Potential for Replacing Tissue Damaged in Heart Attacks

A Medical College of Wisconsin research team, led by John W. Lough, Ph.D., professor of cell biology, neurobiology and anatomy has found that embryonic stem cells (ES cells) in animals can be cultivated to form new tissue, which eventually may help doctors learn how to replace tissue damaged as a result of a heart attack. The potential for ES cells to replace damaged or diseased cells in...

Scientists identify genes responsible for 'black rot' disease in vegetables

Scientists at four major genomics and plant pathology laboratories in China have collaborated on a project to characterize the causative agent of "black rot" disease, which is the most serious disease of vegetable crops worldwide. Their study, which represents the largest comparative and functional genomics screen for a plant or animal bacterial pathogen to date, is published online today in the...

DOE's Office of Science sets up program to aid scientists displaced by Hurricane Katrina

The Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science has established a program to assist scientists displaced by the effects of Hurricane Katrina. "Our colleagues in science have historically been a close-knit, generous community," wrote Dr. Raymond L. Orbach, director of DOE's Office of Science, in a letter describing the program to: universities and colleges, including those in Alabama, L...

UC Davis researchers move biotechnology closer to replacing electronic pacemakers

UC Davis researchers have successfully used a custom designed protein and gene delivery system to restore normal heart rhythms in pigs with electronic pacemakers, reducing their dependence on implanted devices. This work suggests that scientists are one step closer to making bioengineering a reality in treating the more than 2.2 million Americans affected by irregular heartbeats. The UC...

Thinking the pain away? Study shows the brain's painkillers may cause 'placebo effect'

Sham painkiller prompts brain to release endorphins, bringing real relief to those in pain The study provides the first direct evidence that the brain's own pain-fighting chemicals, called endo...

Novel targets found for the development of drugs to complement, or replace, statins

Leading marine scientists for the first time have assessed dolphin and porpoise populations around the world which are severely threatened by entanglement in fishing gear and recommended nine urgent priorities for action in a report commissioned by the World Wildlife Fund. These nine projects highlight species threatened by bycatch that will most likely benefit from immediate action and will cont...

Retina adapts to seek the unexpected, ignore the commonplace

Researchers at Harvard University have found evidence that the retina actively seeks novel features in the visual environment, dynamically adjusting its processing in order to seek the unusual while ignoring the commonplace. The scientists report in this week's issue of the journal Nature on their finding that this principle of novelty-detection operates in many visual environments. "Appar...

Lactose intolerance linked to ancestral environment

Got milk? Many people couldn't care less because they can't digest it. A new Cornell University study finds that it is primarily people whose ancestors came from places where dairy herds could be raised safely and economically, such as in Europe, who have developed the ability to digest milk. On the other hand, most adults whose ancestors lived in very hot or very cold climates that couldn...

Discarded placentas deliver researchers promising cells similar to embryonic stem cells

Routinely discarded as medical waste, placental tissue could feasibly provide an abundant source of cells with the same potential to treat diseases and regenerate tissues as their more controversial counterparts, embryonic stem cells, suggests a University of Pittsburgh study to be published in the journal Stem Cells and available now as an early online publication in Stem Cells Express. A...

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...

Once-dreaded leprosy 'replaced' by tuberculosis, say researchers

What caused leprosy ?a widely dreaded disease in medieval Europe ?to fade from the scene? By the 16th century, the scourge had practically disappeared there. Their conclusion is based upon th...

Einstein scientists discover how protein crucial for motion is synthesised at the right place in the cell

Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the German Cancer Research Institute have shown how protein synthesis is targeted to certain regions of a cell--a process crucial for the cellular motility that governs nerve growth, wound healing and cancer metastasis. Their study appears in the November 24 issue of the journal Nature. Led by Drs. Robert Singer and Dr Stefan Huett...

Study uncovers placental microtransfusions lead to transmission of AIDS virus during childbirth

Transmission of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, from pregnant women to their infants sometime during childbirth is a huge international problem, studies have shown. Between 25 percent and 35 percent of babies born to untreated HIV-infected mothers become infected themselves. That's a half million newborn worldwide every year facing chronic illness and premature death on their first day ou...

Tsunami + 1 year: Reviving exhausted fisheries should trump replacing boats, gear, experts say

One year after a tsunami devastated South Asian communities, global fisheries experts say habitat restoration, retraining and education programs are much needed to revive severely exhausted fisheries and steer survivors into more sustainable livelihoods than fishing. According to new analyses by the Malaysia-based WorldFish Centre (see ? Rebuilding Boats May Not Equal Rebuilding Livelihood...

Neurons find their place in the developing nervous system with the help of a sticky molecule

The brain, that exquisite network of billions of communicating cells, starts to take form with the genesis of nerve cells. Most newborn nerve cells, also called neurons, must travel from their birthplace to the position they will occupy in the adult brain. Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have identified a molecule expressed on the surface of certain migrating neurons that...

Lack of a key enzyme dramatically increases resistance to sepsis

According to the new study, the presence of caspase-12, which appears to modulate inflammation and innate immunity in humans, increases the body's "vulnerability to bacterial infection and septic shock" while a deficiency confers strong resistance to sepsis. This new discovery suggests that caspase-12 antagonists could be a potentially useful in the treatment of sepsis and other inflammatory and...

Lactic acid not athlete's poison, but an energy source - if you know how to use it

In the lore of marathoners and extreme athletes, lactic acid is poison, a waste product that builds up in the muscles and leads to muscle fatigue, reduced performance and pain. Coaches and athletes don't realize it, says exercise physiologist George...

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...

Report finds cruise industry is protecting the precious places it visits

The major players in the cruise industry, including cruise lines, local governments and shore operators ?in collaboration with civil society organizations - are taking proactive measures to ensure a sustainable future for cruise tourism while preserving cruise destinations, according to a new report titled From Ship to Shore: Sustainable Stewardship in Cruise Destinations issued by Conservation I...

Lack of basic research putting patients at risk

Patients are suffering because not enough basic clinical research is being done, warns a senior doctor in this week's BMJ. He believes that medical academia is failing patients and clinicians by neglecting this vital area of research. Basic observational research provides the information that doctors need to diagnose and treat patients appropriately, writes neurologist Professor Peter Roth...

Mice lacking social memory molecule take bullying in stride

The social avoidance that normally develops when a mouse repeatedly experiences defeat by a dominant animal disappears when it lacks a gene for a memory molecule in a brain circuit for social learning, scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) have discovered. Mice engineered to lack this memory molecule continued to welcome strange...

Higher carbon dioxide, lack of nitrogen limit plant growth

Earth's plant life will not be able to "store" excess carbon from rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels as well as scientists once thought because plants likely cannot get enough nutrients, such as nitrogen, when there are higher levels of carbon dioxide, according to scientists publishing in this week's issue of the journal Nature. That, in turn, is likely to dampen the ability of plan...

Uncovering sex-change secrets of black sea bass

In a former cowshed on the edge of the University of New Hampshire campus, David Berlinsky, assistant professor of zoology, peers into a big blue plastic tub. Inside, black sea bass circle slowly in the dim light. The converted barn is now an aquaculture research facility for the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture, and home to Berlinsky's latest research. Black sea bass feature promi...

Heparin prepared synthetically could replace animal-derived drug

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have discovered an alternative way to produce heparin, a drug commonly used to stop or prevent blood from clotting. The findings could enable the current supply of the drug ?now extracted from animal tissue ?to be replaced or supplemented by the synthetic version. The new process also can be applied as...

All placebos not created alike

The debate about the existence of a placebo effect has heated up over the past year as more and more lab experiments are detecting immediate physiological responses to placebos. A new study takes placebo investigations out of the lab and into a clinical trial, showing a discernible placebo effect over time, according to an article in the Feb. 1 British Medical Journal. While researchers u...

Biofuels can replace about 30 percent of fuel needs with significant research and policy effort

With world oil demand growing, supplies dwindling and the potential for weather- and conflict-related supply interruptions, other types of fuels and technologies are needed to help pick up the slack. A group of experts in science, engineering and public policy from the Georgia Institute of Technology, the Imperial College London and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory recommend a comprehensi...

Mice lacking key immune component still control chronic viral infections

Despite lack of a key component of the immune system, a line of genetically engineered mice can control chronic herpes virus infections, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found. Scientists can't prove it yet, but they suspect the missing immune system component, a group of molecules known as the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) Class Ia, has a...

Everything in its place: Researchers identify brain cells used to categorize images

Socks in the sock drawer, shirts in the shirt drawer, the time-honored lessons of helping organize one's clothes learned in youth. But what parts of the brain are used to encode such categories as socks, shirts or any other item, and how does such learning take place? New research from Harvard Medical School (HMS) investigators has identified an area of the brain where such memories are...

Key to early diagnosis of autism may be in the placenta

Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have discovered in the placenta what may be the earliest marker for autism, possibly helping physicians diagnose the condition at birth, rather than the standard age of two or older. The findings are reported in the June 26 online issue of Biological Psychiatry. Autism is a developmental disorder that has a profound effect on socialization, communica...

Possible birthplace of malignant brain tumors identified

Researchers have found that abnormal stimulation of a cellular trigger that normally regulates replenishment of brain cells in adults causes invasive tumor-like growths in mice. Removing the abnormal stimulation causes the growths to regress--a finding the researchers said suggests a possible treatment for the lethal, aggressive brain tumors called malignant gliomas. Arturo Alvarez-Buylla...

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...

Lack of key enzyme associated with development of rare tumor

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have discovered that a rare tumor of the adrenal glands appears to result from a genetic deficiency of an important enzyme. The enzyme is one of a class of enzymes involved in halting a cell's response to hormones and appears to stop cells from dividing. The study, published in Nature Genetics, was conducted by researchers in NIH's National...

New biologic treatment for tennis elbow may replace surgery for chronic sufferers

A person suffering from tennis elbow may not have to look any further than his or her own body for the most effective treatment, according to a study published in the November issue of The American Journal of Sports Medicine. Specially-prepared platelets taken from the patient which are then re-injected into the tendon of the affected elbow provides more relief than more commonly-used ther...

Genomic comparison of lactic acid bacteria published

With public concerns at a fevered pitch over the bacterial contamination of spinach, it is easy to lose track of how bland and deprived our world would be without the contribution to our food supply of such benign microbial players as lactic acid-producing bacteria. Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) and the University of California, Davis, and their...

Replacing insulin is top-ranked breakthrough foreseen for health in developing world

Eliminating the need for costly insulin injections for diabetics, regenerating heart muscle after it fails, and improving resistance to disease by engineering immune cells top a list of 10 potential breakthroughs for health in developing countries seen emerging from the new world of regenerative medicine, according to a study published today in the prestigious journal Public Library of Science (P...

Climate change creates dramatic decline in red-winged black bird population

Global warming strikes again. A University of Illinois researcher reports that a red-winged black bird population in Ontario, Canada has decreased by 50 percent since 1972. The decrease is related to a positive shift in the North Atlantic Oscillation which has resulted in warmer, wetter winters in the southeastern United States. When Patrick Weatherhead put his 25-year data about the red-w...

Researchers create mouse lacking key inflammation gene

In a paper published yesterday in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), researchers from Boston University School of Dental Medicine generated a mouse model exhibiting reduced inflammation. The Boston University researchers found that the transcription factor LITAF (Lipopolysaccharide [LPS]-Induced TNF-Alpha Factor) controls inflammation through a completely differen...

Cracking open the black box of autoimmune disease

Autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis occur when the immune system fails to regulate itself. But researchers have not known precisely where the molecular breakdowns responsible for such failures occur. Now, a team of scientists from the Whitehead Institute and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have identified a key set of genes that lie at the core of autoimmu...