MPA

Study Demonstrates Gene Expression Microarrays are Comparable and Reproducible

Foreveryone doing or reading a paper about microarray-based experiments,reproductibility, especially inter-lab, is the #1 concern. Can I trustthese results? If I redo the same experiment in one month, will I beable to compare both? The NIH recently demonstrated that microarrays experiments performed in d...

GATA: a graphic alignment tool for comparative sequence analysis

Sometimes apotential target for a drug seems very promising on paper; things areoften very different in reality. Its the case of telomerase inhibitorsto treat cancer; they are supposed to strip the "immortal" (able todivide indefinitely) aspect of cancer cells. Yet, something in the cellseems to block their function, preventing them to inhibit completelythe...

Researchers reveal the infectious impact of salmon farms on wild salmon

A new study published in the March 30th edition of the prestigious scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B (a publication of the UK's national academy of science) shows that the transfer of parasitic sea lice from salmon farms to wild salmon populations is much larger and more extensive than previously believed. This quantitative analysis of parasite transfer is a scientific...

New comparative toxicogenomics database

Scientists at St. Jude Children's ResearchHospital have discovered that the shape of a protein on the surface ofpneumonia bacteria helps these germs invade the human bloodstream. Thisfinding, published Dec. 16 online by the EMBO Journal, could helpscientists develop a vaccine that is significantly more effective atprotecting children against the disease. The St. Jude researchersdetermined t...

The death of a very special chimpanzee

Researchers at the Hebrew University ofJerusalem have succeeded in discovering and isolating a new proteinfrom the poplar tree with special structural and qualitativecharacteristics that could have consequences for development of futurenanocapsules for drug delivery to cancer cells.In addition to being obtained from plant tissue, the protein can nowalso be produced in large quantities as a...

Study Models Impact Of Anthrax Vaccine

Rapidly distributing antibiotics to peopleexposed to anthrax spores during a bioterrorist attack, could byitself, prevent about 70 percent of anthrax infections from occurring,according to researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School ofPublic Health. To increase the prevention rate to 90 percent, theirstudy found that at least 63 percent of the population would need to beimmunized wi...

Measuring the impact of post-genomics on Mediterranean populations

A recent Genomed-Health 2005 workshop in Tunisia, supported by the European Commission, highlighted the role of the life sciences in improving health in countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Delegates at the event also discussed the importance of Euro-Mediterranean partnerships in order to capitalise on post-genomic research. The life sciences ?in particular following the mapping of t...

MUHC scientists describe genetic resistance to rampant virus

MUHC researchers have defined genetic resistance to the widespread virus, cytomegalovirus (CMV)--a member of the viral group that causes some of the world's most prevalent diseases, such as herpes, chicken pox and mononucleosis. The groundbreaking research published in Nature Genetics last week, provides a roadmap for the development of human therapies for CMV, which could prolong the life of HIV...

AIDS Public Awareness Campaign Expands Following Report Of Rapidly Progressive HIV

State Health Commissioner Antonia C. Novello, M.D., M.P.H., Dr.P.H., today announced the expansion of New York State's HIV/AIDS Public Awareness and Education campaign to help combat the potential spread of HIV and further protect New Yorkers from the virus that causes AIDS. Dr. Novello said, "In light of recent reports of a drug-resistant, rapidly progressive strain of HIV in New York Ci...

Retrovirus struck ancestors of chimpanzees and gorillas millions of years ago, but did not affect ancestral humans

The ancestors of chimpanzees and gorillas were infected with a deadly retrovirus about three to four million years ago, but there is no evidence it infected ancestors of modern-day humans, according to research by genome scientists. The virus struck after humans had split off the evolutionary tree from primates, researchers said. The infection may have played a role in the evolution of such great...

Researchers Closer To Helping Hearing-Impaired Using Stem Cells

Researchers at Indiana University School of Medicine are several steps closer to the day when a profoundly deaf patient’s own bone marrow cells could be used to let him or her hear the world. The IU group, led by Eri Hashino, Ph.D., was able to transform, in the laboratory, stem cells taken from adult bone marrow into cells with many of the characteristics of sensory nerve cells -- neurons...

Second messenger NAADP shows fast, dose-related impact on satiety cycle

One traditional approach to pharmaceutical design uses so-called "first messengers" ?hormones, other natural facilitators or synthetic products ?to initiate various cellular cascades for the desired physiological effect. To date, despite concerted efforts at all levels of research, this approach has failed to develop a truly successful obesity drug to address this major global health problem....

Mice brains shrink during winter, impairing some learning and memory

The brains of one species of mouse actually shrink during the winter, causing the mice to have more difficulty with some types of learning, a new study found. This is one of the first studies to show...

The first impact factor for PLoS Biology ?13.9

The open-access journal PLoS Biology has been assessed by Thomson ISI to have an impact factor of 13.9*, which places PLoS Biology among the most highly cited journals in the life sciences. This is an outstanding statistic for a journal less than two years old, from a new publisher promoting a new business model that supports open access to the scientific and medical literature. An impact...

Open Access journals get impressive impact factors

Impressive impact factors prove that BioMed Central's Open Access journals are high quality and widely read and cited. Journals published by BioMed Central have again received impact factors that compare well with equivalent subscription titles, it was announced today, with five titles in the top five of their specialty. The high impact factors for these journals affirm that they are respected by...

Poaching, logging, and outbreaks of Ebola threaten central African gorillas and chimpanzees

Experts call for $30 million action plan to save mankind's closest relatives An action plan drafted by more than 70 primatologists and other experts who met in B...

Comparison of Cocaine, Methamphetamine ‘Highs?Finds Differences

Don't call them the Dirt Doctors, or Sultans of Soil, they're just clever Lab guys. A team from Los Alamos National Laboratory has a paper in this week's Science Magazine with a new way to count bugs in dirt. Bacteria, that is, in the highly complex world beneath our feet. "Computational Improvements Reveal Great Bacterial Diversity and High Metal Toxicity in Soil," by Jason Gans, Murray W...

Multi-species genome comparison sheds new light on evolutionary processes, cancer mutations

An international team that includes researchers from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has discovered that mammalian chromosomes have evolved by breaking at specific sites rather than randomly as long thought ?and that many of the breakage hotspots are also involved in human cancer. In a study published in the July 22 iss...

OHSU research shows vitamin C counteracts some negative impacts of smoking on unborn babies

Research conducted in monkeys at the Oregon National Primate Research Center, Oregon Health & Science University, suggests high doses of vitamin C may have potential to counteract some negative impacts of smoking in unborn babies. The research may benefit thousands of babies born to mothers who continue to smoke throughout pregnancy despite physician warnings. The research is published in the...

Agilent Technologies Introduces First Commercial Mouse Microarray for Comparative Genomic Hybridization Research

Tuberculosis remains a major global health threat. Although more than 3 billion doses of the BCG vaccine have been administered to fight tuberculosis, the ability of the BCG vaccine to protect adults is very limited, as is its efficacy against newly emerging isolates. In a study appearing online on August 18 in advance of print publication of the September 1 issue of the Journal of Clinica...

York scientists warn of dramatic impact of climate change on Africa

Scientists at the University of York are warning that dramatic changes may soon occur in Africa's vegetation in response to global warming. Scientists in the University's Environment Department studied the likely impact of future climate f...

Old drug, new tricks: Prospects for slashing the impact of malaria

A dramatic reduction in the impact of malaria is in prospect with a clinical drug trial to begin in Papua New Guinea early next year. Success in the trial would open the way to relief in the 10% of humanity infected with this debilitating and often fatal disease - over 500,000,000 people. The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research is collaborating with the Papua New Guinea In...

Neanderthal teeth grew no faster than comparable modern humans'

Recent research suggested that ancient Neanderthals might have had an accelerated childhood compared to that of modern humans but that seems flawed, based on a new assessment by researchers from Ohio State University and the University of Newcastle . They found that the rate of tooth growth present in the Neanderthal fossils they examined was comparable to that of three different populati...

Genomatix Microarray Analysis Pipeline achieves Affymetrix GeneChip compatible?status

Genomatix Software GmbH today announced that it has achieved GeneChip-compatible GeneChip® microarray platform and that it has joined Affymetrix GeneChip-compatible Applications Program, which provides customers with a broad spectrum of software solutions for biomedical research and development. As a GeneChip-compatible...

Breath of the dragon: ERS-2 and Envisat reveal impact of economic growth on China's air quality

China's spectacular economic growth during the last decade has brought many benefits - and some challenges. Global atmospheric mapping of nitrogen dioxide pollution performed by ERS-2's GOME and Envisat's SCIAMACHY reveals the world's largest amount of NO2 hanging above Beijing and northeast China, as reported in Nature this week. As part of ESA's Dragon Programme, European and Chinese res...

Scientists narrow the time limits for the human and chimpanzee split

A team of researchers has proposed new limits on the time when the most recent common ancestor of humans and their closest ape relatives -- the chimpanzees -- lived. Scientists at Arizona State and Penn State Universities have placed the time of this split between 5 and 7 million years ago -- a sharper focus than that given by the previous collection of molecular and fossil studies, which have p...

Amazon trees much older than assumed, raising questions on global climate impact of region

Trees in the Amazon tropical forests are old. Really old, in fact, which comes as a surprise to a team of American and Brazilian researchers studying tree growth in the world's largest tropical region. Using radiocarbon dating methods, the team, which includes UC Irvine's Susan Trumbore, found that up to half of all trees greater than 10 centimeters in diameter are more than 300 years old....

Health of Acehnese reefs in the wake of the tsunami shows human impacts more harmful

According to research reported this week in Current Biology, tsunami damage to coral reefs closest to the epicenter of the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake was occasionally spectacular, but surprisingly limited, particularly when compared to damage from chronic human misuse in the region. Less than 100 days after the tsunami of December 26, 2004, a team of ecologists from James Cook Univer...

Infused spleen cells found not to impact islet recovery and reversal of type 1 diabetes in mice

Researchers at the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine at Johns Hopkins have invented a cost-effective and highly efficient way of analyzing what many have termed "junk" DNA and identified regions critical for controlling gene function. And they have found that these control regions from different species don't have to look alike to work alike. The study will be published online...

Virginia Tech scientists develop process for creating biocompatible fibers

Scientists at Virginia Tech have developed a single-step process for creating nonwoven fibrous mats from a small organic molecule ?creating a new nanoscale material with potential applications where biocompatible materials are required, such as scaffolds for tissue growth and drug delivery. The research will be presented in the Jan. 20 issue of Science, in the article, "Phospholipid Nonwov...

Deep-rooted plants have much greater impact on climate than experts thought

Trees, particularly those with deep roots, contribute to the Earth's climate much more than scientists thought, according to a new study by biologists and climatologists from the University of California, Berkeley. While scientists studying global climate change recognize the importance of vegetation in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and in local cooling through transpiration,...

A clue from macaques yields evidence for impaired retroviral defense genes in humans

Researchers Harmit Malik and Michael Emerman and colleagues at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have found that a surprisingly large fraction of humans may be impaired in the function of a recently discovered arm of the body's defense against invading retroviruses such as HIV. One of the key components of this "intrinsic immunity" is encoded by the TRIM5 gene. This gene was disc...

AIDS-related cognitive impairment exists in two separate forms

Cancer researchers are working toward a future in which each patient's tumor will act like a crystal ball, revealing how oncologists should treat the cancer to obtain the best outcome. Currently, physicians cannot predict which patients with prostate cancer should receive extra therapy after surgery - or whether some of these patients have an indolent disease that does not even require su...

New McGill research shows mice capable of empathy

A new study by McGill University Professor of Psychology Dr. Jeffrey Mogil shows that the capacity for empathy, previously suspected but unproven even among higher primates, is also evident in lower mammals. In research published online June 29 in the journal Science, Professor Mogil, graduate student Dale Langford and their colleagues in the Pain Genetics Lab at McGill University discover...

Chimpanzees can transmit cultural behavior to multiple 'generations'

Transferring knowledge through a chain of generations is a behavior not exclusive to humans, according to new findings by researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University and the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. For the first time, researchers have shown chimpanzees exhibit generational learning behavior similar to that in humans. Unlike previous findings that in...

UAB researchers confirm HIV-1 originated in wild chimpanzees

An international team of scientists, led by researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), has discovered a crucial missing link in the search for the origin of HIV-1, the virus responsible for human AIDS. That missing link is the natural reservoir of the virus, which the team has found in wild-living chimpanzees in southern Cameroon. The findings provide important clues to how the...

Use of stone hammers sheds light on geographic patterns of chimpanzee tool use

In a finding that challenges a long-held belief regarding the cultural spread of tool use among chimpanzees, researchers report that chimpanzees in the Ebo forest, Cameroon, use stone hammers to crack open hard-shelled nuts to access the nutrient-rich seeds. The findings are significant because this nut-cracking behavior was previously known only in a distant chimpanzee population in extreme west...

Impressive new Impact Factors for BioMed Central's open-access journals

Eleven journals published by BioMed Central, the open access publisher, received their first Impact Factor this month. With nine journals in the top 10 of their 2005 Journal Citation Report* category, and ten journals with a 2005 Impact Factor exceeding 3.00, open access journals are confirmed as publishing high-quality, highly cited research. Genome Biology, BioMed Central's flagship titl...

Wild vs. lab rodent comparison supports hygiene hypothesis

In a study comparing wild rodents with their laboratory counterparts, researchers at Duke University Medical Center have found evidence that may help to explain why people in industrialized societies that greatly stress hygiene have higher rates of allergy and autoimmune diseases than do people in less developed societies in which hygiene is harder to achieve or considered less critical. T...

Chimpanzee study reveals genome variation hotspots

Researchers believe that dynamic regions of the human genome -- "hotspots" in terms of duplications and deletions -- are potentially involved in the rapid evolution of morphological and behavioral characteristics that are genetically determined. Now, an international team of researchers, including a graduate student and an associate professor from Arizona State University, are finding simi...