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Deficient DNA Repair Capacity Associated With Increased Risk Of Breast Cancer

Deficiencies in the ability of cells to repair damaged DNA are associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, according to a new study in the January 19 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. is the system of defenses designed to protect the integrity of the genome. Studies have suggested that deficiency...

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...

Protein Packages Found To Activate Genes; May Be What Regulates Development And Disease

It's all in the packaging. How nature wraps and tags genes determines if and when they become active, according to researchers from Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.). They did the largest, most detailed study to date of the protein structure that surrounds the human genome. Their findings reveal surprising and previously unknown specifics of how genes get switc...

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...

Alaskan puzzles, monitoring provide insight about North Pacific salmon runs

The University of Washington Alaska Salmon Program, the world's longest-running effort to monitor salmon and their ecosystems, has received nearly $2.4 million from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to expand its sampling scope and sophistication. The Alaska-based program has applications for Pacific salmon all along the West Coast, providing insights into the fluctuating fortunes of s...

No relief for Pacific Northwest drought

It does not appear there will be any major relief this spring or summer from the unusually dry weather that has recently hit the Pacific Northwest, according to new projections of drought severity and fire risk that are based on "general circulation" models that forecast global climate. The analysis, which was developed by researchers at the U.S.D.A. Forest Service and Oregon State Univers...

Survey finds silver contamination in North Pacific waters

The highest levels of silver contamination ever observed in the open ocean turned up in samples collected during a survey of the North Pacific in 2002. Researchers from the University of California, Santa Cruz, measured silver concentrations 50 times greater than the natural background level. Though still well below levels that would be toxic to marine life, this contamination of what had been co...

Habitat use by North Pacific right whales, Eubalaena japonica, in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska

The small population of North Pacific right whales, found during the summer in Alaska waters, is one of the most critically endangered whale populations in the world. Commercial whaling in the 1800s has now left us with only a few dozens. Recently these whales have been recognized as a different species from right whales seen in the North Atlantic and others in the Southern Hemisphere. To...

Compounds in plastic packaging act as environmental estrogens altering breast genes

Compounds found in plastic products used to wrap or contain food and beverages have aroused concerns as possible cancer-causing agents because they can sometimes leach out of the plastic and migrate into the food, especially after heating or when the plastic is old or scratched. In two studies funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Cente...

Scripps scientists find potential for catastrophic shifts in Pacific ecosystems

Opening the door to a new way of understanding ocean processes and managing and protecting marine resources, a group of researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, has developed a groundbreaking analysis of the North Pacific Ocean and how dramatic changes can unfold across its waters. The study, published in the May 19 issue of the journal...

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....

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...

Agilent Technologies introduces high-capacity human protein removal system for proteomics research

The fossilized skeleton of a small crocodile relative excavated last year at Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona throws a wrench into theories of how and where the dinosaurs arose more than 210 million years ago at the end of the Triassic Period. The animal, one of many creatures from the Late Triassic known only from their teeth, was thought to be an ancestor of the plant-eating or...

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...

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...

Space matters: Estimating species diversity in the fossil record

Estimates for the number of living species on earth range from 3.5 million to over 30 million but only 1.9 million species have been classified and described. Estimating historical biodiversity from the fossil record is an even more daunting task. One tool ecologists - but not paleontologists - have traditionally relied on to identify patterns of existing biological diversity is a long-est...

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...

Evolution of life on Earth may hold key to finding life in outer space

Questions about the existence of life in outer space may have a surprisingly close-to-home answer, according to one University of Houston professor. Understanding how life evolved on Earth is important in obtaining clues as to where else in the universe one might find life and what it might be like, said George E. Fox, a UH professor of biology and biochemistry. Fox is finishing work on a...

Researchers learn how blood vessel cells cope with their pressure-packed job

UCSD scientists have gained a better understanding of how repetitive stretching of endothelial cells that line arteries can make them healthy and resistant to vascular diseases. UCSD researchers stretched cells in a workout chamber the size of a credit card to gain a better understanding of how repetitive stretching of endothelial cells that line arteries can make them healthy and resista...

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...

Sahara's edge studied from ground, air and space to improve water management

An international team worked on the verge of the Sahara to gather data on the ground and in the air, to be compared with imagery of the same region acquired by ESA satellites. The results will be used in support of an ambitious project to apply satellite remote sensing to improve monitoring and management of vast water aquifers concealed beneath the desert. High-resolution radar as well as...

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...

Pacific Islands paradise protected

A small Pacific Islands nation has distinguished itself on the global conservation map with the declaration today that it is creating the third largest marine protected area in the world, conserving an archipelago of some of the planet's most pristine coral reefs. Martin Puta Tofinga, Minister of Environment, Lands and Agricultural Development of the Republic of Kiribati, announced the est...

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...

First wolverine radio-collared in Pacific Northwest

The closest encounter most wildlife biologists have with wolverines in the Pacific Northwest is seeing a set of the animal's tracks in the snow. But wildlife biologist Keith Aubry recently got the call he had eagerly anticipated for several weeks. A member of his research team called from a site high in the northern Cascade Range of Washington to report that a wolverine had just been capt...

Next good dinosaur news likely to come from small packages

Dinosaurs seem bigger than life ?big bones, big mysteries. So it's a delicious irony that the next big answers about dinosaurs may come from small ?very small ?remains. "Molecules are fossils, too," said Michigan State University zoologist Peggy Ostrom. "We've shown that proteins survive in very old fossils, and proteins can tell us about diseases, about where prehistoric animals fit in t...

Stanford/Packard scientist's data-mining technique strikes genetic gold

A new method to mine existing scientific data may provide a wealth of information about the interactions among genes, the environment and biological processes, say researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Like panning for gold, they used the powerful technique to sift through millions of bits of unrelated information...

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,...

Relationship of brain and skull more than just packaging

People usually think of the skull as packaging for the brain and researchers usually investigate them separately, but a team of researchers now thinks that developmentally and evolutionarily that the two are incontrovertibly linked. The researchers, including biological anthropologists, physicians and a computer scientist, looked at the CT scans and MRIs of infants with particular types o...

Plants used to detect gas leaks, from outer space!

Gas leaks can be potentially life threatening in the home, but the presence of gas stresses out plants too. Professor Mike Steven and colleagues from the University of Nottingham have found that changes in the physical properties of plants can act as an early warning of leaks in natural gas pipelines. "Our study was about testing the ability of satellite remote systems to monitor gas le...

Ritalin packs punch by elevating norepinephrine, suppressing nerve signal transmissions

Methylphenidate (Ritalin) elevates norepinephrine levels in the brains of rats to help focus attention while suppressing nerve signal transmissions in the sensory pathways to make it easier to block out extraneous stimuli, a Philadelphia research team has found. Their report in the Journal of Neurophysiology helps explain how a stimulant aids people with attention deficit and hyperactivity...

Scientist-astronaut sends T-cells into space

A former astronaut and researcher at the San Francisco VA Medical Center will be traveling to the Cosmodrome space-launch site at Baikonur, Kazakhstan, this Saturday, Sept. 2, 2006, to prepare a crucial experiment designed to demonstrate how human immune response is suppressed in the weightless environment of space. Millie Hughes-Fulford, PhD, director of the Laboratory of Cell Growth at...

Microscopic passengers to hitch ride on space shuttle

When space shuttle Atlantis rockets into space later this week, it will take along three kinds of microbes so scientists can study how their genetic responses and their ability to cause disease change. The 'Microbe' experiment, part of the STS-115 space shuttle mission scheduled for launch Aug. 27, will study three common microorganisms -- Salmonella typhimurium, Pseudomonas aeruginosa...

Sandia work launched on space shuttle shows live cells influence growth of nanostructures

Albuquerque, N.M. -- Far above the heads of Earthlings, arrays of single-cell creatures are circling Earth in nanostructures. The sample devices are riding on the International Space Station (courtesy of Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico, NASA and US Air Force) to test whether nanostructures whose formations were directed by yeast and other single cells can cre...

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...

South Pacific plant may be missing link in evolution of flowering plants

Bottlenose dolphins that reside in designated Special Areas of Conservation throughout the UK, including Dorset, Anglesey and Cornwall, might be at risk from pile driving. The frequency range of pile driving noise could interfere with their ability to communicate, find food and avoid predators. This has the potential to affect their behaviour, health and their ability to breed successfully. Lacta...