Prog

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...

Applied Biosystems Introduces Advanced Gene Expression Service Provider Program

Applied Biosystems (NYSE:ABI), an Applera Corporation business, today announced the introduction of the Applied Biosystems Advanced Gene Expression Service Provider Program, a new program for service providers who are interested in accessing Applied Biosystems comprehensive solution for gene expression analysis, including the highly sensitive Expression Array System for whole genome analysis and...

Programmable cells: Engineer turns bacteria into living computers

In a step toward making living cells function as if they were tiny computers, engineers at Princeton have programmed bacteria to communicate with each other and p...

Harmful chemicals may reprogram gene response to estrogen

New research shows that exposure to harmful chemicals and drugs during critical developmental periods early in life may actually "reprogram" the way certain genes respond to the female hormone estrogen. This genetic reprogramming may determine whether people with a genetic predisposition for a disease actually develop the disease. The new research shows that when rats with a genetic predis...

Protein That Promotes Survival Of Stem Cells Might Be Key To Poor Leukemia Prognosis

The complex and life-sustaining series of steps by which hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) give rise to all of the body's red and white blood cells and platelets has now been discovered to depend in large part on a single protein called Mcl-1. This finding, from an investigator at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, is published in the February 18 issue of Science. Mcl-1 blocks the biochem...

Bevacizumab Combined With Chemotherapy Improves Progression-Free Survival for Patients With Advanced Breast Cancer

Preliminary results from a large, randomized clinical trial for patients with previously untreated recurrent or metastatic breast cancer ?cancer that has spread from the breast to other parts of the body ?show that those patients who received bevacizumab (Avastin? in combination with standard chemotherapy had a longer time period before their cancer progressed than patients who received the same...

Disease progression model of pancreatic cancer developed by Penn researchers

Building on previous work, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have developed an animal model of pancreatic cancer that closely mimics disease progression in humans. From this, they hope to develop new treatments for this deadly disease. Advanced pancreatic cancer is among the most lethal of cancers, with a one-year survival rate after chemotherapy of only 17 to 28 pe...

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...

Mother birds increase progesterone to hatch females

In mammals, sperm from the male determines the sex of the offspring. In birds, however, it is the female's sex chromosome that determines offspring sex. Now, Cornell University researchers think they understand the mechanism that several bird species use to bias the sex ratios of their offspring toward female. By experimenting with domestic chickens, they have determined that the presence...

Program finds lost genes in nematode genome

A computer scientist at Washington University in St. Louis has applied software that he has developed to the genome of a worm and has found 150 genes that were missed by previous genome analysis methods. Moreover, using the software, he and his colleagues have developed predictions for the existence of a whopping 1119 more genes. Michael Brent, Ph.D., Washington University professor of com...

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...

Stem cell training program to make its Stanford debut

Nature is a seemingly endless storehouse of interesting ?and potentially life-saving ?biological molecules. But tracking down and harvesting those chemicals in their natural form can be time-consuming, expensive and unreliable. Now Salk scientists have discovered a new way of bringing “bio-prospecting?out of the rainforest and into the lab. Their findings are published in the June 16th ed...

Biased reporting found in cancer prognostic studies

Selective reporting biases may taint many published studies of so-called prognostic factors--biologic or genetic markers that may predict how a patient may fare during or after treatment, according to a new study in the July 20 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. In recent years, researchers have raced to discover and publish papers on prognostic factors for cancer and o...

Modification of program enables prediction of gene transcription

A modification to an "ace" gene prediction program by computer scientists at Washington University in St. Louis now enables scientists to predict the very beginnings of gene transcription start sites and where the first splice occurs thereby defining the first exon of the gene. The modification to the gene prediction software TWINSCAN is called N-SCAN. Michael Brent, Ph.D. professor of com...

Progress on HIV/AIDS significant but insufficient

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan shared his hope with a gathering of senior world officials at Headquarters that the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS would have heralded a response that matched the epidemic's scale, yet progress had been "significant but insufficient". Citing achievements in the core areas of political leadership, funding, the intensity and reach of pr...

Rutgers to lead $52.7 million protein research program

Rutgers University will lead a new $52.7 million research program that will help reveal the roles that proteins play in life's most fundamental processes and point the way to designing new medicines. Under the direction of Rutgers Professor Gaetano Montelione, the Northeast Structural Genomics Consortium (NESG) will conduct the five-year undertaking. "This grant, one of the largest in Rutg...

Eleven gene 'signature' reliably predicts cancer prognosis

The rather new concept of "tumor stem cells" maintains that a rare, stem cell-like population of cancer cells exists among the mix of other cells found in a tumor and that these tumor stem cells are responsible for tumor progression and metastasis. In a revolutionary study appearing in the June 1 print issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation, Gennadi Glinsky and colleagues from the Sidney...

Costly breeding programs for endangered species pay off

Comparative studies of captive breeding strategies conducted at Rice University bolster the case for costly and sometimes troublesome breeding programs that preserve maximum genetic variability in small populations of endangered species. Worldwide, zoos spend millions of dollars each year transporting rare animals thousands of miles in order to breed them with their most distantly related...

HIV-infected adults in Botswana respond positively to ARV therapy public treatment program

With preliminary results from a study in Botswana, Harvard School of Public Health researchers have found that people with HIV-1 subtype C in resource-poor settings, who receive antiretroviral (ARV) therapy, can achieve comparable results to those in the developed world. A fully supported health care delivery system and infrastructure help ensure this success, according to data published in Novem...

Canine cancer vaccine program shows early promise

It wasn't publicized, other than by word of mouth, and still the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine was overwhelmed with requests. Since 1998, the school's oncology department has been producing an anti-cancer vaccine for dogs diagnosed with melanoma. Though it is still an experimental treatment, dog owners from all over the nation have wanted to participate in the s...

Cell therapy slows progression of an inherited neurological disease; Improves motor skills in mice

In an important discovery, scientists have demonstrated that the progression of a type of genetic brain disease is slowed and symptoms are improved in mice that received cell transplants. , may have implications for developing new therapies for metachromatic leukodystrophy, or MLD, a fatal, relatively rare...

Genome changes tracked during multiple myeloma initiation, progression and treatment

Scientists have made significant progress toward elucidating key genetic events associated with the development and progression of multiple myeloma (MM), an incurable malignancy that is the second most common cancer of the blood. The results, published in the April issue of Cancer Cell, provide new genetic and biological insights that open innovative directions for the discovery of effective ther...

Iraq's marshes show progress toward recovery

Reflooding of Iraq's destroyed Mesopotamian marshes since 2003 has resulted in a "remarkable rate of reestablishment" of native invertebrates, plants, fish, and birds, according to an article in the June issue of BioScience. Curtis J. Richardson of Duke University and Najah A. Hussain of the University of Basrah, writing about fieldwork conducted over the past two years in four large mars...

Progress being made in exploring potential use of stem cells to treat heart disease

Scientists are making headway in exploring the potential future use of stem cells to treat heart disease, according to a review article in the current issue of Nature (June 29, 2006). Authored by Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease Director Deepak Srivastava, MD, and Gladstone Institutes postdoctoral scholar Kathryn Ivey, PhD, the paper cites a better understanding of the follow...

It's not fair! We are programmed to resist weight loss

Research confirming the human body is designed to strongly resist attempts to lose weight will be presented at an international gathering of obesity experts hosted by QUT this week. Queensland University of Technology appetite regulation and energy balance researcher Dr Neil King, from the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation (IHBI), said our bodies have strong mechanisms to defe...

Researchers unveil strategy for creating actively-programmed anti-cancer molecules

The new study, which was published July 5 in an advanced, online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, achieved a significant enhancement of the treatment of metastatic breast cancer in animal models. The study showed the new hybrid compound remained in circulation for a week. In comparison, the small molecule drug was cleared in a matter of minutes. "Although th...

Sperm created in the laboratory from embryonic stem cells produce viable progeny

Scientists have demonstrated for the first time that embryonic stem (ES) cells cultured in the laboratory can produce sperm with the capacity to produce viable offspring. The research, published in the July issue of Developmental Cell, opens many exciting avenues for future studies, including investigation of mechanisms involved in sperm production and development of new treatment strategies for...

Amgen introduces comprehensive financial assistance programs for cancer patients

Amgen today announced Amgen (panitumumab). Through AOA, patients who are uninsured, underinsured, or unable to afford their insurance co-payments will receive help obtaining financial support...

Researchers make progress in studying genetic traits of India-born populations

Despite the fact that the people of India constitute more than one-sixth of the world's entire population, they have been underrepresented in studies related to genetic diseases. And with the growth of modernization, complex genetic diseases associated with urban and western lifestyles have risen to near-epidemic proportions, making genetic cataloging and association studies of particular importa...

Insulin receptor stops progression of Alzheimer's disease

Stimulation of a receptor in the brain that controls insulin responses has been shown to halt or diminish the neurodegeneration of Alzheimer's disease, providing evidence that the disease can be treated in its early stages, according to a study by researchers at Rhode Island Hospital and Brown Medical School. Researchers have found that peroxisome-proliferator activated receptor (PPAR) ag...

Mayo Clinic: Gene expression profiling not quite perfected in predicting lung cancer prognosis

While there have been significant advances in the use of gene expression profiling to assess a cancer prognosis, a Mayo Clinic review and analysis of existing lung cancer studies shows that this technology has not yet surpassed the accuracy of conventional methods used to assess survival in lung cancer patients. The interest in and the knowledge of gene expression profiling in medical scie...

Progress made in HIV vaccine development

Researchers have successfully tested two candidate vaccines that may eventually be used together to confer immunity against HIV infection. Their findings are published in the December 15 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online. Barney S. Graham, MD, PhD, and colleagues from the National Institutes of Health IH Vaccine Research Center in Maryland, the Fred Hutchin...

Why don't all moles progress to melanoma?

Everyone has moles. Most of the time, they are nothing but a cosmetic nuisance. But sometimes pigment-producing cells in moles called melanocytes start dividing abnormally to form a deadly form of skin cancer called melanoma. About one in 65 Americans born this year will be diagnosed with melanoma at some point during their lifetime. Scientists know that 30 percent of all melanomas begin...

Investment level in HIV prevention programs related to HIV incidence in the United States

Researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health conducted a historical analysis to examine the relationship between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) HIV prevention budget and HIV incidence in the U.S. from 1978 to 2006. The results are published in the January 2007 edition of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. The researchers found that from t...

Cancer scientists create 'human' leukemia process to map how disease begins, progresses

Cancer researchers led by Dr. John Dick at Ontario Cancer Institute (OCI) have developed a method to convert normal human blood cells into "human" leukemia stem cells. The converted cells, when transplanted into special mice that permit the growth of human cells, can replicate the entire disease process from the very moment it begins. The findings are published in the journal Science. Dr...

Are scientists making progress in being able to regenerate bone tissue?

In an article in PLoS Medicine, Gert Meijer (University Medical Centre Utrecht, The Netherlands) and colleagues discuss what kind of progress there has been in restoring the function of diseased or damaged bone by bone tissue regeneration. Until recently, say the authors, the use of bone grafts from a different part of the patient’s own body has been the number one choice for attempting to...

Progress toward artificial photosynthesis?

Plants can do it: they simply grab carbon dioxide out of the air and covert it into biomass. In this process, known as photosynthesis, the plants use light as their energy source. Chemists would also like to be able to use CO2 as a carbon source for their synthetic reactions, but it doesn’t work just like that. A team headed by Markus Antonietti at the Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interf...

ConocoPhillips establishes $22.5M biofuels research program at Iowa State

ConocoPhillips will establish an eight-year, $22.5 million research program at Iowa State University dedicated to developing technologies that produce biorenewable fuels. The grant is part of ConocoPhillips' plan to create joint research programs with major universities to produce viable solutions to diversify America's energy sources. ConocoPhillips will make an initial $1.5 million gran...

Heart failure: Intervention possibilities from imaging programmed cell loss

Using a nuclear medicine technique and molecular imaging to "see" programmed cell loss—the body's normal way of getting rid of unneeded or abnormal cells—may help in early identification of those individuals who are at risk of developing heart failure, say researchers in the April Journal of Nuclear Medicine. "Our study indicates that it is feasible to noninvasively identify cell loss—or a...

Progress toward an antitumor vaccine

How can we induce the body to use its own weapon, the immune system, to battle cancer" In principle, by the same means used against infectious diseases: immunization. The production of a selective vaccine is not a trivial task, however. A team led by Horst Kunst at the University of Mainz has now found a way to bind a molecule that is typical for tumors to a carrier protein without irritating...