Rescu

Climate change: The rice genome to the rescue

New evidence is emerging that climate change could reduce not only the world's ability to produce food but also international efforts to cut poverty. However, the recent sequencing of the rice genome is already providing researchers with some of the tools they need to help poor rice farmers and consumers avoid the worst effects of the problem. The new knowledge generated by the sequencing...

Batfish to the rescue!

A masked marauder has emerged unexpectedly from the ocean to rescue a dying coral reef from destruction in the nick of time. Scientists at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Stud...

Rescuing injured hearts by enhancing regeneration

Using a two-drug approach, researchers at Children's Hospital Boston have demonstrated that it may be possible to rescue heart function after a heart attack and protect the heart from scarring. Working with rats, they combined an agent that overcomes a natural inhibitor of cell division with a naturally occurring growth factor that encourages blood vessel growth (angiogenesis). Together, these tw...

Stem cell therapy shows promise for rescuing deteriorating vision

For the millions of Americans whose vision is slowly ebbing due to degenerative diseases of the eye, the lowly neural progenitor cell may be riding to the rescue. In a study in rats, neural progenitor cells derived from human fetal stem cells have been shown to protect the vision of animals with degenerative eye disease similar to the kinds of diseases that afflict humans. The new study ap...

Angelman syndrome deficits rescued in mice

Children with Angelman syndrome are often seen laughing and smiling, but this cheerful demeanor masks serious neurological problems ?mental retardation, movement problems and seizures. ew research in mice, however, suggests that many of these deficits could be alleviated. Edwin Weeber, Ph.D., and colleagues reversed the neurological deficits in a mouse model of Angelman s...

Mule deer moms rescue other fawns

An intriguing study of mule deer and whitetail deer conducted by the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada and the University of Lethbridge, also in Canada, showed that both species responded to the recorded distress calls of fawns, similar to the responses elicited when coyotes attack fawns, with mule deer...