Simple

Topical treatment shown to inhibit HIV and herpes simplex virus infection

Mount Sinai School of Medicine researchers demonstrated that a gel applied in the vagina provides protection from both the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the herpes simplex Virus. The study, presented at the 12th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, is the first to show that a gel can retain anti-viral activity within the human vagina. The study, which was fund...

Researchers trace evolution to relatively simple genetic changes

In a stunning example of evolution at work, scientists have now found that changes in a single gene can produce major changes in the skeletal armor of fish living in the wild. "Our motivation is to try to understa...

Simple drug has the potential to save many lives threatened by malaria

A simple drug, given to children with severe malaria before they reach hospital, has the potential to save many lives, say researchers in this week's BMJ. C...

Discovery Promises Simpler Therapy for Sickle Cell Disease

Durham, N.C. ?A new understanding of the causes for symptoms of sickle cell disease, a condition affecting one in every 600 African-Americans, has resulted from a study by researchers at Duke University Medical Center and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Their findings may lead to a new, more direct method for treating the disease, they said. Their research suggests that an inabili...

Simple sea sponge helps scientists understand tissue rejection

Understanding why some transplant patients reject their new organs requires a working knowledge of how cells recognize and accept or reject each other. Xavier Fernndez-Busquets, an MBL researcher visiting from the University of Barcelona, has found the perfect ally in this quest: the red beard sea sponge, an Atlantic species that grows abundantly from just north of Cape Cod down to Florida. <...

Simple explanation for complex pattern of feather development

Biologists testing a mathematical model of the mechanism birds use to control the growth of complex feathers found that plumed feather structures involve the coordination of at least two genes that activate and that inhibit barb growth. "Understanding these mechanisms of feather growth gives a whole new perspective on the unique beauty of feathers," said Richard Prum, senior author on the...

New technique multiplies life span in simple organisms

A counterintuitive experiment has resulted in one of the longest recorded life-span extensions in any organism and opened a new door for anti-aging research in humans. That finding was covered widely and incorporated into anti-aging drug development pro...

Jefferson biologist coaxing human embryonic stem cells to make dopamine with simpler, faster method

For clinicians, the ability to look routinely inside the body and see -- at the level of the cell -- how it confronts disease is a distant dream. But in a series of experiments with genetically engineered mice, a team of researchers from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) at the University of California Los Angeles has taken a key step toward realizing that vision by demonstrating the abi...

New evidence questions the simple link between prion proteins and madcow disease

While newly published research confirms that under laboratory circumstances prion-protein can be absorbed across the gut, it also shows that this is unlikely to occur in real life. In addition, the results show that the places in the gut that do take up these disease-associated proteins are different from the locations where infectivity is known to be amplified. The findings will be published in...

Simple idea to dramatically improve dengue vaccinations

An innovative new study explains, for the first time, the failure of previous attempts to vaccinate against the four known Dengue viruses, and it suggests a very simple solution ?injecting the four vaccines simultaneously at different locations on the body. A mosquito-born disease, Dengue kills tens of thousands of people per year and sickens 100 million more. Known as "bone-break disease,...

Cheaper and simpler keyhole surgery

Endoscopic surgery brings many advantages for patients but is very difficult for the surgeon. Working at the Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdam, Joris Jaspers has developed two instruments which make this approach easier and also cheaper than with existing surgical robotics. Jaspers is awarded his doctorate on Wednesday 22 March at Delft University of Technology. Endoscopic operations (o...

Microscopic scaffolding offers a 'simple' solution to treating skin injuries

A revolutionary dissolvable scaffold for growing new areas of skin could provide a safer, more effective way of treating burns, diabetic ulcers and similar injuries. This ultra-fine, 3-dimensional scaffold, which is made from specially developed polymers, looks similar to tissue paper but has fibres 100 times finer. Before it is placed over a wound, the patient's skin cells (obtained via...

A simple feedback resistor switch keeps latent HIV from awakening

Upon entering a cell, a virus often becomes dormant, turning off its genes and laying low until awakened by som e trigger from its environment. When that trigger is pulled, the virus quickly ramps up production of proteins through built-in positive-feedback loops that turn up gene transcription. (In positive feedback, production of something stimulates more production of that thing, resulting in...

Scientists explore how complex organs develop from a simple bud

The current issue of Differentiation, guest-edited by Brigid Hogan, highlights several scientific investigations into the complex biological mechanism known as branching morphogenesis. Through a series of seven laboratory reviews, important insights governing this process during animal development are revealed. The articles analyze how branching morphogenesis occurs in different organ systems in...

Scientists design simple dipstick test for cocaine, other drugs

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a simple "dipstick" test for detecting cocaine and other drugs in saliva, urine or blood serum. The test is based upon DNA-gold nanoparticle technology, and can be packaged in user-friendly kits similar to those used for home pregnancy tests. "Building upon our earlier work with lead (Pb) sensors, we constructed c...

The power of one: A simpler, cheaper method for cell fusion

It's not easy to make one plus one equal one. But biological engineer Chang Lu has done just that with a new and cheaper method to electrically fuse cells - a vital technology for studying stem cells, creating clones and finding disease antibodies. "The only current method for electrofusion requires a very expensive and specialized electrical pulse generator," said Lu, a professor of agr...

Surgeons develop simpler way to cure atrial fibrillation

Physicians have an effective new option for treating atrial fibrillation, a common irregular heart rhythm that can cause stroke. Heart surgeons at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed and tested a device that radically shortens and simplifies a complex surgical procedure that has had the best long-term cure rate for persistent atrial fibrillation. The simpli...

Liver regeneration may be simpler than previously thought

The way the liver renews itself may be simpler than what scientists had been assuming. A new study, appearing in the April 13 issue of The Journal of Biological Chemistry, provides new information on the inner workings of cells from regenerating livers that could significantly affect the way physicians make livers regrow in patients with liver diseases such as cirrhosis, hepatitis, or cancer. </p...

Simple home spit test to spot deadly pre-eclampsia

A simple spit test designed to detect pre-eclampsia in the early stages is being trialed in a UK hospital, reports Cath O'Driscoll in Chemistry & Industry, the magazine of the SCI. The test, which is designed to be used at home, will allow mums-to-be to check for themselves whether they are at risk of the condition, which can be symptomless in the early stages but kills 1000 babies in the UK...