Stern

UT Southwestern researchers discover master switch in cell death

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found an enzyme vital for controlling the early stages of cell death ?a beneficial and normal process when it works right, but malignant in a variety of cancers when it malfunctions. “We think t...

UT Southwestern researchers develop screening test for cells that activate immune system

UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers are the first to create a large-scale, cell-based screening method that identifies which compounds activate immune-response cells that hold promise for future cancer-fighting vaccines. The new screening technique can scan thousands and even millions of compounds to identify those that activate dendritic cells, which are on constant recon patrol th...

UT Southwestern researchers unravel control of growing blood vessels

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered a basic mechanism by which smooth muscle cells that line the blood vessels can grow ?sometimes abnormally ?suggesting methods of treatment for various coronary diseases. Abnormal growth of cells inside blood vessels is involved in hypertension, coronary artery disease, tumors called leiosarcomas and other conditions. "By underst...

Scientists discover dozens of new species in 'Lost World' of western New Guinea

An expedition to one of Asia's most isolated jungles ?in the mist-shrouded Foja Mountains of western New Guinea ?discovered a virtual ''Lost World" of new species, giant flowers, and rare wildlife that was unafraid of humans. The December 2005 trip by a team of U.S., Indonesian, and Australian scientists led by Conservation International (CI) found dozens of new species including frogs, bu...

DNA end caps may lead to cancer treatments, UT Southwestern researchers report

The two ends of human DNA have different structures that are treated differently as a cell divides, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found in a study that could help lead to cancer therapies. The study ?published in the Feb. 3 issue of the journal Molecular Cell ?focuses on the ends of DNA, which are capped by segments called telomeres. Each time the cell divides, the telom...

UT Southwestern researchers find gene mutation that leads to 'broken hearts'

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have identified a group of fruit fly gene mutations responsible for "broken hearts" in the embryonic stages of development, a discovery that could help identify genes that cause human heart defects. "We engineered a fruit fly so that the heart would glow in the dark and found a new type of malformation, completely unexpectedly," said Dr. Eric...

Case Western Reserve University researchers find protein associated with brain cell death

Neuroscientists at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have found evidence of which protein in the brain's immune cells triggers a cascade of reactions that produces unregulated free radical production that eventually leads to the neural cell death found in Alzheimer's disease. They report their findings in the Journal of Biological Chemistry article, "Fibrillar Beta-...

Study finds mercury prevalent in many western fish

A new survey by researchers at Oregon State University and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of more than 600 rivers and streams in the western United States found widespread mercury concentrations in fish. Though few of the more than 2,700 fish analyzed in the study contained alarmingly high levels of mercury, the prevalence of the element throughout 12 western states caught the re...

Napoleon's mysterious death unmasked, UT Southwestern researcher says

A new investigation into Napoleon Bonaparte's cause of death might finally put to rest nearly 200 years of lingering mysteries about the illness that killed the French emperor during his island exile, a UT Southwestern Medical Center scientist reports. American, Swiss and Canadian researchers applied modern pathological and tumor-staging methods to historical accounts and found that Napol...

Hotspots of mercury contamination identified in eastern North America

A US and Canadian research team surveying mercury contamination in fish and birds in the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada has identified five "hotspots" where concentrations of the element exceed those established for human or wildlife health. The team focused on levels of the potent neurotoxin in yellow perch and common loons, but it also took into account contamination in othe...

Smithsonian scientists discover new marine species in eastern Pacific

Smithsonian scientists have discovered a biodiversity bounty in the Eastern Pacific—approximately 50 percent of the organisms found in some groups are new to science. The research team spent 11 days in the Eastern Pacific, a unique, understudied region off the coast of Panama. Coordinated by Rachel Collin of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, a team of Smithsonian scientists an...

Scientists discover 5 new species of sea slugs from the Tropical Eastern Pacific

The Tropical Eastern Pacific, a discrete biogeographic region that has an extremely high rate of endemism among its marine organisms, continues to yield a wealth of never-before-described marine animals to visiting scientists at the Smiths...