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Elusive HIV shape change revealed; Key clue to how virus infects cells

Structural biologists at Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School have shown how a key part of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) changes shape, triggering other changes that allow the AIDS virus to enter and infect cells. Their findings, published in the Feb. 24 issue of the journal Nature, offer clues that will help guide vaccine and treatment approaches. Researchers led...

Iron Deficiency Sparks Dramatic Changes In Gene Expression

Researchers at Duke University Medical Centerhave demonstrated for the first time what happens inside a cell when itis deprived of the essential nutrient iron. Iron is found abundantly inred meats, shellfish dried fruits, whole grains, spinach, seeds andother foods.Their study in yeast cells demonstrated that iron-starved cellspreserve the little iron they possess by shutting down the major...

New Study from Affymetrix Laboratories Points to Changing View of How Genome Works

Scientists at Affymetrix, Inc. (Nasdaq: AFFX) reported today in Science magazine online that they have completed a high-resolution scan of structure and function for nearly 30 percent of the human genome sequence. In collaboration with the National Cancer Institute, the research team used high-density GeneChip(R) microarrays to study every fifth base, on average, of 10 human chromosomes; they fou...

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...

Plants defy Mendel's inheritance laws, may prompt textbook changes

Contrary to inheritance laws the scientific world has accepted for more than 100 years, some plants revert to normal traits carried by their grandparents, bypassing genetic abnormalities carried by both parents. These mutant parent plants apparently have hidden templates containing genetic information from the preceding generation that can be transferred to their offspring, even though the...

Scientists Propose Sweeping Changes to Naming of Bird Neurosystems to Acknowledge Their True Brainpower

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted approval to Mylan Technologies, Inc., for the first generic version of Alza Corporation's Duragesic Patch (Fentanyl Transdermal System) used to treat patients suffering from severe chronic pain that cannot be managed with alternative analgesics. When applied to the skin, this patch technology delivers fentanyl, an opioid pain medication that is s...

FDA Announces Series of Changes to the Class of Marketed Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs)

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today announced a series of important changes pertaining to the marketing of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory class of drugs, including COX-2 selective and prescription and non-prescription (over-the-counter (OTC)) non-selective NSAID medications. A list of these products is available on the Internet at http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/infopage/cox2/default.h...

Small species back-up giant marsupial climate change extinction claim

Thinking small in a time when everything was big has helped Queensland researchers to unearth new evidence that climate change, instead of humans, was responsible for wiping out Australian giant marsupials or megafauna 40,000 years ago. Instead of only excavating 'trophy specimens' such as giant kangaroos and wombats, the researchers from Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and Quee...

Some Brain Cells 'Change Channels' To Fine-tune The Message

Johns Hopkins researchers have identified the proteins that allow specific brain cells to "change channels," a rare ability that tweaks what can come into the cell. The findings, described in the March 24 issue of Neuron, may let researchers harness the process, perhaps one day using it to protect cells that die in Lou Gehrig's disease. Much as turning the television dial changes what come...

Africa to take it on chin again with climate change

A new analysis of Africa's past and future climate shows that the Sahel region, which experienced catastrophic drought until rains returned in the 1990s, could experience wetter monsoons for decades to come. However, drought across southern Africa is projected to intensify further. Oceanic warming consistent with an increase in greenhouse gases appears to be a factor in these expected 21st-centur...

Changing ecosystems throw scientists mega-challenges

Accelerating environmental changes have presented humanity with some significant scientific and engineering challenges, according to the new National Science Foundation (NSF) report, Pathways to the Future: Complex Environmental Systems: Synthesis for Earth, Life and Society in the 21st Century. Among the changes the report cites are rapid shifts in climate and ecosystems, the degradation...

Fox Chase study shows that weakened T-cell receptor signals change T-cell lineage

The immune system is a marvel of versatility, creating a variety of cells that develop in different ways to protect the body. To carry out these tasks, immune cells follow a career path that forks at various points in their development. In a report in the May 2005 issue of Immunity, Fox Chase Cancer Center scientists led by immunologists David L. Wiest, Ph.D. and Dietmar J. Kappes, Ph.D., show th...

Some Brain Cells Change Channels

Johns Hopkins researchers have identified the proteins that allow specific brain cells to "change channels," a rare ability that tweaks what can come into the cell. The findings, described in the March 24 issue of Neuron, might let researchers harness the process, perhaps one day using it to protect cells that die in Lou Gehrig's disease. Much as turning the television dial changes what co...

By creating molecular bridge, scientists change function of a protein

By designing a molecular bridge, scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have forged a successful pathway through a complex ocean of barriers: They've changed the function of a protein using a co-evolution approach. In a study to be published in the Journal of Molecular Biology, doctoral student Zhilei Chen and Huimin Zhao, a professor of chemical and biomolecular eng...

Siberian tigers hang tough

Results of the latest full range survey indicate that tiger numbers in Russia appear to be stable, say the coordinators of a 2005 winter effort to count the animals, led by the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society. After a massive winter endeavor to determine distribution and abundance of tigers in the Russian Far East, the last stronghold of Siberian tigers, researchers report that appro...

Logging changed ecological balance for monkeys, damaged health

Twenty-eight years after intense selective logging stopped in the region now known as Uganda's Kibale National Park, the red-tailed guenon (Cercophithecus ascanius) is a primate still in decline. The logging practice, scientists report in a new study, changed the ecological balance for these monkeys, leading to behavioral changes and opening the door for multiple parasitic infections. The...

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...

Lands surface change on Alaska tundra creating longer, warmer summers in Arctic

A gradual lengthening of the snow-free season in Alaska's tundra, and a corresponding northward progression of the growth of shrubs and trees, may be creating a cycle of warmer and longer summers in the Alaskan Arctic according to a new study to be published in the Sept. 22, 2005, issue of Science Express. The resulting atmospheric heating in the region of northern Alaska is equivalent to...

New markers of climate change

A new way to monitor the effects of climate change on rainforests is being investigated at Cambridge University. Researchers are using biomarkers in the shape of epiphytes ('air-plants' which grow on other plants) to find out how their photosynthesis and water evaporation have been affected by climate change over the last 50 years. Using types of epiphytes known as bromeliads, Monica Mejia...

Change in gene may be underlying molecular defect in some colorectal cancers

Inactivation of a DNA repair gene may be an early step in the development of sporadic colorectal tumors, and detection of the molecular basis for this inactivation may ultimately be useful in risk assessment for colorectal cancer, according to a new study in the September 21 issue of the Cancers can arise from a region of cells with a "field...

Hanging baskets of sex and death help fruit growers

A hanging basket style device is at the heart of a plan by researchers at the University of Warwick to harness the sex drive of a major pest of fruit orchards as a weapon to spread a virus to kill that very same pest. The device allows growers to selectively target the pest with a virus that kills its larvae without killing other beneficial insects. The researchers at Warwick HRI, th...

Methamphetamine Abuse, HIV Infection Cause Changes in Brain Structure

New research published in the August 2005 issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry indicates that methamphetamine abuse and HIV infection cause significant alterations in the size of certain brain structures, and in both cases the changes may be associated with impaired cognitive functions, such as difficulties in learning new information, solving problems, maintaining attention and quickly pr...

Scientists find evidence of catastrophic sand avalanches, sea level changes in Gulf of Mexico

Identical twins lose some fundamental similarities as they grow older, a new study reports. Researchers report in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that these differences may stem from changes in the epigeno...

Disappearing arctic lakes linked to climate change

Continued arctic warming may be causing a decrease in the number and size of Arctic lakes. The issue is the subject of a paper published in the June 3 issue of the journal "Science." The paper, titled, "Disappearing Arctic Lakes" is the result of a comparison of satellite data taken of Siberia in the early 1970s to data from 1997-2004. Researchers, including Larry Hinzman with the Water and Envir...

Field tested: Grasslands won't help buffer climate change as carbon dioxide levels rise

UCLA biochemists reveal the first structural details of a family of mysterious objects called microcompartments that seem to be present in a variety of bacteria. The discovery was published Aug. 5 in the journal Science. "This is the first look at how microcompartments are built, and what the pieces look like," said Todd O. Yeates, UCLA professor of chemistry and biochemistry, and a member...

Brain networks change according to cognitive task

Using a newly released method to analyze functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), Northwestern University researchers have demonstrated that the interconnections between different parts of the brain are dynamic and not static. This and other findings answer longstanding debates about how brain networks operate to solve different cognitive tasks. They are presented in the current (June 1) iss...

Study shows big game hunters, not climate change, killed off sloths

Prehistoric big game hunters and not the last ice age are the likely culprits in the extinction of giant ground sloths and other North American great mammals such as mammoths, mastodons and saber-toothed tigers, says a University of Florida researcher. Determining whether the first arrival of humans or the warm-up of the American continent at the end of the last Ice Age was responsible for...

Climate change will affect carbon sequestration in oceans, model shows

An Earth System model developed by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign indicates that the best location to store carbon dioxide in the deep ocean will change with climate change. The direct injection of carbon dioxide deep into the ocean has been suggested as one method to help control rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and mitigate the effects of glob...

Customized gene chip provides rapid detection of genetic changes in children's cancer

Genetics researchers have developed a customized gene chip to rapidly scan tumor samples for specific DNA changes that offer clues to prognosis in cases of neuroblastoma, a common form of children's cancer. Rather than covering the entire genome, the microarray focuses on suspect regions of chromosomes for signs of deleted genetic material known to play a role in the cancer. The investigat...

Sudden change in social status triggers genetic response in male fish, study finds

Throughout the animal kingdom, rival males routinely challenge one another for the right to reproduce. From the head-on collisions between bighorn rams to the ritualized wrestling matches of male rattlesnakes, combat is often the key to reproductive success. But now scientists studying a species of African cichlid fish have discovered that low-ranking male cichlids can quickly become lead...

New amphibian species result from exploration, not from rule changes

Researchers have discovered amphibian species at an accelerating rate in recent decades, with over 1,000 new ones recognized between 1992 and 2003. At the same time, amphibians are, for reasons not entirely clear, declining more rapidly than either mammals or birds, underscoring the importance of an accurate evaluation. An analysis published in the August 2005 issue of BioScience, the mont...

Embryonic stem cells accrue genetic changes

An international team of researchers has discovered that human embryonic stem cell lines accumulate changes in their genetic material over time. The findings do not limit the utility of the cells for some types of research or for some future clinical applications, the researchers say, but draw attention to the need to closely monitor stem cell lines for genetic changes and to study how th...

Scientists must offer solutions for conserving tropical forests in a rapidly changing world

As the future of the tropics unfolds, scientists must explain the dimensions and mechanisms of forest responses to rapid human-population increase and environmental changesAs human populations and their impacts on the world increase, tropical forests are changing in many different ways. Forests are being cleared, burned, logged, fragmented, and overhunted and an unprecedented pace, and they are...

Oil spills and climate change double the mortality rate of British seabirds

New research from the University of Sheffield has shown that major oil spills and a changing climate have had a far greater impact on populations of British sea birds than was previously thought. A team led by Professor Tim Birkhead from the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at the University of Sheffield, shows for the first time that major oil spills double the mortality rate of a...

Lethal needle blight epidemic may be related to climate change

Increased summer precipitation apparently helping to spread spores of pathogen Biologists studying a lethal blight of lodgepole pines in northwestern British Columbia present strong evidence in the September issue of BioScience that climate change is to blame for the outbreak. The blight, caused by the fungus Dothistroma septosporum, causes trees to lose their needles and, in the case of...

New view of cancer: 'Epigenetic' changes come before mutations

A Johns Hopkins researcher, with colleagues in Sweden and at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, suggests that the traditional view of cancer as a group of diseases with markedly different biological properties arising from a series of alterations within a cell's nuclear DNA may have to give way to a more complicated view. In the January issue of Nature Reviews Genetics, available online...

Is it Possible to Change Prescribing Habits?

In the US more than 770,000 people are injured or die each year in hospitals from adverse drug events (ADEs), which can cost a hospital, depending on its size, about US$5.6 million every year, excluding ADE-associated costs for malpractice and litigation and the personal costs of injuries to patients. Nationally, hospital expenses to treat patients who have ADEs during hospital admission a...

Changes to embryos can elicit change in adult fish

In a study illustrating the apparent linkages between the evolutionary development and embryonic development of species, researchers have uncovered the genetic elements that determine the structure and function of a simple biomechanical system, the lower jaw of the cichlid fish. In addition, they've shown that increasing expression of a particular gene in an embryo can lead to physical changes in...

Meditation associated with structural changes in brain

The regular practice of meditation appears to produce structural changes in areas of the brain associated with attention and sensory processing. An imaging study led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers showed that particular areas of the cerebral cortex, the outer layer of the brain, were thicker in participants who were experienced practitioners of a type of meditation commonly...

What can change in the brain? Electrical synapses, research shows

The brain's ability to reorganize itself - strengthening or weakening connections between neurons or adding or subtracting those connections - allows it to form memories, make transitions between sleep and waking, and focus attention on objects of interest. This phenomenon is a form of neural plasticity. Chemical synapses, junctions where neurons communicate using chemical substances, have...