iLab

A step toward the $1,000 personal genome using readily available lab equipment

The theoretical price of having one's personal genome sequenced just fell from the prohibitive $20 million dollars to about $2.2 million, and the goal is to reduce the amount further--to about $1,000--to make individualized prevention and treatment realistic. The sharp drop is due to a new DNA sequencing technology developed by Harvard Medical School (HMS) researchers Jay Shendure, Gregory...

Techniques available to detect soil that inhibits destructive soybean pest

Identification of soils that inhibit a tiny soybean-destroying organism is an important tool in reducing yield losses, according to a Purdue University plant pathologist. Soybean cyst nematodes cause between $800 million and $1 billion annually in crop losses in the United States, according the American Phytopathological Society. However, techniques are available to find soils that specifi...

Interactive 3-D atlas of mouse brain now available on web

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have just launched a web-based 3-D digital atlas browser and database of the brain of a popular laboratory mouse (see "Neuroscientists around the world can now download these extremely accurate anatomical templates and use them to map ot...

Study suggests that publicly available genome data may contain small but significant errors

Since the genome sequence of the bacterial pathogen Haemophilus influenzae was published in 1995, the genetic code of many other large, complex, medically, and commercially significant organisms including humans has also been elucidated. However, the techniques used to derive these genetic sequences are imperfect, and many researchers may be unaware of potential errors lurking within the p...

Scientists discover that widely available drug also helps fight kidney disease

A widely available drug may be effective in treating kidney disease, report scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara. They describe the discovery in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science published the week of March 20. The drug is rapamycin, also called sirolimus, and is currently used as an immunosuppressant, to help prevent rejection...

Hopkins study suggests commercially available antibiotic may help fight dementia in HIV patients

An antibiotic commonly used to treat a variety of serious infections may also help prevent dementia in HIV patients, according to a test-tube study of human brain cells by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine neurologist Jeffrey Rumbaugh, M.D., Ph.D. Results of the lab study with ceftriaxone are expected to be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 58th annual meeting on A...

Scientists discover new, readily available source of stem cells

Scientists have discovered a new source of stems cells and have used them to create muscle, bone, fat, blood vessel, nerve and liver cells in the laboratory. The first report showing the isolation of broad potential stem cells from the amniotic fluid that surrounds developing embryos was published today in Nature Biotechnology. "Our hope is that these cells will provide a valuable resource...