provides

MetaChip provides quick, efficient toxicity screening of potential drugs

A large, multisite trial designed to examine the safety and preliminary effectiveness of two candidate topical microbicides to prevent HIV infection has opened to volunteer enrollment. The trial, sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, represents a partnership among various research institutions in Africa and the U...

NYU and MSKCC research provides model for understanding chemically induced cancer initiation

A team from the chemistry and biology departments of New York University, in collaboration with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), has uncovered a conformational switch--a change in shape in a carcinogen-damaged DNA site--in tumor suppressor genes altered by a known cancer-causing chemical found in cigarette smoke. This finding may open new horizons for understanding the initiation o...

Nature provides inspiration for important new adhesive

Researchers from the College of Forestry at Oregon State University have developed a new group of adhesives that may revolutionize a large portion of the wood products industry, and have important environmental and economic benefits. The discovery has already resulted in three pending patents and should lead to a wide range of new products. But it was originally based on the aroused curios...

New plant DNA libraries provides massive boost to world's plant researchers

Researchers at the University of Warwick's horticultural research arm Warwick HRI have created an extensive new range of libraries of plant DNA that will provide a massive boost to the world's plant researchers. The new collection of DNA libraries is the largest of its type in the world and will provide researchers with a unique resource. The Warwick researchers have set up a new spin out...

NASA satellite data provides rapid analysis of Amazon deforestation

The Amazon, a vast tropical forest stretching across South America, is so large that if you were to take pictures of the region with optical photographs, it would take about ten years to...

Study provides insight into cellular defenses against genetic mutation

Nature's finesse revealed in quality surveillance systemWith their latest discovery, researchers have significantly advanced the understanding of how human cells protect themselves from constant and potentially destructive changes in gene expression. According to an article published in this month's Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, the research is important because the protection itself...

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...

Vaccine provides 100 percent protection against avian flu virus in animal study

Scientists have sequenced and compared the genomes of planktonic microbes living throughout the water column in the Pacific Ocean. The pioneering study yielded insight into the specialization of microbial communities at each depth--ranging from 40 to more than 13,000 feet. "By reading the information stored in the genomes of entire microbial communities, we can begin to measure the pulse o...

New hybrid virus provides targeted molecular imaging of cancer

Researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have created a new class of hybrid virus and demonstrated its ability to find, highlight, and deliver genes to tumors in mice. Researchers say the advance, reported in the journal Cell, is potentially an important step in making human cancer both more visible and accessible to treatment; it may also allow prediction and mo...

Ancient DNA provides clues to the evolution of social behavior

A rare Patagonian rodent known as the colonial tuco-tuco fascinates biologists because it seems to defy all odds. This threatened species has so little genetic diversity that the slightest whiff of climate change or disease should have wiped it off the face of the earth long ago. Yet the hearty gopher-like creature has not only managed to survive for thousands of years in the harsh climate of the...

Brittlestar provides new model for stem cell research

Scientists at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Kristineberg Marine Research Station are using the brittlestar as a new model for studying stem cells, allowing them to do experiments that avoid the ethical issues associated with human and vertebrate research. The brittlestar, Amphiura filiformis, is a close relative of the starfish and can regenerate lost arms in a matter of weeks. Sa...

Use of amino acid supplement following a heart attack provides no benefit, may be harmful

Use of the amino acid supplement L-arginine following a heart attack does not improve certain cardiac functions and measurements and may be associated with an increased risk of death, according to a study in the January 4 issue of JAMA. L-arginine is a widely available dietary supplement and is publicized as having benefits for patients with hypertension, angina, heart failure and sexual d...

Mutation in blood stem cells provides clues to cancer development

A mutation in blood stem cells occurs in patients with a blood disorder called polycythemia vera (PV), scientists at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine and Comprehensive Cancer Center at Stanford University School of Medicine have confirmed. The discovery suggests that development of a...

New approach to vaccine development provides potent, long-lasting immunity

By training a group of human subjects to operate a robot-controlled joystick, Johns Hopkins researchers have shown that the slower the brain "learns" to control certain muscle movements, the more likely it is to remember the lesson over the long haul. The results, the investigators say, could alter rehabilitation approaches for people who have lost motor abilities to brain injuries like strokes....

Study provides new understanding of spontaneous hybridization

Plant and animal breeders have long used hybridization to transfer useful traits between species. But does the same process happen without human aid? In a new study in the June issue of American Naturalist, Kenneth D. Whitney (Indiana University and Rice University), Rebecca A. Randell (Indiana University), and Loren H. Rieseberg (Indiana University), explore how spontaneous hybridization ?known...

Study provides first look at the 'birth' of a retina cell

Scientists at the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center have gained new insight into the way an embryonic retina cell develops and then commits itself to a specific role. They have observed a small window of opportunity during which a cell has been designated to play a particular role, but has not yet begun to function as such. The discovery provides a new vantage point for understandi...

Biotech cotton provides same yield with fewer pesticides

Arizona farmers receive the same yield/acre, use fewer chemical insecticides and maintain insect biodiversity when they plant the biotech cotton known as Bt cotton, according to new research. "What w...

'Fruit fly dating game' provides clues to our reproductive prowess

There's growing evidence that the dinosaurs and most their contemporaries were not wiped out by the famed Chicxulub meteor impact, according to a paleontologist who says multiple meteor impacts, massive volcanism in India, and climate changes culminated in the end of the Cretaceous Period. The Chicxulub impact may, in fact, have been the lesser and earlier of a series of meteors and volca...

Molecular mechanism provides intra-cellular traffic signal

City planners could learn a lesson or two from tiny cells on how to maximize traffic flow. The molecula...

Dragonfly's metabolic disease provides clues about human obesity

Parasite-infected dragonflies suffer the same metabolic disorders that have led to an epidemic of obesity and type-2 diabetes in humans, reveal the findings of research conducted at Penn State University that are due to be published in the 5 December 2006 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science and also in the PNAS early online edition at www.pnas...

Special chip provides better picture of salmon health

How do you tell if a fish is fit and well? This is a question which has troubled farmers and biologists for years, but now scientists may have come up with the answer - using DNA chips. By studying the genes of Atlantic salmon scientists from three UK universities are developing a DNA chip to monitor the health and performance of salmon, a tool which could both save the salmon industry thousands...

Mutant mouse provides insights into breast cancer

By discovering a mutant mouse that is highly susceptible to mammary tumors, Cornell researchers have found a novel potential link between genetic defects in DNA replication (copying) and breast cancer. The mouse contains a mutation in a gene essential for replicating DNA in both humans and mice that increases the rate of flawed copies of genetic material, leading to mouse breast cancers. <...

RNA map provides first comprehensive understanding of alternative splicing

It's biology's version of the director's cut. In much the same way that numerous films could be stitched together from a single reel of raw footage, a molecular process called alternative splicing enables a single gene to produce multiple proteins. Now a new RNA map, created by a team of researchers at Rockefeller University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and announced in the journal Nat...

Molecular atlas provides new tool for understanding estrogen-fueled breast cancer

Lurking in unexplored regions of the human genome are thousands of previously unknown on/off switches that may influence how the growth of breast cancer is driven by estrogen, new research by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers has revealed. In the October issue of Nature Genetics, the investigators present the first complete map of the molecular "control panels" -- stretches of DNA...

Virginia Tech's System X supercomputer provides super tool for simulation of cell division

Virginia Tech researchers in computer science and biology have used the university's supercomputer, System X, to create models and algorithms that make it possible to simulate the cell cycle -- the processes leading to cell division. They have demonstrated that the new mathematical models and numerical algorithms provide powerful tools for studying the complex processes going on inside living cel...

3-D ultrasound scanner provides in-depth view of the brain

The “brain scope,” which is inserted into a dime-sized hole in the skull, may be particularly useful for the bedside evaluation of critically ill patients when compute...