studied in Biological News

Complex ocean behavior studied with 'artificial upwelling'

CORVALLIS, Ore. A team of scientists is studying the complex ocean upwelling process by mimicking nature pumping cold, nutrient-rich water from deep within the Pacific Ocean and releasing it into surface waters near Hawaii that lack the nitrogen and phosphorous necessary to support high biologic...

Gulf of Mexico dead zone to be studied by University of Texas at Austin marine scientists

PORT ARANSAS, Texas University of Texas at Austin marine scientists have been awarded $781,000 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) to better understand how nutrient pollution from the Mississippi River affects the large area of low oxygen water called the Dead Zone in the Gu...

Feline virus, antiviral drug studied to understand drug resistance

COLUMBUS , Ohio Researchers at Ohio State will spend the next two years testing their theories about just how an AIDS-like virus in cats is able to resist the powerful medicines that are thrown against it. It's one of the latest efforts at understanding one of the leading problem areas in medi...

Potential new herpes therapy studied

GAINESVILLE, Fla. A new therapy being developed at the University of Florida could, in time, produce another weapon for the fight against herpes. The gene-targeting approach uses a specially designed RNA enzyme to inhibit strains of the herpes simplex virus. The enzyme disables a gene responsi...

New roadside beautification concept studied

FORT PIERCE, FL - Travel America's highways or drive down any city street this summer and you'll probably see them. From small, manicured beds of flowers maintained by community volunteers to extensive landscaping projects along America's byways, roadside gardens are taking root. Aside from the...

Alternatives to ozone-depleting pesticide studied

VALLADOLID, SPAIN -- Methyl bromide, an odorless, colorless gas used as an agricultural pesticide, was introduced in the 1980s as an effective way to control weeds and increase fruit yields. Agricultural production nurseries around the world relied on methyl bromide (MB) to produce healthy plants ...

Silicon's effect on sunflowers studied

STILLWATER, OK -- Vibrant, showy sunflowers are revered worldwide for their beauty and versatility. While many varieties of sunflower are grown specifically for their nutritional benefits, ornamental sunflowers have become standards for commercial growers and everyday gardeners. As sunflowers' pop...

Bacterial response to oxidation studied as toxin barometer

Blacksburg, Va., March 26, 2007 ?Common bacteria with an overt reaction to toxins that cause oxidative stress show promise as a biosensor to predict public health threats. At the 233rd American Chemical Society national meeting in Chicago March 25-29, researchers from Virginia Tech and the Edward...

Ground spider diversity studied in research project

None of Takesha Henderson's discoveries are named Charlotte, but they are weaving a new chapter in Texas entomology. Her graduate studies at Texas A&M University have led to the discovery of 25 new spiders in Brazos County and one species found for the first time in Texas. In research sponsor...

Fat stem cells being studied as option for breast reconstruction

Breast cancer survivors might one day avoid the prospect of invasive breast reconstruction surgery, opting instead for an approach that would involve using stem cells derived from their own fat, suggest University of Pittsburgh researchers who are studying the potential these cells may have for reg...

Inflammation and drugs to control this activity studied in a variety of tumors sites

Inflammation cuts both ways. When invaded by an infectious agent, for example, the body calls on the forces of inflammation to fight and defeat the intruder. But when the biochemical processes of the immune system are either misdirected or chronically turned on, inflammation can lead to adversity, ...

Sahara's edge studied from ground, air and space to improve water management

An international team worked on the verge of the Sahara to gather data on the ground and in the air, to be compared with imagery of the same region acquired by ESA satellites. The results will be used in support of an ambitious project to apply satellite remote sensing to improve monitoring and man...

'Green' energy from algae

...tituents of the algae biomass by an electric pulsed treatment. So far, Dr. Georg Mller, head of this institute's Pulsed Power Technology Division, has studied the decomposition of plant cells of olives, grapes, apples, sugar beets, and terrestrial energy plants in cooperation with partners from research and ...

Brain difference in psychopaths identified

...ision making. There is a white matter tract that connects the amygdala and OFC, which is called the uncinate fasciculus (UF). However, nobody had ever studied the UF in psychopaths. The team from King's used an imaging method called in vivo diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DT-MRI) tractography to...

The way you eat may affect your risk for breast cancer

... PHILADELPHIA How you eat may be just as important as how much you eat, if mice studies are any clue. Cancer researchers have long studied the role of diet on breast cancer risk, but results to date have been mixed. New findings published in Cancer Prevention Research , a journal of the ...

Urban water ecology at the ESA annual meeting

... some of this water "like a sponge being saturated," says Olyssa Starry, a graduate student at the University of Maryland at Baltimore County. Starry studied a greenroof atop a Baltimore building in comparison to a similar building without a greenroof to determine how well the roof would absorb water from f...

K-State researcher, collaborators study virulence of pandemic H1N1 virus

...ecause we produce reagents in the pigs that we use later for diagnostic purposes as controls to validate our testing systems." The researchers also studied the virulence of two strains of the pandemic H1N1 virus in a nonhuman primate model as a way to predict how the strains would affect humans. Comparing...

A crystal ball for brain cancer?

...entional therapies produce little benefit; only 8 to 15 percent of patients survive without tumor growth six months after treatment. The UCLA team studied 82 patients who had undergone surgery and radiation therapy to remove glioblastoma. Half of the patients received infusions of Avastin every two week...

'Microfluidic palette' may paint clearer picture of biological processes

...lecular motion. Microfluidic systems usually mix fluids more actively, by pumps and the circulation of currents. Diffusion gradients allow cells being studied to remain in the microchamber without the chance of their being swept away. Diffusion also permits chemical molecules to move in and out of the cells ...

New computer simulation helps explain folding in important cellular protein

...he Intel Corp.) GpA is a 131-amino acid protein that spans the human red-blood cell membrane and is crucial in cell procedures. Because it has been studied in depth for many years, it also serves as an important model system for how similar systems work. That's why the new simulation may open doors in man...

Jet-propelled imaging for an ultrafast light source

...ins and viruses. DNA or RNA inside a virus is often packed differently in each virus, and cells are not identical at the molecular level, so cannot be studied in 3-D by this method. Besides identical particles, successful data-merging also depends partly on knowing how the sample was oriented in the beam...

Stem cell research: From molecular physiology to therapeutic applications

...has demonstrated efficacy in monkey models. Professor Zhang has written an overview of cell replacement therapy of Parkinson's disease, which has been studied in both animal models and human patients for more than 20 years. Recent progress in stem cell biology has indicated that it is possible to avoid immun...

Biologists rediscover endangered frog population

...in Willow Creek, a tributary of Tahquitz Creek. The museum's study will continue until biologists have completed three surveys at each of the 19 sites studied by the 1908 expedition. Mountain yellow-legged frogs are not known to migrate far, possibly indicating a significant population. The size of the si...

Warmer environment means shorter lives for cold-blooded animals

...over 90 species from terrestrial, freshwater, and marine environments. They studied organisms with different average longevities--from the copepod Arcartia ton...hings." The lifespan in 87% of the free-living species Munch and Salinas studied varied as predicted by the MTE. Yet after removing the effect of temperatur...

Nanodiamonds deliver insulin for wound healing

...essfully bind, deliver and release several classes of therapeutics, which could impact a broad range of medical needs. Ho's research group also has studied nanodiamonds for applications in cancer therapy. They demonstrated that nanodiamonds are capable of releasing the chemotherapy agent Doxorubicin in a ...

Spallation Neutron Source sees first target replacement

...dure that will be repeated each time the target is changed, which ultimately at full power could occur several times a year. The old target will be studied to gauge how three years of proton bombardment have affected its materials. ...

New discovery suggests trees evolved camouflage defense against long extinct predator

...urs to hide from predators or advertise defences, but until now there has been little evidence of colour based defences in plants." Dr Burns' team studied the leaves of the Araliaceae tree ( P. crassifolius ) a heteroblastic species which is native to New Zealand. This species goes through several strang...

A genetic basis for schizophrenia

...ved in regulating stem cells and their fate," says Morris. The second paper, published in the June 2009 online issue of Human Molecular Genetics , studied the hippocampus, a brain area that is involved in learning and memory, and is also associated with the pathology of schizophrenia. Disc1 is highly ex...

Genetic marker linked to problem behaviors in adults with developmental disabilities

...ene was strongly associated with problem behaviors in adults with developmental and / or intellectual disabilities," Kennedy said. The researchers studied 105 white men between the ages of 18 and 50. The individuals were divided into three groups: those with developmental/intellectual disabilities and a ...

Researchers design first model motor nerve system that's insulated and organized like the human body

...ord and brain are surrounded by cerebrospinal fluid that contains only trace amounts of protein. This system now allows for both the PNS and CNS to be studied in the same defined system. The UCF team plans to use their new model system to explore the origins of diabetic neuropathy. Once the causes of myel...

Stuff of stink bombs investigated for role in pregnancy

...the body. Hydrogen sulphide has been shown to relax smooth muscle in the body and it may have a role in inflammation." "For the past decade, I have studied the role of hydrogen sulphide in the female reproductive tract. So far, hydrogen sulphide has been shown to relax the uterus and it can be produced by...

Reviews of microbial gene language published in special issue of Trends in Microbiology

... to disease in humans. The characterization of genes in C. albicans has also benefited from the transfer of Gene Ontology terms from the extensively studied yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae . S. cerevisiae is another workhorse of the molecular biology laboratory and Gene Ontology terms have been instrumen...

Study explains potential failure of oral contraceptives with obese women

...dy mass indexes. The biological underpinnings of how oral contraceptives work, their effects on the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis, has only been studied in women of normal weight, the researchers noted in their study. At present, Cherala said, there is no readily available test that would tell a wo...

LSUHSC's Bazan awarded ARRA grant to preserve vision

..., and the arachidonic acid (AA)- mediators that play a key role in tissue repair. AA-mediators, lipoxin A4 and the aspirin-triggered epi-LxA4, will be studied . "If our hypothesis is correct, PAF antagonists, and the lipoxins and epi-lipoxins can become effective therapeutic tools for maintaining the tra...

A 'heart healthy' diet and ongoing, moderate physical activity may protect against cognitive decline

...essor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, and a geriatrics researcher at the San Francisco VA Medical Center, and colleagues studied changes in levels of both physical activity and cognitive function over seven years in 3,075 white and black elders aged 70-79 years in the Health, Ag...

Mystery E. coli genes essential for survival of many species

...Scientists have shown that E. coli one of the best known and extensively studied organisms in the world remains an enigma that may hold the key to human di...taken three genes identified through sequencing of the E. coli genome and studied them to discover their significance. Professor Palmer said: "Scientists ...

Alzheimer's disease drug treats traumatic brain injury, report GUMC researchers

...beta secretase, and then cut once again by a second enzyme known as gamma secretase. Agents that inhibit the activity of gamma secretase are now being studied as treatment for Alzheimer's disease. In this study, researchers used mice that were either treated with DAPT, an experimental gamma secretase inhi...

Results from trials of DHA in Alzheimer's disease and age-related cognitive decline

... on "age related cognitive decline" (ARCD). Both studies used Martek's algal DHA. The results of the ADCS trial show no evidence for benefit in the studied population. The Martek trial showed a positive result on one test of memory and learning, but that study was in healthy older adults, not people with ...

Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC scientists identify enzyme important in aging

...eneration of the thymus in order to maintain our immune defenses throughout life," said Dr. de Vallejo. The mouse model that Dr. de Vallejo's team studied was developed by his colleague Cheryl Conover, Ph.D., an endocrinology researcher at Mayo Clinic. In this "knockout" mouse model, researchers deleted ...

New theory gives more precise estimates of large-scale biodiversity

...heory with data from one of the few areas on Earth that has been thoroughly studied on both the small and large scale - the Western Ghats mountain range of Ind... square kilometers, the Western Ghats are partially protected and have been studied extensively by Indian scientists in small sections - 48 quarter-hectare plo...