Fruit flies soar as lab model, drug screen for the deadliest of human brain cancers
LA JOLLA, CAFruit flies and humans share most of their genes, including 70 percent of all known human disease genes. Taking advantage of this remarkable evolutionary conservation, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies transformed the fruit fly into a laboratory model for an inno...Fruit flies all aglow light the way to cancer prevention
A green glow from a fruit fly is giving researchers the green light when they are on the right path in their quest to develop compounds that help prevent cancer. The glow, the result of some tinkering in Drosophila, the workhorse of the genetics world, lets researchers know when powerful cancer...Human aging gene found in flies
Scientists funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have found a fast and effective way to investigate important aspects of human ageing. Working at the University of Oxford and The Open University, Dr Lynne Cox and Dr Robert Saunders have discovered a gene in ...Study Finds That Fruit Flies also Have Free Wills
A new study has found that fruit fly - drosophila melanogaster - is not just a 'complex robot' as previously thought, but an insect with 'free will' and spontaneity. The study was conducted by an international team of researchers including Alexander Maye and Bjrn Brembs George Sugihara and...Fruit Flies May Pave Way to New Treatments for Age-related Heart Disease
The tiny Drosophila fruit fly may pave the way to new methods for studying and finding treatments for heart disease//, the leading cause of death in industrialized countries, according to a collaborative study. The study reports that mutations in a molecular channel found in heart muscle cell...British Women Flies to India for Treatment of Breast Cancer
A breast cancer patient made the journey from London to India in order to save money on her anti cancer medication-Herceptin.// India is likely to attract more such patients as there are considerable cost saving both for surgical procedures and medication.Fifty-year-old Linda Vijeh went to a pr...Food Odors Linked With Lifespan in Fruit Flies
Researchers studying fruits flies have made a Startling discovery. The researchers who want to learn why organisms tend to live longer //if their intake of calories is restricted have found that the smell of food can have a negative effect on longevity in the fruit flies. Scientists have known ...Run Amok Enzyme Causes Same Problems in Both Humans and Fruit Flies
An enzyme found at elevated levels in several human cancers has been linked to abnormal tumor growth in fruit flies//, a discovery that provides a new model for understanding the link between stem cell biology and cancer, according to researchers. Using fluorescent staining and laser-scanning ...Immtech Announces Interim Analysis in Phase III African Sleeping Sickness Trial
...n Tryanosomiasis (HAT), also know as African sleeping sickness. African sleeping sickness is a fatal, vector-borne parasitic disease spread by tsetse flies that threatens approximately 60 million people in sub- Saharan Africa. Current treatments for the first stage of the disease include pentamidine and s...Aeolus Pharmaceuticals' AEOL 10150 Highlighted in Nature Genetics Publication
...ceuticals' lead compound AEOL 10150 (MnTDEIP) can improve survival in fruit flies genetically lacking the neurofibromatosis-1 (NF1) gene. These mutant flies had reduced mitochondrial function and increased production of reactive oxy...Researchers Discover Gene For Rare Skin Disorder
... and Developmental Disabilities Branch. But they also illustrate how a mutation in the human counterpart of a protein known to regulate development in flies and mice can affect the skin and other human organs. The NICHD sponsors research on development, before and after birth; maternal, child, and family...Carbon nanoparticles toxic to adult fruit flies but benign to young
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] Carbon nanoparticles are widely used in medicine, electronics, optics, materials science and architecture, but their health and environmental impact is not fully understood. In a series of experiments, researchers at Brown University sought to determine how ...Tumor suppressor gene in flies may provide insights for human brain tumors
SINGAPORE and DURHAM, N.C. In the fruit fly's developing brain, stem cells called neuroblasts normally divide to create one self-renewing neuroblast and one cell that has a different fate. But neuroblast growth can sometimes spin out of control and become a brain tumor. Researchers at Duke-NU...When it comes to sleep research, fruit flies and people make unlikely bedfellows
You may never hear fruit flies snore, but rest assured that when you're asleep they are too. According to research published in the January 2009 issue of the journal GENETICS ( http://www.genetics.org ), scientists from the University of Missouri-Kansas City have shown that the circadian rhythms...Old flies can become young moms
Female flies can turn back the biological clock and extend their lifespan at the same time, University of Southern California biologists report. Their study, published online this month in Molecular Genetics and Genomics , casts doubt on the old notion of a tradeoff between reproduction and lo...Making flies sick reveals new role for growth factors in immunity
A Salmonella infection is not a positive experience. However, by infecting the common laboratory fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster with a Salmonella strain known for causing humans intestinal grief, researchers in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University have shed light on some ke...Old before their time? Aging in flies under natural vs. laboratory conditions
Evolutionary studies of aging typically utilize small, short-lived animals (insects, worms, mice) under benign conditions constant temperature and humidity, no parasites, superabundant food in the laboratory. Oddly enough, very little is known about aging in such animals in their harsh, stressfu...Brain tweak lets sleep-deprived flies stay sharp
St. Louis, July 31, 2008 Staying awake slows down our brains, scientists have long recognized. Mental performance is at its peak after sleep but inevitably trends downward throughout the day, and sleep deprivation only worsens these effects. For the first time, researchers at Washington Unive...Fruit flies show how salmonella escapes immune defenses
Salmonella are wily and obnoxious bacterial invaders--escape artists capable of evading multiple immune responses and causing a harsh and debilitating intestinal infection. Researchers have come closer to understanding how these bacteria manage to thwart two major categories of immune defenses...CSHL scientists identify a mechanism that helps fruit flies lock-in memories
Synapses are the tiny gaps across which information crosses between nerve cells. Changes in the strength of synaptic connections, called plasticity, play a vital role in both memory formation and learning, and help determine how nerve signals propagate. Assistant professor Josh Dubnau, Ph.D.,...Gene-engineered flies are pest solution
For the first time, male flies of a serious agricultural pest, the medfly, have been bred to generate offspring that die whilst they are still embryos. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Biology describe the creation of the flies that, when released into a wild population, could ...It takes nerves for flies to keep a level head
The nerve connections that keep a fly's gaze stable during complex aerial manoeuvres, enabling it to respond quickly to obstacles in its flight path, are revealed in new detail in research published today (22 July 2008). Scientists from Imperial College London have described the connections be...Bio-Logic Systems, another Midwest life-science firm, flies under the radar
Over the last two years of writing this column, I have become aware of a lot of life science companies headquartered or operating in the Midwest. Part of the challenge of this column has been to bring them to the item of my readers. Though many Midwest life science companies are well known, of...Research on fruit flies opens up possibilities for human treatments
Madison, Wis. - The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported on Monday that researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have cured fruit flies of the genetic disorder Huntington's disease. The study, authored by researchers including...GPhA Says BIO Cries Wolf on Senate Biogenerics Proposal
...HELP Biogenerics amendments. "BIO's erroneous claims that anything less than an unprecedented 13 years of market exclusivity will harm innovation flies in the face of the recent Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report that such long periods of exclusivity are NOT needed to spark innovation. In fact, FT...Fruit fly steps in to fight human disease
...ues. These VIB findings open up an entirely new field of research. Fruit flies with CMT symptoms The VIB researchers at the University of Antwerp, in c...ormal variant, showed no difference in ordinary fruit flies. However, fruit flies with the mutant YARS genes, showed clear symptoms of CMT such as a reduced ...The Concerned Shareholders of Biovail Say Biovail Has Misled Shareholders
...shareholder democracy at Biovail. This is further evidence of the Board's and management's poor judgment and misguided view of governance. Their claim flies in the face of governance principles and is simply untrue. - The Concerned Shareholders have, unlike Biovail, afforded shareholder...Anti-cancer gene discovered: Perspective for therapy
... and their fellow VIB researchers at K.U.Leuven, now demonstrate with fruit flies that master control genes steering the specialization step indeed inhibit t...onal genes. These genes are very similar to each other in all species, from flies to humans. With mice, and in collaboration with colleagues from the Unit...New technique allows simultaneous tracking of gene expression and movement
... flies expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP) in their retina cells or other t..., who carried out the fluorescent experiments in Drosophila flies. When the flies are illuminated with blue light, the authors' video tracking system allows ...Edmonton's Technology Community: Using Social Media to Raise Awareness
...orporation (EEDC) and the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT). "Edmonton has a vibrant, thriving technology community that really flies under the radar," said Sharon MacLean, Edmontonians publisher. "We felt that partnering with an experienced social media strategy comp...