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Ubiquitination protects against improper Notch signaling

The Notch pathway is an important molecular signaling mechanism whose existence has been known, or at least hinted at, for nearly a century since the identification of a mutant strain of Drosophila fruit flies with "notched" wings in Thomas Hunt Morgan's lab in 1910.

28 Dec 2004

New findings clarify the role of NOD2, a key molecular player in Crohn's Disease

This week, researchers report new findings that clarify the role of NOD2, a key molecular player in Crohn's Disease, in the cellular signaling pathways that control inflammatory responses. NOD2's clinical relevance is clear from the fact that it is encoded by a Crohn's Disease susceptibility gene.

28 Dec 2004

Stem cells use inflammatory signals to find injured tissue

A joint effort led by stem cell biologist Evan Y. Snyder, M.D., Ph.D., of The Burnham Institute, and Samia J. Khoury, M.D., of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, report data suggesting that stem cells use inflammatory signals to “know” where they must home.

20 Dec 2004

New advances in sickle cell disease

Excruciating pain episodes, recurrent pneumonias, strokes, severe infections, chronic hemolytic anemia, and secondary pulmonary hypertension are common complications of sickle cell disease, a life-threatening inherited defect in blood that causes normally disc-shaped red blood cells to take on a sickle shape.

6 Dec 2004

Temperature sensing protein implicated in mediating thermotaxis

The songwriter Noel Coward once declared that only mad dogs and Englishmen went out in the midday sun. MIT biologists Mark Rosenzweig, Paul Garrity and their colleagues now have a third candidate for the lyric—fruit flies with defects in a gene called dTrpA1.

4 Dec 2004

Discovery of a new cancer gene, which, when damaged, may promote prostate cancer

Together with an international research team, researchers from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland have developed an effective method for the screening and identification of genes that under normal conditions suppress cancer growth.

24 Nov 2004

New understanding of how poxviruses jump from species to species

A Canadian study conducted at Robarts Research Institute sheds new light on how poxviruses can jump from species to species -- and will lead to further exploration of another potential candidate in the emerging field of “oncolytic viruses” to fight cancer.

25 Oct 2004

Potential new protein marker for prognosis of breast and ovarian cancer

The researchers matched tumor samples to outcomes in about 100 patients diagnosed with either breast or ovarian cancer and found that a low level of Rab25 protein on a patient's cancer sample was associated with a better clinical outcome in both cancer types.

24 Oct 2004

Possible link between elevated calcium levels in older neurons and aging-related disorders of the brain

Brain cells become increasingly unable to regulate calcium loads as they age, becoming more vulnerable to injury and premature death, according to new findings that Virginia Commonwealth University researchers will present at an international conference this month.

20 Oct 2004

Discovery of fundamental mechanism within cells that link obesity and type 2 diabetes

Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health have discovered what they believe is the fundamental mechanism within cells that links two fast-rising public health threats: obesity and Type 2 diabetes.

18 Oct 2004

A new approach to controlling blood cholesterol levels may be a potential treatment for Alzheimer's disease

A new approach to controlling blood cholesterol levels that is already being investigated to prevent cardiovascular disease also may be a potential treatment for Alzheimer's disease.

13 Oct 2004

University of Nottingham research developments could mean new drugs will reach cancer patients more quickly

A £3 million grant and the establishment of a specialized business unit that will help new treatments reach cancer patients more quickly, have underlined The University of Nottingham’s place at the forefront of cancer drug development.

2 Sep 2004

WHO tackles the parasitic disease Leishmaniasis in Afghanistan

A rapid intervention by the World Health Organization and its partners, the Massoud Foundation and HealthNet International, in Kabul, Afghanistan, made possible by a donation from the Belgian government, should dramatically reduce the incidence of leishmaniasis in less than two years.

10 Aug 2004

Scientists create mice that don't gain weight, even when fed fat-laden, high calorie diets

By altering the expression of a single -- albeit different – gene, Drs. Roger Davis (UMASS Medical School, USA) and Ying-Hue Lee (Academia Sinica, Taiwan) have succeeded in creating two different strains of transgenic mice that don't gain weight, even when fed fat-laden, high calorie diets.

2 Aug 2004

Type of cellular stress called osmotic stress is critical to cell growth and the body’s immune response against infection

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine have determined that a particular type of cellular stress called osmotic stress is of critical importance to cell growth and the body’s immune response against infection.

7 Jul 2004

Research suggests the brain is a much more sensitive organ than originally perceived, sensitive to the tiniest of chemical signals

The brain is a maddeningly complex organ for scientists to understand. No assumption can remain unchallenged, no given taken as a given.

24 Jun 2004

Drug for multiple sclerosis prevented disease development when tested on animal models

Scientists from the Neurological Sciences Institute at Oregon Health & Science University have shown that an investigative drug for multiple sclerosis and related diseases prevented disease development when tested on animal models.

20 Jun 2004

Pathogens have the ability to cause late-onset sporadic Alzheimer's disease

The possibility of an infectious etiology of chronic diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, has long been debated and is difficult to prove.

11 Jun 2004

Velcade major improvement over standard therapy for relapsed multiple myeloma

Early results from a major, international Phase III clinical trial decisively show that recurrent multiple myeloma is more effectively treated with the drug bortezomib (trade name: Velcade TM) than with dexamethasone, a drug that for decades has been the standard therapy for relapsed disease, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute report.

6 Jun 2004

International research team have decoded the genetic blueprint of the tularemia (rabbit fever) bacterium

Two teams of researchers, one based in the United States and the other in Europe, have decoded the genetic blueprint of the tularemia (rabbit fever) bacterium, a highly infectious human and animal pathogen.

6 May 2004