Laboratory News and Research

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Technology for analyzing gene expression must be standardized

Technology for analyzing gene expression must be standardized among laboratories and across platforms around the world to support this age of human genome exploration, an Oregon Health & Science University researcher says.

29 May 2005

Leprosy microbes lead scientists to immune discovery

With the unusual opportunity that human leprosy infections provide for study of human immune responses, scientists have discovered how the body's early warning system prompts a rapid immune response by two separate armies of defensive cells.

29 May 2005

Fluorescence device to diagnose atherosclerosis and tumors

In a presentation at the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO), researchers from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's Biophotonics Research and Technology Development Laboratory described recent progress on a device that stimulates, collects and measures light emissions from body tissues to diagnose critical atherosclerotic plaques (vulnerable plaques) and aggressive brain tumors.

29 May 2005

Arizona secures $800,000 to fight West Nile virus

Arizona has secured an additional $800,000 in federal funds to bolster the state’s effort to fight West Nile Virus this year, Arizona Department of Health Services Director Susan Gerard announced this week.

26 May 2005

China's bird flu vaccine already on trial amid forecasts of disaster

As scientists in the west warned of a possible global pandemic killing millions, China has apparently developed vaccines that block the spread of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu among birds and mammals.

26 May 2005

Researchers pinpoint circuit in the brain responsible for encoding decision-making

Researchers at The Johns Hopkins University have pinpointed a circuit in the brain responsible for encoding decision-making behavior, a circuit that - if damaged - appears to prevent a person from altering that behavior when circumstances change.

26 May 2005

'Brown fat cells' hold clues for possible obesity treatments

Joslin Diabetes Center scientists have discovered a group of genes that govern the genesis of calorie-burning fat cells. This discovery may lead to novel ways to treat obesity in humans.

26 May 2005

Protein, called "eed," crucial to the regulation of genes in embryonic stem cells

New research from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shows how a protein may be crucial to the regulation of genes in embryonic stem cells.

26 May 2005

Study shows how COX-2 inhibitors lead to heart disease

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researchers have found additional evidence that may help explain how selective inhibitors of COX-2 might predispose individuals to heart disease and stroke.

26 May 2005

Breathing disorders during sleep are common among asthmatics

When asthmatics are awake, they can turn to their inhalers to open their airways. But when they sleep, many of them continue to struggle with breathing - and an understanding of their sleep-related problems may help doctors better diagnose and treat their patients' asthma, according to new University of Michigan Health System research.

26 May 2005

Scientists watch agents of brain-wasting diseases invade and move within brain cells

Scientists for the first time have watched agents of brain-wasting diseases, called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE), as they invade a nerve cell and then travel along wire-like circuits to points of contact with other cells.

25 May 2005

Ceramide can be administered through the blood stream to target and kill cancer cells

A Penn State College of Medicine study shows for the first time in an animal model that ceramide, a naturally occurring substance that prevents the growth of cells, can be administered through the blood stream to target and kill cancer cells.

25 May 2005

Team IDs mechanism for multiplying adult stem cells

While research on human embryonic stem cells gets most of the press, scientists are also investigating the potential therapeutic uses of adult stem cells. Although less controversial, this research faces other difficulties. Adult stem cells are extremely difficult to isolate and multiply in the lab.

24 May 2005

Researchers discover genetic trigger that plays a key role in cancer of the oesophagus

Cancer Research UK scientists at the University of Oxford have identified a gene which plays a key role in the development of cancer of the oesophagus by triggering changes in the oesophagus lining.

24 May 2005

Risks outweigh benefits of shark cartilage as anti-cancer treatment

As a treatment for advanced cancer, shark cartilage fails to benefit patients and its adverse effects lead to poor compliance.

23 May 2005

Scientists show nuclear protein Ezh2 helps establish previously unknown signaling pathway in cells

Since 2001, scientists have wrestled with the discovery that there are fewer genes in humans than biological processes linked to those genes over the course of a human lifespan. One way to understand genetically coded events is by studying epigenetics, the regulation and heritability of genes at a cellular level due to molecular changes to the many proteins (called histones) that package DNA in a cell's nucleus.

23 May 2005

New product for advanced treatment of chronic wounds

Insense Ltd, a UK biotechnology company, announced successful clinical trial results for "Oxyzyme", a new product for advanced treatment of chronic wounds.

23 May 2005

Findings demonstrate that abnormal expression of the BCL6 gene causes lymphoma

This advancement has the potential to significantly speed the development of new, improved therapies for diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL), the most common type of human B cell lymphoma. Human B cell lymphomas cause 85 percent of non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas, the sixth leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States.

23 May 2005

LeTourneau University engineering students aid disabled Kenyans

Senior engineering students from LeTourneau University are leaving for Kijabe, Kenya, to fit disabled Kenyan children with free prosthetics.

23 May 2005

Russian team tests new polymeric coating for vascular stents

A group of researchers of the Institute of Biophysics (Russian Academy of Sciences), Krasnoyarsk regional clinical hospital and Krasnoyarsk regional department of morbid anatomy under the guidance of .I. Gitelzon, Academician of Russian Academy of Sciences, have tested characteristics of a new polymeric coating for vascular stents.

22 May 2005