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Scientists have taken a significant leap forward in understanding the complex ways that molecules work together in cells.

Although scientists already know a lot about single molecules, they know very little about how they are assembled into larger molecular complexes or "machines" and how these machines work together to create a complete, functioning cell. The problem is like trying to assemble a puzzle with billions of pieces– with only the shapes of some pieces to go on.

25 Mar 2004

Alcohol boosts the pleasurable effects of nicotine

In tests on human volunteers, Duke University Medical Center researchers have found that even small amounts of alcohol boost the pleasurable effects of nicotine, inducing people to smoke more when drinking alcoholic beverages. The findings provide a physiological explanation for the common observation that people smoke more in bars. The findings also explain statistics showing that alcoholics tend to smoke more than non-alcoholics, and that smokers are more likely to be alcoholics.

24 Mar 2004

Bone marrow stem cells do not help regenerate heart muscle tissue, UW study finds, contradicting earlier study

Researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine have found that bone marrow stem cells do not convert into heart muscle cells in mice. These results contradict a study conducted elsewhere that had prompted human clinical trials for such stem cell therapy in the treatment of heart attack.

23 Mar 2004

Oregon Stem Cell Center Hunt for Human Disease Therapies

Oregon Health & Science University's fast-growing stem cell research program, which already has made significant strides in the hunt for human disease therapies, now has a place to call home.

23 Mar 2004

New Cell Sorter Helps Understand Deadly Diseases

Researchers at NC State’s College of Veterinary Medicine have a new state-of-the-art tool, a high-speed cell sorter, that should quicken the pace of their research. The machine sorts or collates cells into groups, allowing scientists to look only at the cells they are working on.

23 Mar 2004

System for guiding cell migration, adhesion has biomedical and regenerative medical applications

Scientists at the University of Toronto are taking regenerative medicine to a new dimension with a process for guiding nerve cells that could someday help reconnect severed nerve endings.

23 Mar 2004

Walnuts prevent heart disease

A new clinical study shows that substituting walnuts for monounsaturated fat in a Mediterranean diet improves, and even restores, endothelial function (the property of arteries to dilate in order to meet an increased demand of blood, for instance due to a physical effort). Walnuts also reduce harmful cell adhesion molecules which are associated with atherosclerosis, commonly known as hardening of the arteries. These dual effects enhance the circulatory system, therefore aiding in the prevention of heart disease.

23 Mar 2004

Design of artificial prion may aid fight against mad cow disease

The culprit behind mad cow disease, a.k.a. bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is the most infamous mammalian form of prions. Prions are misfolded proteins that are capable of growing, replicating, and being passed on to daughter cells, that is, they are by themselves heritable. Beyond their disease manifestation, prions also occur naturally in some organisms (such as yeast) and may play important roles in their growth and development. Now, Osherovich and colleagues have identified the amino acid sequences that allow prions to aggregate and replicate, and thereby pass through generations of cells - and prove this by designing an artificial yeast prion that does not exist in nature.

23 Mar 2004

Stem cell research that could help diabetics

University of Florida adult stem cell experts have restored normal blood sugar levels in diabetic mice for three months by chemically coaxing bone marrow cells to produce insulin, a hormone normally made in the pancreas.

22 Mar 2004

Tiny Ribozyme package could be future treatment of Hepatitis B virus

Penn State College of Medicine researchers have developed a tiny package that searches for and destroys up to 80 percent of hepatitis B virus in the livers of mice.

22 Mar 2004

Researchers discover new form of the Rett syndrome protein

Adrian Bird and Skirmantas Kriaucionis of the University of Edinburgh have discovered a novel form of the protein MeCP2. This alternate form, coined MeCP2 alpha, differs from the original only in the first 19 amino acids. Interestingly, Adrian Bird, Director of the Welcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology at Edinburgh University, found that MeCP2 alpha, is ten times more prevalent not only in the brain but also in other tissues. These findings are currently reported online in Nucleic Acids Research. Similar findings were reported yesterday in Nature Genetics online by Berge Minassian, a neurologist and scientist at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children.

22 Mar 2004

Raptiva, 20 percent improvement in an individual's signs and symptoms of arthritis.

Genentech, Inc. and XOMA Ltd. today announced preliminary results of a randomized, placebo-controlled Phase II study with RAPTIVA™ (efalizumab) in 107 patients with psoriatic arthritis. The study did not reach statistical significance at 12 weeks (84 days) for the primary endpoint, ACR 20 response. An ACR 20 response indicates at least a 20 percent improvement in an individual's signs and symptoms of arthritis.

22 Mar 2004

Scientists identify genetic changes during infection by tuberculosis

Researchers at the Center for Biomedical Inventions at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have identified the genetic changes that Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes tuberculosis, undergoes during infection of a living host.

22 Mar 2004

New research may help treatment of Norrie disease and familial exudative vitreoretinopathy (FEVR)

Researchers have discovered that genetic mutations underlying two inherited eye disorders arise in different components of a single intracellular signaling pathway that is responsible for development of blood vessels in the eye.

22 Mar 2004

Forward step in treatment of Allergic Rhinitis

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has announced the presentation of clinical data for R112, the company’s lead candidate for the treatment of allergic rhinitis, during a poster session at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI) in San Francisco, CA. The phase I/II single dose trial demonstrated that R112 was well tolerated and showed favorable biological effects.

22 Mar 2004

Breast feeding increases choline which means more brain cells

Five years ago, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers first reported finding that the nutrient choline played a critical role in memory and brain function by positively affecting the brain’s physical development. Differences in development influenced action, the scientists and their colleagues found. In animal experiments conducted at Duke University, both young and old rats performed significantly better on memory tasks if they received enough choline before birth compared with same-age rats whose mothers were fed choline-deficient diets. The latter showed deficits in the hippocampus and septums of their brains.

22 Mar 2004

New research may help prevent anthrax, bubonic plague and typhoid fever

The mechanism used by the bacteria that cause anthrax, bubonic plague and typhoid fever to avoid detection and destruction by the body’s normal immune response, leading to life-threatening bacterial infections, has been identified by researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine.

22 Mar 2004

Research provides better understanding of lipodystrophies disorders

More than a decade of work conducted by UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas researchers has led to a better understanding of the underlying causes of lipodystrophies - disorders characterized by the selective loss of fat tissues, resulting in metabolic complications, such as severe diabetes and high blood cholesterol levels.

22 Mar 2004

Asian poison ivy like plant may stop prostate cancer

The croton plant, long known to oriental herbalists and homeopaths as a purgative, has an oil in its seeds that shows promise for the treatment of prostate cancer – the second leading cause of cancer death in men in the United States. The active ingredient in the oil is 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate, a compound generally known as TPA.

22 Mar 2004

Research suggests the orlistat drug could be used to fight cancer and obesity

The Burnham Institute’s Jeffrey Smith, Ph.D., has discovered that orlistat, commonly prescribed as an anti-obesity drug, has a positive side-effect: it inhibits cancer growth. Dr. Smith made this discovery using an activity-based proteomics screening technique developed in his laboratory that makes it possible to identify active targets and simultaneously screen for their inhibitors.

22 Mar 2004