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Bacteria of the Yersinia genus possess a unique protein thermometer

Bacteria are experts at adaptation: as soon as they have infected an organism, they adapt their metabolism to that of their host and produce substances which protect them from the body's immune defences. How they do this is still unknown in the case of many types of bacteria.

20 May 2009

Chinese body and mind training gets results with students in just 5 days!

Chinese researchers have unravelled how a training technique adapted from traditional Chinese medicine works to reduce stress and enhance learning.

19 May 2009

Discovery of proteins underlying devastating brain diseases

Scientists at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute have discovered a set of brain proteins responsible for some of the most common and devastating brain diseases.

19 May 2009

Blood pressure lowering drugs should be offered to anyone old enough to be at risk of a heart attack or stroke

Blood pressure lowering drugs should be offered to anyone old enough to be at risk of a heart attack or stroke (or who is otherwise known to be at risk), regardless of their blood pressure, according to the largest analysis of blood pressure trials to date, published on bmj.com today.

19 May 2009

People with darker skin might be more susceptible to nicotine addiction

Blacks and others with darker skin might be at greater risk for tobacco addiction than whites and those with lighter skin because the greater the amount of melanin, the coloring pigment in skin, the more nicotine appears to be stored, according to preliminary findings published in the journal Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior, the New York Times reports.

19 May 2009

Adult stem cells from bone marrow can deliver cancer-killing proteins to tumors

Researchers in London have demonstrated the ability of adult stem cells from bone marrow (mesenchymal stem cells, or MSCs) to deliver a cancer-killing protein to tumors.

19 May 2009

A new path for cocaine addiction research

Cocaine is one of the oldest drugs known to humans, and its abuse has become widespread since the end of the 19th century. At the same time, we know rather little about its effects on the human brain or the mechanisms that lead to cocaine addiction.

19 May 2009

Doctors often miss whooping cough diagnosis in teens

Doctors can do a better job of diagnosing whooping cough among teens, an age group with a growing incidence of the illness, according to a University of Michigan study.

19 May 2009

Aerosol delivery of antibiotics via nanoparticles

Aerosol delivery of antibiotics via nanoparticles may provide a means to improve drug delivery and increase patient compliance, thus reducing the severity of individual illnesses, the spread of epidemics, and possibly even retarding antibiotic resistance.

19 May 2009

Protein neuregulin 1 critical to insulating the body's wiring could also become treatment target

A new protein identified as critical to insulating the wiring that connects the brain and body could one day be a treatment target for divergent diseases, from rare ones that lower the pain threshold to cancer, Medical College of Georgia researchers say.

19 May 2009

Genetic variations may contribute to depression in heart disease patients

Individuals with heart disease are twice as likely to suffer from depression as the general population, an association the medical community has largely been unable to explain.

19 May 2009

Decoding the human brain

'Nature' journals are synonymous with the very best in research. Earlier this year, an article by University of Leicester bioengineer Professor Rodrigo Quian Quiroga not only appeared in Nature Reviews Neuroscience, but also featured on the magazine cover. In the article, Prof. Quian Quiroga and co-author Dr. Stefano Panzeri discuss new methodologies that are enabling scientists to better understand how our brain processes information.

19 May 2009

Would eating five portions of fruit and vegetables a day really benefit everyone?

Eating more healthily might be better for us as individuals, but would it be bad news for farmers? A research project funded by the UK Research Councils’ Rural Economy and Land Use Programme had found that if we all followed government advice to eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day this could have serious implications for the countryside.

19 May 2009