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Researchers reveal types of genes necessary for brain development

Researchers from Harvard Medical School and Brandeis University have successfully completed a full-genome RNAi screen in neurons, showing what types of genes are necessary for brain development. Details of the screen and its novel methodology are published July 4th in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics.

4 Jul 2008

Researchers solve structure of proteins known as sodium glucose co-transporters

Researchers at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA have solved the structure of a class of proteins known as sodium glucose co-transporters (SGLTs), which pump glucose into cells.

4 Jul 2008

A noisy brain is a healthy brain

Canadian scientists have shown that a noisy brain is a healthy brain. "Brain noise" is a term that has been used by neuroscientists to describe random brain activity that is not important to mental function.

4 Jul 2008

Breast cancer: How tumor cells break free and form metastases

When tumor cells acquire the capacity to move around and invade other tissues, there is a risk of metastases and cancer treatment becomes more difficult. At the Institut Curie, CNRS Director of Research Philippe Chavrier and his group have just discovered how breast cancer cells break the bonds that tether them to the tumor. The basement membrane around the mammary gland is a barrier to the spread of cancer cells. Three proteins in the tumor cells transport enzymes needed to perforate this barrier, and another protein puts these enzymes in the right place.

4 Jul 2008

Resveratrol mimics the beneficial effects of eating fewer calories

Large doses of a red wine ingredient can ward off many of the vagaries of aging in mice who begin taking it at midlife, according to a new report published online on July 3rd in Cell Metabolism, a Cell Press publication.

3 Jul 2008

Nanostructures improve bone response to titanium implants

Titanium implants were successfully introduced by P.-I. Branemark and co-workers in 1969 for the rehabilitation of edentulous jaws.

3 Jul 2008

Scientists shed new light into early mechanisms governing cardiovascular specification

The mature heart is composed by different cell types, including contractile cardiac cells, vascular cells, smooth muscle cells as well as pacemaker cells.

3 Jul 2008

Research sheds light on the molecular basis of SIDS

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is a condition that unexpectedly and unexplainably takes the lives of seemingly healthy babies aged between a month and a year.

3 Jul 2008

Funding boost in fight against leukaemia

University of Manchester researchers have been awarded £1.6 million to study a group of genes identified as playing a key role in leukaemia.

From The University of Manchester 3 Jul 2008

Statins have unexpected effect on pool of powerful brain cells

Cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins have a profound effect on an elite group of cells important to brain health as we age, scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center have found. The new findings shed light on a long-debated potential role for statins in the area of dementia.

3 Jul 2008

New computational tool to study complex clusters of genes

Two Texas A&M University researchers have developed a computational tool that will help scientists more accurately study complex units of clustered genes, called operons, in bacteria.

3 Jul 2008

New understanding of how herpes simplex virus 1 hides during inactive phase

Now that Duke University Medical Center scientists have figured out how the virus that causes cold sores hides out, they may have a way to wake it up and kill it.

3 Jul 2008

Computational research hones cancer-fighting strategies

A Florida State University faculty member who uses computational techniques to evaluate a new class of cancer-killing drugs is attracting worldwide attention from other researchers.

3 Jul 2008

New insight into role of statins in dementia

3 Jul 2008

Genetic link between Crohn's and asthma discovered

Research into the genetic causes of Crohn's disease has revealed that the gene ORMDL3, known to be a risk factor for childhood asthma, is also associated with Crohn's disease, and in the process links between the condition and other diseases have been found.

2 Jul 2008

Mouse embryonic stem cells used to build heart parts

Researchers have shown that they can put mouse embryonic stem cells to work building the heart, potentially moving medical science a significant step closer to a new generation of heart disease treatments that use human stem cells.

2 Jul 2008

Brain food - what we eat affects our intelligence

New research findings published online in The FASEB Journal provide more evidence that if we get smart about what we eat, our intelligence can improve. According to MIT scientists, dietary nutrients found in a wide range of foods from infant formula to eggs increase brain synapses and improve cognitive abilities.

2 Jul 2008

Body's own 'marijuana' is good for the skin

Scientists from Hungary, Germany and the U.K. have discovered that our own body not only makes chemical compounds similar to the active ingredient in marijuana (THC), but these play an important part in maintaining healthy skin

2 Jul 2008

ETH Zurich and IBM improve diagnosis of osteoporosis

With the goal of developing an accurate, powerful and fast method to automate the ana-lysis of bone strength, scientists of the ETH Zurich Departments of Mechanical and Pro-cess Engineering and Computer Science teamed up with supercomputing experts at IBM's Zurich Research Laboratory. The breakthrough method developed by the team combines density measurements with a large-scale mechanical analysis of the inner-bone microstructure.

2 Jul 2008

Bacteriophages treat deadly bacterial infections in mice

By the time antibiotics made their clinical debut 70 years ago, bacteria had long evolved strategies to shield themselves. For billions of years, bacteria hurled toxic molecules at each other in the struggle to prosper, and those that withstood the chemical onslaught marched on.

2 Jul 2008