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Blind humans lacking rods and cones retain normal responses to non-visual effects of light

In addition to allowing us to see, the mammalian eye also detects light for a number of "non-visual" phenomena.

14 Dec 2007

Biocapture surfaces produced for study of brain chemistry

A research team at Penn State has developed a novel method for attaching small molecules, such as neurotransmitters, to surfaces, which then are used to capture large biomolecules.

14 Dec 2007

Why the switch stays on

Cellular processes, such as when to multiply, are often regulated by switches that control the frequency and timing of interactions between proteins.

13 Dec 2007

Fructose overload

Here's one tip for how to eat at the holidays: Don't take your cues from Santa. The sugary cookies and fat-laden fruitcakes the mythical North Pole resident eats are a no-no.

13 Dec 2007

Great-grandparent of all the cells of the blood identified

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have isolated a human blood cell that represents the great-grandparent of all the cells of the blood, a finding that could lead to new treatments for blood cancers and other blood diseases.

13 Dec 2007

Setting a course for the future of tissue engineering

The editors of Tissue Engineering asked 24 leaders in the field what critical steps are needed for tissue engineering to achieve broad critical success by the year 2021 and published their findings in the December 2007 issue (Volume 13, Number 12).

13 Dec 2007

$1.7 million grant to advance understanding of genetic influences on diabetes

Scientists at Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research (SFBR) expect to make big leaps in their understanding of genetic influences on diabetes, thanks to a new $1.7 million grant awarded to Dr. Joanne Curran, the grant's principal investigator.

13 Dec 2007

Reprogrammed human adult stem cells rescue diseased muscle in mice

Scientists report that adult stem cells isolated from humans with muscular dystrophy can be genetically corrected and used to induce functional improvement when transplanted into a mouse model of the disease.

13 Dec 2007

Protein fingerprinting made easy

Combining some traditional experimental methods of molecular biology with computational methods of artificial intelligence, a group of researchers from Ruder Boskovic Instititute and Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics from Zagreb, Croatia, demonstrated a novel approach for producing 'protein fingerprints' of diverse tissues.

13 Dec 2007

A taste for alcohol may come from the womb

Young people whose mothers drank when pregnant may be more likely to abuse alcohol because, in the womb, their developing senses came to prefer its taste and smell.

13 Dec 2007

Novel way to diagnose mantle cell lymphomas

Mantle cell lymphoma is an aggressive form of blood cancer that most commonly afflicts older men.

13 Dec 2007

Discovery of key mechanism underlying idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

A study led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers may have found a key mechanism underlying idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a usually fatal lung disease for which transplantation is the only successful treatment.

13 Dec 2007

Milk and egg allergies persist well into the school years and beyond

Considered “transitional” a generation ago, milk and egg allergies now appear to be more persistent and harder to outgrow, according to new research from the Johns Hopkins Children's Center.

13 Dec 2007

Researchers advance stem cell gene therapy

Ireland Cancer Center of University Hospitals Case Medical Center researchers have recently made great strides in stem cell gene therapy research by transferring a new gene to cancer patients, via their own stem cells, with the ultimate goal of being able to use stronger chemotherapy treatment with less severe side effects.

13 Dec 2007

Immune compound blocks virus' ability to hijack antibodies

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown that a controversial phenomenon known as antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) of infection is suppressed by C1q, a blood-borne immune system compound.

13 Dec 2007

'Informed cohort' provides personal stake in genetics research

Patients are often reluctant to give up DNA samples for research, not knowing what the information will be used for and feeling there's no personal benefit to them.

13 Dec 2007

Researchers find genetic switch for internal body clock

University of California, Irvine researchers have identified the chemical switch that triggers the genetic mechanism regulating our internal body clock.

13 Dec 2007

Australian researchers plan for a pandemic

Sydney researchers have produced useful food and nutrition guidelines for survival rations to be used in the event of a pandemic such as influenza which appear in this week's Medical Journal of Australia.

13 Dec 2007

Nematodes provide clues to dopamine's role in human aging diseases

Research carried out with a paintbrush bristle, a metronome, smelly chemicals and thousands of microscopic worms called nematodes may reveal important information about human aging diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, thanks to a grant from the Ellison Medical Foundation awarded to a University at Buffalo neurobiologist.

13 Dec 2007

Secret lives of enzymes revealed

In a new study in Nature, Brandeis University Howard Hughes Medical Investigator Dr. Dorothee Kern and collaborators pull back the curtain on the secret lives of enzymes, the ubiquitous proteins that catalyze chemical reactions in the cell.

13 Dec 2007