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UF researchers test stem cell therapy for heart patients

University of Florida doctors on Wednesday (Oct. 3) treated their first patient enrolled in a new study designed to test whether injecting stem cells into the heart helps restore blood flow to the organ by prompting new blood vessels to grow.

4 Oct 2007

Simplest circadian clocks operate via orderly phosphate transfers

Researchers at Harvard University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute have found that a simple circadian clock found in some bacteria operates by the rhythmic addition and subtraction of phosphate groups at two key locations on a single protein.

4 Oct 2007

How emotionally charged events leave their mark on memory

Researchers have uncovered new evidence in mice that may explain how emotionally charged situations can leave such a powerful mark on our memories.

4 Oct 2007

Human embryonic stem cells remain embryonic because of epigenetic factors

A human embryonic stem cell is reined in - prevented from giving up its unique characteristics of self-renewal and pluripotency - by the presence of a protein modification that stifles any genes that would prematurely instruct the cell to develop into heart or other specialized tissue.

4 Oct 2007

How Candida albicans transforms from its normally benign form into life-threatening form

Researchers at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research's (A*STAR) Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB) have discovered new molecular mechanisms that provide a more detailed understanding of how the normally benign Dr. Jekyll-like fungus known as Candida albicans transforms into a serious and often life-threatening Mr. Hyde-like form.

4 Oct 2007

Discovery offers hope of halting motor neurone disease progression

Scientists have discovered a causal link between the gene for a small protein involved in the formation of blood vessels and the development of some forms of motor neurone disease.

4 Oct 2007

Specific immune deficiency pinpointed as likely cause of ulcerative colitis

In a series of mouse experiments, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) have pinpointed a specific immune deficiency as the likely fundamental cause of ulcerative colitis, a chronic, sometimes severe inflammatory disease of the colon or large intestine that afflicts half a million Americans.

4 Oct 2007

Cell's cytoskeleton may hold key to overcoming drug resistance in cancer

Researchers have uncovered a new way in which a cell protein protects cancer cells from a wide range of chemotherapeutic drugs, identifying a possible target for improving treatment outcomes for patients.

4 Oct 2007

Cancer cells enlist adult stem cells to promote metastasis

Everyone knows that tumors are packed with cancer cells, but many normal cells live among these deviants.

4 Oct 2007

Bilberry extract for cancer prevention

A Leicester cancer research project, which receives funding from Hope Against Cancer (formerly The Hope Foundation,) is investigating whether an extract from bilberries can prevent or delay the onset of certain cancers.

4 Oct 2007

Anorexia as addictive as ectasy

French scientists say that anorexia is comparable to the drug Ecstasy as both appear to activate some of the same brain pathways

4 Oct 2007

Gastric progenitor cells in stomach may provide cancer insights

Scientists have identified and described stem cells specific to several tissues and organs of the body - key master cells that give rise to the specialized cell types characteristic of that organ.

4 Oct 2007

New targeted approach to pain management

Imagine an epidural or a shot of Novocain that doesn't paralyze your legs or make you numb, yet totally blocks your pain.

4 Oct 2007

Mutation in a single gene can cause epilepsy in infants

New research from the Howard Florey Institute in Melbourne has shown why mutation in a single gene can cause epilepsy in infants.

4 Oct 2007

Ground-breaking techniques to study telomeres in human cells may lead to early cancer detection

A test to detect the very early stages of cancer could one day result from new research by Cardiff University scientists.

4 Oct 2007

Re-educating immune system cells slows tumour growth

Immune system cells recruited by cancers to help them grow and spread could be 're-educated' to attack the tumours instead of aiding them, Cancer Research UK scientists announced at the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Conference in Birmingham today (Wednesday).

4 Oct 2007

What our genes tell us - Identifying biomarkers for key environmental risk factors

Identifying biomarkers for the key environmental risk factors responsible for two diseases that significantly contribute to death and disease of hundreds of thousands annually will be the initial focus of a new center being established at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

4 Oct 2007

Linking two molecular pieces may offer new approaches to treating Alzheimer's disease

Researchers have uncovered a biological link between the protein whose mutation causes early-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD) and a gene variant linked to late-onset AD.

4 Oct 2007

Heart disease of the left main coronary artery is often an inherited condition that clusters in families

Moreover, they discovered that initially healthy siblings of a person with the condition were 2.5 times more likely to go on to develop some form of heart disease than were siblings of a patient with heart disease that did not relate to the left main coronary artery.

4 Oct 2007

Isis Pharmaceuticals awarded $1.5 million NIH grant to improve RNAi-based therapeutics

Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has announced that it has been awarded a multi-year Phase 2 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for up to $1.5 million to design oligonucleotide drugs that can exploit the RNA interference (RNAi) antisense mechanism for disease treatment.

4 Oct 2007