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Self-assembling nanoparticles image tumor cells

By taking advantage of the full range of ways in which molecules can interact with and bind to one another, a team of investigators at the Carolina Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence has created nanoparticles that assemble themselves layer by layer.

23 Jul 2007

Gold nanorods identify metastatic tumor cells

Using a series of gold nanorods, each with its own characteristic optical signature, researchers at Purdue University have developed a method for rapidly assaying the cellular composition of breast tumors.

23 Jul 2007

Antibody targets nanotubes to tumors

Researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center have created biocompatible single-walled carbon nanotubes that can target lymphomas and deliver both imaging and therapeutic molecules to these tumors.

23 Jul 2007

Discovery of novel 'molecular dictator with a conscience'

University of New South Wales (UNSW) researchers have uncovered an important naturally occurring mechanism in the body where "bad" cells that cause blockages in our blood vessels are kept under strict growth control, while "good" cells that keep our blood vessels free of clots and growths are left unaffected.

23 Jul 2007

New insight into cell division and chromosones

St. Jude investigators have used the lowly yeast to gain insights into how a dividing human cell ensures that an identical set of chromosomes gets passed on to each new daughter cell.

23 Jul 2007

Nicotine rush hinges on sugar in neurons

As with other questions involving good sensations, the answer appears to be sugar.

23 Jul 2007

New hope for common form of childhood cancer

Dr. Richard Lock, Head of the Leukaemia Biology Program at the Children's Cancer Institute Australia for Medical Research, Sydney, along with collaborators from the Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and University of Southern California, USA, recently published their findings in the prestigious scientific journal Blood.

23 Jul 2007

Research to look at reasons for the formation of Lewy bodies

A University of Nottingham researcher has been awarded more than £440,000 by the Parkinson’s Disease Society (PDS) to investigate the causes of the condition.

23 Jul 2007

Health-care providers could help avert depression in fathers of children with fatal cancer

Adequately preparing parents, intellectually and emotionally, for the death of their child is associated with parents’ future health, according to an Article published Online this week and in The Lancet Oncology special edition on paediatric oncology.

23 Jul 2007

Good diet + exercise = less insulin in the brain and a longer life!

Scientists in the U.S. say reducing the action of insulin in the brain could well be the secret to longevity.

22 Jul 2007

U.S. in 2015 - a nation of fatties!

According to researchers in the U.S. the way things are going by the year 2015 seventy five percent of the population will be overweight and 41 percent will be obese.

22 Jul 2007

Seniors safer on the road than young bloods!

Researchers at the Rand Institute for Civil Justice have found that young drivers between 15 and 24 years old are three times as likely to cause car accidents as people over the age of 65.

21 Jul 2007

Bipolar disorder shrinks the brain

British researchers have found that people who suffer from manic depression or bipolar disorder as it is more often called, also experience a loss of brain tissue and an accelerated shrinking of their brain.

21 Jul 2007

D-Cycloserine found to help people with obsessive-compulsive disorder

Researchers at the University of Minnesota have found that a drug originally developed to fight tuberculosis may help people with obsessive-compulsive disorder make more progress in therapy sessions.

20 Jul 2007

New understanding of how anaesthetics work in the brain

An important clue to how anaesthetics work on the human body has been provided by the discovery of a molecular feature common to both the human brain and the great pond snail nervous system, scientists say today.

20 Jul 2007

Discovery of new brain mechanism involved with waking up

How do we wake up? How do we shift from restful sleep to dreaming? Researchers at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) have discovered a new brain mechanism that just might explain how we do that.

20 Jul 2007

New genetic risk factors for restless leg syndrome

In Germany alone 8 million patients are affected by RLS, which makes it one of the most common neurological diseases.

20 Jul 2007

Reducing insulin signaling in the brain can prolong lifespan

One route to a long and healthy life may be establishing the right balance in insulin signaling between the brain and the rest of the body, according to new research from Children's Hospital Boston.

20 Jul 2007

Protein pulling advances in protein folding science

Rice University physicists have unveiled an innovative way of finding out how proteins get their shape based on how they unfold when pulled apart.

20 Jul 2007

Protein IKKa protects checkpoint gene from chemical shutdown

A protein that is largely absent in one type of skin cancer protects an important gene in a cell's defense against harmful mutations from being silenced, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the July 20 edition of Molecular Cell.

20 Jul 2007