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Mental illness linked to diet

According to new research released this week, mental health is linked to diet and changes to diets over the last 50 years may hold the key to the rise of mental illness.

17 Jan 2006

Identification of bipolar risk gene

A collaboration, led by scientists at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, has discovered the first risk gene specifically for bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness. This means that people who have a particular form of this gene are twice as likely to develop the disease.

16 Jan 2006

Tissue-specific RNAi reveals that WT1 expression in nurse cells controls germ cell survival and spermatogenesis

Researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center say they have jumped a significant hurdle in the use of RNA interference (RNAi), believed by many to be the ultimate tool to both decode the function of individual genes in the human genome and to treat disease.

16 Jan 2006

Genome-wide prediction of mammalian enhancers for control of gene expression

Molecular biologists, developmental biologists and computer scientists at the Universtity of Helsinki, Finland, came together to advance towards cracking the code for how gene expression is controlled. The results of this work are published in Cell, in January 2006.

16 Jan 2006

Dietary soy isoflavones inhibit estrogen effects in the postmenopausal breast

Research in monkeys suggests that the natural plant estrogens found in soy do not increase markers of breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women. In fact, they may provide a protective effect in some women. The research is reported in Cancer Research.

16 Jan 2006

Target identified for therapeutic drugs to fight adult brain cancer

A research team at UT Southwestern Medical Center has discovered a cell-signaling mechanism instrumental in the most common brain cancer in adults.

16 Jan 2006

Discovery of protein fragment that helps predict breast cancer outcome

Oregon Health & Science University Cancer Institute researchers have identified a protein fragment in some human breast cancers that may help predict a patient's chances of survival.

16 Jan 2006

Turmeric holds real potential for the treatment and prevention of prostate cancer

Rutgers researchers have found that the curry spice turmeric holds real potential for the treatment and prevention of prostate cancer, particularly when combined with certain vegetables.

16 Jan 2006

Identification of gene in childhood kidney disease

An international research collaboration led by Mayo Clinic has identified a new gene involved in causing the inherited kidney disorder, Meckel-Gruber syndrome (MKS). Children with MKS have central nervous system deformities as well as abnormal cysts in their kidneys, and usually die shortly after birth.

16 Jan 2006

Diabetes gene found in 40% of population

Researchers in Iceland say they have identified a single genetic change which could predispose close to 40 percent of the population to type-2 diabetes.

16 Jan 2006

The sweet answer to a poor memory

Sweet tooth types out there will be delighted to learn that those sweet and sugary drinks may improve the memory.

16 Jan 2006

DinB DNA polymerase is a key player in DNA repair

A quarter century after they discovered it, researchers have identified the job of one of the most common DNA-damage response proteins. The enzyme has puzzled scientists because it is present in nearly every organism, which suggests that it is crucial to life, and yet, in laboratory experiments, its function has remained a mystery.

11 Jan 2006

Face perception is mediated by a distributed neural system in the human brain

New research indicates that an area of the brain thought to act in reward circuitry may represent a phase in visual processing during which sexual orientation modulates how we perceive individual faces. The findings are reported by Felicitas Kranz and Alumit Ishai of the University of Zurich.

11 Jan 2006