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Interleukin-6 could affect hunger and satiety

Researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have identified a molecule in the immune system that could affect hunger and satiety. The researchers hope that new treatments for obesity will benefit from this finding.

24 Sep 2012

Novel genetic tools may shed new light in papillary thyroid carcinoma research

Next-generation sequencing analyses of the follicular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma may elucidate the biological underpinnings and clinical behavior of an increasingly common disease, according to data presented at the 82nd ATA Annual Meeting in Québec City, Québec, Canada.

24 Sep 2012

Consumer Genetics Conference to take place in Boston from Oct. 3-5

The 4th Annual Consumer Genetics Conference, taking place October 3-5 at the Seaport Hotel in Boston, will include a keynote presentation by George Church that will provide a forthright and candid assessment of new sequencing technologies, including the emergence of nanopore DNA sequencing, current trends in personal genomics, and projections on the future path of medical genomics.

24 Sep 2012

New technique allows cells to make terpenes

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have shown how to synthesize in the laboratory an important set of natural compounds known as terpenes. The largest class of chemicals made by living organisms, terpenes are made within cells by some of the most complex chemical reactions found in biology.

24 Sep 2012

Researchers identify subgroups of B cells in MYC-positive germinal centers

Germinal centers are sites in the organs of the lymphatic system, formed during the course of an immune response to infection, where B cells intensely proliferate and modify their DNA in order to produce antibodies specific for the pathogen. However, it is known that the vast majority of lymphomas derive from the B cells at the germinal centers.

24 Sep 2012

New findings on how naked mole-rats adapt to acidic environments

Naked mole-rats evolved to thrive in an acidic environment that other mammals, including humans, would find intolerable. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago report new findings as to how these rodents have adapted to this environment.

24 Sep 2012

Latest research on stem cells discussed at Einstein symposium

The promise of stem cells seems limitless. If they can be coaxed into rebuilding organs, repairing damaged spinal cords and restoring ravaged immune systems, these malleable cells would revolutionize medical treatment. But stem cell research is still in its infancy, as scientists seek to better understand the role of these cells in normal human development and disease.

24 Sep 2012

Sleep medicine and research: an interview with James K. Walsh

There are a variety of sleep medicines. I am going to refer to what are commonly described as hypnotics or sleeping pills. Sleeping pills have been around for a long time.

24 Sep 2012

Most basal-like breast and ovarian tumors have similar genetic origins

The most comprehensive analysis yet of breast cancer shows that one of the most deadly subtypes is genetically more similar to ovarian tumors than to other breast cancers.

24 Sep 2012

Researchers solve mystery of radial glial cells

Researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have solved an important piece of one of neuroscience's outstanding puzzles: how progenitor cells in the developing mammalian brain reproduce themselves while also giving birth to neurons that will populate the emerging cerebral cortex, the seat of cognition and executive function in the mature brain.

24 Sep 2012

Alzheimer's can involve mixture of proteins from different neurodegenerative diseases

Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's are characterised by the loss of nerve cells and the deposition of proteins in the brain tissue. A group of researchers led by Gabor G. Kovacs from the Clinical Institute of Neurology at the MedUni Vienna has now demonstrated that Alzheimer's disease does not just - as previously believed - involve the proteins that are attributed to Alzheimer's, but instead the condition can involve a mixture of interacting proteins from different neurodegenerative diseases.

24 Sep 2012

Natural killer cells may influence lung cancer susceptibility

Why do many heavy smokers evade lung cancer while others who have never lit up die of the disease? The question has vexed scientists for decades.

24 Sep 2012

New mouse models can help scientists study SECISBP2 syndrome

New mouse models can help scientists study a rare disease, called SECISBP2 syndrome, that causes abnormal thyroid hormone metabolism, delayed bone maturation, as well as other abnormal characteristics that vary by individual, according to new data presented at the 82nd Annual Meeting of the American Thyroid Association (ATA) in Québec City, Québec, Canada.

24 Sep 2012

Genomic analysis of E. coli shows multiple steps to evolve new trait

Several years ago researchers at Michigan State University (MSU) reported discovering a novel, evolutionary trait in a long-studied population of Escherichia coli, a rod-shaped bacterium commonly found in the lower intestine of mammals. The E. coli added a helping of citrate to its traditional diet of glucose, even though other E. coli can't consume citrate in the presence of oxygen.

24 Sep 2012

FSU researcher to explore gene-controlling effects of addictive drugs in pursuit of new HIV treatments

A Florida State University researcher is on a mission to explore the gene-controlling effects of addictive drugs in pursuit of new HIV treatments.

24 Sep 2012

Newly discovered Eilat virus harmless and potentially valuable

A mosquito sample collected three decades ago in Israel's Negev Desert has yielded an unexpected discovery: a previously unknown virus that's closely related to some of the world's most dangerous mosquito-borne pathogens but, curiously, incapable of infecting non-insect hosts.

24 Sep 2012

University of Copenhagen professors receive 2012 Carlsberg Foundations Research Prize

The Carlsberg Foundations Research Prizes 2012 goes to Professor in molecular biology Kristian Helin and Professor in international politics Ole W-ver. Each researcher receives 1 million DKK where - should be spend on further research.

24 Sep 2012

Genome-wide epigenomic screening can pinpoint thyroid disease-associated variants

Genome-wide epigenomic screening can pinpoint disease-associated variants and identify novel genetic-epigenetic interactions in autoimmune thyroid diseases, according to new data presented at the 82nd Annual Meeting of the American Thyroid Association (ATA) in Québec City, Québec, Canada.

24 Sep 2012

Greenhouse-grown corn seeds could help treat lysosomal storage disease

The seeds of greenhouse-grown corn could hold the key to treating a rare, life-threatening childhood genetic disease, according to researchers from Simon Fraser University.

24 Sep 2012

Transmitted HIV strains may have evolutionary advantage, suggest scientists

A new study has found that even though HIV diversifies widely within infected individuals over time, the virus strains that ultimately are passed on through heterosexual transmission often resemble the strain of virus that originally infected the transmitting partner.

24 Sep 2012