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Researchers help explain elusive mechanics of complex cell transport system

Every cell in the human body contains a complex system to transport essential cargoes such as proteins and membrane vesicles, from point A to point B. These tiny molecular motor proteins move at blistering speeds on miniature railways carrying components of the cell to their proper destinations.

3 Sep 2011

Researchers discover mechanism of low-dose LDN on cell proliferative-related disorders

Researchers at The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania have discovered the mechanism by which a low dose of the opioid antagonist naltrexone (LDN), an agent used clinically to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases, exerts a profound inhibitory effect on cell proliferation.

3 Sep 2011

Researchers discover protein signals responsible for preserving anti-viral antibodies

Our immune system is capable of a remarkable feat: the ability to remember infections for years, even decades, after they have first been encountered and defeated. While the antibodies we make last only about a month, we retain the means of making them for a lifetime.

3 Sep 2011

Scientists discover highly conserved mechanism governing brain development

If you think today's political rhetoric is overheated, imagine what goes on inside a vertebrate embryo. There, two armies whose agendas are poles apart, engage in a battle with consequences much more dire than whether the economy will recover---- they are battling for whether you (or frogs or chickens) will have a forebrain.

3 Sep 2011

Researchers discover why tumors evolve

Like snakes, tumour cells shed their skin. Cancer is not a static disease but during its development the disease accumulates changes to evade natural defences adapting to new environmental circumstances, protecting against chemotherapy and radiotherapy and invading neighbouring organs, eventually causing metastasis.

3 Sep 2011

Researchers inject cultured red blood cells created from HSCs into human donor

For the first time, researchers have successfully injected cultured red blood cells (cRBCs) created from human hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) into a human donor, according to study results published today in Blood, the Journal of the American Society of Hematology.

3 Sep 2011

Inhibiting the ability of immune cells to use fatty acids slows MS progression

In a paper published today in the journal Scientific Reports, a pair of researchers at the University of California, San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences report that inhibiting the ability of immune cells to use fatty acids as fuel measurably slows disease progression in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis.

3 Sep 2011

Resveratrol helps prevent metabolic syndrome in offspring

Researchers in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta have discovered that resveratrol, a powerful antioxidant found in common foods, prevents a syndrome in some offspring that could lead to later health issues such as diabetes.

3 Sep 2011

UCF, UF receive $5.5 million NIH grant for hemophilia research

At a time when research funding is hard to come by, a University of Central Florida and University of Florida partnership has landed almost $5.5 million in National Institutes of Health highly competitive grants for hemophilia research.

3 Sep 2011

Scientists identify several links between genetic variants and specific metabolic changes

Scientists at Helmholtz Zentrum Munich and LMU Munich, in cooperation with Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and King's College London (KCL), have identified several associations between genetic variants and specific metabolic changes.

3 Sep 2011

Novel analysis of MRI scans reveals distinct features of autistic brain

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital have used a novel method for analyzing brain-scan data to distinguish children with autism from typically developing children.

3 Sep 2011

Nature journal publishes Metabolon's genome wide association study

Metabolon, Inc., the leader in metabolomics, biomarker discovery and biochemical analysis, announced the publication of "Human Metabolic Individuality in Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Research" in the journal Nature.

3 Sep 2011

First report of alternative lengthening of telomeres in human cancer subtypes

The first report of the presence of alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) in cancers arising from the bladder, cervix, endometrium, esophagus, gallbladder, liver, and lung was published today in The American Journal of Pathology. The presence of ALT in carcinomas can be used as a diagnostic marker and has implications for the development of anti-cancer drug therapies.

3 Sep 2011

Study finds link between long-term dietary patterns and human gut bacteria

"You are what you eat" is familiar enough, but how deep do the implications go? An interdisciplinary group of investigators from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have found an association between long-term dietary patterns and the bacteria of the human gut.

3 Sep 2011

Exercise triggers influential stem cells to become bone instead of fat

McMaster researchers have found one more reason to exercise: working out triggers influential stem cells to become bone instead of fat, improving overall health by boosting the body's capacity to make blood.

3 Sep 2011

Scientists uncover one of the benefits of non-monogamous relationships

It's all about the grandkids! That's what a team led by an Indiana University biologist has learned about promiscuous female birds and why they mate outside their social pair.

3 Sep 2011

Plerixafor drug shows promise against WHIM syndrome

A new study reports that a drug already approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in patients undergoing a bone marrow transplant may also have promise for treating people who have a rare immune deficiency known as WHIM syndrome.

3 Sep 2011

Researchers discover mechanisms behind BRCA1 gene mutations in breast and ovarian cancer

It is widely known that mutations in the breast cancer susceptibility 1 (BRCA1) gene significantly increase the chance of developing breast and ovarian cancers, but the mechanisms at play are not fully understood. Now, researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center have shown that certain BRCA1 mutations result in excessive, uncontrolled DNA repair, which challenges the prior assumption that mutations in BRCA1 only contribute to breast cancer through a reduction in function.

3 Sep 2011

NASA, Louisiana Tech to conduct zero-gravity testing of DNA analysis device

Researchers from Louisiana Tech University will be floating high above the Gulf of Mexico this month to conduct zero-gravity testing of an experimental DNA analysis instrument developed at Tech that could benefit future NASA astronauts.

3 Sep 2011

Going bananas may help kids breathe easier

Going bananas may help kids breathe easier. Children who ate just one banana a day had a 34% less chance of developing asthmatic symptoms, according to new British research.

3 Sep 2011