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Bodies resist weight loss efforts when food intake is reduced drastically

If you've been trying to lose weight and suspect your body's working against you, you may be right, according to a University of Illinois study published in Obesity.

24 Jun 2011

Epilepsy may arise from complex mixture of altered ion channels

Imagine two flat screen televisions tuned to the same channel and sitting side-by-side. From a distance, their pictures are virtually the same, however up close, you can see subtle variations in the pixels - one blurred here, another dropped out there.

24 Jun 2011

Protein globin E helps avian eyes 'breathe' and contributes to visual acuity

Say what you will about bird brains, but our feathered friends sure have us -- and all the other animals on the planet -- beat in the vision department, and that has a bit to do with how their brains develop.

24 Jun 2011

Maize-derived collagen has proline hydroxylation levels similar to human collagen

Synthetic collagen has a wide range of applications in reconstructive and cosmetic surgery and in the food industry. For proper function in animals a certain number of prolines within the protein need to be hydroxylated. BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Biotechnology reports that for the first time the α1 chain of type 1 collagen has been produced in maize with similar levels of proline hydroxylation to human collagen.

24 Jun 2011

Discovery sheds new light on initiation of vision process

A discovery by a team of researchers led by a Syracuse University physicist sheds new light on how the vision process is initiated. For almost 50 years, scientists have believed that light signals could not be initiated unless special light-receptor molecules in the retinal cells first changed their shape in a process called isomerization.

24 Jun 2011

Leaky blood vessels may cause sepsis rather than a symptom: Research

Researchers at St. Michael's Hospital have put forward a new theory as to what causes sepsis, an often fatal condition that occurs when infection spreads throughout the body.

24 Jun 2011

Stresses can change gene expression without DNA sequence change

None of us are strangers to stress of various kinds. It turns out the effects of all those stresses can change the fate of future generation, influencing our very DNA without any change to the underlying sequence of As, Gs, Ts and Cs. Now, researchers reporting in the June 24th issue of Cell, a Cell Press publication, have new evidence that helps to explain just how these epigenetic changes really happen.

24 Jun 2011

Evolutionary-management strategies to limit spread of drug-resistant diseases

In the war between drugs and drug-resistant diseases, is the current strategy for medicating patients giving many drug-resistant diseases a big competitive advantage?, asks a research paper that will be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

24 Jun 2011

Small 'antifreeze' molecules more effective in protecting proteins than larger ones

Scientists have made an important step forward in their understanding of cryoprotectants - compounds that act as natural 'antifreeze' to protect drugs, food and tissues stored at sub-zero temperatures.

24 Jun 2011

Genetics may fuel women's prejudice against male strangers during menstrual cycle

Women's bias against male strangers increases when women are fertile, suggesting prejudice may be partly fueled by genetics, according to a study by Michigan State University psychology researchers.

24 Jun 2011

Hormone ghrelin mediates stress-induced food-reward behavior

Many people when stressed turn to high calorie "comfort foods". Despite the contribution this behavior makes to the current obesity epidemic, little is known about the molecules and nervous system circuits that control it. Insight into this could provide new targets for the development of therapeutics to curb this potentially detrimental behavior.

24 Jun 2011

HDL in CAD patients different from HDL in healthy individuals

High levels of "good" cholesterol (HDL cholesterol) are associated with a decreased risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) - a disease of the major arterial blood vessels that is one of the major causes of heart attack and stroke. This suggests that therapeutics that increase HDL levels could be clinically useful.

24 Jun 2011

RIKEN researchers reveal mechanism for stress-induced epigenetic change

Researchers at RIKEN have uncovered a mechanism by which the effects of stress in the fly species Drosophila are inherited epigenetically over many generations through changes to the structure of chromatin, the material that makes up the cell nucleus.

24 Jun 2011

New strategy to prevent amputations

Blood vessels and supporting cells appear to be pivotal partners in repairing nerves ravaged by diabetic neuropathy, and nurturing their partnership with nerve cells might make the difference between success and failure in experimental efforts to regrow damaged nerves, Johns Hopkins researchers report in a new study.

24 Jun 2011

Scientists uncover new therapeutic target for Huntington's disease

UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have identified compounds that appear to inhibit a signaling pathway in Huntington's disease, a finding that may eventually lead to a potential drug therapy to help slow the progression of degenerative nerve disorders.

24 Jun 2011

Study traces precursor of deadly esophageal cancers to leftover embryonic cells

The ultimate source of some cancers is embryonic cells. Research published in the June 24th Cell, a Cell Press publication, traces the precursor of deadly esophageal cancers to leftover embryonic cells found in all adults.

24 Jun 2011

Growth-braking tumor-suppressor gene slows growth of childhood brain tumors

Johns Hopkins researchers have found a likely explanation for the slow growth of the most common childhood brain tumor, pilocytic astrocytoma. Using tests on a new cell-based model of the tumor, they concluded that the initial process of tumor formation switches on a growth-braking tumor-suppressor gene, in a process similar to that seen in skin moles.

24 Jun 2011

New automated sample preparation system developed for proteomic biomarker discovery and validation

A new automated sample preparation system based on Tecan's Freedom EVO- 200 liquid handling platform has been developed for proteomic biomarker discovery and validation in collaboration with the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University.

24 Jun 2011

Research offers avenue for creating Alzheimer's and HIV therapeutics

A new advance by UCLA biochemists has brought scientists one step closer to developing treatments that could delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease and prevent the sexual transmission of HIV.

24 Jun 2011

Patients with familial adenomatous polyposis have higher vascular density in mouth

A team led by Johns Hopkins researchers has found that a hereditary colon cancer syndrome, familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP), is associated with abnormally dense blood vessel growth in the skin lining the mouth.

24 Jun 2011