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Follow healthy lifestyle to overturn genetic predisposition to heart disease

When it comes to heart disease, lifestyle usually trumps genetics, says noted genetic researcher Dr. Robert Hegele, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada Lecturer at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2009.

23 Oct 2009

Findings may lead to new vaccine strategies for pulmonary tularemia

Immunologists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC and the have found a unique quirk in the way the immune system fends off bacteria called Francisella tularensis, which could lead to vaccines that are better able to prevent tularemia infection of the lungs. Their findings were published today in the early, online version of Immunity.

23 Oct 2009

Scientists demonstrate how second set of cells carry signals from the inner ear to the brain

Deep in the ear, 95 percent of the cells that shuttle sound to the brain are big, boisterous neurons that, to date, have explained most of what scientists know about how hearing works. Whether a rare, whisper-small second set of cells also carry signals from the inner ear to the brain and have a real role in processing sound has been a matter of debate.

23 Oct 2009

University researchers inject 'nanowires' in rat brains

The biological safety of nanotechnology, in other words, how the body reacts to nanoparticles, is a hot topic. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have managed for the first time to carry out successful experiments involving the injection of so-called 'nanowires.'

23 Oct 2009

Adult male monkeys exposed to cocaine while in the womb have poor impulse control

Adult male monkeys exposed to cocaine while in the womb have poor impulse control and may be more vulnerable to drug abuse than female monkeys, even a decade or more after the exposure, according to a new study by researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. The findings could lead to a better understanding of human drug abuse.

23 Oct 2009

New technique developed to transform regular body cells into artificial stem cells

Scientists have overcome a key barrier to the clinical use of stem cells with a technique which transforms regular body cells into artificial stem cells without the need for introducing foreign genetic materials, which could be potentially harmful. The research, published in STEM CELLS, suggests that cells taken from a patient's eye can be "reprogrammed" to replace or restore cells lost to degenerative diseases.

23 Oct 2009

Methyl-Seq and Ultra-Deep Resequencing applications from RainDance Technologies

RainDance Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of innovative microdroplet-based solutions for human health and disease research, announced today it will extend the capabilities of its Sequence Enrichment Solution by offering Methyl-Seq and Ultra-Deep Resequencing applications.

23 Oct 2009

UC Riverside researchers create stable "abnormal N-heterocyclic carbenes"

Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have successfully created in the laboratory a class of carbenes, highly reactive molecules, used to make catalysts - substances that facilitate chemical reactions. Until now, chemists believed these carbenes, called "abnormal N-heterocyclic carbenes" or aNHCs, were impossible to make.

23 Oct 2009

Ambry Genetics awarded CSP status for Agilent's SureSelect Target Enrichment System

Agilent Technologies Inc. and Ambry Genetics today announced that Ambry is the first organization to achieve Certified Service Provider (CSP) status for Agilent's SureSelect Target Enrichment System for next-generation sequencing.

23 Oct 2009

Brain inflammation not linked to Alzheimer's disease

In a surprising reversal of long-standing scientific belief, researchers at the Mayo Clinic campus in Florida have discovered that inflammation in the brain is not the trigger that leads to buildup of amyloid deposits and development of Alzheimer's disease.

23 Oct 2009

Researchers discover neurons that precisely keep time in the primate brain

Groups of neurons that precisely keep time have been discovered in the primate brain by a team of researchers that includes Dezhe Jin, assistant professor of physics at Penn State University and two neuroscientists from the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Japan and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

23 Oct 2009

Female choice is not connected to "good genes": Study

The great diversity of male sexual traits, ranging from peacock's elaborate train to formidable genitalia of male seed beetles, is the result of female choice. But why do females choose among males? In a new study published today in Current Biology, researchers from Uppsala University found no support for the theory that the female choice is connected to "good genes".

23 Oct 2009

AEOL 10150 increases regeneration of GI stem cells: NIAID study results

Aeolus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that recent experiments in preclinical models conducted by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Radiation/Nuclear Medical Countermeasure Development program have shown that AEOL 10150 can effectively increase regeneration of gastro-intestinal (GI) stem cells, reduce the severity and duration of diarrhea and improve survival when administered at 24 hours after doses of total-body irradiation that produce the lethal GI syndrome.

23 Oct 2009

Intellectual property covering compounds that have utility in treating SMA licensed

Repligen Corporation announced today that it has entered into an exclusive license agreement with Families of Spinal Muscular Atrophy (FSMA) for intellectual property covering compounds which may have utility in treating Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA).

23 Oct 2009

New method devised for harvesting purified protein molecules

Drugs based on engineered proteins represent a new frontier for pharmaceutical makers. Even after they discover a protein that may form the basis of the next wonder drug, however, they have to confront a long-standing problem: how to produce large quantities of the protein in a highly pure state.

23 Oct 2009

ZyGEM and Phthisis Diagnostics to develop products for detecting infectious pathogens

ZyGEM Corp. Ltd. and Phthisis Diagnostics today announced that they have entered into an agreement to develop products enabling the detection of infectious pathogens in complex samples, such as stool, blood and water.

23 Oct 2009

Roche's xCELLigence RTCA SP Instrument used for in vitro testing of cells

The C-terminal domain (CTD) of RNA Polymerase II consists of multiple repeats of an evolutionary conserved motif of seven amino acids, forming a repetitive structure of 52 repeats in humans and 26 repeats in yeast. Twenty years after the first description of the RNA polymerase II C-terminal domain, its function is still unclear.

23 Oct 2009

Progenika to provide blood group genotyping reference laboratory services to ARUP

Progenika, Inc. today announced that it has entered into an agreement with ARUP Laboratories (ARUP) of Salt Lake City, UT, to provide blood group genotyping reference laboratory services to ARUP to determine patient red blood cell antigen profiles when serology has logistic and functional limitations.

22 Oct 2009

Scientists explore new molecular insights for treating anxiety disorders

There are increasingly precise molecular insights into ways that stress exposure leads to fear and through which fear extinction resolves these fear states. Extinction is generally regarded as new inhibitory learning, but where the inhibition originates from remains to be determined.

22 Oct 2009

LANL and international researchers propose new genome sequence strategies

A team of geneticists at Los Alamos National Laboratory, together with a consortium of international researchers, has recently proposed a set of standards designed to elucidate the quality of publicly available genetic sequencing information.

22 Oct 2009