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New discovery could improve IVF results

Scientists in the U.S. think they may have solved the puzzle of why some embryos fail to implant in their mother's womb, which is one of the main causes of IVF failures.

4 May 2005

The humble snail is helping scientists explore ways of treating memory loss in humans

Drug manufacturers are looking at ways to create a "Viagra for the brain", which could alleviate memory loss, one of the distressing symptoms of diseases such as Alzheimer's. Work carried out by Dr George Kemenes, Senior Fellow in the Department of Biology and Environmental Science at the University of Sussex, will hopefully help to show how such drugs could work.

4 May 2005

Faulty folding of protein in the environment may cause disease

Serious diseases like Alzheimer's and type-2 diabetes have been shown to be related to unhealthy protein chains that occur when proteins fold incorrectly. In an article in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, PNAS, a research team directed from Uppsala University shows that similar protein chains in our environment may hasten the process.

4 May 2005

Two-photon imaging gives real-time video of cells in living tissue

Biologists have a new tool to track and videotape cells moving about inside living tissue.

3 May 2005

Scientists use tobacco plants to create antibodies against tumor cells

Scientists at Jefferson Medical College are using tobacco plants to produce monoclonal antibodies – tiny guided protein missiles – that can target and hunt down cancer cells. The plants promise to provide a cheaper, faster method of producing anticancer antibodies, raising hopes that the technology can one day be used in humans.

3 May 2005

Mother of all treatments could cure baldness, and banish stretch marks!

A new discovery by scientists might just be the 'mother of all treatments' in promising a treatment for balding men, women with stretchmarks and anyone who has gum disease.

3 May 2005

Fusing physics with medicine to fight cancer

Everyone’s lives are touched by cancer - it is a disease that affects 1 in 3 of us throughout our lifetime. Future developments that lead to earlier diagnosis and more effective therapy lie in further successful collaboration between high energy physicists and the healthcare industry.

2 May 2005

Abnormal cell division explained

Why do some cancer cells divide not into two, as cells are supposed to do in mitosis, but into three-four new cells that look thoroughly abnormal? This question was raised as early as the 1890s by the German tumor researcher David Hansemann, who could observe the strange mitosis even using the microscopes of his day. Now another David, Lund University researcher David Gisselsson, has found an answer.

28 Apr 2005

Isotopes for society

The nucleus of an atom contains protons and neutrons. However, some atoms of the same chemical element can have varying numbers of neutrons, giving so-called isotopes of that element.

27 Apr 2005

Scientists have, for the first time, induced a state of reversible metabolic hibernation in mice

Scientists at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have, for the first time, induced a state of reversible metabolic hibernation in mice. This achievement, the first demonstration of "hibernation on demand" in a mammal, ultimately could lead to new ways to treat cancer and prevent injury and death from insufficient blood supply to organs and tissues.

23 Apr 2005

Mice put into "suspended animation" in U.S.

Researchers from the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in Seattle have placed mice in a state of near suspended animation, raising the possibility that in future hibernation could be induced in humans.

22 Apr 2005

Enzyme that helps trigger the development of leukemia

Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have identified an enzyme that helps trigger the development of leukemia, a cancer of blood cells.

21 Apr 2005

New method for obtaining sequence information from thousands of genomes simultaneously

One of the world’s leading scientists, Nobel Prize winner, Dr Sydney Brenner, has devised a new method for obtaining sequence information from thousands of genomes simultaneously. Current technologies can only analyse one genome at a time.

20 Apr 2005

New method for the study of ion channel gating kinetics

An ion channel is a protein pore that lets ions (charged atoms such as calcium) pass through a cell's membrane. The method fits data to a new class of models, called manifest interconductance rank (MIR) models, which will give researchers a better understanding of the mechanisms by which ion channels open and close.

19 Apr 2005

Scientists reveal the shape of a protein that helps retroviruses break into cells

Retroviruses are among the trickier and more malicious disease agents, causing AIDS and cancers such as leukemia. The viruses manage to sneak into cells with the help of special protein assemblies scattered all over their surfaces. These retrovirus surface proteins cause the membrane envelope of the virus to fuse with the membrane of the cell, spilling virus RNA into the cell to wreak damage.

13 Apr 2005

Scientists use transcription factors to increase insulin production in diabetic mice

A group of Japanese scientists has used gene therapy to deliver three insulin transcription factors, MafA, PDX-1, and NeuroD, to the livers of diabetic mice. As a result, the mice experienced an increase in insulin gene expression and insulin production, raising the possibility that this could eventually be used to treat diabetes.

13 Apr 2005

New test for cancer, more sensitive than any existing techniques

Speaking at the Institute of Physics conference Physics 2005 in Warwick, scientists will reveal a new test for cancer, more sensitive than any existing technique and capable of predicting for the first time whether a tumour has spread.

12 Apr 2005

Swedish team find gene with link to major diseases

In an exciting new discovery, which could affect millions of people, scientists from the Karolinska Institute and the Centre for Molecular Medicine (CMM) in Stockholm, Sweden, have identified a gene which links autoimmune diseases with cardiovascular diseases.

12 Apr 2005

Largest "gene deserts" yet discovered in the human genome sequence

A detailed analysis of chromosomes 2 and 4 has detected the largest "gene deserts" known in the human genome and uncovered more evidence that human chromosome 2 arose from the fusion of two ancestral ape chromosomes, researchers supported by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI).

6 Apr 2005

An exceptionally effective lead-detection protein

Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory and the University of Chicago have discovered that a member of a well-known protein family is better at detecting lead than any other known substance.

5 Apr 2005