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Australian researchers awarded funding for new HIV vaccines

Australian researchers at Monash University have been awarded $488,125 in development grants by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) for projects exploring new vaccines for HIV, the development of medical diagnostic devices and the development of drugs to treat metastatic cancers.

17 Jun 2004

Emergence of MRSA bacteria that are increasingly resistant to vancomycin

Researchers had previously thought that such bacteria were emerging from only one sort of the MRSA superbug, but the new study has shown that they have evolved in all major types.

17 Jun 2004

Art gives insight into medical research

Paintings that give insights into medical research through a scientist's eyes can be seen at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History's latest exhibition – Medical Research Revealed by Dr Lizzie Burns.

15 Jun 2004

New whole body positron emission tomography (PET) imaging allows scientists to watch as immune system respond to tumors or infection

Compared to the snapshot views of the immune system from tumor biopsies or blood assays, this whole body imaging allows scientists to track how the immune response changes, and the tumor or infection responds, throughout the different phases of immune response and over long periods of time.

15 Jun 2004

Significance of the discovery of anthrax toxin genes in a naturally occurring microbe other than Bacillus anthracis

Dr. Fraser discusses, for the first time, the significance of the discovery of anthrax toxin genes in a naturally occurring microbe other than Bacillus anthracis, the bacterium that causes anthrax.

14 Jun 2004

Biologist has identified gene patterns that characterize a biologically distinct subtype of estrogen receptor negative breast tumor

University of North Carolina molecular biologist Charles Perou has identified the pattern of genes that characterize a biologically distinct subtype of estrogen receptor negative breast tumor.

14 Jun 2004

Possible therapeutic approach to lowering LDL cholesterol and homocysteine levels

Canadian scientists report that mice genetically altered so as to lack either of the two different pathways through which humans, mice, and other animals provide lipids for high density and low density lipoproteins (HDL and LDL) did not appear to suffer any ill effects. But animals from both groups had markedly lower levels of cholesterol in their blood stream.

14 Jun 2004

African Americans suffer from cardiovascular diseases at a rate about five times higher than the rest of the U.S. population

African Americans suffer from cardiovascular diseases at a rate about five times higher than the rest of the U.S. population. In a new study, scientists may have found a culprit: a serious deficiency of nitric oxide, a small molecule vital in the regulation of blood flow and blood pressure.

11 Jun 2004

Exercise and fish oil supplement dramatically decreases risk of atherosclerosis

Nearly one quarter of all Americans have some form of cardiovascular disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and each year about 950,000 Americans die of heart disease.

10 Jun 2004

Patent issued for GHB, date rape drug test

A patent for a highly sensitive test to detect the presence of the "date rape" drug, GHB, has recently been granted to the University of California, Santa Barbara.

9 Jun 2004

Computational design used to engineer and construct a protein that could sense the nerve agent soman

Duke University Medical Center biochemists have used computational design to engineer and construct a protein that could sense the nerve agent soman. They said their achievement constitutes a proof-of principle that such engineered proteins can be made to detect nerve agents such as sarin and other toxic substances.

5 Jun 2004

New way to identify cell growth

In a discovery that has relevance in a variety of fields, including human health, UC Riverside Assistant Professor of Biochemistry Frank Sauer and colleagues at UC Riverside, in Germany, and in Wisconsin, have found a new way to identify when a living cell begins to grow.

5 Jun 2004

Parkinson's disease breakthrough

Brandeis scientists have made groundbreaking advances in understanding how the regulations of a novel gene during the cell cycle can lead to a rare familial case of the early onset of Parkinson's disease.

5 Jun 2004

New way to identify when a living cell begins to grow

3 Jun 2004

Scientists reveal the crystal structure of the first described enzymatic RNA

Scientists in the department of molecular biophysics and biochemistry at Yale revealed the crystal structure of the first described enzymatic RNA - what it looks like and how it reacts - in the journal Nature.

2 Jun 2004

Research laboratory at the forefront of the science of metabolomics

A new $1.8 million research laboratory will catapult Iowa State University to the forefront of the science of metabolomics.

2 Jun 2004

Students win awards for research into liver disease, cancer and insomnia

Targeting a range of diseases and disorders, three University of Houston students won awards at a recent symposium for research in liver disease, cancer and insomnia.

2 Jun 2004

Four critical components of cells' protein-building machine don't do what scientists had long assumed

In the hunt for these details, scientists have focused on four RNA building blocks, or nucleotides, deep within the machine that are identical in every species, from bacteria to humans. Because they sit where the protein chain is actually built, these "universally conserved" nucleotides in the ribosome were thought to help that process.

28 May 2004

New target of a cancer-causing gene

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and other institutions have identified a new target of a cancer-causing gene.

27 May 2004

Finding overturns long held ideas about how cells build proteins

Writing in the May 28 issue of Cell, Johns Hopkins researchers report that four critical components of cells' protein-building machine don't do what scientists had long assumed.

27 May 2004