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Nanowires could be used to sense thousands of different viruses

Harvard University scientists have found that ultra-thin silicon wires can be used to electrically detect the presence of single viruses, in real time, with near-perfect selectivity.

22 Sep 2004

Zebrafish atlas will help research community to model human disease

An inch-long tropical fish will enjoy improved global exposure thanks to a five-year, $2.7 million grant from the National Center for Research Resources-National Institutes of Health

22 Sep 2004

Amyloid growth can occur independently of oligomers

Improperly folded proteins are normally destroyed. But in a wide range of diseases, including prion (from proteinaceous and infectious) diseases and neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson disease and Alzheimer disease, amyloid fibrils, or plaques--misshapen proteins that aggregate into characteristic ropelike configurations--accumulate in tissue.

22 Sep 2004

Edible vaccine for HIV AIDS

Scientists from Novosibirsk are engaged in the development of an unusual vaccine which, apart from being less expensive to produce, safe and painless to administer, is also edible.

22 Sep 2004

Scientists have corrected a flaw in cancer cells that lets them evade the normal cell-death process

Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have corrected a flaw in cancer cells that lets them evade the normal cell-death process, and as a result they eliminated leukemia cells from mice.

21 Sep 2004

Scientists decipher genetic code of ancient pathogen that causes the horse disease

More than 2,400 years after Hippocrates, the Greek physician born in 460 BC first described the symptoms of glanders, scientists have deciphered the genetic code of the ancient pathogen that causes the horse disease: Burkholderia mallei.

20 Sep 2004

Scientists unlock the crucial communication pathways of p53 protein cells

Professor Nicholas La Thangue and his team at the Institute of Biomedical and Life Sciences at the University of Glasgow have unlocked the crucial communication pathways of p53 protein cells, which could ultimate aid the slowing down of cells that cause tumours and related disease.

20 Sep 2004

Investigation into the potential for designing drug treatments based on a person’s genetic makeup

Most current drugs are not effective for 100 per cent of the population and some work in as few as 30 to 50 per cent of cases. Pharmacogenetics, the study of how genetic factors influence a person’s response to a drug, is seen as a way of making treatments as safe and effective as possible for every individual.

20 Sep 2004

New Australian biotech speeds up healing for burns and wounds

A Queensland PhD student’s discovery speeds up tissue growth and repair and sparks off a new listed biotech company.

20 Sep 2004

Jellyfish advance science

Salmon fishermen trolling along the waters off Puget Sound in Washington are often witness to an awesome sight when they haul in their catch: salmon captured in nets that glow brilliantly against the nighttime sky.

16 Sep 2004

The same gene functions in vision and immune system, research shows

Scientists have learned that a family of genes long known to be integral to the immune system also plays a role in vision, perhaps preventing certain blinding diseases.

16 Sep 2004

RNAi enlisted in hunt for prawn vaccines

CSIRO researchers are using a biological phenomenon called RNA interference (RNAi) in an effort to develop a major biotechnological breakthrough for the aquaculture industry - vaccines for common prawn diseases.

16 Sep 2004

Newly completed Chromosome 5 sequence will be a powerful tool for scientists trying to understand human disease

Four years after publicly revealing the official draft human genetic sequence, researchers have reached the halfway point in dotting the i's and crossing the t's of the genetic sentences describing how to build a human.

16 Sep 2004

Research findings could lead to more effective repellents

If you think it doesn't do much good to swipe the fly that's going after the potato salad, guess again. You may be discouraging the fly's colleagues from taking up the raid.

15 Sep 2004

Micro-thin implantable films may one day allow patients to forgo daily injections and pills

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a material that may one day allow patients to forgo daily injections and pills and receive prescriptions instead through micro-thin implantable films that release medication according to changes in temperature.

14 Sep 2004

First molecular-scale images of DNA binding to an adenovirus enzyme

The images, which appear on the cover of the October 2004 issue of Molecular and Cellular Proteomics, show how binding to DNA may stimulate the enzyme and are already being used to design new antiviral drugs to block this interaction.

14 Sep 2004

Sea urchins may provide clues to some baffling human reproductive problems

For many years scientists have believed they understood how closely related species that occupy the same regions of the ocean were kept from interbreeding. It turns out they were only seeing part of the picture.

13 Sep 2004

Scientists closer to correcting an abnormal gene which causes Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease

Scientists at the University of Edinburgh are closer to correcting an abnormal gene which causes one of the crippling muscle wasting diseases known collectively as Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease.

10 Sep 2004

Genetically modified fish may help treat hemophiliacs

A human blood-clotting factor used to treat some people with haemophilia and accident victims suffering serious bleeding has been produced using genetically modified fish.

9 Sep 2004

Studies of human genetic variation have found strong evidence for the action of natural selection

One of the most comprehensive studies of the forces that have shaped patterns of human genetic variation has found strong evidence for the action of natural selection, which may help explain why certain people are at risk for a variety of conditions and others are not.

8 Sep 2004