Laboratory News and Research

RSS

New model of tau pathology spread

Brain diseases associated with the misformed protein tau, including Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal lobar degeneration with tau pathologies, are characterized by neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) comprised of pathological tau filaments.

19 Jan 2013

Calcium receptor – potential drug target for sleeping sickness

While its common name may make it sound almost whimsical, sleeping sickness, or African trypanosomiasis, is in reality a potentially fatal parasitic infection that has ravaged populations in sub-Saharan Africa for decades, and it continues to infect thousands of people every year.

19 Jan 2013

Penn Medicine to establish new center for treatment and research of blood diseases

Penn Medicine will establish the Philadelphia region's first dedicated center for the treatment and research of blood diseases by combining the expertise of physicians who specialize in the care of blood disorder patients of all ages along with basic science and clinical researchers who are working to advance treatments for these illnesses.

18 Jan 2013

Medications often prescribed for PAH could affect heart health of treated patients

A research team with the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta reported findings that significantly improve understanding of how widely used drugs in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH) affect the heart health of treated patients.

18 Jan 2013

mTorc1 promotes growth of inflammation-associated colon and gastric cancers

Researchers have identified a complex of proteins that promotes the growth of some types of colon and gastric cancers, and shown that medications that block the function of this complex have the potential to be developed into a new treatment for these diseases.

18 Jan 2013

Rochester scientists propose new reason why acute myeloid leukemia is so difficult to cure

University of Rochester Medical Center scientists have proposed a new reason why acute myeloid leukemia, one of the most aggressive cancers, is so difficult to cure: a subset of cells that drive the disease appear to have a much slower metabolism than most other tumors cells.

18 Jan 2013

UC Riverside research: Exercise-loving mice have larger midbrains

Is athleticism linked to brain size? To find out, researchers at the University of California, Riverside performed laboratory experiments on house mice and found that mice that have been bred for dozens of generations to be more exercise-loving have larger midbrains than those that have not been selectively bred this way.

18 Jan 2013

WHO finds decline in number of measles deaths between 2000 and 2011

The number of measles deaths globally decreased by 71% between 2000 and 2011, from 542 000 to 158 000. Over the same period, new cases dropped 58% from 853 500 in 2000 to 355 000 in 2011, according to new data released Thursday by WHO, a leading member of the Measles and Rubella Initiative.

18 Jan 2013

Mass poultry vaccination programmes lead to dramatic decline in Salmonella infections

Mass poultry vaccination programmes introduced to combat Salmonella infections have led to a dramatic fall in the number of cases since the late 1990s, according to a researcher at the University of Liverpool.

17 Jan 2013

Environmental factors may explain plague re-emergence in northern Africa

Two recent outbreaks of plague in Libya and Algeria are likely due to re-emergence or re-activation of ancient Yersinia pestis from the local area, rather than recent importation from the same distant source, suggest study findings.

17 Jan 2013

Carob extract could fight the microbe responsible for listeriosis

The latest episode in the American Chemical Society's (ACS') award-winning Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions podcast series reports that an antibacterial extract from the leaves of the carob tree (the source of a popular chocolate substitute) could fight the microbe responsible for the serious form of food poisoning called listeriosis.

17 Jan 2013

Miscarriage and molecular signals: an interview with Prof Brosens and Prof Quenby

Miscarriage is defined as the spontaneous loss of pregnancy before the baby reaches viability. Besides the physical trauma, miscarriage causes considerable anxiety, stress, and depression.

17 Jan 2013

Jersey Shore University Medical Center launches Meridian Executive Health program

Jersey Shore University Medical Center announces the launch of the Meridian Executive Health program, a health care pilot initiative designed for busy individuals whose schedule demands a streamlined but high quality experience.

17 Jan 2013

Report describes first successful practical synthesis of AMF-26 anti-cancer substance

Scientists are reporting development of the first practical way to make large amounts of a promising new anti-cancer substance that kills cancer cells differently than existing medicines.

17 Jan 2013

Eyes also need light to develop normally during pregnancy

New research in Nature concludes the eye – which depends on light to see – also needs light to develop normally during pregnancy.

17 Jan 2013

FDA categorizes Cepheid's Xpert CT/NG test as 'Moderate Complexity' under CLIA

Cepheid today announced the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has categorized Cepheid's Xpert CT/NG test as 'Moderate Complexity' under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA).

17 Jan 2013

Scientists determine structure of Ltn1 protein

Using an innovative approach, scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have determined the structure of Ltn1, a recently discovered "quality-control" protein that is found in the cells of all plants, fungi and animals.

17 Jan 2013

Scientists to investigate how cancer cells hide to avoid chemotherapy drugs

Scientists hope to improve leukaemia treatment by investigating how cancer cells use 'hiding places' in the body to avoid chemotherapy drugs.

17 Jan 2013

Protein Sciences receives FDA approval for Flublok vaccine

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced that it has approved Flublok, the first trivalent influenza vaccine made using an insect virus (baculovirus) expression system and recombinant DNA technology. Flublok is approved for the prevention of seasonal influenza in people 18 through 49 years of age.

16 Jan 2013

MI-ONCOSEQ program identifies NAB2-STAT6 fusion in solitary fibrous tumors

It started with a 44-year-old woman with solitary fibrous tumor, a rare cancer seen in only a few hundred people each year. By looking at the entire DNA from this one patient's tumor, researchers have found a genetic anomaly that provides an important clue to improving how this cancer is diagnosed and treated.

16 Jan 2013