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Scientists discover how ovarian tumors evade immune system

Scientists at Johns Hopkins have determined how the characteristic shedding of fatty substances, or lipids, by ovarian tumors allows the cancer to evade the body's immune system, leaving the disease to spread unchecked.

1 Dec 2008

Prostate cancer tumors promote nerve growth

Prostate cancer - and perhaps other cancers - promotes the growth of new nerves and the branching axons that carry their messages, a finding associated with more aggressive tumors, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in the first report of the phenomenon that appears today in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.

1 Dec 2008

Protein indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase points to new pancreatic cancer therapies

An enzyme that is overexpressed in pancreatic cancer cells may hold the key to successfully treating the disease with targeted immunotherapy, researchers from Thomas Jefferson University reported at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the Southern Surgical Association.

1 Dec 2008

Genaera starts trial of Trodusquemine in overweight and obese type 2 diabetes

Genaera Corporation has announced that dosing of subjects has begun in study MSI-1436C-102 (Study 102), the multiple ascending dose Phase 1b study of trodusquemine (MSI-1436) in overweight and obese type 2 diabetics.

1 Dec 2008

Researchers find that when cells shut down they also spew proteins into their surrounding environment

Cells shut down and stop dividing when their DNA is damaged, in a process known as cellular senescence, so as to prevent damaged DNA from leading to unregulated cell division and therefore cancer.

1 Dec 2008

Blame your genes: why some people get sicker for longer

People with certain high risk gene combinations are eight times more likely to suffer from a severe and prolonged illness when they have an infection, according to University of New South Wales (UNSW) researchers.

1 Dec 2008

New cell analysis platform developed - commercial partners sought

Sandia National Laboratories is seeking commercial partners to license or contribute to the continued development of a new lab-on-a-chip platform for high-throughput manipulation and interrogation of individual cells, one that enables quantitative analysis of cellular behaviors with unprecedented speed, resolution, sensitivity, and multiplexing.

1 Dec 2008

Fast food diet a suspect in Alzheimer's disease

The research by scientists at the Karolinska Institutet has revealed that mice fed a diet of junk food for a nine month period developed the abnormal brain tangles which are seen in the preliminary stages of Alzheimer's disease - they say a diet rich in fat, sugar and cholesterol could increase the risk of the most common type of dementia.

1 Dec 2008

Selenium may slow march of AIDS

Increasing the production of naturally occurring proteins that contain selenium in human blood cells slows down multiplication of the AIDS virus, according to biochemists.

30 Nov 2008

New European food allergy research

A team of scientists from across Europe are embarking on new research to develop a treatment for food allergy.

30 Nov 2008

Diet rich in fat, sugar and cholesterol a potential risk factor for Alzheimer's disease

Mice that were fed a diet rich in fat, sugar and cholesterol for nine months developed a preliminary stage of the morbid irregularities that form in the brains of Alzheimer's patients.

30 Nov 2008

Potential gene target for treatment of common hearing, vertigo and balance problems

A UCLA study shows for the first time how microscopic crystals form sound and gravity sensors inside the inner ear.

30 Nov 2008

Research identifies cell receptor as target for anti-inflammatory immune response

Cell reception. By comparing normal mice (left) with mice that are genetically engineered to lack certain receptors in their spleen (right), scientists have shown SIGNR1 receptors (blue) are required to facilitate an anti-inflammatory action.

28 Nov 2008

Protein-misfolding accelerates yeast evolution

Under stress, yeast cells can unleash a remarkable mechanism based on protein-misfolding that gives them new characteristics without requiring genetic mutations.

28 Nov 2008

Condensin II proteins found to keep chromosomes apart when necessary

If chromosomes snuggle up too closely at the wrong times, the results can be genetic disaster.

28 Nov 2008

Novel target for therapeutics against Staphylococcus aureus

Researchers at the Texas A&M Health Science Center Institute of Biosciences and Technology, and the University of Edinburgh have uncovered how a bacterial pathogen interacts with the blood coagulation protein fibrinogen to cause methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections, a finding that could aid in developing therapeutics against the potentially deadly disease.

28 Nov 2008

First study showing how protein fine-tunes the heart

Dr Andrew Whitten, Dr Cy Jeffries and Professor Jill Trewhella, from the School of Molecular and Microbial Biosciences, University of Sydney, with Samantha Harris, from the University of California, USA, have the first data showing how a protein in heart muscle cells works to maintain regular heart function.

27 Nov 2008

Researchers provide new evidence that aging can be slowed

New evidence may explain why it is that we lose not only our youthful looks, but also our youthful pattern of gene activity with age.

26 Nov 2008

Noninvasive test for urine protein detects kidney dysfunction in transplant patients

A noninvasive test that analyzes proteins in the urine can correctly identify patients whose transplanted kidneys are failing, according to a study appearing in the February 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN).

26 Nov 2008

Scientists uncover new RNA processing mechanism and a new class of small RNAs

A very small fraction of our genetic material - about 2% - performs the crucial task scientists once thought was the sole purpose of the genome: to serve as a blueprint for the production of proteins, the molecules that make cells work and sustain life.

26 Nov 2008