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Research helps explain why some flu strains cause major pandemics and others lead to seasonal epidemics

The exchange of genetic material between two closely related strains of the influenza A virus may have caused the 1947 and 1951 human flu epidemics, according to biologists.

6 Mar 2008

Researchers discover molecular pathway in blood vessels that controls blood pressure and vascular function

University of Iowa researchers have identified a molecular pathway in blood vessels that controls blood pressure and vascular function and may help explain why certain drugs for type II diabetes also appear to lower patients' blood pressure.

6 Mar 2008

Neural progenitor cells as reservoirs for HIV in the brain

Impaired brain function is a prominent and still unsolved problem in AIDS.

6 Mar 2008

Molecular alliance that sustains embryonic stem cell state

One of the four ingredients in the genetic recipe that scientists in Japan and the U.S. followed last year to persuade human skin cells to revert to an embryonic stem cell state, is dispensable in ES cells, thanks to the presence of a molecular alliance between a specific group of key proteins known as transcription factors, a research team led by the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) under the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) reports in the current issue of Nature Cell Biology.

6 Mar 2008

Prader-Willi syndrome - new genetic clues

A new mouse model for a genetic cause of obesity has been developed by scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.

6 Mar 2008

Happiness in life and your genes

Happiness in life is as much down to having the right genetic mix as it is to personal circumstances according to a recent study.

6 Mar 2008

Genetic mutations involved in IGF-I signaling pathway influence life span

Mutations in genes governing an important cell-signaling pathway influence human longevity, scientists at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have found.

6 Mar 2008

Children of alcoholics: different brain regions effect who may or may not develop alcohol problems

Although children of alcoholics (COAs) have a greater risk of developing alcohol-use disorders (AUDs), not all COAs will develop AUDs.

6 Mar 2008

Happiness is in the genes

Scientists from Scotland and Australia say being happy in life could be all about having the right genetic mix.

5 Mar 2008

Cigarette smoke prevents stem cells from becoming cartilage

A toxic pollutant spread by oil spills, forest fires and car exhaust is also present in cigarette smoke, and may represent a second way in which smoking delays bone healing, according to research presented at the annual meeting of the Orthopaedic Research Society in San Francisco.

4 Mar 2008

New genetic marker of risk for breast cancer discovered

An international group of investigators led by scientists at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) and the National Cancer Institute has identified a new genetic marker of risk for breast cancer.

4 Mar 2008

Bardet-Biedl syndrome provides clues on obesity, blood pressure

University of Iowa researchers have found a clue about how resistance to the hormone leptin might disrupt the brain signals that tell the body when to stop eating.

4 Mar 2008

Protein in embryonic stem cells control malignant tumor cells

A protein that governs development of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) also inhibits the growth and spread of malignant melanoma, the deadliest skin cancer, Northwestern University researchers have discovered.

4 Mar 2008

Tiny RNA molecule found to help create skin's protective barrier

Every minute, 30,000 of our outermost skin cells die so that we can live. When they do, new cells migrate from the inner layer of the skin to the surface of it, where they form a tough protective barrier.

4 Mar 2008

Genetic variations increase risk of anxiety disorders

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers - in collaboration with scientists at the University of California at San Diego and Yale University - have discovered perhaps the strongest evidence yet linking variation in a particular gene with anxiety-related traits.

4 Mar 2008