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Stress leads to drugs, leads to more stress and more drugs - part of a vicious cycle

According to a new Australian study, opiate drugs such as morphine have been found to leave animals more vulnerable to stress, and this could mean stress and opiates are caught in a vicious cycle.

1 Sep 2005

Human Y chromosome stays intact while chimp Y loses genes

The human and the chimpanzee Y chromosomes went their separate ways approximately 6 million years ago. But ever since this evolutionary parting, these two chromosomes have experienced different fates, new research indicates.

1 Sep 2005

More than 15 percent of our genes are mobilized to defend against microbial attacks

The body's overwhelming genetic defense, which has implications for the survival of patients who are severely burned or injured, was revealed in a sweeping analysis of gene activity in volunteers who were injected with a bacterial product that temporarily created flu-like symptoms.

1 Sep 2005

When it comes to inflammation, too much of a good thing can be deadly

In some severely injured patients, this normal healing process can develop into a lethal, whole-body response, including bloodstream infection (sepsis) and multiple organ failure. How and why inflammation turns from healing to harming is still mysterious, so doctors can't accurately predict how each injured patient will fare.

31 Aug 2005

Discovery of gene that may play a role in centronuclear myopathy

By studying the molecules that regulate the formation of muscle, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered a gene that may play a role in a rare muscular disease in humans.

31 Aug 2005

Charles Darwin was right and chimp gene map proves it

According to scientists who have mapped the complete chimp genome and compared it to the human gene map, there is little genetic difference between humans and chimps, but those differences count for a lot.

31 Aug 2005

Significant advance in understanding how enzyme can prevent certain bacteria from becoming virulent

A team of biomedical researchers from Brandeis University and the University of Texas at Austin has determined the first 3-dimensional structure of an enzyme that may be pivotal in preventing certain bacterial infections in plants, animals and humans, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

30 Aug 2005

Unique Internet test to test genetic disposition to depression

The team, based at the Neuroscience and Psychiatry Unit (NPU), in the Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences, has set up a website (www.newmood.co.uk) where would-be volunteers can see how prone they may be to depression by identifying the emotions on people's faces and taking a gambling test.

From The University of Manchester 30 Aug 2005

Opiate drugs such as morphine leave animals more vulnerable to stress

A new study has found that opiate drugs such as morphine leave animals more vulnerable to stress. This means that stress and opiates are in a vicious cycle: Not only does stress trigger drug use, but in return the drug leaves animals more vulnerable to stress.

30 Aug 2005

Severely restricting calories over decades won't dramatically extend life span

Severely restricting calories over decades may add a few years to a human life span, but will not enable humans to live to 125 and beyond, as many have speculated, evolutionary biologists report.

30 Aug 2005

Anti-cancer antibodies produced in chickens

A team of researchers have produced the first fully functional, human sequence monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) in chickens.

29 Aug 2005

Discovery of multiple isoforms of the p53 tumor suppressor protein

25 years after the initial discovery of p53, Dr. David Lane and colleagues at the University of Dundee have discovered multiple isoforms of the p53 tumor suppressor protein.

29 Aug 2005

Previously unknown family of plague virulence factors identified

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have identified a previously unknown family of virulence factors that make the bacterium responsible for the plague especially efficient at killing its host.

28 Aug 2005

New knowledge into the molecular mechanisms involved in tumor growth

Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have identified a molecular protein's critical role in cell division and growth.

26 Aug 2005

Inflammation plays an important role in post-operative stroke

Duke University Medical Center researchers have discovered that patients who have two specific gene variants are more than three times as likely to suffer a stroke after heart surgery.

26 Aug 2005

Using muscle tissue from tarantulas scientists discover how muscles relax

Using muscle tissue from tarantulas, an HHMI international research scholar and his colleagues have figured out the detailed structure and arrangement of the miniature molecular motors that control movement.

24 Aug 2005

Hundreds of identified genes involved in the pathophysiology of ulcerative colitis and Crohn disease

In a paper published in PLoS Medicine researchers from the German Genome Research Network have analysed the expression of thousands of genes from patients with inflammatory bowel disease (ulcerative colitis and Crohn disease) using a genome wide approach to produce a comprehensive picture of which genes are activated in these conditions.

24 Aug 2005

Mouse model of Rett Syndrome displays reduced cortical activity

Sacha Nelson of Brandeis University in Waltham, MA and Rudolf Jaenisch of the Whitehead Institute of Biomedical Research in Cambridge, MA and their colleagues report online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition that spontaneous neuronal activity is reduced in the cortex of a knockout mouse model for the childhood neurodevelopmental disorder, Rett Syndrome.

23 Aug 2005

Novel mechanism, called recursive splicing reveals how cells process large genes

Important messages require accurate transmission. Big genes are especially challenging because they combine many coding segments (exons) that lie between long stretches of non-coding elements (introns).

22 Aug 2005

New technique for creating human embryonic stem cells

Researchers have developed a new technique for creating human embryonic stem cells by fusing adult somatic cells with embryonic stem cells. The fusion causes the adult cells to undergo genetic reprogramming, which results in cells that have the developmental characteristics of human embryonic stem cells.

22 Aug 2005