Actin News and Research

RSS

Multimarker molecular stool test for colon cancer unaffected by medication, lifestyle factors

Research on an investigational DNA methylation test for colorectal cancer demonstrated that the only clinical variable that influenced test results was age, according to results presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2012, held here March 31 - April 4.

4 Apr 2012

Starvation during childhood may increase risk of heart complications

Russians born during the Leningrad Siege in World War II, which was responsible for some of the greatest losses of civilian life in history, are giving scientists new strategies to identify people who experienced intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) and starvation during childhood at greatest risk of developing long term heart complications.

31 Mar 2012

New treatment approach halts spread of cancer cells into normal brain tissue

Treating invasive brain tumors with a combination of chemotherapy and radiation has improved clinical outcomes, but few patients survive longer than two years after diagnosis. The effectiveness of the treatment is limited by the tumor's aggressive invasion of healthy brain tissue, which restricts chemotherapy access to the cancer cells and complicates surgical removal of the tumor.

29 Mar 2012

Researchers design new treatment approach for invasive brain tumors

Researchers from Emory and the Georgia Institute of Technology have designed a new treatment approach that appears to halt the spread of cancer cells into normal brain tissue in animal models.

29 Mar 2012

Researchers confirm how food poisoning bacteria hijack cell's sense of direction

Working in the emerging field of systems biology, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers mathematically predicted how bacteria that cause food poisoning hijack a cell's sense of direction and then confirmed those predictions in living cells.

2 Mar 2012

ACTB and ACTG1 actin genes cause Baraitser-Winter syndrome

Scientists from Seattle Children's Research Institute and the University of Washington, in collaboration with the Genomic Disorders Group Nijmegen in the Netherlands, have identified two new genes that cause Baraitser-Winter syndrome, a rare brain malformation that is characterized by droopy eyelids and intellectual disabilities.

1 Mar 2012

Nicotine can contribute to atherosclerosis

Cigarette smoke has long been considered the main risk factor for heart disease. But new research from Brown University in Providence, R.I., shows that nicotine itself, a component of cigarette smoke, can contribute to the disease process by changing cell structure in a way that promotes migration and invasion of the smooth muscle cells that line blood vessels.

24 Feb 2012

New link between beta-arrestin and short-term memory

Biomedical scientists at the University of California, Riverside have identified a new link between a protein called beta-arrestin and short-term memory that could open new doors for the therapeutic treatment of neurological disorders, particularly Alzheimer's disease.

10 Feb 2012

BPS Annual Meeting to be held Feb. 25 - 29 in San Diego

The latest news and discoveries in medicine, physics, environmental science, and interdisciplinary fields will be featured at the 56th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society (BPS), held Feb. 25 - Feb. 29, 2012, at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, Calif. With more than 4,000 poster presentations, 200 exhibits, 20 symposia, and 6,000 research scientists in attendance each year, the BPS Annual Meeting is the largest meeting of biophysicists in the world.

7 Feb 2012

Researchers discover how SHP-2 genetic defect may result in heart malformation

UNC researchers have discovered how the genetic defect underlying one of the most common congenital heart diseases keeps the critical organ from developing properly. According to the new research, mutations in a gene called SHP-2 distort the shape of cardiac muscle cells so they are unable to form a fully functioning heart.

7 Feb 2012

Fluorescence microscopy reveals 3-D picture of myoV's transport capacity

A new study in the Journal of General Physiology uses state-of-the-art fluorescence microscopy to provide a striking 3-D picture of how class V myosins (myoV) "walk" along their actin track.

1 Feb 2012

Pannexin1 protein may play an important role in mechanics of tumors

By studying tumor cell behavior in a novel "scaffold-free" 3-D system, researchers have determined that the protein Pannexin1 may play an important biomechanical role in binding tissues together, an effect that is lost in cancerous cells.

31 Jan 2012

Scientists discover unexpected way in which a neutrophil prepares for battle

UCSF scientists have discovered the unexpected way in which a key cell of the immune system prepares for battle. The finding, they said, offers insight into the processes that take place within these cells and could lead to strategies for treating conditions from spinal cord injury to cancer.

20 Jan 2012

Stem cell transplantation prevents further traumatic axonal injury

For years, researchers seeking new therapies for traumatic brain injury have been tantalized by the results of animal experiments with stem cells. In numerous studies, stem cell implantation has substantially improved brain function in experimental animals with brain trauma. But just how these improvements occur has remained a mystery.

13 Jan 2012

Elevated ISG15 pathway may provide therapeutic targets for breast cancer

Interferon-stimulated gene 15 (ISG15), a ubiquitin like protein, is highly elevated in a variety of cancers including breast cancer. How the elevated ISG15 pathway contributes to tumorigenic phenotypes remains unclear and is the subject of a study published in the January 2012 issue of Experimental Biology and Medicine.

12 Jan 2012

Scientists solve mystery behind why people with defective hemoglobin do not contract malaria

Why do people with a hereditary mutation of the red blood pigment hemoglobin not contract severe malaria? Scientists in the group headed by Prof. Michael Lanzer of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Heidelberg University Hospital have now solved this mystery.

19 Nov 2011

Simple roundworm may serve as ideal skin wound healing lab model

The lowly and simple roundworm may be the ideal laboratory model to learn more about the complex processes involved in repairing wounds and could eventually allow scientists to improve the body's response to healing skin wounds, a serious problem in diabetics and the elderly.

18 Nov 2011

Hirano bodies may play a protective role in progression of Alzheimer's

Hirano bodies are almost indescribably tiny objects found in nerve cells of people suffering from conditions such as Alzheimer's, mad cow and Lou Gehrig's diseases. Yet for decades, researchers weren't sure if these structures helped cause the conditions or appeared after onset of the disease and had some other role.

8 Nov 2011

Novel imaging technique reveals new visual resolution of NK cell action

Scientists reveal in more detail than ever before how white blood cells kill diseased tissue using deadly granules, in research published today in PLoS Biology.

16 Sep 2011

UNC-45A protein plays critical role in breast cancer cell division and migration

Researchers have found that a protein linked to cell division and migration and tied to increased cell proliferation in ovarian tumors is also present at high levels in breast cancer specimens and cell lines. The protein, dubbed "UNC-45A," was also determined to be more active in breast cancer cells than in normal breast cells.

16 Sep 2011