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New tool to study protein kinase A - linked to heart failure

Scientists studying heart cells have devised a new way to visualize and quantify the rise and fall in the activity of a key enzyme linked to heart failure.

8 Aug 2006

Researchers discover one of the malaria parasite's sneakiest tricks

Researchers have discovered one of the malaria parasite's sneakiest tricks--using dead liver cells to cloak and transport itself back into the bloodstream after leaving the liver.

4 Aug 2006

New technique paves the way for developing high-sensitive microsensors for the rapid detection of neurotoxins

To understand how brain cells release compounds used when the cells communicate with each other researchers devise new technique, that can be applied now to the study of a wide range of biological processes and interactions.

3 Aug 2006

How kidneys retain proteins, discard waste

New research may finally settle a decades-old debate about how the kidney keeps valuable blood proteins from harmfully slipping into the urine, a serious health symptom that often precedes kidney failure.

2 Aug 2006

Crohn's disease - possible genetic cause found

Patients with Crohn's disease of the colon have one copy less than healthy persons of the beta-defensin 2 gene, a gene coding for an important defense molecule of the body.

17 Jul 2006

Diblock copolymer micellar nanoparticles decorated with annexin-A5 proteins

One of the banes of modern cancer therapy is that clinicians and patients must often wait months before they can tell if a given treatment is working.

17 Jul 2006

NIAID program aims to model immune responses and key infectious diseases

A new program at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) aims to better understand the complex biochemical networks that regulate the interactions between infectious organisms and the human or animal cells they infect.

12 Jul 2006

Children with chronic otitis media have biofilms in their middle ears

Direct evidence of bacterial biofilms has been found on the middle ear tissue of children who suffer from chronic ear infections

12 Jul 2006

Functionalized carbon nanotubes are non-cytotoxic and preserve the functionality of primary immune cells

Various types of carbon-based nanomaterials, such as buckyballs and nanotubes, have shown promise as drug delivery tools and imaging agents, but reports of toxicity associated with some of these materials have raised questions about their ultimate utility in clinical oncology.

10 Jul 2006

Proteolytic activity monitored by fluorescence resonance energy transfer through quantum-dot-peptide conjugates

Using a synthetic peptide modeled after the protein that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) uses to enter cells, a multi-institutional research team has created quantum dots that can penetrate the cell membrane and image internal structures in a cell.

10 Jul 2006

New findings on cystic fibrosis-related diabetes

A growing number of cystic fibrosis patients are battling a second, often deadly complication: a unique form of diabetes that shares characteristics of the type 1 and type 2 versions that strike many Americans.

10 Jul 2006

Ryogen licenses human aminopeptidase P gene patent

Ryogen and R&D Systems have announced that they have entered into a nonexclusive license agreement whereby RDSI has licensed from Ryogen the patent directed to the clinically important Aminopeptidase P gene.

10 Jul 2006

New aspect of prion disease - agent causes heart damage

Until now, prion disease has been thought of as a chronic neurological condition.

9 Jul 2006

New polymer-lipid hybrid nanoparticle

A novel combination of lipids, a negatively charged polymer, and the anticancer drug doxorubicin has yielded a new nanoparticle that can kill breast cancer cells that are normally resistant to this drug.

3 Jul 2006

Thermosensitive pluronic micelles stabilized by shell cross-linking with gold nanoparticles

Many types of nanoparticles can cross the cell membrane and deliver their therapeutic payload into tumor cells.

3 Jul 2006

In vitro fertilisation could be causing genetic errors in embryo

The conditions in which embryos are cultured in the laboratory during in vitro fertilisation could be causing genetic errors that are associated with certain developmental syndromes and other abnormalities in growth and development, such as low birth weight.

19 Jun 2006

New method of testing eggs for abnormalities could solve problems of embryo freezing

Italian researchers have shown for the first time that it is possible to test a woman's egg, before fertilisation, for chromosomal abnormalities that might make an embryo less likely to implant successfully or more likely to miscarry at a later stage.

19 Jun 2006