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Protein can nurture or devastate brain cells, depending on its 'friends,' UT Southwestern researchers find

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have uncovered new insights into the "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" nature of a protein that stimulates stem-cell maturation in the brain but, paradoxically, can also lead to nerve-cell damage.

11 Nov 2008

Brain development takes an unexpected bend

Organs, such as the brain or the heart, are not simply collections of the correct types of cells that are required for their function. If these cells are not organized and shaped properly, the organ simply does not function. One crucial part of this organization is to bend sheets of connected cells ("epithelia") so that they form a structure that is an integral part of the functional organ.

4 Nov 2008

How the Nodal gene family keeps the heart in the right (asymmetric) place

Asymmetry is crucial for the heart proper functioning, and now, scientists from the Institute Gulbenkian of Science in Portugal and Harvard University, have discovered that a family of genes, called Nodal, is crucial determining this asymmetry by controlling the speed and direction of the heart muscle cells during embryonic development.

2 Nov 2008

By imaging live cells, researchers show how hepatitis C replicates

The hepatitis C virus is a prolific replicator, able to produce up to a trillion particles per day in an infected person by hijacking liver cells in which to build up its viral replication machinery.

30 Oct 2008

Scientists discover how a well-known protein repairs broken DNA ends

During the life cycle of our cells, a minefield of environmental and biological assaults can lead to double-stranded DNA breaks, the most lethal and dangerous form of DNA damage. Now, in research published online this week in Nature, Rockefeller University scientists reveal that when these breaks occur, a protein called 53BP1 helps repair them by mobilizing their dangly DNA ends - findings that uncover a previously unknown aspect of how double-stranded breaks can get fixed.

26 Oct 2008

Genetically manipulated virus could prevent mosquitoes from transmitting malaria, study says

A genetically manipulated version of densovirus could prevent Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes from transmitting malaria, according to a study published last week in PLoS Pathogens, the New York Times reports.

26 Aug 2008

Malaria researchers discover new mosquito virus

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Malaria Research Institute have identified a previously unknown virus that is infectious to Anopheles gambiae-the mosquito primarily responsible for transmitting malaria.

24 Aug 2008

Fluoroquinolones can enhance gene-silencing tool

A way to turn off one gene at a time has earned acceptance in biology laboratories over the last decade. Doctors envision the technique, called RNA interference, as a tool to treat a variety of diseases if it can be adapted to humans.

20 Jul 2008

New, previously unrecognized source of heart stem cells discovered

Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston are continuing to document the heart's earliest origins. Now, they have pinpointed a new, previously unrecognized group of stem cells that give rise to cardiomyocytes, or heart muscle cells. These stem cells, located in the surface of the heart, or epicardium, advance the hope of being able to regenerate injured heart tissue.

23 Jun 2008

Yerkes researchers develop first transgenic nonhuman primate model of Huntington's disease

In the first study of its kind, researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, in collaboration with researchers from the Department of Human Genetics at Emory's School of Medicine, have developed the first transgenic nonhuman primate model of Huntington's disease (HD), one of the most devastating human neurodegenerative diseases.

22 May 2008

Chronic inflammation triggers cell fusions that could protect neurons

Chronic inflammation triggers bone marrow-derived blood cells to travel to the brain and fuse with a certain type of neuron up to 100 times more frequently than previously believed, according to a new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine.

20 Apr 2008

Enzyme complex could be key to new cancer treatments

Penn State scientists are the first to observe in living cells a key step in the creation of adenine and guanine, two of the four building blocks that comprise DNA.

4 Apr 2008

Neurons hard wired to tell left from right

It's well known that the left and right sides of the brain differ in many animal species and this is thought to influence cognitive performance and social behaviour.

31 Mar 2008

Zebrafish enables cell regeneration studies to help understand, treat human disease

One aquarium fish's uncanny ability to regenerate essentially any cell type has given scientists a way to mimic cell loss that occurs in diseases such as Parkinson's and diabetes then watch how the fish make more of them.

18 Mar 2008

Long-term muscle improvements shown in gene therapy study in mice

Injecting a gene responsible for making a specific protein into a mouse that's used as a model for muscular dystrophy can lead to long-term improvements in the animal's muscle size and strength, a new study shows.

14 Mar 2008

Long-term muscle improvements shown in gene therapy study in mice

11 Mar 2008

Preclinical antitumor efficacy evaluation of dendrimer-based methotrexate conjugates

Although a variety of nanoparticles continue to show promise for improving cancer imaging and therapy, regulators and drug developers are concerned that these delivery systems may prove difficult to manufacture on a consistent basis, which is key for any agent designed for use in humans.

3 Mar 2008