Morphology News and Research

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Discovery of molecule that may hold key to learning and memory

Independent research teams from Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston have identified a master protein that sheds light on one of neurobiology's biggest mysteries--how neurons change as a result of individual experiences.

23 Feb 2006

Researchers show that linguistic rules are processed in two phylogenetically different brain regions

Researchers found that simple language structures are processed in an area that is phylogenetically older, and which apes also possess. Complicated structures, by contrast, activate processes in a comparatively younger area which only exists in a more highly evolved species: humans.

21 Feb 2006

Preimplantation cell number may affect birthweight

Dr Lieberman et al. at the Department of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Reproductive Biology at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA have measured the quality of human embryos by counting and assessing the properties of their individual cells.

2 Feb 2006

HIV revealed in 3D

HIV, the virus which leads to AIDS and which affects 40 million people across the world, has been seen in 3D detail for the first time by Oxford scientists and their colleagues in Heidelberg and Munich.

25 Jan 2006

Armpit odour can make apparent women’s fertility

Research published in the recent issue of Ethology has discovered that men are able to potentially use smell as a mechanism to establish when their current or prospective sexual partners are at their most fertile.

16 Jan 2006

Transport mechanisms for serotonin

Researchers at The Forsyth Institute have discovered that the transport mechanisms for serotonin - the chemical substance involved in transmitting signals between neurons, and which has a role in anxiety and mood disorders - play a key role in determining where organs are positioned in the body during embryonic development.

7 Dec 2005

Comprehensive analysis of DNA barcodes

With species around the world disappearing faster than biologists can identify them, many scientists pinned their hopes on DNA barcoding, a recently proposed strategy that treats a short fragment of DNA as a sort of universal product code to identify species.

30 Nov 2005

Pancreatic cancer and ecoendoscopy

Cancer of the pancreas is the number five in the list of deaths due to cancers in Spain and the third causing deaths due to digestive tumour.

28 Nov 2005

Patient-specific stem cell lines - now a real possibility

Immune rejection problems could affect any one of us. This unique research shows that producing individual patient cell lines for our own future needs is now something we might all want to consider.

28 Nov 2005

Cichlid fish provide better understanding of the genetic factors that regulate bone shape

Researchers at the Forsyth Institute have discovered that the genes that influence the jaws of cichlid fish, tropical freshwater fish renowned for head shape diversity, offer insight into overall vertebrate diversity.

30 Oct 2005

Ubiquitin ligase Rnf6 may be involved in oncogenesis

In a recent study, Dr. Ingolf Bach and colleagues from the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester and the University of Hamburg describe a novel role for the ubiquitin/proteosome protein degradation pathway in the regulation of local actin dynamics in neurons.

3 Oct 2005

Sperm testing in UK labs fails to meet World Health Organization standards

Teams from the Universities of Bristol and Sheffield found only five per cent of the clinics met all WHO standards for assessing the size and shape of sperm.

30 Aug 2005

Researchers use PET/CT for molecular imaging of the heart

For the first time, researchers used positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) for imaging the subcellar function of the heart - from its subcellular function to its morphologic appearance. The results of the study were reported at the Society of Nuclear Medicine's 52nd Annual Meeting June 18–22 in Toronto.

20 Jun 2005

Obesity is associated with an impairment of coronary circulatory function

A team of University of California, Los Angeles researchers found that positron emission tomography (PET) can provide important information on the relationship between heart function and obesity. Their findings were reported at the Society of Nuclear Medicine's 52nd Annual Meeting June 18–22 in Toronto.

20 Jun 2005

Vitamin A's paradoxical role in influencing symmetry during embryonic development revealed

In this week's journal Nature, scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies report that they have solved one of the "holy grail" puzzles of developmental biology: the existence of a mechanism that insures that the exterior of our bodies is symmetrical while inner organs are arranged asymmetrically.

11 May 2005

Discovery may pave way for immunotherapies for prostate cancer

Using a common chemotherapy agent, researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center and the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine found a way to move an important biomarker expressed in prostate cancer, shaking it loose from one location in a cell – where it could not be accessed by blood – to another, easier to target area.

11 May 2005