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Simvastatin may help sufferers with Alzheimer's

Treatment with Simvastatin, one of the statin drugs widely used for lowering cholesterol in humans, significantly improved spatial memory - how to navigate a water maze - in mice genetically bred to have an Alzheimer's like disease.

1 May 2007

Miscue of body's genetic repair system may cause Huntington's disease

Mayo Clinic researchers, along with collaborators from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and University of Oslo, Norway, have discovered that a miscue of the body's genetic repair system may cause Huntington's disease, a fatal condition that affects 30,000 Americans annually by destroying their nervous system.

24 Apr 2007

Study improves understanding of early ovarian cancer

A new University of Michigan Medical School study sheds light on cell defects that lead to one common type of ovarian cancer and puts forth a promising new mouse model that already is being used for preclinical drug testing.

12 Apr 2007

New mouse model for ovarian cancer

12 Apr 2007

Scientists link treatment-induced growth factor to cancer spread

In advanced cancer, anti-tumor therapies often work only partially or not at all, and tumors progress following treatment.

7 Apr 2007

New methods for creating and detecting specific proteins

In their native form, the thousands of assorted proteins in our body are virtually indistinguishable.

5 Apr 2007

New research agreement to boost rice production, avoid food shortages in Indonesia

Efforts by Indonesia to avoid food shortages by increasing its rice production have received an important boost with the signing of a new agreement to help the nation's millions of poor rice farmers with new technologies.

3 Apr 2007

Scientists invent way to reversibly silence brain cells using pulses of yellow light

Scientists at the MIT Media Lab have invented a way to reversibly silence brain cells using pulses of yellow light, offering the prospect of controlling the haywire neuron activity that occurs in diseases such as epilepsy and Parkinson's disease.

2 Apr 2007

Possible therapeutic target for Duchenne muscular dystrophy

In the April 1st issue of Genes & Development, Dr. Bruce Spiegelman (Dana Farber Cancer Institute) and colleagues identify a key genetic component of and possible therapeutic target for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

2 Apr 2007

Researchers use poliovirus to destroy neuroblastoma tumors in mice

The cause of one notorious childhood disease, poliovirus, could be used to treat the ongoing threat of another childhood disease, neuroblastoma.

15 Mar 2007

Interferon gamma identified as one of the signaling proteins involved with tumor relapse

Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University's Massey Cancer Center studying the interaction between the immune system and cancer cells have identified interferon gamma as one of the signaling proteins involved with tumor relapse.

13 Mar 2007

Researchers show how endocrine cell types are produced in the pancreas

An international research team has identified the process by which pancreatic progenitor cells give rise to different endocrine cell types.

8 Mar 2007

microRNAs undergo molecular editing with significant physiological consequences

Tiny molecules called microRNAs, only 19 to 21 nucleotides in length, are able to effectively silence sometimes large sets of genes. They do this by specifically binding to and neutralizing another form of RNA called messenger RNA, responsible for conveying the information from genes to the cellular machinery that uses that information to create proteins, the building blocks of the body.

22 Feb 2007

Why is heart shaped like it is?

How does the heart attain its characteristic shape? Shape may be sculpted by cell movement, cell division, or changes in cell size and shape, all of which can be influenced by the local environment. The heart appears as a simple tube early in development; later, the tube walls bulge outward to form the cardiac chambers.

20 Feb 2007

Peptide vaccine fights off breast tumors with help of bacteria-mimicking agents

With the help of immune system-stimulating molecules that mimic bacterial components, researchers have used a type of cancer vaccine to both delay and prevent breast tumors in mice.

1 Feb 2007

An active mind delays the onset of Alzheimer's

Learning appears to slow the development of two brain lesions that are the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease, scientists at UC Irvine have discovered. The finding suggests that the elderly, by keeping their minds active, can help delay the onset of this degenerative disease.

23 Jan 2007

Retinoblastoma gene may play a critical role in the development of the placenta

An important cancer-related gene may play a critical role in the development of the placenta, the organ that controls nutrient and oxygen exchange between a mother and her fetus during pregnancy, and perhaps in miscarriages.

10 Jan 2007

Retinoblastoma gene may play a critical role in the development of the placenta

9 Jan 2007

Abnormal hair development and apparent follicular transformation to mammary gland in the absence of Hedgehog signaling

One single molecule determines how stem cells in the hair follicle develop. A study at the Sahlgrenska Academy at Göteborg University in Sweden has shown that cells that should give rise to hair can instead give rise to mammary gland cells in mice who lack this molecule.

8 Jan 2007

Stem cell therapy promises hope for muscular dystrophy victims

Italian scientists, by using new stem cell therapy on dogs with muscular dystrophy, have improved the dogs condition to such an extent that the dogs were able to walk and even jump again.

15 Nov 2006