Laboratory News and Research

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Stress can give the immune system a beneficial boost

New research in mice provides more evidence that a brief bout of stress can give the immune system a beneficial boost – under certain conditions.

19 Apr 2005

Test kit mistake - labs in race to destroy deadly flu virus

As many as 3,750 medical laboratories, all but 75 of which are in the U.S., have been told by the World Health Organization to destroy a pandemic flu virus sent to them as part of routine testing kits.

13 Apr 2005

Common genetic mutation that increases the risk of inheriting Hirschsprung disease

Gene hunters at Johns Hopkins have discovered a common genetic mutation that increases the risk of inheriting a particular birth defect not by the usual route of disrupting the gene's protein-making instructions, but by altering a regulatory region of the gene. Although the condition, called Hirschsprung disease, is rare, its complex genetics mimics that of more common diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease.

13 Apr 2005

Researchers and drug giant team up to find cure for CJD

The Medical Research Council's Prion Unit, based at University College London, a leading British research group, is joining forces with drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to develop a cure for the disease Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD).

12 Apr 2005

New optical method will help diagnose various types of skin cancers

A new optical method that can image subsurface structures under skin has been demonstrated by scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

12 Apr 2005

New findings about insulin-signaling in the liver could prove useful in understanding type 2 diabetes

A collaborative effort led by The Burnham Institute's Gen-Sheng Feng has created a mouse with improved glucose tolerance and insulin activity in the liver, and generated new findings about insulin-signaling in the liver that could prove useful in understanding the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes.

12 Apr 2005

Levels of anti–clotting proteins influence pregancy outcomes

Recurrent miscarriage, stillbirth, preeclampsia, poor fetal growth, preterm delivery and bleeding in pregnancy are influenced by low levels of the anti–clotting proteins Z and S, Yale School of Medicine researchers report in the March issue of Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis.

12 Apr 2005

Cardiac stem cells come closer to clinic

The laboratory of MDA grantee Kenneth Chien at the University of California-San Diego announced in a recent issue of Nature that its researchers have discovered in the hearts of mice, rats and humans a new type of stem cell that can become a mature cardiac cell.

12 Apr 2005

Alarming trends in sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) among America's young people

A study by ASHA, sponsored by Roche Diagnostics of Indianapolis, Indiana is being released in conjunction with April's STD Awareness Month and demonstrates that the incident rate of STDS in youth (ages 15-24) have increased dramatically in recent years.

12 Apr 2005

Locals resist efforts to control the worst ever outbreak of Marburg

The World Health Organisation (WHO) have sent communications experts into Uige, the epicentre of the outbreak of Marburg epidemic to help Health experts in the fight to contain and eradicate the killer virus. It is hoped they will send a clear message to Angolans to take the necessary measures to fight the virus.

12 Apr 2005

Research challenges the traditional explanation for the causes of diastolic heart failure

New research from Columbia University Medical Center is challenging the traditional explanation for the causes of the most common type of heart failure, traditionally called diastolic heart failure.

12 Apr 2005

Tissue engineering to grow bone, ligaments and cartilage

A future in which laboratory-grown organs and stimulated growth of muscle, bones and nerves could play a major role in treating medical conditions was revealed at a recent Tissue Engineering Symposium at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.

11 Apr 2005

Faster, more accurate diagnostic test for Sjogren's syndrome

Researchers in Japan are developing a faster, more accurate diagnostic test for Sjögren’s (SHOW-grins) syndrome, an incurable autoimmune disorder characterized by chronically dry eyes and dry mouth.

11 Apr 2005

Research suggests a central role for NMDA receptors in learning and memory

Learning and memory are processes that link experience with behavior and therefore play central roles in our daily experience. That there exists a physical basis for these processes seems at first hard to imagine--except for the fact that physical disruptions in the brain, such as stroke or disease, can make them go wrong.

11 Apr 2005

Ephrins may influence learning

A Burnham Institute study has found that one of the cell's largest families of signaling molecules, called ephrins, which are known to regulate the development of nerve cells, also controls nerve cells' ability to engulf critical chemicals and proteins for learning and memory.

11 Apr 2005

Now revealed that Salk polio vaccine was a team effort

The cure for polio came as a result of the collaboration between Thomas Francis Jr. and Jonas Salk.

10 Apr 2005

Assessing the function of unknown genes is feasible and can be done with a microarray phenotype

Microarrays provide a method of quantifying the expression and order of genes in a particular genome -- acting as a surrogate measure of cell physiology, said researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in a report that appears online today in the journal Nature Genetics.

10 Apr 2005

Molecular motors cooperate in moving cellular cargo

Researchers using an extremely fast and accurate imaging technique have shed light on the tiny movements of molecular motors that shuttle material within living cells. The motors cooperate in a delicate choreography of steps, rather than engaging in the brute-force tug of war many scientists had imagined.

7 Apr 2005

Oncolytic viruses may one day help treat brain tumors

New research shows that a virus designed to kill cancer cells can significantly increase the survival of mice with an incurable human brain tumor, even in some animals with advanced disease.

7 Apr 2005

Why different tissues in the human body vary in their susceptibility to "amyloid" diseases

Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute are reporting the results of a recent study that addresses why different tissues in the human body vary in their susceptibility to "amyloid" diseases, which include Alzheimer's disease and a cluster of ailments called the familial amyloidoses.

7 Apr 2005