Propagation News and Research

RSS

Study finds link between microbial signatures and triple negative breast cancer

Cancer is a result of normal cellular functions going wildly awry on a genetic level. That fact has been known for some time, but increasing evidence is showing that the human microbiome, the diverse population of microorganisms within every person, may play a key role in either setting the stage for cancer or even directly causing some forms of it.

16 Oct 2015

Using deep learning to analyze genetic mutations: an interview with Brendan Frey

To understand deep learning in the context of genetic disease, you need to understand shallow learning first. Shallow learning relates mutations to diseases by looking for mutations that commonly occur in patients with a disease. It’s a commonly used method.

21 Sep 2015

Determining the dynein-dynactin complex structure: an interview with Dr Gabriel C. Lander

This is a macromolecular assembly is made up of two components, dynein and dynactin, that works to move molecular cargo (organelles, RNA, vesicles, proteins, viruses) along microtubule highways within our cells.

16 Aug 2015

New study reveals protein's critical role in development and progression of AML

A new study by researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine reveals a protein's critical - and previously unknown -- role in the development and progression of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a fast-growing and extremely difficult-to-treat blood cancer.

24 Jul 2015

Researchers receive NSF RAPID response grants to develop computer model for Ebola spread

Identifying and tracking individuals affected by the Ebola virus in densely populated areas presents a unique and urgent set of challenges in public health surveillance.

14 May 2015

Researchers discover potential mechanism to combat haemorrhagic diseases

A potential mechanism to combat diseases caused by haemorrhagic fever viruses has been discovered by researchers at the University of Montreal's Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine. These diseases present a dramatic risk to human health as they often spread quickly and kill a high percentage of infected individuals, as demonstrated by the recent Ebola outbreaks.

11 May 2015

Knowing the physical structure of amyloid beta-42 offers new view on amyloid propagation in Alzheimer's

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have determined the molecular structure of one of the proteins in the fine fibers of the brain plaques that are a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. This molecule, called amyloid beta-42, is toxic to nerve cells and is believed to provoke the disease cascade.

8 May 2015

Max Planck Institute researchers find protein profiles of DNA repair

During each cell division, more than 3.3 billion base pairs of genomic DNA have to be duplicated and segregated accurately to daughter cells. But what happens when the DNA template is damaged in such a way that the replication machinery gets stuck? To answer this question, scientists in the team of Matthias Mann at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried near Munich, with colleagues in Copenhagen and at Harvard, have analyzed how the protein composition of the DNA replication machinery changes upon encountering damaged DNA.

5 May 2015

Texas Biomed scientists awarded NIH grant to develop potential HPV-based HIV vaccine

Scientists at Texas Biomedical Research Institute have begun work on a nearly $3.4 million study funded by the National Institutes of Health over the next four years to create an attenuated, or weakened, virus that is a hybrid of the papilloma virus and the human immunodeficiency virus, with the potential to jumpstart a body's immune response to develop antibodies against both viruses.

30 Apr 2015

Scientists develop mathematical model to digitally map communication between heart cells

A team of scientists led by Johns Hopkins cardiologist and biomedical engineer Hiroshi Ashikaga, M.D., Ph.D., has developed a mathematical model to measure and digitally map the beat-sustaining electrical flow between heart cells.

11 Mar 2015

Snai1 protein plays major role in deciding fate of intestinal stem cells

An international group of researchers has shown that a regulatory protein involved in controlling how cancer spreads through the body also influences the fate of stem cells in the intestine of mice. The results, which are published in The EMBO Journal, show that the Snai1 protein plays an important role in deciding the fate of intestinal stem cells and the different functions that these cells can adopt.

10 Mar 2015

New Endoscopic Technique

A flexible wide-field endoscope utilising blue excitation light provides label-free contrast of tissue based on fluorescence lifetime imaging of tissue autofluorescence.

10 Feb 2015

Scientists identify gene that helps regulate development of central nervous system

Scientists have identified a gene that helps regulate how well nerves of the central nervous system are insulated, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report.

23 Jan 2015

Taiwan Biophotonic releases DOE reflective sensor for fingerless wrist-worn pulse oximeters

Taiwan Biophotonic Co., a leading provider of non-invasive vital signs sensing solutions, today announced the release of its DOE reflective sensor for fingerless wrist-worn pulse oximeters, which makes a quantum leap forward in the wearable healthcare and medical devices.

7 Jan 2015

Scrapie pathogens can convert human prion protein to a pathological state

INRA scientists have shown for the first time that the pathogens responsible for scrapie in small ruminants (prions) have the potential to convert the human prion protein from a healthy state to a pathological state. In mice models reproducing the human species barrier, this prion induces a disease similar to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

24 Dec 2014

Controlling neural excitations may help prevent detrimental effects like those in stroke, say scientists

What do lasers, neural networks, and spreading epidemics have in common? They share a most basic feature whereby an initial pulse can propagate through a medium - be it physical, biological or socio-economic, respectively. The challenge is to gain a better understanding - and eventually control - of such systems, allowing them to be applied, for instance to real neural systems. This is the objective of a new theoretical study published in EPJ B by Clemens Bachmair and Eckehard Schöll from the Berlin University of Technology in Germany.

4 Dec 2014

New statistical test can help doctors locate seizures, make surgery more effective

A new statistical test that looks at the patterns of high-frequency network activity flow from brain signals can help doctors pinpoint the exact location of seizures occurring in the brain and make surgery more effective, according to researchers at Georgia State University and Emory University School of Medicine.

5 Nov 2014

New scaling law helps predict humans' risk of blast-induced traumatic brain injury

Since the start of the military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, more than 300,000 soldiers have returned to the United States with traumatic brain injury caused by exposure to bomb blasts - and in particular, exposure to improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. Symptoms of traumatic brain injury can range from the mild, such as lingering headaches and nausea, to more severe impairments in memory and cognition.

30 Sep 2014

Researchers develop protein therapy that may stop cancer growth

A team of Stanford researchers has developed a protein therapy that disrupts the process that causes cancer cells to break away from original tumor sites, travel through the blood stream and start aggressive new growths elsewhere in the body.

22 Sep 2014

Microtechnologies to tackle problems of mobility industry and life sciences

CIC microGUNE, the Co-operative Research Centre into Microtechnologies, is coordinating the microSCALE project which seeks to generate innovative solutions based on microtechnologies to tackle the problems of the mobility industry and life sciences, among others.

28 Aug 2014