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Researchers study role of small non-coding RNAs expressed in the human male germline

Researchers from the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute in Barcelona, Spain, have studied the role of a peculiar class of small non-coding RNAs that are mainly expressed in the human male germline.

22 Nov 2013

Board of Visitors approves resolution to create Faculty of Health Sciences

At its quarterly meeting this week, Virginia Tech's Board of Visitors approved a resolution to create a Faculty of Health Sciences.

22 Nov 2013

Targeting single enzyme in the obese could help prevent and treat diabetes

A single overactive enzyme worsens the two core defects of diabetes—impaired insulin sensitivity and overproduction of glucose—suggesting that a drug targeting the enzyme could help correct both at once, according to mouse studies done by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center. The findings were published today in the online edition of Cell Metabolism.

22 Nov 2013

Studies link hundreds of gene mutations in the brain to increased autism risk

Pity the poor autism researcher. Recent studies have linked hundreds of gene mutations scattered throughout the brain to increased autism risk. Where do you start?

22 Nov 2013

Sugar is not direct cause of tooth decay

The effects of sugar on teeth are widely talked about. How many times have you been told that if you eat sugar, you will damage your teeth and develop cavities?

22 Nov 2013

Frequent consumption of peanuts lowers risk of death

A major study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that men and women who ate an ounce of peanuts daily reduced their risk of death from all causes by up to 20%. Results also showed that peanut eaters were leaner. This gives people another great reason to get their daily handful of peanuts.

22 Nov 2013

Researchers to discuss effects of alcohol on immune system at AIRIG meeting

On Nov. 22, leading alcohol researchers from the United States and Europe will present the latest findings on how alcohol impairs the immune system.

22 Nov 2013

Brown fat stem cells may lead to new treatments for heart and endocrine disorders

Obesity and diabetes have become a global epidemic leading to severe cardiovascular disease. Researchers at the University of Utah believe their recent identification of brown fat stem cells in adult humans may lead to new treatments for heart and endocrine disorders, according to a new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Stem Cells.

22 Nov 2013

NYSCF partners with NIH to generate stem cell for treating rare diseases

In what is anticipated to be a major step forward for rare disease research, The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute is partnering with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Undiagnosed Disease Program (UDP).

22 Nov 2013

Study reveals how obesity alters our relationship to food

Obesity may alter the way we taste at the most fundamental level: by changing how our tongues react to different foods.

22 Nov 2013

Researchers identify a group of 39 genes linked with alcoholism

There is good evidence from studies of families and twins that genetics plays an important role in the development of alcoholism. However, hundreds of genes likely are involved in this complex disorder, with each variant contributing only a very small effect. Thus, identifying individual risk genes is difficult.

21 Nov 2013

Unemployed men show signs of faster ageing in their DNA

Men who are unemployed for more than two years show signs of faster ageing in their DNA, a new study has found.

21 Nov 2013

Attractants prevent maturing nerve cells from migrating into brain

A vision is to implant nerve precursor cells in the diseased brains of patients with Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases, whereby these cells are to assume the function of the cells that have died off.

21 Nov 2013

Probe to measure immune function could lead to determine nanoparticle-based drugs for cancer patients

The development of a probe to measure the body's immune function could lead to more accurate, individualized doses for cancer patients prescribed nanoparticle-based drugs, according to research conducted at the University of North Carolina.

21 Nov 2013

Brown University biologists find way to measure effects of aging

Biologists at Brown University have found a way to measure the effects of aging by watching the ebb and flow of chromatin, a structure along strands of DNA that either silences or permits gene expression. In several newly published experiments they show that gene silencing via chromatin in fruit flies declines with age.

21 Nov 2013

Researchers engineering first-ever living, three-dimensional human arrhythmic tissue

A foundational study published in top biomedical journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) this week by researchers at the University of Toronto's Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering and the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine have identified the optimal structure and cell ratio associated with heart function - and the discovery has already led the team to another research first: the engineering of the first-ever living, three-dimensional human arrhythmic tissue.

21 Nov 2013

New method uses lab-on-a-chip device and cell phone to determine concentration of molecules

In developing nations, rural areas, and even one's own home, limited access to expensive equipment and trained medical professionals can impede the diagnosis and treatment of disease.

21 Nov 2013

Buck Institute research provides method to study sarcopenia

Our epigenome is a set of chemical switches that turn parts of our genome off and on at strategic times and locations. These switches help alter the way our cells act and are impacted by environmental factors including diet, exercise and stress. Research at the Buck Institute reveals that aging also effects the epigenome in human skeletal muscle. The study, appearing on line in Aging Cell, provides a method to study sarcopenia, the degenerative loss of muscle mass that begins in middle age.

21 Nov 2013

Covagen, TRL expand research collaboration to generate bispecific FynomAb

Covagen and Tanabe Research Laboratories U.S.A, Inc., a fully owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation, today announced that they expanded their strategic research collaboration. MTPC and TRL have nominated a first bispecific FynomAb for formal preclinical development which triggered an undisclosed milestone payment. MTPC and TRL also exercised an option for a second bispecific FynomAb program based on the parties' research and licensing agreement signed in October 2012.

21 Nov 2013

Cedars-Sinai study presents new insights into mechanisms underlying the symptoms of autism

In what are believed to be the first studies of their kind, Cedars-Sinai researchers recording the real-time firing of individual nerve cells in the brain found that a specific type of neuron in a structure called the amygdala performed differently in people who suffer from autism spectrum disorder than in those who do not.

21 Nov 2013