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Leica Microsystems announces availability of ChromoPlex 1 Dual Detection for BOND

Leica Microsystems announced today the availability of Leica ChromoPlex 1 Dual Detection for BOND, the first fully automated one-step detection system allowing the co-visualization of mouse and rabbit antibodies on a single slide.

28 Nov 2011

New protein involved in defense mechanism against cancer

Researchers of the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet and the University of Cologne, Germany, have identified a new protein involved in a defense mechanism against cancer.

28 Nov 2011

Roche NimbleGen, BGI develop Major Histocompatibility Complex region capture technology

Roche NimbleGen, Inc. and BGI, the world's largest genomic organization, announced that they have developed a Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) region capture technology based on NimbleGen SeqCap EZ Choice Library, a revolutionary process for the enrichment of the MHC region.

28 Nov 2011

Potential biomarkers for ADHD

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers have identified abnormalities in the brains of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) that may serve as a biomarker for the disorder, according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

28 Nov 2011

Novel proteomics based method detects inhibition of intracellular deubiquitylating enzymes

Researchers at the University of Oxford and Progenra, Inc. are pleased to announce the publication of a research article entitled "Activity-Based Chemical Proteomics Accelerates Inhibitor Development for Deubiquitylating Enzymes" that details a novel proteomics based method to detect inhibition of intracellular deubiquitylating enzymes (DUBs).

28 Nov 2011

New creative uses of DNA 'barcoding'

The newfound scientific power to quickly "fingerprint" species via DNA is being deployed to unmask quack herbal medicines, reveal types of ancient Arctic life frozen in permafrost, expose what eats what in nature, and halt agricultural and forestry pests at borders, among other applications across a wide array of public interests.

28 Nov 2011

Rare syndrome's workings could help explain how brain wiring goes awry

Potential clues to how autism miswires the brain are emerging from a study of a rare, purely genetic form of the disorders that affects fewer than 20 people worldwide. Using cutting-edge "disease-in a-dish" technology, researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have grown patients' skin cells into neurons to discover what goes wrong in the brain in Timothy Syndrome.

28 Nov 2011

Most people with Timothy syndrome mutation have autistic symptoms

Neuroscientists at Stanford University School of Medicine have homed in on potential differences in autistic people's brain cells by studying brainlike spheres grown in an elaborate process from skin cells.

28 Nov 2011

Transplantation of new neurons into damaged area of the brain could restore brain functions

Without neurons reacting to the blood leptin level, the brain does not control the feeling of hunger and fullness. This type of genetic defects results in severe obesity in humans and animals.

25 Nov 2011

Even normal salt intake can cause hypertension in people suffering from sodium dysregulation

Hypertension is an endemic condition with far-reaching consequences. For instance, high blood pressure is the main cause of heart attacks and strokes. Other organs are also damaged by the chronic condition.

25 Nov 2011

Researchers take a step toward neuronal replacement therapy

A new study has revealed that immature neurons taken from healthy mouse embryos can repair damaged brain circuitry and partially normalize metabolism when transplanted into adult mice that have grown morbidly obese due to a genetic deficiency.

24 Nov 2011

Scientists decode how Machado-Joseph disease arises

Neurodegenerative diseases represent one of the greatest challenges of our aging society. However, investigation into these diseases is made particularly difficult due to the limited availability of human brain tissue. Scientists from the Life & Brain Research Center and Neurology Clinic of Bonn University have now taken a roundabout path: They reprogrammed skin cells from patients with a hereditary movement disorder into so-called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) and obtained functional nerve cells from them.

24 Nov 2011

Ribosomes spontaneously change their form during protein production

Ribosomes, the construction sites for proteins, are far more complex than previously assumed. During the production of proteins they constantly and spontaneously change their form. This performance of eukaryotic ribosomes has now been demonstrated for the first time by scientists at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, the Max-Planck-Institut für Molekulare Genetik in Berlin, and Cornell University in New York, with the aid of special electron microscopic and biophysical methods.

24 Nov 2011

Dantrolene reduces severity of walking and balance problems linked with HD

Huntington's disease (HD) is characterized by ongoing destruction of specific neurons within the brain. It affects a person's ability to walk, talk, and think - leading to involuntary movement and loss of muscle co-ordination. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Molecular Neurodegeneration shows that the RyanR inhibitor Dantrolene is able to reduce the severity of walking and balance problems in a mouse model of HD.

24 Nov 2011

B-type lamins are necessary for proper organ development

Scientists have long held theories about the importance of proteins called B-type lamins in the process of embryonic stem cells replicating and differentiating into different varieties of cells. New research from a team led by Carnegie's Yixian Zheng indicates that, counter to expectations, these B-type lamins are not necessary for stem cells to renew and develop, but are necessary for proper organ development.

24 Nov 2011

Carefully selected young, healthy neurons can repair brain circuitry

Neuron transplants have repaired brain circuitry and substantially normalized function in mice with a brain disorder, an advance indicating that key areas of the mammalian brain are more reparable than was widely believed.

24 Nov 2011

ABCC9 gene also influences duration of sleep in humans

A collaborative European study led by LMU researchers has shown that ABCC9, a known genetic factor in heart disease and diabetes, also influences the duration of sleep in humans.

24 Nov 2011

NIH-led study advances HIV vaccine research

HIV is coated in sugars that usually hide the virus from the immune system. Newly published research reveals how one broadly neutralizing HIV antibody actually uses part of the sugary cloak to help bind to the virus. The antibody binding site, called the V1/V2 region, represents a suitable HIV vaccine target, according to the scientists who conducted the study. In addition, their research reveals the detailed structure of the V1/V2 region, the last part of the virus surface to be visualized at the atomic level.

24 Nov 2011

Scientists discover genetic mechanism behind finger malformation

Scientists from the EPFL and the University of Geneva have discovered a genetic mechanism that defines the shape of our members in which, surprisingly, genes play only a secondary role. The research published in Cell, online the 23rd of November, shows the mechanism is found in a DNA sequence that was thought, incorrectly, to play no role.

24 Nov 2011

Study looks at effects of antipsychotic drugs on two brain receptors linked to schizophrenia

Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, have identified the pattern of cell signaling induced by antipsychotic drugs in a complex composed of two brain receptors linked to schizophrenia.

24 Nov 2011