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Body rids itself of excess copper through urine: New study

Scientists have long known that the body rids itself of excess copper and various other minerals by collecting them in the liver and excreting them through the liver's bile. However, a new study led by Johns Hopkins researchers and published June 22 in PLoS One suggests that when this route is impaired there's another exit route just for copper: A molecule sequesters only that mineral and routes it from the body through urine.

14 Jul 2012

Health risks of egg donation for young females

News is just breaking in India about Sushma Pandey, a 17-year-old young woman who died in 2010, two days after her third "egg donation." Her death is being attributed to the procedures used to extract eggs from healthy, desirable young females like Ms. Pandey. These eggs are often resold to affluent westerners for use in commercial production of their children. Her post-mortem report states she had "one abrasion, four contusions and a blood clot in the head, plus six injection marks" as well as "congestion in the ovaries and uterus."

14 Jul 2012

Study shows why co-morbid conditions can result in impaired vision

Hypertension frequently coexists in patients with diabetes. A new University of Georgia study shows why the co-morbid conditions can result in impaired vision.

14 Jul 2012

Ajuba protein plays a central role in regulating function of heart stem cells

It is not unusual for babies to be born with congenital heart defects. This is because the development of the heart in the embryo is a process which is not only extremely complex, but also error-prone. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research in Bad Nauheim have now identified a key molecule that plays a central role in regulating the function of stem cells in the heart.

14 Jul 2012

New paper documents discovery of novel lipids, including MC3

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, a leading RNAi therapeutics company, and collaborators announced today the publication of a scientific paper documenting the discovery of novel lipids used in second generation lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) for systemic delivery of RNAi therapeutics.

14 Jul 2012

Two cellular proteins team up to provide steady supply of RBCs

Two cellular proteins team up to provide a steady supply of red blood cells (RBCs), according to a study by Lizhao Wu, PhD, of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-New Jersey Medical School, and colleagues.

14 Jul 2012

WUSM receives NHLBI grant to study heart disease in patients with diabetes

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have received a $4.7 million grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to investigate heart disease in patients with diabetes.

14 Jul 2012

Obesity-fighting tissue in humans is actually not quite brown, says study

The calorie-burning and heat-generating brown fat found in full-grown humans is actually not quite brown; it's beige. So says a new study reported on July 12th in the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, in which researchers fully characterize this promising obesity-fighting tissue in both mice and humans for the first time.

14 Jul 2012

Researchers identify potassium channel as an autoantibody target in MS

For the first time, scientists in Germany's multiple sclerosis competence network have been able to identify an antibody that bonds with the potassium channel KIR4.1.

14 Jul 2012

Researchers define interaction between two essential proteins that control inflammation

Researchers at the IRCM, led by geneticist Dr. Jacques Drouin, recently defined the interaction between two essential proteins that control inflammation.

14 Jul 2012

Five rare mutations in single gene increase chances of boys developing ASD

Researchers at Emory University School of Medicine have identified five rare mutations in a single gene that appear to increase the chances that a boy will develop an autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

13 Jul 2012

Scientists isolate new type of energy-burning fat cell

Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have isolated a new type of energy-burning fat cell in adult humans which they say may have therapeutic potential for treating obesity.

13 Jul 2012

Discovery sheds light on why human body is unable to fight off HIV infection

University of Washington researchers have made a discovery that sheds light on why the human body is unable to adequately fight off HIV infection.

13 Jul 2012

UC Davis, CDC, Agilent and FDA partner to develop public database of foodborne pathogen genomes

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the University of California, Davis, Agilent Technologies Inc., and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced today a collaboration to create a public database of 100,000 foodborne pathogen genomes to help speed identification of bacteria responsible for foodborne outbreaks.

12 Jul 2012

Eisai, Verastem partner for next-generation of small molecule Wnt inhibitors

Verastem, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing drugs to treat breast and other cancers by targeting cancer stem cells, announced a research collaboration with Eisai for the next-generation of small molecule Wnt inhibitors.

12 Jul 2012

Superorganism view of the human body

Amid the growing recognition that only a small fraction of the cells and genes in a typical human being are human, scientists are suggesting a revolutionary approach to developing new medicines and treatments to target both the human and non-human components of people. That's the topic of an article, which reviews work relating to this topic from almost 100 studies, in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research.

12 Jul 2012

PGC-1alpha and TFEB provide two new therapeutic targets for Huntington's disease

In a paper published in the July 11 online issue of Science Translational Medicine, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have identified two key regulatory proteins critical to clearing away misfolded proteins that accumulate and cause the progressive, deadly neurodegeneration of Huntington's disease.

12 Jul 2012

Manipulating retinal recipient microenvironment impacts photoreceptor cell transplantation

A research team in the United Kingdom has found that insulin-like growth factor (IGF1) impacts cell transplantation of photoreceptor precursors by manipulating the retinal recipient microenvironment, enabling better migration and integration of the cells into the adult mouse retina.

12 Jul 2012

SLU professor to study how antithrombin might prevent premature death from heart disease

Alireza "Ray" Rezaie, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Saint Louis University School of Medicine, has received a $1.52 million NIH grant to study how the key blood clotting inhibitor antithrombin might be exploited to prevent premature death from heart disease.

12 Jul 2012