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Elevated levels of cardiac troponins T or I after angioplasty linked to long-term all-cause mortality

New research shows that elevated levels of cardiac troponin T (cTnT) or I (cTnI) in patients who had angioplasty indicate a higher risk of all-cause mortality and long-term adverse events such as heart attack.

13 May 2011

New study sheds light on origins of myeloid leukemia

A new study by the NYU Cancer Institute, an NCI-designated cancer center, sheds light on the origins of myeloid leukemia, a type of blood cancer that affects children and adults.

13 May 2011

UCSD scientists discover steroid hormone that inhibits brain inflammation

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have discovered a steroid hormone that inhibits inflammation in the brain. The findings, to be published in the May 13 issue of the journal Cell, have implications for understanding the exaggerated inflammatory responses that are characteristic features of numerous neurodegenerative diseases.

13 May 2011

CAMH scientist identifies gene responsible for Joubert syndrome

A new study involving Canada's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health has found a gene connected with a type of intellectual disability called Joubert syndrome.

13 May 2011

Gene manipulation can improve survival rates during sepsis infection

Sepsis is a major killer in hospital intensive care units. Researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have found that manipulating a genetic factor that can launch or throttle the body's defenses can improve survival rates during bacterial infection.

13 May 2011

Study offers hints to why Parkinson's so selectively harms dopamine-producing cells

New data offer hints to why Parkinson's disease so selectively harms brain cells that produce the chemical dopamine, say researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

13 May 2011

Scientists discover enzyme that controls K-Ras gene responsible for lung cancer growth

Cancer Research UK scientists have discovered that an enzyme called C-Raf controls a hugely important gene responsible for the development of lung cancer, according to research published in Cancer Discovery.

13 May 2011

New computational model can analyze living cells, social networks

At first glance, a diagram of the complex network of genes that regulate cellular metabolism might seem hopelessly complex, and efforts to control such a system futile. However, an MIT researcher has come up with a new computational model that can analyze any type of complex network - biological, social or electronic - and reveal the critical points that can be used to control the entire system.

13 May 2011

Researchers identify miRNA in blood serum of lung cancer patients

Researchers have identified characteristic patterns of molecules called microRNA in the blood of people with lung cancer that might reveal both the presence and aggressiveness of the disease, and perhaps who is at risk of developing it.

13 May 2011

Scientists uncover gene responsible for Adams-Oliver Syndrome

Scientists at King's College London have, for the first time, uncovered a gene responsible for Adams-Oliver Syndrome, a condition which can cause birth defects of the heart, limbs, or blood vessels.

13 May 2011

Study provides evidence that adult planarians harbor pluripotent stem cells

A single adult cell from one of the most impressive masters of regeneration in the animal kingdom - the planarian - is all it takes to build a completely functional new worm, researchers have learned. The study provides the first hard evidence that adult planarians harbor pluripotent stem cells - cells capable of producing the diverse range of tissue types necessary to build a complete animal.

13 May 2011

Mosquito's midgut bacteria can inhibit malaria parasite development

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have identified a bacterium in field-caught mosquitoes that, when present, stops the development of Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes malaria in humans.

13 May 2011

New method for mapping myelin sheaths of nerve cells

Researchers including members from the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen have developed a new method for making detailed X-ray images of brain cells.

13 May 2011

Liver cells made in the lab using skin cells: Study

In a medical breakthrough, researchers have been able to convert skin cells into liver cells. This could one day eliminate the need for organ transplants, they say.

12 May 2011

McGill research team finds distinct disease-causing mutations and saves baby girl

About two years ago, Dr. Philippe Gros, a McGill University professor in the Department of Biochemistry and a Principal Investigator in thd McGill Life Sciences Complex, described a mouse mutant that was immunodeficient and hypersensitive to the Bacille Calmette-Gu-rin (BCG) vaccine and to tuberculosis (TB).

12 May 2011

59-year-old enrolls in study of stem cell transplantation during cardiac bypass

A 59-year-old Houston man became the first individual in the United States to enroll in a study using stem cell transplantation during cardiac bypass to treat severe heart failure.

12 May 2011

$100,000 needed to analyze '$1,000' genetic data

Advances in technology have almost lifted the curtain on the long-awaited era of the "$1,000 genome" - a time when all the genes that make up a person can be deciphered for about that amount - compared to nearly $1 million a few years ago.

12 May 2011

Researchers help explain why smart drugs are not effective in some cancer patients

Some of the most effective and expensive cancer drugs, dubbed "smart drugs" for their ability to stop tumors by targeting key drivers of cancer cell growth, are not effective in some patients. In two related studies, Yale School of Medicine researchers examined one such driver, the EGF receptor, and found that a decoy receptor might be limiting the amount of drug that gets to the intended target.

12 May 2011

Chemical engineer builds working models of human tissues for disease research

Shelly Peyton, a chemical engineer at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is building working models of human bone, breast, liver and artery tissues to see how cells behave when they are affected by a disease such as cancer.

12 May 2011

New organocatalyst now available for drug development industry

A new "organocatalyst" developed at Oregon State University is now available for commercial use. Produced by an Albany, Ore., pharmaceutical company, it should make new drug development around the world less costly, more efficient and more environmentally friendly.

12 May 2011