Medical Science News

RSS

Conserved gene expression reveals our 'inner fish'

A study of gene expression in chickens, frogs, pufferfish, mice and people has revealed surprising similarities in several key tissues.

15 Apr 2009

Chemists synthesize natural alkaloid that could have anti-cancer properties

The club moss Lycopodium serratum is a creeping, flowerless plant used in homeopathic medicine to treat a wide variety of ailments.

15 Apr 2009

Novel procedure for sequencing the human genome

Since the human genome was sequenced six years ago, the cost of producing a high-quality genome sequence has dropped precipitously.

15 Apr 2009

Scientists uncover mimicry at the molecular level that protects genome integrity

The new study, which was published on April 12, 2009, in an advanced online edition of the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, draws new parallels between the Rad60 DNA repair factor and SUMO, a small ubiquitin-like modifier, which are both essential for maintaining genome stability during replication.

13 Apr 2009

Chinese scientists use mouse stem cells to grow new eggs

Scientists in China say by using stem cells from the ovaries of young and adult female mice they have been able to generate new eggs.

13 Apr 2009

Research defines neurons that control sociability in worms

Ants colonize. Fish shoal. Flamingos flock and caribou herd. Earth is populated by inherently social beings. Even lowly worms seek out the benefits of companionship.

12 Apr 2009

Novel method for comprehensive proteome analysis

Investigators at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) have deciphered a large percentage of the total protein complement (proteome) in Schizosaccharomyces pombe (S. pombe) fission yeast.

9 Apr 2009

DNA origami rectangle made with 'bottom-up' construction approach

The construction of complex man-made objects--a car, for example, or even a pizza--almost invariably entails what are known as "top-down" processes, in which the structure and order of the thing being built is imposed from the outside (say, by an automobile assembly line, or the hands of the pizza maker).

9 Apr 2009

Cooperative behaviors and evolutionary theory

One of the perplexing questions raised by evolutionary theory is how cooperative behavior, which benefits other members of a species at a cost to the individual, came to exist.

6 Apr 2009

Frogs reveal clues about the effects of alcohol during development

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) and Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) cause malformations in babies, including facial defects, short stature, and mental and behavioral abnormalities.

6 Apr 2009

Scientists show how a neuron gets its shape

Ask a simple question, get a simple answer: When Abraham Lincoln was asked how long a man's legs should be, he absurdly replied, "Long enough to reach the ground."

6 Apr 2009

Scientists first evidence of cell-to-cell communication by amino acids

A team of researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Engineering in Medicine (MGH-CEM) has found the first evidence of cell-to-cell communication by amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, rather than by known protein signaling agents such as growth factors or cytokines.

6 Apr 2009

NIH Nanotechnology Task Force and the NIH Nanomedicine Roadmap initiative host NanoWeek 2009

The NIH Nanotechnology Task Force and the NIH Nanomedicine Roadmap Initiative will host NanoWeek 2009 from Tuesday, April 7 through Friday, April 10 at the Natcher Conference Center on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Md. NIH's first-of-a-kind series of events focusing on science at the nanoscale, NanoWeek 2009 will include symposia with experts in the field, demonstrations, talks, and posters from NIH scientists.

4 Apr 2009

Inactivity of proteins behind longer shelf life when freezing

Frozen biological material, for example food, can be kept for a long time without perishing.

2 Apr 2009

Magnetic nanoparticles used to manipulate human cells

The power of magnetism may address a major problem facing bioengineers as they try to create new tissue -- getting human cells to not only form structures, but to stimulate the growth of blood vessels to nourish that growth.

1 Apr 2009

Model brain explains limitations of working memory

Researchers at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet (KI) have constructed a mathematical activity model of the brain's anterior and superior parts, to increase the understanding of the capacity of the working memory and of how the billions of neurons in the brain interact.

31 Mar 2009