T Cell News and Research

Latest T Cell News and Research

Brain cell mechanism for decision making also underlies judgment about certainty

Countless times a day people judge their confidence in a choice they are about to make -- that they now can safely turn left at this intersection, that they aren't sure of their answer on a quiz, that their hot coffee has cooled enough to drink.

7 May 2009

New understanding on mechanisms of early stage liver reperfusion injury

Reperfusion of a previously ischemic tissue is associated with additional injury leading to structural and functional alterations in many organs including the liver.

7 May 2009

Discovery of gene key to Alzheimer's-like reversal

A team led by researchers at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory has now pinpointed the exact gene responsible for a 2007 breakthrough in which mice with symptoms of Alzheimer's disease regained long-term memories and the ability to learn

6 May 2009

Loss of stromal protein major new prognostic factor in patients with breast cancer

Reporting online in the American Journal of Pathology, researchers from the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson have implicated the loss of a stromal protein called caveolin-1 as a major new prognostic factor in patients with breast cancer, predicting early disease recurrence, metastasis and breast cancer patient survival.

6 May 2009

Three genes play a role in breast cancer's spread to the brain

New research led by investigators at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) identifies three genes that specifically mediate the metastasis, or spread, of breast cancer to the brain and illuminates the mechanisms by which this spread occurs. The study was published online today in Nature.

6 May 2009

New tag could enable more detailed structural studies of mammalian proteins

To say our genes are resourceful is a gross understatement. Through ingenious combinations of a paltry 20 amino acids, the basic building blocks of life, genes engineer all of the tissues and organs that are the marvel of our working bodies.

6 May 2009

Discovery of method to neutralize tumor growth in embryonic stem cell therapy

Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have discovered a method to potentially eliminate the tumor-risk factor in utilizing human embryonic stem cells. Their work paves the way for further progress in the promising field of stem cell therapy.

6 May 2009

Research shows why certain atherosclerotic lesions can turn deadly

A common misconception about arterial plaque is that it inevitably leads to a heart attack or a stroke. New research at Columbia University Medical Center, however, sheds light on why so few plaques in any given individual actually cause a problem. Furthermore, the research has identified a key protein that may promote the conversion from benign to dangerous plaques.

5 May 2009

Estrogen plays a key role in how the brain processes sounds

The findings, published in today's issue of The Journal of Neuroscience, show for the first time that a sex hormone can directly affect auditory function, and point toward the possibility that estrogen controls other types of sensory processing as well.

5 May 2009

Drugs designed to tackle endoplasmic reticulum stress might be useful in treating heart disease

Researchers say they have evidence to explain what separates your average blood vessel plaque from those that are at high risk for triggering the development of dangerous - even fatal - blood clots.

5 May 2009

New DEAR1 gene predicts local recurrence in early-onset breast cancer

A newly discovered gene known as DEAR1 is mutated in breast cancer and is an independent predictor of local recurrence-free survival in early-onset breast cancer, a research team headed by scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reports in the journal PLoS Medicine.

5 May 2009

Scientists coax skin cells to behave like muscle cells and vice versa

Even cells aren't immune to peer pressure. Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have now shown that skin cells can be coaxed to behave like muscle cells - and muscle cells like skin cells - solely by altering who they hang out with: the relative levels of the ingredients inside the cell.

5 May 2009

Snippet of RNA helps make individuals alike

"No two people are alike." Yet when we consider the thousands of genes with frequent differences in genetic composition among different people, it is remarkable how much alike we are.

5 May 2009

Tea may be new treatment for type-2 diabetics

The researchers have harvested the ingredients for the tea in Africa, totalling approximately fifty kilos of leaves and three hundred kilos of fruit from the wild nature of Nigeria. Afterwards the tea has been produced exactly as local healers would do so. The recipe is quite simple: boil the leaves, young stalks and fruit and filter the liquid.

5 May 2009

Researchers target telomeres to attack tumors

Hoping to develop more effective long-term attacks on cancer, researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine are conducting the first human tests of a breast cancer drug regimen that includes a compound meant to force cancer cells to grow old and die.

5 May 2009

Potential molecular target for new schizophrenia treatments

A study on schizophrenia has implicated machinery that maintains the flow of potassium in cells and revealed a potential molecular target for new treatments. Expression of a previously unknown form of a key such potassium channel was found to be 2.5 fold higher than normal in the brain memory hub of people with the chronic mental illness and linked to a hotspot of genetic variation.

5 May 2009

Protein kinase JNK1 identified as treatment target for retinopathy in premature babies

Results of a study in mice by researchers at the University of California, San Diego strongly suggest that the protein kinase JNK1 plays a key role in the development of retinopathy in premature infants.

4 May 2009

Scientists discover pattern of genetic faults to predict cancer drug success

A pattern of genetic defects in tumours could indicate whether ovarian cancer patients will respond to common chemotherapy drugs before treatment starts, reveals a Cancer Research UK study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences today (Monday).

4 May 2009

New findings on how lithium may help radiation target cancer

Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center investigators have uncovered a mechanism that helps explain how lithium, a drug widely used to treat bipolar mood disorder, also protects the brain from damage that occurs during radiation treatments.

4 May 2009