A research team led by Columbia University has discovered that loss of function of the CRKL gene causes kidney and urinary tract defects in people with DiGeorge syndrome, solving a 60-year-old medical mystery.
New images by Berkeley Lab scientists are providing the first visual evidence of a long-postulated physical link by which genes can receive mechanical cues from its microenvironment. Created by integrating six different imaging techniques, the images show thread-like cytofilaments reaching into and traversing a human breast cell's chromatin-packed nucleus.
After surgery to remove a cancerous tumor – even if the surgery is considered “successful” – it’s nearly impossible to ensure that all microtumors have been removed from the surgical site. Cancer recurrence is always a major concern. Meanwhile, tiny blood cells called platelets rush in to start the post-surgical healing process. What if those platelets could carry anti-cancer drugs to wipe out those microtumors? UNC and NC State scientists have developed a way to do just that, and they have shown success in animal studies, published today in Nature Biomedical Engineering.
In humans, social factors may explain ‘missing heritability’ in complex diseases.
Parkinson’s disease (PD) and other “synucleinopathies” are known to be linked to the misfolding of alpha-synuclein protein in neurons. Less clear is how this misfolding relates to the growing number of genes implicated in PD through analysis of human genetics. Researchers affiliated with Whitehead Institute and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) explain how they used a suite of novel biological and computational methods to shed light on the question.
The newly launched Genome Browser in the Cloud (GBiC) introduces new freedom to collaborate by allowing rapid Browser installation, in any UNIX-based cloud. It also offers significantly reduced installation time as compared to earlier Genome Browser versions.
Investigators at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, led by Tracy C. Grikscheit, MD, have mapped the genetic changes resulting from short bowel syndrome (SBS) using a novel zebrafish model and by performing intensive gene sequencing. This approach to determining which genes are markedly over or under expressed in SBS may assist scientists in developing future therapies for children and adults with this condition.
Paleontologists at the University of Washington, picking through a bounty of fossils from Montana, have discovered something unexpected — a new species of lizard from the late dinosaur era, whose closest relatives roamed in faraway Asia.
Scientists who study a molecule known to play a role in certain types of cancers and neurodegenerative disorders have a powerful new tool to study this compound due to research conducted at Indiana University. The study was published Jan. 23 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Scientists have found a way to inhibit the growth of glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer with low survival rates, by targeting a protein that drives growth of brain tumors, according to research from the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute and Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have exploited a common weak point in cancer cell metabolism, forcing tumor cells to reveal the backup fuel supply routes they rely on when this weak point is compromised. Mapping these secondary routes, the researchers also identified drugs that block them. They now are planning a small clinical trial in cancer patients to evaluate this treatment strategy.
Researchers at from the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center have found that the BRCA1 gene is required for the survival of blood forming stem cells, which could explain why patients with BRCA1 mutations do not have an elevated risk for leukemia. The stem cells die before they have an opportunity to transform into a blood cancer.
Researchers at The University of Kansas Cancer Center have found that high doses of drugs commonly used to fight high cholesterol can destroy a rogue protein produced by a damaged gene that is associated with nearly half of all human cancers
University of Iowa researchers have found a protein that regulates how chromosomes pair up and pass genetic information. FDK-6 dictates the speed at which maternal and paternal chromosome strands move and join in roundworms. The findings were published online this month in The Journal of Cell Biology.
Metastasis, or spread of a tumor from the site of origin to additional organs, causes the vast majority of cancer-related deaths, but our understanding of the molecular mechanisms behind metastasis remains limited. A research team led by Dean Tang, PhD, Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, examined the multistep process that leads to metastasis and their work, which illuminates the role of prostate cancer stem cells that promote tumor growth and metastasis, has been published online ahead of print in the journal Nature Communications.
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have announced the development of the first stable semisynthetic organism.
HHMI scientists develop a much-needed genetic resource that is aiding development of wheat plants with improved traits.
Tulane University researchers have discovered that the protein PHLDB3, thought to be a potential tumor suppressor, actually allows cancer cells to thrive in pancreatic, prostate, colon, breast, lung, and other common cancers. The discovery could explain how cancer is able to overcome p53 – a key tumor-suppressing protein.
New research from Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) addresses the lack of knowledge about how B cell metabolism adapts to each of their various environments-- development in the bone marrow, proliferation and hypermutation in the lymph nodes and spleen and circulation in the blood. New findings show that the protein GSK3 acts as a metabolic sensor, or checkpoint, that promotes the survival of circulating B cells while limiting growth and proliferation of B cells in germinal centers.
International researchers led by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have identified genetic alterations that can be used to guide treatment of pediatric acute megakaryoblastic leukemia, which has a dismal prognosis.
Unmasking a previously misunderstood gene, Gpr182, University of North Carolina scientists discover an unlikely potential drug target for gastrointestinal cancers.
Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) recently received the school’s highest ranking in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding since the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research began its annual ranking of medical schools in 2006. The rankings represent total NIH funding granted from October 1, 2015 through September 30, 2016. The USC Department of Ophthalmology and Department of Preventive Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC both ranked No. 2 nationally among the nation’s ophthalmology and preventive medicine departments receiving NIH funds. The Keck School of Medicine of USC also ranked No. 1 in NIH funds received per principal investigator.
Ronke Olabisi once dreamed of becoming an astronaut. Now she’s conducting research that could help space travelers and Earth-dwellers heal faster and stay healthy. “If healing people faster on Earth is going to be helpful, then it’s really going to be helpful in space,” said Olabisi, an assistant professor in Rutgers’ Department of Biomedical Engineering.
Click here to go directly to the Physics News Source Sponsored by AIP.
The Independent Citizens Oversight Committee of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) has approved a pair of $2 million awards to University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers to advance studies of new treatments for Zika virus infections and the use of stem cell-derived natural killer (NK) cells to target ovarian cancer and other malignancies.
For the first time, viruses have been found to communicate with one another, leaving short “posts” for kin and descendants. The messages help the viruses reading them decide how to proceed with the process of infection, according to Weizmann Institute research.
EGFR mutations is associated with a longer median overall survival (almost double) compared with those without EGFR mutations when treated with specific targeted agents.
In the January 20, 2017 issue of Science, University of Washington-led team, in collaboration with researchers at the DOE Joint Genome Institute, reports that structural models have been generated for 12 percent of the protein families that had previously had no structural information available.
In the latest edition of the journal “Science”, Jürgen Knoblich, a leading authority on stem cells and deputy director of the IMBA (Institute for Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences), together with international experts, presents a first ethical guideline for research into human organ models. In the article, he also argues for critical and responsible engagement with the new technology.
As cells age and stop dividing, their fat content changes, along with the way they produce and break down fat and other molecules classified as lipids. By providing broad insights into the connection between lipids and cellular aging, the findings open the door for additional research that could one day support the development of lipid-based approaches to preventing cell death or hastening it in cancerous tumors.
Scientists at NYU Langone Medical Center have discovered the mechanisms behind a genetic change known to cause a set of related diseases.
Novel mechanism in bacterial-fungal symbiosis could have biodiesel production applications
Cancer cells often delete genes that normally suppress tumor formation. These deletions also may extend to neighboring genes, an event known as “collateral lethality,” which may create new options for development of therapies for several cancers.
Modern genome sequencing methods used to measure the efficiency of synthesis of individual protein during cell division has found that the enzymes that make lipids and membranes were synthesized at much greater efficiency when a cell is ready to split.
Scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health have developed a new way to identify the state and fate of individual stem cells earlier than previously possible.
Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, with colleagues at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, the University of Manitoba and St. Boniface Hospital Albrechtsen Research Centre in Canada, have identified a molecular signaling pathway that, when blocked, promotes sensory neuron growth and prevents or reverses peripheral neuropathy in cell and rodent models of type 1 and 2 diabetes, chemotherapy-induced neuropathy and HIV.
For the first time, by using a path-breaking optical imaging technique to pinpoint cholesterol's location and movement within the cell membrane, chemists at the University of Illinois at Chicago have made the surprising finding that cholesterol is a signaling molecule that transmits messages across the cell membrane.
Researchers at Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington say a new study suggests ways to improve immune therapy for certain cancers including a virus-associated form of Merkel cell carcinoma, a rare, aggressive skin cancer.
How big you are may be as important as what you look like, at least to immune system cells watching for dangerous bacteria and viruses.
Studying brain disorders in people and developing drugs to treat them has been slowed by the inability to investigate single living cells from adult patients. In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers were able to grow adult human neurons donated from patients who had undergone surgery. From these cell cultures, they identified more than five brain cell types and the potential proteins each cell could make.
Researchers identified a panel of small molecules that inhibit Zika virus infection, including one that stands out as a potent inhibitor of Zika viral entry into relevant human cell types. They screened a library of 2,000 bioactive compounds for their ability to block Zika virus infection in three distinct cell types using two strains of the virus.
Fossils found in Morocco from the long-extinct group of sea creatures called trilobites, including rarely seen soft-body parts, may be previously unseen animals that left distinctive fossil ‘footprints’ around the ancient supercontinent Gondwana.
Findings uncover an ancient mechanism that makes cancer cells invasive, explains melanoma’s resistance to therapy and opens the door to development of novel cancer therapies
Scientists at Van Andel Research Institute and Rockefeller University have successfully described a crucial structure involved in DNA replication, placing another piece in the puzzle of how life propagates.
Microbes can persist in people for years after an illness, even in people who are healthy and immune to recurrence. Now, researchers have found a clue to this seeming paradox: Persistent microbes are constantly multiplying and being killed, keeping the immune system prepared for any new encounters.
Acute myeloid leukaemia study finds personalised therapy is possible.
Texas Biomed scientists part of consortium finding new areas of genetic influence for body fat distribution in multiethnic study
A University of Arkansas chemist and his collaborator at North Carolina State University have developed a new theory for explaining how proteins and other biomolecules function based on movement and change of shape and structure rather than content.
• In a phase 3 trial of patients with chronic kidney disease, 52.1% of patients receiving oral ferric citrate experienced a significant boost in hemoglobin levels (a reflection of red blood cell counts) compared with 19.1% of patients receiving placebo. • A treatment effect was seen as early as 1-2 weeks after the start of treatment, and the response was durable.
Researchers use Donkey Kong to help guide new approaches in neuroscience.
RSS
Medicine keyboard_arrow_right
Sciencekeyboard_arrow_right
Life keyboard_arrow_right
Business keyboard_arrow_right
Journal News keyboard_arrow_right
By Location keyboard_arrow_right
Meetings, Grants, and Events keyboard_arrow_right