Newswise

JHU Astrophysicist and Team Win $5 Million Stimulus Grant to Build Telescope

A Johns Hopkins team has won a $5 million NSF grant to probe what happened during the universe’s first trillionth of a second, when it suddenly grew from submicroscopic to astronomical size in far less than time than it takes to blink your eye.

Study Points to Potential New Drug for Type 2 Diabetes

An experimental oral drug has lowered blood sugar levels and inflammation in mice with Type 2 diabetes, suggesting that the medication could someday be added to the arsenal of drugs used by millions of Americans with this disease, according to new research.

Spring’s the Thing! What to Keep in Mind When You Head Outside

SLU Expert Offers Tips to Shape Up After Coldest Winter in 10 Years

Duffy-Negative Blood Types No Longer Protected From Malaria

In a paradigm changing discovery, Plasmodium vivax (P. vivax) malaria has been identified in a population historically thought to be resistant to the disease, those who do not express the Duffy blood group protein on their red blood cells, according to researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Pasteur Institute, and the Madagascar Ministry of Health.

Brain Plaques May Explain Higher Risk of Alzheimer’s Based on Mom’s History New imaging tool could eventually lead to earlier detection among pre-symptomatic individuals

A family history of Alzheimer’s is one of the biggest risk factors for developing the memory-robbing disease, which affects more than 5 million Americans and is the most common form of senile dementia. Now an international collaboration led by NYU Langone Medical Center researchers has found the likely basis for this heightened familial risk—especially from the maternal side.

Scientists Demonstrate Mammalian Regeneration Through a Single Gene Deletion

A quest that began over a decade ago with a chance observation has reached a milestone: the identification of a gene that may regulate regeneration in mammals. The absence of this single gene, called p21, confers a healing potential in mice long thought to have been lost through evolution and reserved for creatures like flatworms, sponges, and some species of salamander. In a report published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from The Wistar Institute demonstrate that mice that lack the p21 gene gain the ability to regenerate lost or damaged tissue.

Researchers Identify Gene that May Play Role in Atherosclerosis

A new study suggests that a gene called HuR plays a critical role in inducing and mediating an inflammatory response in cells experiencing mechanical and chemical stresses. The finding may lead to new treatments for diseases associated with inflammation, such as atherosclerosis.

Using new approach, Mayo Clinic researchers find level of gene alters risk of Alzheimer’s disease

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Using sophisticated techniques that scan the genomes of patients, researchers at the Mayo Clinic campus in Florida have found that a gene appears to either help protect against development of Alzheimer’s disease, or promote the disorder depending on the level of gene in the brain.