Breakthroughs in cytogenetic technologies, which focus on subtle alterations in genes and chromosomes, are enabling a new level of detail and accuracy in the diagnosis of complex and unexplained developmental problems in children.
The availability of this new information can help clinicians shift to a "genotype first" model of diagnosis, according to David H. Ledbetter, PhD, Woodruff professor of human genetics at Emory University and director of the Division of Medical Genetics.
STANFORD, Calif. - Lager lovers convinced that their beer of choice stands alone should prepare to drink their words this Oktoberfest. New research by geneticists at the Stanford University School of Medicine indicates that the brew, which accounts for the majority of commercial beer production worldwide, owes its existence to an unlikely pairing between two species of yeast - one of which has been used for thousands of years to make ale.
Advances in understanding head and neck cancer over the last decade have led to more treatment options and improved quality of life for patients, according to a review published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The authors are Dong M. Shin, MD, Frances Kelly Blomeyer Distinguished Professor and associate director of Emory University School of Medicine¹s Winship Cancer Institute, and Robert Haddad, MD, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and clinical director of its Head and Neck Oncology Program.
Female spiders are voracious predators and consume a wide range of prey, which sometimes includes their mates. A number of hypotheses have been proposed for why females eat males before or after mating. Researchers Shawn Wilder and Ann Rypstra from Miami University in Ohio found, in a study published in the September issue of the American Naturalist, that the answer may be simpler than previously thought. Males are more likely to be eaten if they are much smaller than females, which likely affects how easy they are to catch.
NEW YORK (September 10, 2008)—A set of stripy legs in a camera trap photo snapped in an African forest indicates something to cheer about, say researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society. The legs belong to an okapi—a rare forest giraffe—which apparently has survived in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Virunga National Park, despite over a decade of civil war and increased poaching.
The level of nutrients in soil determines how many different kinds of plants and trees can thrive in an ecosystem, according to new research published by biologists and mathematicians today (10 September) in Nature.
CHAPEL HILL – Michelle Mayer had to become a "difficult patient" before she could get her physicians to accurately diagnose the disease that was destroying her health.
And once the diagnosis was made, she had to continue to be what many physicians describe as "difficult" before she could get the best treatment for scleroderma, a chronic autoimmune disease in which hardening of the skin is a major element.
Some of the most challenging obstacles limiting the reprogramming of mature human cells into stem cells may not seem quite as daunting in the near future. Two independent research papers, published by Cell Press in the September 11th issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell, describe new tools that provide invaluable platforms for elucidating the molecular, genetic, and biochemical mechanisms associated with reprogramming. The new findings also offer considerable hope toward making the reprogramming process more therapeutically relevant.
A surprising interaction may enable development of new HIV treatment strategies by exploiting infection with multiple pathogens. The research, published by Cell Press in the September 11th issue of the journal Cell Host and Microbe, demonstrates that a drug commonly used to treat herpes directly suppresses HIV in coinfected tissues and thus may be beneficial for patients infected with both viruses.
The drug acyclovir, used successfully for decades to suppress outbreaks of oral and genital herpes, also can directly suppress HIV-1 in tissues already infected with a herpesvirus, researchers have discovered. The finding opens the way for the development of a new type of anti-HIV drug based on acyclovir.
DALLAS – Sept. 10, 2008 – A bacterial molecule that initially signals to animals that they have been invaded must be wiped out by a special enzyme before an infected animal can regain full health, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.
Researchers studying a critical stage of pregnancy – implantation of the embryo in the uterus – have found a protein that is vital to the growth of new blood vessels that sustain the embryo. Without this protein, which is produced in higher quantities in the presence of estrogen, the embryo is unlikely to survive.
This is the first study to detail the mechanism by which the steroid hormone estrogen spurs cell differentiation and blood-vessel growth in the uterus during pregnancy, the researchers report.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A Florida State University researcher who uses high-powered computers to map the workings of proteins has uncovered a mechanism that gives scientists a better understanding of how evolution occurs at the molecular level.
Such an understanding eventually could lead to the development of new and more effective antiparasitic drugs.
Women employed in casual and contract jobs are up to ten times more likely to experience unwanted sexual advances than those in permanent full time positions, a University of Melbourne study has found.
The research by Associate Professor Anthony LaMontagne of the McCaughey Centre, VicHealth Centre for the Promotion of Mental Health and Community Wellbeing will be presented at the From Margins to Mainstream Conference: 5th World Conference on the Promotion of Mental Health and the Prevention of Mental and Behavioral Disorders.
WASHINGTON, DC – An international collaboration of scientists today sent the first beam of protons zooming at nearly the speed of light around the world's most powerful particle accelerator—the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)—located at the CERN laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) invested a total $531 million in the construction of the accelerator and its detectors, which scientists believe could help unlock extraordinary discoveries about the nature of the physical universe.