Professor Hannes Lohi's research group at the University of Helsinki has discovered three novel canine genes for Caffey, Raine and van den Ende-Gupta syndromes. Research reveals close similarities of the canine models of human rare disorders and highlights the potential of comparative research approach for the development of rare disease diagnostics and treatments. Gene discoveries will benefit also veterinary diagnostics and breeding programs. The study was published in PLOS Genetics on May 17, 2016.
Body
When you touch your phone's screen, you might not realize that you've set off a molecular chain reaction.
Your fingertip sends a jolt of electricity (albeit tiny) that disturbs rows of molecules meticulously assembled at the screen's surface and dictates the action, whether it's opening a new window or typing the next word on your text message.
But what if those molecules could be jostled more easily and rapidly snap back in formation, enabling quicker touches and swipes--and on smaller screens to boot?
TORONTO, May 17, 2016 - Tragedies like the E. coli outbreak in Ontario's Walkerton in May 2000 could be averted today with a new invention by researchers at York University that can detect the deadly contaminant in drinking water early.
"We have developed a hydrogel based rapid E. coli detection system that will turn red when E. coli is present," says Professor Sushanta Mitra, Lassonde School of Engineering. "It will detect the bacteria right at the water source before people start drinking contaminated water."
An international team of researchers under the leadership of the LIMES Institute and the excellence cluster ImmunoSensation of the University of Bonn unraveled a new regulatory mechanism how food components and environmental factors influence the immune system. Various substances present in the intestines can bind to an important controller, the Ah receptor. This system is in turn regulated by the Ah receptor repressor and as a result, it influences the degree of the immune response.
Conventional wisdom says removing beach debris helps sea turtles nest; now, as sea-turtle nesting season gets underway, a new University of Florida study proves it.
Clearing the beach of flotsam and jetsam increased the number of nests by as much as 200 percent, the study shows, while leaving the detritus decreased the number by nearly 50 percent.
While investigating a potential therapeutic target for the ERK1 and 2 pathway, a widely expressed signaling molecule known to drive cancer growth in one third of patients with colorectal cancer, University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers found that an alternative pathway immediately emerges when ERK1/2 is halted, thus allowing tumor cell proliferation to continue.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham have identified key risk factors associated with patient readmission within 30 days after pediatric neurosurgery in a recent study published in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics.
Of the 9,799 eligible neurosurgical procedures performed at 50 hospitals across the United States in patients younger than 18 years old, 11.2 percent were followed by an unplanned hospital readmission within 30 days.
Biological evolution was preceded by a long phase of chemical evolution during which precursors of biopolymers accumulated. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich chemists have discovered an efficient mechanism for the prebiotic synthesis of a vital class of such compounds.
Argonne, IL (May 17, 2016) - Despite the rigors of scientific inquiry and the methodical approaches of the world's most talented researchers, sometimes science has a surprise in store.
Distinction Between Genetic Engineering and Conventional Plant Breeding Becoming Less Clear, Says New Report on GE Crops
Have you ever racked your brains trying to make out even a single word of an uninterrupted flow of speech in a language you hardly know at all? It is naïve to think that in speech there is even the smallest of pauses between one word and the next (like the space we conventionally insert between words in writing): in actual fact, speech is almost always a continuous stream of sound. However, when we listen to our native language, word "segmentation" is an effortless process. What are, linguists wonder, the automatic cognitive mechanisms underlying this skill?
BAR HARBOR, MAINE - Wound healing is not a one-size-fits-all process. MDI Biological Laboratory Assistant Professor, Vicki P. Losick, Ph.D, has recently discovered a new healing mechanism, which she has called wound-induced polyploidy (WIP).
As the human brain develops, neurons leave their birthplace and take a trip to distant locations. Once they reach their final destination, the neurons then send out axons and dendrites -- the branches that receive and send messages from other cells.
Humans' most basic functions depend on this journey of neurons getting to where they need to go, and making correct connections once they arrive. This ensures that our eyes can see, our ears can hear, our fingers can touch and so on.
RIVERSIDE, Calif. - Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), of which Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are the main types, is on the increase in the United States, affecting more than 1.6 million people and explaining perhaps the increase in advertisements offering treatments and cures. Another intestinal disease is colon cancer, a leading cause of death, which is linked to diet and one's genetic predisposition to the disease.
DALLAS - May 17, 2016 - The "acid" in "acid reflux" may not be the direct cause of damage to the esophagus as previously suspected, according to researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center and Dallas VA Medical Center.
For more than 80 years, it has been assumed that stomach acid backing up through the esophagus damaged the lining of the esophagus by causing chemical burns, but their research suggests that the damage in patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) actually occurs through an inflammatory response prompted by the secretion of proteins called cytokines.