A large scale genetic analysis of multiple prostate cancer samples, published online by Cell Press on June 24th in the journal Cancer Cell, is providing exciting new insight into the disease and may lead to more effective treatment strategies. In addition, the freely available genetic and clinical outcome data obtained in the study represents a valuable public resource for the cancer research community.
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Mice that carry a gene variant earlier linked to the inflammatory bowel disorder known as Crohn's disease only succumb to symptoms if they've also been infected by a common virus, according to a study reported in the June 25th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication.
STANFORD, Calif. — We are what we eat, but who are "we"? New, high-powered genomic analytical techniques have established that as many as 1,000 different single-celled species coexist in relative harmony in every healthy human gut.
STANFORD, Calif. — Nearly all mammalian cells have what's called a primary cilium — a single, stump-like rod projecting from the smooth contours of the cell's outer membrane. Unlike its more flamboyant cousins, the motile cilia, which beat industriously in packs to clear our airways of mucous or to shuttle a fertilized egg to the uterus, the primary cilium just … sits there.
Like a bump on a log.
In fact, it looks so useless that, until recently, many scientists considered it to be just a leftover artifact of eons of evolution.
A team of researchers, led by scientists at the University of California, San Diego, have identified a key player in the dramatic loss of neurons in mice and fly models, a discovery that could help illuminate the role of mitochondrial dysfunction in human neurodegenerative disorders, such as Parkinson's disease.
The separation of Neardenthal and Homo sapiens might have occurred at least one million years ago, more than 500,000 years earlier than previously believed, according to new DNA-based analyses, says a doctoral thesis conducted at the National Center for Research on Human Evolution (Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana)associated with the University of Granada. The researchers analyzed the teeth of almost all species of hominids that have existed during the past 4 million years.
Scientists have shown that a specific virus can interact with a mutation in the host's genes to trigger disease. The observation may help explain why many people with disease risk genes do not actually develop disease.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that three factors were necessary in mice to create a condition similar to the human bowel disorder Crohn's disease: a mutated gene, exposure to a damaging chemical and infection with a specific virus. The report appears in Cell.
Transposons, or "jumping genes," make up roughly half of the human genome. Geneticists previously estimated that they replicate and insert themselves into new locations roughly one in every 20 live births.
New results, published in the June 25, 2010 issue of Cell, suggest that every newborn is likely to have a new transposon somewhere in his or her genome.
New Haven, Conn.—Yale University engineers have for the first time created 3D models of whole intact mouse organs, a feat they accomplished using fluorescence microscopy. The team reports its findings in the May/June issue of the Journal of Biomedical Optics, in a study published online this week.
Researchers from the University of Grenoble Medical School in France determined that cardio-respiratory aerobic exercise is safe for patients with stable rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The team found that RA patients who exercised regularly had improved function, less joint pain, and greater quality of life. Full findings of the study are now available online and will publish in the July print issue of Arthritis Care & Research, a journal of the American College of Rheumatology.
(PHILADELPHIA) Previous studies have shown that antiviral treatment reduces the incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB). But now, researchers from the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Thomas Jefferson University are reporting that the antiviral therapy also prevents recurrence of HCC and extends patients' lives.