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PITTSBURGH—In a paper published this week in the journal Science, experts caution that important ethical issues in the testing of new therapies like stem cells may not be receiving the attention they deserve. Carnegie Mellon University's Alex John London joined McGill University's Jonathan Kimmelman and Marina Emborg of the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to examine the way scientists, physicians, and regulators evaluate risk and benefit when testing new drugs in human beings for the first time.
Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers have identified tiny segments of RNA that may play an important role in the body's regulation of cholesterol and lipids. Their study found that the miR-33 family of microRNAs suppress a protein known to be important for generation of HDL – the "good cholesterol" that transports lipids to the liver for disposal – and for the removal of cholesterol from peripheral tissues, including cells that form atherosclerotic plaques.
SALT LAKE CITY—Researchers have long wondered why the people of the Tibetan Highlands can live at elevations that cause some humans to become life-threateningly ill – and a new study answers that mystery, in part, by showing that through thousands of years of natural selection, those hardy inhabitants of south-central Asia evolved 10 unique oxygen-processing genes that help them live in higher climes.
New York, New York (May 13, 2010): Researchers at two laboratories at NYU Langone Medical Center have collaborated to identify a tiny micro-RNA, miR-33, that regulates key genes involved in cellular cholesterol transport. The study, published online May 13, 2010 in Science, found that inhibitors of miR-33 may be beneficial because they could enhance cholesterol removal from tissues and raise levels of HDL -- shown in clinical trials to promote regression of human atherosclerotic plaques.
Rush University Medical Center is testing whether celecoxib, known by its brand name Celebrex, can help prevent the growth of precancerous polyps that form in the colon, rectum and small intestine of children with an inheritable genetic disease called familial adenomatous polyposis.
CORVALLIS, Ore. – An aggressive, invasive aquatic organism that is on the state's most dangerous species list has been discovered in both Winchester Bay and Coos Bay, and scientists say this "colonial tunicate" – Didemnum vexillum – has serious economic and environmental implications.
Its propensity to foul surfaces of boats, fishing nets, water intakes, docks and buoys could make it costly to control, and its ability to smother shellfish beds and sensitive marine environments threatens other marine life.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – A new commentary on the nature of pathogens is raising startling new questions about the role that fundamental science research on evolution plays in the understanding of emerging disease.
Ecological speciation, and specifically speciation that occurs when a subset of a population shifts onto a novel host, is one of the main routes for the emergence of new fungal diseases in plants, argue the authors of a new paper published online in Trends in Ecology & Evolution (TREE).
When given a choice, organisms will choose a diet that maintains a nutritional balance in tune with their needs. That choice, studied in fruit flies for the first time, is regulated by activity in a molecular pathway involved in aging, cancer and diabetes. The research undertaken in fruit flies at the Buck Institute for Age Research has implications for humans, who share the same molecular pathway.
HOUSTON -- (May 13, 2010) – Dr. Jue D. (Jade) Wang (www.bcm.edu/genetics/?pmid=11048) , assistant professor of molecular and human genetics at Baylor College of Medicine (www.bcm.edu), focuses her attention on replication – the process by which a strand of DNA is copied during cell proliferation (growth and division).
HOUSTON– (May 14, 2010) –Members of a population of identical cells often "choose" different fates, even though they exist in identical conditions.
The difference may rest with the "hidden variables" within the cells, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine (www.bcm.edu) in a report that appears in the current issue of the journal Cell.
BOSTON – Several years ago, scientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and other laboratories made a paradoxical discovery regarding the Akt molecular pathway, a popular target for cancer drug therapies. They discovered that while one Akt protein – Akt1 – was actively preventing cancer cells from spreading, another closely relatedfamily member – Akt2 – was actually promoting breast cancer cell migration. And, indeed, subsequent studies in mouse models of breast cancer revealed that blocking the Akt pathway resulted in enhanced metastasis to the lungs.
An international consortium of genetics experts has issued a consensus statement recommending chromosomal microarray (CMA) as the new standard practice for genetic evaluation of children with unexplained developmental delay, autism or birth defects.
The statement and a related research review are published in the May 14, 2010 issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics.