Once the human genome was sequenced in 2001, the hunt was on for the genes that make each of us unique. But scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, and Yale and Stanford Universities in the USA, have found that we differ from each other mainly because of differences not in our genes, but in how they're regulated – turned on or off, for instance.
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Leafcutter ant queens can live for twenty years, fertilizing millions of eggs with sperm stored after a single day of sexual activity.
Danish researchers who have studied ants at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama since 1992 discovered that in both ant and bee species in which queens have multiple mates, a male's seminal fluid favors the survival of its own sperm over the other males' sperm. However, once sperm has been stored, leafcutter ant queens neutralize male-male sperm competition with glandular secretions in their sperm-storage organ.
PHILADELPHIA, March 18, 2010 -- The number of U.S. medical students choosing internal medicine residencies inched higher from 2009 but not enough to significantly impact the shortage of primary care physicians.
LOS ANGELES – Physician scientists from the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute presented new findings on the effectiveness of routine aspirin therapy for preventing heart disease, a drug therapy for atrial fibrillation and the role left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) may play in weight reduction for obese patients with chronic end-stage heart failure who are considered for heart transplantation. These presentations were made at the American College of Cardiology's Scientific Session in Atlanta. Brief highlights from these studies are included below.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Nurses participating in shift work, especially those working rotating shifts, face a significantly increased risk of developing Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and abdominal pain compared to those working a standard day-time schedule, according to research published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.
STANFORD, Calif. — Recently, brain researchers have gained a powerful new way to troubleshoot neural circuits associated with depression, Parkinson's disease and other conditions in small animals such as rats. They use an optogenetics technology, invented at Stanford University, that precisely turns select brain cells on or off with flashes of light. Although useful, the optogenetics tool set has been limited.
Signals released by immune cells during a bout of inflammatory bowel disease interfere with intestinal cells' ability to regenerate. Yet people with inflammatory bowel diseases have a significantly higher risk of developing colon cancer: a hyper-activation of growth in those same intestinal cells.
Scientists report a protein made by a gene already associated with a handful of human inflammatory immune diseases plays a pivotal role in protecting the intestinal tract from colitis.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital investigators led the research, which points to possible new strategies for combating colitis. Colitis is a chronic inflammatory disease associated with colon damage, resulting in abdominal pain, bleeding and other symptoms.
PITTSBURGH, March 18 – In an ongoing effort to mirror the ability of biological tissues to respond rapidly and appropriately to changing environments, scientists from the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine have synthesized a single, multifunctional polymer material that can decontaminate both biological and chemical toxins. They described the findings recently in Biomaterials.
RECAN has developed a range of unique and highly specific monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies – the proteins produced in the blood which counteract bacteria, viruses or cancerous cells. This was achieved by first producing a number of recombinant proteins which are important components of cellular signalling pathways. These proteins themselves have direct uses in immunization and experimental studies.
Downsizing and demotions at the workplace can be a health hazard for people over age 50, according to research reported in a recent issue of the Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological and Social Sciences (Volume 65B, Number 1).
STONY BROOK, NY, March 18, 2010 – The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) today formally announced the reclassification of beluga sturgeon in the Caspian Sea as "critically endangered" on its Red List, providing strong evidence that fishing and international trade should be halted and a stock-rebuilding plan should be initiated immediately. Beluga sturgeon populations have been decimated in part due to unrelenting exploitation for black caviar – the sturgeon's unfertilized eggs – considered the finest in the world.
Boston, Mass. -- Hemangiomas -- strawberry-like birthmarks that commonly develop in early infancy – are generally harmless, but up to 10 percent cause tissue distortion or destruction and sometimes obstruction of vision or breathing. Since the 1960s, problematic hemangiomas have been treated with corticosteroids such as dexamethasone or prednisone. But steroids have considerable side effects, don't always work, and their mechanism of action in hemangioma has remained a mystery.
Forensic Anthropology, as an independent discipline within the field of forensic science, has evolved since the early twentieth century in tandem with technological developments of the scientific world. One of its best tools has been the implementation of radiological techniques for positive identification of human remains.
In the ongoing quest to identify the genetic factors involved in disease, scientists have increasingly turned to genome-wide association studies, or GWAS, which enable the scanning of up to a million genetic markers in thousands of individuals.
These studies generally compare the frequency of genetic variants between two groups — those with a particular disease and healthy individuals. Differences in the frequency of a given variant suggest the variant may be involved in the disease.