Gary Chiang, Ph.D., and colleagues at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) have elucidated how the stability of the REDD1 protein is regulated. The REDD1 protein is a critical inhibitor of the mTOR signaling pathway, which controls cell growth and proliferation. The study was published in EMBO Reports .
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Predicting the infection patterns of influenza, requires tracking the ecology and the evolution of the fast-morphing viruses which cause them, said a Duke University researcher who enlists computers to model such changes.
A single mutation can put a flu virus on a new-enough path to re-infect people who had developed immunity to its previous form, said Katia Koelle, a Duke assistant professor of biology.
CHAPEL HILL – The structure of an entire HIV genome has been decoded for the first time by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The results have widespread implications for understanding the strategies that viruses, like the one that causes AIDS, use to infect humans.
The study, the cover story in the Aug. 6, 2009, issue of the journal Nature, also opens the door for further research which could accelerate the development of antiviral drugs.
A new class of drugs made up of single strands of DNA or RNA, called aptamers, can bind protein targets with a high strength and specificity. They are currently in clinical development as treatments for a broad range of common diseases, as described in an article published in Oligonucleotides. The article is available at www.liebertpub.com/oli
Vectors derived from retroviruses are useful tools for long-term gene transfer because they allow stable integration of transgenes and propagation into daughter cells. Lentiviral vectors are preferred because they can transduce non-proliferating cellular targets. These vectors can be engineered to target specific tissues. In the Cold Spring Harbor Protocols, François-Loïc Cosset and colleagues from Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon present a method for targeting hematopoietic stem cells using engineered viral vectors.
A research team led by Dr. Tony Lam at the Toronto General Research Institute and the University of Toronto discovered a novel function of a hormone found in the gut that might potentially lower glucose levels in diabetes.
A new study suggests that blood transfusions for hospitalized cardiac patients should be a last resort because they double the risk of infection and increase by four times the risk of death.
The analysis of nearly 25,000 Medicare patients in Michigan also showed that transfusion practices after heart surgery varied substantially among hospitals, a red flag that plays into the health care reform debate.
A new study raises the possibility that flies and other insects that encounter nanomaterial "hot spots," or spills, near manufacturing facilities in the future could pick up and transport nanoparticles on their bodies, transferring the particles to other flies or habitats in the environment. The study on carbon nanoparticles — barely 1/5,000th the width of a human hair —is scheduled for the Aug. 15 issue of ACS' Environmental Science & Technology, a semi-monthly journal.
In an advance that could help ease the antibiotic drought, scientists in Massachusetts are describing successful use of a test that enlists pinhead-sized worms in efforts to discover badly needed new antibiotics. Their study appeared in ACS Chemical Biology, a monthly journal.
In a finding that challenges the increasingly popular belief that smoking marijuana is less harmful to health than smoking tobacco, researchers in Canada are reporting that smoking marijuana, like smoking tobacco, has toxic effects on cells. Their study is scheduled for the Aug. 17 issue of ACS' Chemical Research in Toxicology, a monthly journal.
A team of researchers from CIC bioGUNE from the Cellular Biology and Stem Cell Unit, alongside a team from Paris' Cardiovascular Research Centre (INSERM U970) have developed a new area of research which looks extremely promising as regards the development of new therapeutic responses to ischemic pathologies and cardiovascular diseases in general. The results of this research project, which was initiated in 2005 and is supported by Bizkaia:Xede and the Basque Government's Etortek programme, were published in the prestigious scientific journal Circulation.
Researchers from CIC bioGUNE's Structural Biology Unit and Columbia University (New York) have conducted a joint research project, published in the prestigious scientific journal Structure, to gain in-depth knowledge of the structure of pyruvate carboxylase when it is in solution (in the "natural" state).
ANN ARBOR, Mich. —University of Michigan researchers have developed an animal model that provides strong evidence why imatinib, marketed as Gleevec, helps patients with chronic myeloid leukemia survive longer, but does not keep the disease from returning if treatment ends.
Leukemia-initiating cells are able to live below the drug's radar and enable the disease to recur in most cases after treatment stops, the researchers report in the August issue of Cancer Cell.
(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– Scientists at UC Santa Barbara have isolated a unique protein that appears to have a dual function and could lead to a "boon in medicine." The findings are published in the August issue of the Journal of Cell Biology.
Early relatives of spiders that lived around 300 million years ago are revealed in new three-dimensional models, in research published today in the journal Biology Letters.
Scientists at Imperial College London have created detailed 3D computer models of two fossilised specimens of ancient creatures called Cryptomartus hindi and Eophrynus prestvicii, closely related to modern-day spiders. The study reveals some of the physical traits that helped them to hunt for prey and evade predators.