A team led by researchers from the National Institutes of Health today reported the discovery of five genetic variants related to blood pressure in African-Americans, findings that may provide new clues to treating and preventing hypertension. The effort marks the first time that a relatively new research approach, called a genome-wide association study, has focused on blood pressure and hypertension in an African-American population.
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Scientists have long suspected that the sex chromosome that only males carry is deteriorating and could disappear entirely within a few million years, but until now, no one has understood the evolutionary processes that control this chromosome's demise. Now, a pair of Penn State scientists has discovered that this sex chromosome, the Y chromosome, has evolved at a much more rapid pace than its partner chromosome, the X chromosome, which both males and females carry.
St. Louis, July 16, 2009 — A recently identified gene allows immune cells to start the self-destructive processes thought to underlie autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS) and rheumatoid arthritis, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shed new light on a process that fixes breaks in the genetic material of the body's cells. Their findings could lead to ways of enhancing chemotherapy drugs that destroy cancer cells by damaging their DNA.
Using yeast cells, the scientists studied protein molecules that have an important role in homologous recombination, which is one way that cells repair breaks in the DNA double helix. The process in yeast is similar to that in humans and other organisms.
Researchers from the Institute of Prevention Research at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) found in a recent study that overweight youth were twice as likely to have overweight friends.
"Although this link between obesity and social networks was expected, it was surprising how strong the peer effect is and how early in life it starts," says lead author Thomas Valente, Ph.D., professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine.
- Adolescent alcohol use and behavior problems are influenced by both genetic and environmental factors.
- New findings show that behavioral problems may represent an earlier manifestation of a genetic predisposition to subsequent alcohol problems.
- Females may also be more susceptible to a variety of environmental influences than males.
Everyday human interaction is not what you would call perfect, so what if there was a third party added to the mix – like a metallic version of us? In a new article in Perspectives on Psychological Science, psychologist Neal J. Roese and computer scientist Eyal Amir from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign investigate what human-android interactions may be like 50 years into the future.
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Consumers may be able to eat longer-lasting, potentially healthier fish fillets if research at Oregon State University makes its way to the supermarket.
That's because OSU scientists have extended the shelf life of lingcod fillets and possibly made them more nutritious by dipping them into an edible, protective coating enriched with fish oil.
"With this coating, you can easily keep the fillets in the display case for two to three more days," said OSU food science professor Yanyun Zhao, the lead researcher in the study.
Researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center have found a way to block the genetic flaw at the heart of a common form of muscular dystrophy. The results of the study, which were published today in the journal Science, could pave the way for new therapies that essentially reverse the symptoms of the disease.
Selenium is a trace element crucial to life - too little or too much of it is fatal. In the July 17 issue of the journal Science, researchers at Yale University and University of Illinois at Chicago detail the molecular mechanisms that govern its metabolism in the human body.
"It must require an intricately regulated uptake system," said Dieter Söll, co-senior author of the paper, Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale. "There are 25 human selenoproteins, and most of them are probably essential for life."
A single evolutionary event appears to explain the short, curved legs that characterize all of today's dachshunds, corgis, basset hounds and at least 16 other breeds of dogs, a team led by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health, reported today. In addition to what it reveals about short-legged dogs, the unexpected discovery provides new clues about how physical differences may arise within species and suggests new approaches to understanding a form of human dwarfism.
New vaccines have the potential to prevent or temper epidemics of the childhood diarrhea-causing disease rotavirus, protect the unvaccinated and raise the age at which the infection first appears in children, federal researchers reported in a study today.
The findings were based on changing patterns of rotavirus transmission in the United States, where the disease is rarely fatal, and they have implications for combating epidemics in other countries where the death toll is much higher.
PASADENA, Calif.—Stromatolites are dome- or column-like sedimentary rock structures that are formed in shallow water, layer by layer, over long periods of geologic time.
BOSTON, Mass., July 16, 2009– Data presented at the annual meeting of the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH) in Boston show that ATryn® (Antithrombin [Recombinant]) safely prevents peri-operative and peri-partum acute deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or other venous thromboembolic events in patients with hereditary antithrombin deficiency (HD AT). ATryn is not indicated for treatment of thromboembolic events in HD AT patients.
An upcoming G&D paper reveals how two specific matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) proteins contribute to bone metastasis in advanced breast cancer – lending important new insight into the design of clinically useful small molecule inhibitors.