Body

Using cutting-edge high-throughput sequencing methods, researchers have mapped all RNA structures of a diarrhoeal pathogen at once. In the process, they identified a number of temperature-responsive structures, so-called RNA thermometers. "To date, we only ever discovered individual RNA thermometers following a tedious search, and painstakingly analysed one after the other," says project manager Prof Dr Franz Narberhaus from Ruhr-Universität Bochum.

Environmental scientists from the University of Stirling have found beech forests across western Europe are increasingly at risk from drought - with areas of southern England worst affected.

In a new €1.4 million study, part-funded by NERC, researchers examined tree ring data from across Western Europe to help uncover the extent to which the growth of beech forests is being impacted by changes in climate.

According to a new study published in the International Journal of Epidemiology this week, genetic research in large-scale prospective biobank studies can significantly improve the drug development pipeline and reduce costs.

MIAMI, June 15, 2016 - A recent study led by scientists at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, in collaboration with the Univerity of Maryland School of Pharmacy and StemSynergy Therapeutics, Inc., has identified a small-molecule inhibitor of the Notch pathway, paving the way for a potential new class of personalized cancer medicines. Aberrant activity in the Notch pathway contributes to the initiation and maintenance of cancer stem cells. The study was published online in the journal Cancer Research.

Baltimore, Md. - June 15, 2016. It's hard to think of the typical muffin, often loaded with saturated fat and a high calorie count, as a healthy food option. But a batch of muffins, made with a special recipe formulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), yielded unexpected health benefits during a first-of-its-kind clinical study at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Research conducted in major Canadian cities shows that refugee newcomers with large families struggle to find suitable housing. Organizations that settle government-assisted Syrian refugees have had to deal with this problem in Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, and other cities. In a recent Policy Options article, Professor Damaris Rose of the INRS Urbanisation Culture Société Research Centre sheds light on certain issues affecting refugee housing.

ITHACA, N.Y. - By tweaking just one or two genes, Cornell University researchers have altered the patterns on a butterfly's wings. It's not just a new art form, but a major clue to understanding how the butterflies have evolved, and perhaps to how color patterns - and other patterns and shapes - have evolved in other species.

Endometriosis is a chronic, often painful disease affecting up to 10 percent of women of reproductive age in the U.S. How it develops is not well understood, and detecting it with certainty requires surgery. But now, scientists report in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research new insight gained from their study on mice that could ultimately help diagnose the condition with a blood test.

Eating three more portions of dietary fiber a day--say, two pieces of whole grain bread and a bowl of whole grain breakfast cereal--is associated with a lower risk for all cardiovascular diseases and for dying of cancer, diabetes, and respiratory and infectious diseases, a study just published in the BMJ has shown. The study is strong proof that consuming lots of whole grains is good for our health, says first author Dagfinn Aune, a PhD candidate at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology who is currently working at Imperial College, London.

Early-stage breast cancer patients receiving a shorter course of whole breast radiation with higher radiation doses per fraction reported equivalent cosmetic, functional and pain outcomes over time as those receiving a longer, lower-dose per fraction course of treatment, according to researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Adult stem cells represent a sort of blank clay from which a myriad of different cell and tissue types are molded and as such are of critical importance to health, aging and disease. In tissues that turn over rapidly, such as the intestines, the self-renewing nature of stem cells and their susceptibility to cancer-causing mutations has led researchers to postulate that these cells also act as the cell of origin in cancers. The rarity of adult stem cells relative to their differentiated daughter cells has, however, made them historically difficult to study.

Scientists from ITMO University, the Federal Research and Clinical Centre of Physical-Chemical Medicine and MIPT have developed a software program enabling them to quickly compare sets of DNA of microorganisms living in different environments. The researchers have already suggested exactly how the new program could be applied in practice.

Whether you're Van Gogh or a stick-figure sketcher, a new Drexel University study found that making art can significantly reduce stress-related hormones in your body.

Although the researchers from Drexel's College of Nursing and Health Professions believed that past experience in creating art might amplify the activity's stress-reducing effects, their study found that everyone seems to benefit equally.

A UK research team has discovered that a cell's protective layer acts like a turnstile, allowing proteins to be exported while preventing them from moving back in.

All cells are surrounded by a protective layer - a membrane - which keeps the contents of the cell together and protects it from damage.

However, proteins made inside the cell often need to be exported in order to do their job. For instance, in bacterial adherence, pathogenesis and antibiotic clearance.

A team from the University of Bristol has shed new light on the creatures that inhabited the tropical seas surrounding Britain at the start of the age of the dinosaurs.

Some 210 million years ago, Britain consisted of many islands, surrounded by warm seas. Europe at the time lay farther south, at latitudes equivalent to North Africa today. Much of Europe was hot desert, and at this point was flooded by a great sea - the Rhaetian Transgression.