Body

University of British Columbia researchers have identified a small virus that attacks another virus more than 100 times its own size, rescuing the infected zooplankton from certain death. The discovery provides clues to the evolutionary origin of some jumping genes found in other organisms.

The study, by UBC marine microbiologist Curtis Suttle and PhD student Matthias Fischer, is published online today in Science Express. It describes the marine virus Mavirus and its interaction with marine zooplankton Cafeteria roenbergenesis and CroV, the world's largest marine virus.

The American Thoracic Society has released a new report detailing recent global changes in the management of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-associated pulmonary disease. The report examines the evolving landscape of HIV and its associated diseases in areas where combination antiretroviral therapies (ART) are available, as well as offering insight into the trends occurring in areas of the world where ART use is limited.

The report appears in the March 1, 2011, issue of the Proceedings of the American Thoracic Society.

DALLAS (SMU) – Blood group incompatibility between Henry VIII and his wives could have driven the Tudor king's reproductive woes, and a genetic condition related to his suspected blood group could also explain Henry's dramatic mid-life transformation into a physically and mentally-impaired tyrant who executed two of his wives.

Old Westbury, New York (Mar. 3, 2011) – Fossil records verify a long-standing theory that horses evolved through natural selection, according to groundbreaking research by two anatomy professors at New York College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYCOM) of New York Institute of Technology.

PULLMAN, Wash.—Scientific societies representing 40,000 researchers and clinicians are asking that federal regulators tap a broader range of expertise when evaluating the risks of chemicals to which Americans are being increasingly exposed.

Irvine, Calif. — A UC Irvine research team led by Todd C. Holmes has discovered a second form of phototransduction light sensing in cells that is derived from vitamin B2. This discovery may reveal new information about cellular processes controlled by light.

For more than 100 years, it had been believed that the phototransduction process was solely based on a chemical derived from vitamin A called retinal. Phototransduction is the conversion of light signals into electrical signals in photoreceptive neurons and underlies both image-forming and non-image-forming light sensing.

Biodiversity around the world is increasingly threatened by global warming, habitat loss, and other human impacts. But what does this loss of species mean for the functioning of ecosystems that humans depend on for goods and services? Can ecosystems around our planet survive and maintain their primary functions with fewer species in them? After decades of research on many issues pertaining to life on Earth, are scientists any closer to attaining these answers?

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have discovered that a natural product isolated from a traditional Chinese medicinal plant commonly known as thunder god vine, or lei gong teng, and used for hundreds of years to treat many conditions including rheumatoid arthritis works by blocking gene control machinery in the cell. The report, published as a cover story of the March issue of Nature Chemical Biology, suggests that the natural product could be a starting point for developing new anticancer drugs.

A new paper by University of Calgary researchers, published today in PLoS ONE, demonstrates the edge given to prey in the "space race" by human activity.

The research was conducted by two University of Calgary students, a University of Calgary Post-Doctoral Fellow and two University of Calgary professors from the Faculty of Environmental Design, Department of Geomatics in the Schulich School of Engineering and the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. The research looked at how predator-prey interactions and use of space were influenced by human activity.

New findings on how tuberculosis (TB) bacteria develop multi-drug tolerance point to ways TB infections might be cured more quickly.

The study will be published April 1 in the journal Cell. The results identify both a mechanism and a potential therapy for drug tolerance that is induced in the TB bacteria by the host cells they infect.

Researchers have synthesized the vast literature on cancer to produce a next-generation view of the features that are shared amongst all cancer cells. These hallmarks of the disease provide a comprehensive and cohesive foundation for the field that will influence biomedical researchers in their quest for new cancer treatments.

How do organs "know" when to stop growing? The answer could be useful in regenerative medicine, and also in cancer – where these "stop growing" signals either aren't issued or aren't heeded. Researchers in the Stem Cell Program at Children's Hospital Boston have now found a regulator of gene activity that tells epidermal stem cells when it's time to grow more skin, as well as a "crowd control" molecule that can sense cell crowding and turn the growth off.

STANFORD, Calif. — Neurons have been derived from the skin of a woman with a genetic form of Parkinson's disease and have been shown to replicate some key features of the condition in a dish, say researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The scientists hope to use the neurons to learn more about the disorder and to test possible treatments. Such a tool is critical because there are no good animal models for Parkinson's disease. It also validates the use of induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, to model various diseases.

STANFORD, Calif. — A short-term treatment with three immune-dampening drugs allowed human embryonic stem cells to survive and thrive in mice, according to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Without such treatment, the animals' immune systems quickly hunt down and destroy the transplanted cells. The finding is important because it may allow humans to accept transplanted stem cells intended to treat disease or injury without requiring the ongoing use of powerful immunosuppressant medications.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The discrimination that obese people feel, whether it is poor service at a restaurant or being treated differently in the workplace, may have a direct impact on their physical health, according to new research from Purdue University.