Body

New Orleans, LA – Shahriar Koochekpour, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Genetics at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, led research that has discovered, for the first time, a genetic mutation in African-American men with a family history of prostate cancer who are at increased risk for the disease. Dr. Koochekpour, who is also a member of the LSUHSC Stanley S.

BGI has carried out deep sequence exploration on nine BACs of giant panda with traditional sanger sequencing methods. Sequences and structure information of new genes and repeats were predicted, which greatly fills the gaps of genomics study on giant panda. In addition, the nine sequences assembled based on traditional phrap methods provided as a validation resource for the de novo assembly accuracy of the whole genome shotgun sequencing reads of giant panda generated by the Illumina GA sequencing technology.

MBL, WOODS HOLE, MA—If you can imagine identical twin sisters at rest, their breath drawing them subtly together and apart, who somehow latch onto ropes that pull them to opposite sides of the bed—you can imagine what happens to a chromosome in the dividing cell.

Understanding the forces that drive chromosome segregation – a crucial aspect of human development and some diseases, including cancer – is the goal of an international group of researchers who collaborate each summer at the MBL.

Bad behaviour in childhood is associated with long-term, chronic widespread pain in adult life, according to the findings of a study following nearly 20,000 people from birth in 1958 to the present day.

People who are in good health are almost twice as likely to be interested in sex compared to those in poor health, according to research published on bmj.com today.

It is already established that sexual activity has health benefits and is linked to living longer. However, this study investigates how general health impacts on the quality of sex.

The study also estimates how many remaining sexually active years healthy men and women have left.

Scandinavian Scientists have discovered that a species of tree defends itself from herbivore attack by using chemicals emitted by neighbouring plants. The study, published today in New Phytologist, reveals how a species of birch tree adsorbs chemical compounds from neighbouring marsh tea plants, Rhondodendron tomentosum, in a unique 'defence by neighbour strategy.'

For the first time, scientists have succeeded in growing empty particles derived from a plant virus and have made them carry useful chemicals.

The external surface of these nano containers could be decorated with molecules that guide them to where they are needed in the body, before the chemical load is discharged to exert its effect on diseased cells. The containers are particles of the Cowpea mosaic virus, which is ideally suited for designing biomaterial at the nanoscale.

University of Minnesota researcher George Weiblen and colleagues have found a faster way to study the spread and diet of insect pests.

Sonic hedgehog, a gene that plays a crucial rule in the positioning and growth of limbs, fingers and toes, has been confirmed in an unexpected place in the embryos of developing mice — the layer of cells that creates the skin.

Named for a video game character, Sonic hedgehog describes both a gene and the protein it produces in the body. Its study is important to increase understanding of human birth defects.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - For decades, the traditional practice in animal testing has been standardization, but a study involving Purdue University has shown that adding as few as two controlled environmental variables to preclinical mice tests can greatly reduce costly false positives, the number of animals needed for testing and the cost of pharmaceutical trials.

In a landmark study of more than 80,000 live kidney donors from across the United States, Johns Hopkins researchers have found the procedure carries very little medical risk and that, in the long term, people who donate one of their kidneys are likely to live just as long as those who have two healthy ones.

The findings, published in the March 10 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, confirm what doctors have long believed: Kidney donation, which saves the life of the recipient, poses little risk to the donor.

This release is available in http://chinese..org/zh/emb_releases/2010-03/jaaj-vcf030510.php">Chinese.

This release is available in http://chinese..org/zh/emb_releases/2010-03/jaaj-dkd030510.php">Chinese.

An analysis of outcomes for live kidney donors in the U.S. over a 15 year period finds they have similar long-term survival rates compared to healthy individuals who were not kidney donors, according to a study in the March 10 issue of JAMA.

An analysis of comparative effectiveness studies finds that few compare medications with nonpharmacologic interventions, and few examine safety or cost-effectiveness, according to a study in the March 10 issue of JAMA.

A hospitalist at the University of Rochester Medical Center calls for more stringent Federal guidelines governing the approval of potential new drugs, in a commentary in the March 10 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.