Body

Hamilton, ON (Sept. 1, 2011) – Patients often take drugs to lower stomach acid and reduce the chances they will develop ulcers from taking their anti-inflammatory drugs for conditions such as arthritis, but the combination may be causing major problems for their small intestines, McMaster researchers have found.

Researchers led by ETH professor Yaakov Benenson and MIT professor Ron Weiss have successfully incorporated a diagnostic biological "computer" network in human cells. This network recognizes certain cancer cells using logic combinations of five cancer-specific molecular factors, triggering cancer cells destruction.

WALNUT CREEK, Calif.—Understanding the flow and processing of carbon in the world's oceans, which cover 70 percent of Earth's surface, is central to understanding global climate cycles, with many questions remaining unanswered. Between 200 and 1,000 meters below the ocean surface exists a "twilight zone" where insufficient sunlight penetrates for microorganisms to perform photosynthesis.

Biologists have long known that organisms from bacteria to humans use the 24 hour cycle of light and darkness to set their biological clocks. But exactly how these clocks are synchronized at the molecular level to perform the interactions within a population of cells that depend on the precise timing of circadian rhythms is less well understood.

In a paper published today in the journal Scientific Reports, a pair of researchers at the University of California, San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences report that inhibiting the ability of immune cells to use fatty acids as fuel measurably slows disease progression in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis (MS).

Berkeley – Genetic detective work by an international group of researchers may have solved a decades-long mystery of the source of a devastating tree-killing fungus that has hit six of the world's seven continents.

In a study published today (Thursday, Sept. 1) in the peer-reviewed journal Phytopathology, California emerged as the top suspect for the pathogen, Seiridium cardinale, that is the cause of cypress canker disease.

Sept. 1, 2011, SEATTLE – The September issue of the online scientific journal Acta Crystallographica: Structural Biology and Crystallization Communications (Acta Cryst F) will consist entirely of work done at the Seattle Structural Genomics Center for Infectious Disease (SSGCID), a consortium of researchers from Seattle BioMed, Emerald BioStructures, the University of Washington and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).

Van Nuys, CA—Robert Winkler says he limped around on his painful left foot for six months, suffering unnecessarily from a misdiagnosis by a physician who didn't know about the symptoms and treatments for Charcot foot, a form of localized osteoporosis linked to diabetes that causes the bones to soften and break, often resulting in amputation.

The New York State Office of Emergency Management is using imagery of the widespread flooding in Schoharie County captured by Rochester Institute of Technology and Kucera International Inc.

On Tuesday, a crew from RIT and Kucera International remotely imaged the destruction in eastern New York caused by downpours from Tropical Storm Irene. The downgraded hurricane caused devastation along the Schoharie Creek and the Mohawk River west of Schenectady.

Individuals with an autoinflammatory syndrome experience episodes of prolonged fever and inflammation in the absence of infection. There are several different autoinflammatory syndromes identified by distinct symptoms and underlying genetic mutations. A team of researchers, led by Koji Yasutomo, at the University of Tokushima Graduate School, Japan, has now determined that a mutation of the PSMB8 gene causes Japanese autoinflammatory syndrome with lipodystrophy (JASL), a recently identified condition.

Just as we must take out the trash to keep our homes clean and safe, it is essential that our cells have mechanisms for dealing with wastes and worn-out proteins. When these processes are not working properly, unwanted debris builds up in the cell and creates a toxic environment.

Researchers have identified an unconventional path that may correct the defect underlying cystic fibrosis, according to a report in the September 2nd issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication. This new treatment dramatically extends the lives of mice carrying the disease-associated mutation.

Yale researchers have discovered the source of signals that trigger hair growth, an insight that may lead to new treatments for baldness.

The researchers identified stem cells within the skin's fatty layer and showed that molecular signals from these cells were necessary to spur hair growth in mice, according to research published in the Sept. 2 issue of the journal Cell.

Yale University researchers have identified a key genetic gear that keeps the circadian clock of plants ticking, a finding that could have broad implications for global agriculture.

The research appears in the Sept. 2 issue of the journal Molecular Cell.

NEW YORK, NY, (September 1, 2011) – Although several genes have been linked to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), it is still unknown how they cause this progressive neurodegenerative disease. In a new study, Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers have demonstrated that two ALS-associated genes work in tandem to support the long-term survival of motor neurons. The findings were published in the September 1 online edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.