Body

Scientists from the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) have determined the 3D structure of a key protein component involved in enabling "epigenetic code" to be copied accurately from cell to cell.

Epigenetic code is a series of chemical switches that is added onto our DNA in order to ensure that the cells in our body can form different types of tissue, for example liver and skin, despite having identical DNA genetic code.

Imagine having to copy an entire book by hand without missing a comma. Our cells face a similar task every time they divide. They must duplicate both their DNA and a subtle pattern of punctuation-like modifications on the DNA known as methylation.

Scientists at Emory University School of Medicine have caught in action one of the tools mammalian cells use to maintain their pattern of methylation. Visualized by X-ray crystallography, the SRA domain of the protein UHRF1 appears to act like a bookmark while enzymes are copying a molecule of DNA.

Serum microRNAs (miRNAs) can serve as biomarkers for the detection of diseases including cancer and diabetes, according to research published online this week in Cell Research. The findings pave the way for a revolutionary non-invasive diagnostic tool.

miRNAs are a class of naturally occurring small non-coding RNAs that have been linked with cancer development. Recent studies reporting individual miRNAs as diagnostic biomarkers of specific cancers were unable to rule out the possibility that these miRNAs appeared as a result of contamination.

Biocontrol agents, such as insects, are often released outside of their native ranges to control invasive plants. But scientists in Montana have found that through complex community interactions among deer mice, native plants and seeds, the presence of an introduced fly may exacerbate the effects of the invasive plant it was meant to control. The authors report their results in the September issue of the journal Ecological Applications.

DALLAS – Sept. 3, 2008 – Many nursing mothers who have been hospitalized for breast abscesses are afflicted with the "superbug" methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, but according to new research by UT Southwestern Medical Center physicians, conservative treatment can deal with the problem.

The study focused on hospitalized women with mastitis, and showed that community-associated MRSA was much more likely to be found in those who had both mastitis (an inflammation of the milk glands) and abscesses (pockets of infection).

Lafayette, Ind. (September 3, 2008) – A new study published online today in the British Journal of Nutrition found that timing of dietary protein intake affects feelings of fullness throughout the day. The study concluded that when people ate high-quality protein foods, from sources such as eggs and lean Canadian bacon, for breakfast they had a greater sense of sustained fullness throughout the day compared to when more protein was eaten at lunch or dinner.i

Heart disease is the number one cause of death in Europe and early diagnosis is essential to save lives. Monitoring the heart's rhythm and electrical activity in real time using an electrocardiogram (ECG) provides vital information about abnormalities and gives clues to the nature of a problem. Some cardiac conditions need long-term monitoring — inconvenient for patients as it requires them to be away from their everyday environment for indeterminate periods of time.

Half the residents of New Orleans were suffering from poor mental and physical health more than a year after their homes and community were devastated by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, according to research published in the September issue of the UK-based Journal of Clinical Nursing.

Researchers from Point Loma Nazarene University, San Diego, California, spoke to 222 local residents 15 months after they survived one of the worst natural disasters to hit the USA.

Amsterdam, September 3, 2008 – A recent study (doi:10.1016/j.clim.2008.06.009) published in Clinical Immunology, the official journal of the Clinical Immunology Society (CIS), describes a new method enabling the detection of multiple parameters of single human cells. The report demonstrates the characterization of specific blood cells from an individual with type 1 diabetes, providing information about the role these cells might play in the development of the disease and during therapy.

Life processes in cells require a reducing environment that needs to be sustained with the help of a large number of antioxidative enzymes. This may sound abstract and incomprehensible, but everyone knows the phenomenon that a piece of cut apple or a piece of cut meat changes colour quickly and deteriorates, because the oxygen in the air produces chemical reactions in the tissues (oxidation of biomolecules).

This release is also available in French.

SRC="http://www..org/images/release_graphics/pycnogenol.jpg"WIDTH=200>

[PRESS RELEASE, 3 September 2008] Gynaecological screening tests for cervical cancer have been available to all women in Sweden for almost four decades. Despite this, many immigrant women have a higher risk of developing the disease than Swedish-born women, according to a new study from the medical university Karolinska Institutet.

How did the universe come to be? What is it made of? What is mass? Can science prove that there are other dimensions?

We may have answers soon. On September 10, 2008, Tel Aviv University's Prof. Erez Etzion from the School of Physics and Astronomy will be in the control room of the new CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) on the border of France and Switzerland when the LHC is first turned on. Scientists are calling it the largest experiment in the world. It's taken about 6,000 researchers, $8 billion and ten years to build.

CHICAGO (September 3, 2008) – New research published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons shows African Americans are more than twice as likely as Caucasians to die in the hospital after surgical removal of part of the liver -- an increasingly used procedure for the treatment of liver cancer.