Body

A study reported in the August 8th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, reveals the complete mitochondrial genome of a 38,000-year-old Neandertal. The findings open a window into the Neandertals' past and helps answer lingering questions about our relationship to them.

" For the first time, we've built a sequence from ancient DNA that is essentially without error," said Richard Green of Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany.

BOSTON, Mass. (Aug. 7, 2008) — Hopes languished last September when a promising candidate HIV vaccine failed to work. Despite this setback, many researchers still believe immunization is possible, and a new study suggests they're correct—at least at the cellular level.

Working in mice infected with HIV, a team used a method called RNA interference to knock down three genes in T cells, protecting them from the virus. This method seemed to prevent HIV from jumping between cells in the mice.

Genes that inhibit the spontaneous development of cancer are called tumor suppressor genes. One of the major tumor suppressors is p53, a protein that acts in the cell nucleus to control the expression of other genes whose products can inhibit cell proliferation (increase in cell number) and cell growth (increase in cell size). Abnormal cell proliferation and growth are characteristics of cancer. Scientists previously knew which p53 target genes inhibit cell proliferation, but those required for inhibition of cell growth were unknown.

LA JOLLA, CA — As the summer approaches most of us rejoice, reach for the sunscreen and head outdoors. But an ever-growing number of people reach for tissue instead as pollen leaves eyes watering, noses running and spirits dwindling. Hay fever is just one of a host of hypersensitivity allergic diseases that cause suffering worldwide and others, such as severe reactions to bee stings or eating peanuts, can be more serious and even fatal.

Boston, Mass, Aug. 7, 2008 – Harvard Stem Cell Institute researcher George Q. Daley, MD, PhD, also associate director of the Stem Cell Program at Children's Hospital Boston, and HSCI colleagues Konrad Hochedlinger and Chad Cowan have produced a robust new collection of disease-specific stem cell lines, all of which were developed using the new induced pluripotent stem cell (iPS) technique. The paper is being published in the August 6 on-line edition of the journal Cell.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (August 7, 2008) – Embryonic stem cells are always facing a choice—either to self-renew or begin morphing into another type of cell altogether.

It's a tricky choice, governed by complex gene regulatory circuitry driven by a handful of key regulators known as "master transcription factors," proteins that switch gene expression on or off.

Cambridge, UK, 07 August 2008 - "Big things come in small packages," the saying goes, and it couldn't be more true when discussing the mouse. This little creature has become a crucial part of human history through its contributions in understanding human genetics and disease. In a review published in Disease Models & Mechanisms (DMM), http://dmm.biologists.org, genetics researchers from Yale University School of Medicine and Fudan University School of Life Sciences discuss the history and future of mice as a model organism.

Irvine, Calif., Aug. 7, 2008 — Despite some improvements to lower "bad" cholesterol levels, people with cardiovascular diseases still need to do a better job controlling overall blood lipid levels, according to a UC Irvine Heart Disease Prevention Program study.

U.S. Military HIV Research Program (USMHRP) researcher Victoria R. Polonis, Ph.D., and colleagues released findings on a study of cross-clade neutralization patterns among HIV-1 strains from six major clades in the 5 Jun 2008 issue of Virology.

A medical test developed to detect an overload of iron in humans has recently been adapted to screen for the condition in some distant relatives: diminutive monkeys from South America, according to veterinarians at the Wildlife Conservation Society.

New research in the latest issue of the Society of Chemical Industry's (SCI) Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture shows there is no evidence to support the argument that organic food is better than food grown with the use of pesticides and chemicals

Many people pay more than a third more for organic food in the belief that it has more nutritional content than food grown with pesticides and chemicals.

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. -- Imagine an edible optical sensor that could be placed in produce bags to detect harmful levels of bacteria and consumed right along with the veggies. Or an implantable device that would monitor glucose in your blood for a year, then dissolve.

Troy, N.Y. — An international team of researchers has identified just 200 positions within the curves of the DNA helix that they believe capture much of the genetic diversity in European Americans, a population with one of the most diverse and complex historic origins on Earth. Their findings narrow the search for the elusive ancestral clues known as single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, that cause disease and account for the minute variations in the European American population.

A spin out company from basic structural biology, Asterion Ltd., has led to new technology that provides a way of creating therapeutic proteins to tackle major diseases such as cancer, diabetes and infertility. The research was carried out at the University of Sheffield in laboratories supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). This work is reported in the current edition of BBSRC Business, the quarterly research highlights magazine of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.

Scientists at the BBSRC-funded Institute for Animal Health (IAH) are stepping up the battle against the devastating and economically damaging bluetongue virus. By combining ingenious ways to trap and monitor midges with cutting edge computer modelling and weather predictions the IAH team are gaining an understanding of how the insects spread the disease so that they can improve surveillance methods and advise farmers how and when to protect their animals.