Body

A study led by researchers at the University of Illinois reveals how a cellular protein recognizes an invading virus and alerts the body to the infection.

The research, described this week in the journal Science and led by Illinois physics professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Taekjip Ha, settles a debate over how the protein, RIG-I (pronounced rig-EYE), is able to distinguish between viral RNA and self (or cellular) RNA.

Hydrogen peroxide is one of the world's most versatile and widely used chemicals. A powerful oxidizing agent, H2O2 is commonly used as a bleach, an antiseptic and a disinfectant.

Despite its importance, however, says Christopher J. Kiely, hydrogen peroxide has eluded the best efforts of the chemists seeking a more direct, efficient and environmentally friendly means of producing it.

"Hydrogen peroxide has for decades been made by an indirect energy-intensive process," says Kiely, a professor of materials science and engineering at Lehigh University.

People everywhere are feeling the stress of a worldwide recession. Our cells, too, are under continual assault from stress.

Hidden from sight, our cells battle challenges such as their environment, bacteria, viruses, too much or too little oxygen, and physiological stressors. Molecular systems protect cells under assault, but those systems can break down, especially with age.

Some algae have been hanging together rather than going it alone much longer than previously thought, according to new research.

Ancestors of Volvox algae made the transition from being a single-celled organism to becoming a multicellular colony at least 200 million years ago, during the Triassic Period.

At that time, Earth was a hot-house world whose inhabitants included tree ferns, dinosaurs and early mammals. Previous estimates had suggested Volvox's ancestors arose only 50 million years ago.

For copies of any of these articles, please contact Kevin Stacey at 773-834-0386 or kstacey@press.uchicago.edu.

HOW OFTEN DO ANIMALS LIE ABOUT THEIR INTENTIONS?

A team of researchers from Princeton University and the Drexel University College of Medicine has found that the parasite that causes malaria breaks down an important amino acid in its quest to adapt and thrive within the human body. By depleting this substance called arginine, the parasite may trigger a more critical and deadlier phase of the disease.

Montreal, February 19, 2009 – A major mystery about the origins of life has been resolved. According to a study published in the journal Nature, two Université de Montréal scientists have proposed a new theory for how a universal molecular machine, the ribosome, managed to self-assemble as a critical step in the genesis of all life on Earth.

• When drugs don't work and surgery is not possible, transplanting stem cells from the patient's own bone marrow is an effective alternative for the treatment of this chronic disease.
• The procedure has been tested successfully in the US and Italy, where total remission of the disease has been shown in 80% of cases, and considerable improvement in quality of life in the remaining 20% of cases. Since August 2008, Hospital Clínic has used this therapy in a total of 6 patients.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — How long a patient survives after a kidney transplant could depend on where he or she signs up to get the surgery, new research from the University of Florida shows.

The shorter the waiting time at a transplant center, the longer patients are likely to live. A combination of center-related factors could mean up to a four-year difference in life expectancy for candidates.

The UF study is the first to analyze overall survival chances for people waiting for a kidney transplant, rather than for people who had already received a transplant.

Researchers at North Carolina State University are determining ways to speed the return of residents to their homes in the wake of natural disasters.

The first step is providing better, more accessible information about available tools and technologies to homeowners, builders, architects and others says Dr. Dave Tilotta, associate professor of wood products at NC State.

A study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University found an association between increasing levels of indoor particulate matter pollution and the severity of asthma symptoms among children. The study, which followed a group of asthmatic children in Baltimore, Md., is among the first to examine the effects of indoor particulate matter pollution. The results are published in the February 2009 edition of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

A new website has been launched which allows scientists everywhere to collaborate on the identification of bacterial strains. This new resource, described in the open access journal BMC Biology, provides a portal for electronic bacterial taxonomy.

Whilst the credit crunch is hitting people hard in the Western world, a researcher from the University of Bath says the current global economic downturn will have even more drastic consequences for those in the developing world who already live on the poverty line.

Dr Peter Davis, from the University's Department of Economics & International Development, has devised new methods of assessing poverty that could help policymakers to tackle the underlying causes of chronic poverty that affect millions worldwide.

For patients with type two diabetes, a combination of two blood-pressure-lowering drugs reduces the risk of kidney disease by about 20 percent—even in patients who don't have high blood pressure, reports a study in the April 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).

Alcohol consumption causes alteration in several cellular mechanisms, and leads to inflammation, apoptosis, immunoresponse defect, and fibrosis. These phenomena are associated to significant changes in the epigenetic mechanisms, and, subsequently, to the liver cell memory. Although inhibition of proteasome function has been widely reported in models of alcoholic liver disease (ALD), why proteasome dysfunction may enhance hepatotoxicity is not well defined.