Body

LA JOLLA, Calif. -- To invade organisms such as humans, bacteria make use of a protein called flagellin, part of a tail-like appendage that helps the bacteria move about. Now, for the first time, a team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute and Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute has determined the 3D structure of the interaction between this critical bacterial protein and an immune molecule called TLR5, shedding light on how the body protects itself from such foreign invaders.

After a decade and a half of near stagnation, four new drugs could help make advanced prostate cancer a chronic illness instead of a terminal disease, a leading Colorado prostate cancer expert says.

Signals can tell cells to act cancerous, surviving, growing and reproducing out of control. And signals can also tell cells with cancerous characteristics to stop growing or to die. In breast cancer, one tricky signal called TGF-beta does both – sometimes promoting tumors and sometimes suppressing them.

Boston, Mass. – That our chromosomes can break and reshuffle pieces of themselves is nothing new; scientists have recognized this for decades, especially in cancer cells. The rules for where chromosomes are likely to break and how the broken pieces come together are only just now starting to come into view.

WORCESTER, Mass. -- It is well understood that chromosomal translocation – a process whereby pieces of two chromosomes break off and exchange places – is a hallmark of many cancers including leukemia, thyroid cancer and lymphoma and play an important part in how healthy cells become cancerous. The role spatial proximity plays in why certain chromosomal translocations happen repeatedly, however, has been a long-standing area of debate among scientists.

Alexandria, VA -- Today, the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) asked the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to place a moratorium on the issuing of patents on human genes during testimony presented at an Agency hearing on genetic diagnostic testing. AMP is the lead plaintiff of 20 plaintiffs in an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sponsored lawsuit challenging the validity of patents on two hereditary breast and ovarian cancer genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2.

Stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) provides better overall survival rates than surgery for lung cancer patients with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a disease commonly associated with lung cancer, according to a study in the upcoming March issue of the International Journal of Radiation, Oncology, Biology, Physics, the official scientific journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).

Researchers reporting in the February 17th issue of the Cell Press journal Cell have sequenced the complete genome of one immortal devil. The genomes of the Tasmanian devil and its transmissible cancer may help to explain how that cancer went from a single individual to spreading through the population like wildfire.

Alcoholic drinks aren't generally put into the category of health food, but in some cases they might be just the cure for nasty parasites. That's according to a study published online on February 16 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, showing that fruit flies will actually seek out alcohol to kill off blood-borne parasitic wasps living within them.

The discovery offers some of the first evidence that alcohol might be used to fight infection, the researchers say.

It's been said that timing is everything, and that may be particularly true when it comes to the ability to fight off disease. New research published by Cell Press in the February issue of the journal Immunity shows that the success of host immune defense depends in part on an organism's "body clock." The study may lead to therapeutic strategies designed to optimize the immune response and to protect patients at the time when they are most vulnerable.

Yale researchers have discovered how the "guardian of the genome'' oversees quality control in the production of sperm — and perhaps in many other cells as well.

The research published online Feb. 16 in the journal Current Biology opens up the potential of developing new forms of birth control and fertility treatment — and even new ways to combat many forms of cancer.

The circadian clock is a finely tuned genetic mechanism that regulates our sleep cycle and key metabolic changes during the 24-hour cycle. It also may help determine whether we get sick or not, according to a new Yale School of Medicine study published online Feb 16 in the journal Immunity.

Fruit flies infected with a blood-borne parasite consume alcohol to self-medicate, a behavior that greatly increases their survival rate, an Emory University study finds.

"We believe our results are the first to show that alcohol consumption can have a protective effect against infectious disease, and in particular against blood-borne parasites," says Todd Schlenke, the evolutionary geneticist who led the research.

Writing in the February 17, 2012 issue of the journal Cell, researchers at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the Toronto Western Research Institute peel away some of the enduring mystery of how zygotes or fertilized eggs determine which copies of parental genes will be used or ignored.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — The evolution of plants and animals generally has been thought to occur through the passing of genes from parent to offspring and genetic modifications that happen along the way. But evolutionary biologists from Brown University and the University of Sheffield have documented another avenue, through the passing of genes from plant to plant between species with only a distant ancestral kinship.