Body

Harvard stem cells scientists at Brigham and Women's Hospital and MIT can now engineer cells that are more easily controlled following transplantation, potentially making cell therapies, hundreds of which are currently in clinical trials across the United States, more functional and efficient.

Associate Professor Jeffrey Karp, PhD, and James Ankrum, PhD, demonstrate in this month's issue of Nature Protocols how to load cells with microparticles that provide the cells cues for how they should behave over the course of days or weeks as the particles degrade.

Chronic inflammation poses something of a mystery for researchers. If we become infected, the body immediately takes steps to repair and tidy it up. This process manifests itself as inflammation, which stems from a high level of activity in the immune cells, the body's defence against bacteria and viruses. But it does not always go according to plan. Every so often, the body's immune system over-reacts, and the inflammation develops into a chronic condition, resulting in diseases such as arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and psoriasis.

Washington, DC (January 9, 2014) — New research reveals that certain cells contribute to kidney function decline, making them attractive targets for treatments against kidney failure. The findings will appear in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).

Is the male Y chromosome at risk of being lost? Recent work by Dr Wilson Sayres and colleagues at UC Berkeley, published in PLOS Genetics, demonstrates that the genes on the Y chromosome are important: they have probably been maintained by selection. This implies that despite its dwindling size, the Y chromosome will be sticking around.

A comparison of Y chromosomes in eight African and eight European men dispels the common notion that the Y's genes are mostly unimportant and that the chromosome is destined to dwindle and disappear.

CHAPEL HILL, NC – Researchers at the UNC School of Medicine have deployed a potential new weapon against HIV – a combination therapy that targets HIV-infected cells that standard therapies cannot kill.

A new way to test for the parasite which causes the fatal disease leishmaniasis could help control its spread to humans and stop dogs being needlessly killed in parts of South America.

Zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis is a vector-transmitted parasitic infection which can be fatal if left untreated. It generally affects the poorest of the poor, particularly malnourished children in developing countries, with an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 new cases in humans annually according to World Health Organisation figures.

Every year, influenza outbreaks claim hundreds of thousands of human lives. Though vaccination against flu is fairly efficient, the disease is difficult to exterminate because of the high evolutionary rate of the flu virus. Every year, new flu strains spread over the planet that differ slightly from those that were common a year before, which helps the virus to escape the immune response, and possibly compromises the efficiency of anti-viral drugs. Furthermore, from time to time, a drastically new strain appears, posing a threat of human pandemic.

A form of malaria common in India, Southeast Asia and South America attacks human red blood cells by clamping down on the cells with a pair of proteins, new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has revealed.

The study provides details that will help scientists design better vaccines and drug treatments for the strain, Plasmodium vivax.

A team including University of North Carolina and NIH scientists has demonstrated in a mouse model that an HIV-specific poison can kill cells in which the virus is actively reproducing despite antiretroviral therapy. According to the researchers, such a targeted poison could complement antiretroviral therapy, which dramatically reduces the replication of HIV in infected cells but does not eliminate them.

SEATTLE - Studies have found that prostate cancer is overdiagnosed in up to 42 percent of cases, prompting men to receive unnecessary treatment that can cause devastating side effects, including impotence and incontinence.

Now, researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington have developed a personalized tool that can predict the likelihood of prostate cancer overdiagnosis. They announced their findings this week in the online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Acute otitis media, or ear infection, is the most common ailment among kids of preschool age and younger in the U.S., primarily because these children have immature middle-ear drainage systems, higher exposure to respiratory illnesses and undeveloped immune systems.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – In ecosystems around the world, the decline of large predators such as lions, dingoes, wolves, otters, and bears is changing the face of landscapes from the tropics to the Arctic – but an analysis of 31 carnivore species published today in the journal Science shows for the first time how threats such as habitat loss, persecution by humans and loss of prey combine to create global hotspots of carnivore decline.

January 09, 2013, New York, NY– A Ludwig Cancer Research study has uncovered a phenomenon that alters prevailing views of how the genome is expressed to make and sustain the life of mammals. Published in the journal Science, the paper helps explain why genetically identical animals are sometimes so different in their biology and appearance, and why some inherited disorders caused by a shared set of aberrant genes can be of such variable severity in different people.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass-- Marine cyanobacteria — tiny ocean plants that produce oxygen and make organic carbon using sunlight and CO2 — are primary engines of Earth's biogeochemical and nutrient cycles. They nourish other organisms through the provision of oxygen and with their own body mass, which forms the base of the ocean food chain.