Body

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – In a series of recently-published articles, a research team from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center has uncovered clues to the development of cancers in AIDS patients.

HOUSTON – (June 17, 2009) – An overactive enzyme is behind a leaky calcium channel that plays a role in the development of atrial fibrillation, which is the most common cardiac arrhythmia that is responsible for a third of all strokes. However, it doesn't act alone, say researchers at Baylor College of Medicine. The findings can be found online in the current edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

PHILADELPHIA – How molecules of the oldest branch of the human immune system have interconnected has remained a mystery. Now, two new structures, both involving a central component of an enzyme important to the complement system of the immune response, reveal how this system fights invading microbes while avoiding problems of the body attacking itself.

Targeting children may be an effective use of limited supplies of flu vaccine, according to research at the University of Warwick funded by the Wellcome Trust and the EU. The study suggests that, used to support other control measures, this could help control the spread of pandemics such as the current swine flu.

Biophysicists long for an ideal material—something more structured and less sticky than a standard glass surface—to anchor and position individual biomolecules. Gold is an alluring possibility, with its simple chemistry and the ease with which it can be patterned. Unfortunately, gold also tends to be sticky and can be melted by lasers. Now, biophysicists at JILA have made gold more precious than ever—at least as a research tool—by creating nonstick gold surfaces and laser-safe gold nanoposts, a potential boon to laser trapping of biomolecules.

Changes in ocean chemistry — a consequence of increased carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from human industrial activity — could cause U.S. shellfish revenues to drop significantly in the next 50 years, according to a new study by researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).

ROME, ITALY —As rapidly rising temperatures in Africa threaten to scorch local varieties of maize and other food staples, the food security of many Africans will depend on farmers in one country gaining access to climatically suitable varieties now being cultivated in other African nations, and beyond, according to a peer-reviewed study published in Global Environmental Change.

Cambridge, Mass. – June 17, 2009 – Computer scientists at Harvard have developed a framework for studying the arrangement of tissue networks created by cell division across a diverse set of organisms, including fruit flies, tadpoles, and plants.

The finding, published in the June 2009 issue of PLoS Computational Biology, could lead to insights about how multicellular systems achieve (or fail to achieve) robustness from the seemingly random behavior of groups of cells and provide a roadmap for researchers seeking to artificially emulate complex biological behavior.

A new National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) assay using a “glow or no glow” technique may soon help the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) defend the nation against a spectrum of biological weapons that could be used in a terrorist attack. One very dangerous toxin on the list is ricin, a protein derived from castor beans that is lethal in doses as small as 500 micrograms—about the size of a grain of salt.

Targeting children may be an effective use of limited supplies of flu vaccine, according to research funded by the Wellcome Trust and the EU. The study suggests that, used to support other control measures, this could help control the spread of pandemics such as the current swine flu.

New research from North Carolina State University and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) shows significant reproductive health effects in rats that have been exposed to bisphenol-A (BPA) at levels equivalent to or below the dose that has been thought not to produce any adverse effects.

BPA is a chemical found in baby bottles, water bottles, canned foods and an array of other consumer products. The potential health effects of BPA are currently the subjects of intense debate.

Plants or meat: That's about all that fossils ever tell paleontologists about a dinosaur's diet. But the skull characteristics of a new species of parrot-beaked dinosaur and its associated gizzard stones indicate that the animal fed on nuts and/or seeds. These characteristics present the first solid evidence of nut-eating in any dinosaur.

The flow of water into and out from the cell may play a crucial role in several types of cancer. Scientists at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have now found the gate that regulates the flow of water into yeast cells. The discovery, which will be published in the journal PLoS Biology, raises hopes of developing a drug that inhibits the spread and growth of tumours.

June 17, 2009, Cambridge, UK – The saying "Knowing is half the battle" is never more true than when discussing early treatment of disease. Muscular dystrophy is one such disease where patients can benefit from early treatment. Now, new research is moving doctors and scientists closer to disease diagnosis in advance of patient symptoms.

Using an opioid drug to induce a hibernatory state in rats reduces the damage caused by an artificial stroke. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Biology have shown that those animals put into the chemical fugue suffered less behavioral dysfunctions after a period of cerebral artery blockage than control rats.