Body

PULLMAN, Wash. - A team of scientists from Washington State University has discovered how one of the planet's most deadly known viruses employs burglary-ring-like teamwork to infiltrate the human cell.

Nipah virus is so menacing that the nation's top infectious disease experts served as consultants in the filmmaking of the 2011 medical thriller, "Contagion," which is based on a global Nipah outbreak.

(MEMPHIS, Tenn. – December 16, 2013) St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists have identified a protein complex that is essential for jumpstarting the immune response during the critical first 24 hours of an infection. The research appears in the current issue of the scientific journal Immunity.

Cold Spring Harbor, New York, December 16, 2013 -- Over the last decades, RNA interference (RNAi) has become an indispensable tool for functional genetic studies by harnessing the power of a cell intrinsic mechanism enabling reversible gene silencing. Indeed, gene silencing can mirror gene loss during disease progression or mimic pharmacological target inhibition even where no such drug currently exists.

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Enduring the last few weeks of pregnancy can be physically and emotionally challenging for some women. The aches and pains, the swelling of the limbs and the anxiety of when labor may start are part of the natural gestation process, but they also can seem unbearable. It may seem easier to relieve symptoms associated with late pregnancy by electing to deliver early, but Mayo Clinic researchers caution that there can be an increased risk of complications to the mother and the newborn associated with early-term deliveries.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana University cancer researchers have discovered that a protein that normally suppresses tumors actually promotes the growth and spread of pancreatic cancer.

Murray Korc, M.D., the Myles Brand Professor of Cancer Research at the Indiana University School of Medicine and a researcher at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center, and colleagues have shown that the retinoblastoma protein, a tumor suppressor, often malfunctions in pancreatic cancer. That dysfunction enables an inhibitory protein to promote pancreatic cancer growth.

The bedtime you select for your toddler may be out of sync with his or her internal body clock, which can contribute to difficulties for youngsters attempting to settle in for the night, according to a new University of Colorado Boulder study.

Easily manufactured, low-cost artificial cells manufactured using microprinting may one day serve as drug and gene delivery devices and in biomaterials, biotechnology and biosensing applications, according to a team of Penn State biomedical engineers. These artificial cells will also allow researchers to explore actions that take place at the cell membrane.

Supramolecular chemistry, aka chemistry beyond the molecule, in which molecules and molecular complexes are held together by non-covalent bonds, is just beginning to come into its own with the emergence of nanotechnology. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are commanding much of the attention because of their appetite for greenhouse gases, but a new player has joined the field – supramolecular organic frameworks (SOFs). Researchers with the U.S.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a devastating illness that gradually robs sufferers of muscle strength and eventually causes a lethal, full-body paralysis. The only drug available to treat the disease extends life spans by a meager three months on average.

Many parents say when their second child is born that their first child suddenly appears to have grown overnight. Now, researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on December 16 have an explanation: until the birth of the new child, those parents were subject to a "baby illusion," routinely misperceiving their youngest child as smaller (and younger) than he or she really was.

While there are well-established mouse models to identify cancer-causing agents, similar models are not available to readily test and identify age-promoting agents. Recently, a mouse strain (p16LUC mice) was developed that can be used to evaluate the transcription of p16INK4, which is increasingly expressed during aging and in age-associated diseases.

Dense deposit disease is a rare congenital disorder that is associated with complement dysfunction and often results in end stage renal disease within 10 years of the initial diagnosis. A small percentage of dense deposit disease is associated with mutations in the genes encoding factor H or C3 and autoantibody production.

CINCINNATI – Using genetic information initially uncovered in fruit fly studies, scientists have developed a unique therapeutic strategy that stops an aggressive and deadly form of leukemia in laboratory models of the disease.

Senescent cells, which are metabolically active but no longer capable of dividing, contribute to aging, and senescence is a key mechanism for preventing the spread of cancer cells. A study in The Journal of Cell Biology identifies a common, early marker of senescent cells that could have important implications for tumor suppression and aging-related diseases like Progeria.

Using a new technique to evaluate working muscles in mice, researchers have uncovered physiological mechanisms that could lead to new strategies for combating metabolism-related disorders like muscle wasting and obesity. The study appears in The Journal of General Physiology.