Body

Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. -- One way of discovering a gene's function is to switch it off and observe how the loss of its activity affects an organism. If a gene is essential for survival, however, then switching it off permanently will kill the organism before the gene's function can be determined. Researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have overcome this problem by using RNA interference (RNAi) technology to temporarily turn off any essential gene in adult mice and then turn it back on before the change kills the animals.

Montreal, April 14, 2011 – An international consortium of scientists, including major contributions from the Montreal Heart Institute, demonstrates that the "one-size fits all" strategy of uniformly doubling the dose of an antiplatelet drug, clopidogrel, for patients with high on-treatment platelet reactivity does not reduce the incidence on death, heart attacks and stent thrombosis after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

Approximately 20% of Spaniards take non-prescribed medication and women are the group most inclined towards this practice. This is the conclusion of a research study carried out by experts from the Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid, which also links this habit to nationality, income level and alcohol and tobacco consumption amongst the population.

A new study led by a scientist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego is painting a more complete picture of an extraordinary sea worm that makes its living in the depths of the ocean on the bones of dead animals.

Producing hydrogen in a sustainable way is a challenge and production cost is too high. A team led by EPFL Professor Xile Hu has discovered that a molybdenum based catalyst is produced at room temperature, inexpensive and efficient. The results of the research are published online in Chemical Science Thursday the 14th of April. An international patent based on this discovery has just been filled.

An international study published today warns that nitrogen pollution, resulting from industry and agriculture, is putting wildlife in Europe's at risk. More than 60 per cent of the EU's most important wildlife sites receive aerial nitrogen pollution inputs above sustainable levels.

There is evidence of impacts on semi-natural grasslands, heathlands and forests across Europe. This threat is set to continue unless there is further action on emissions of polluting nitrogen gases.

The researchers also found that some cuckoo finch hosts use an alternative strategy: red-faced cisticolas lay only moderately variable eggs but are instead extremely discriminating in deciding whether an egg is their one of their own. Thanks to their excellent discrimination, these hosts can spot even a sophisticated mimic.

Some 2.6 million third trimester stillbirths worldwide occur every year, according to the first comprehensive set of stillbirth estimates, published today within a special series in the medical journal The Lancet.

Every day more than 7,300 babies are stillborn. A death occurs just when parents expect to welcome a new life.

Infectious disease is a huge cause of death globally, and is a particular threat to newborns whose immune systems respond poorly to most vaccines. A new approach developed at Children's Hospital Boston, using an adjuvant (an agent to stimulate the immune system) along with the vaccine, shows promise in a study of blood from Gambian infants. Results will appear in the open-access journal PLoS ONE on April 13.

Animal cell membranes are a bilayer of phospholipids (charged fat molecules) made up to various degrees of fatty acids that must be acquired from the diet. The essential polyunsaturated fatty acids have been shown to be important in resistance to a variety of diseases and in coping with changes in body temperature. It is generally believed that mammals are unable to alter the proportions of essential fatty acids in their cell membranes except by changing their diets.

For the first time, scientists at Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network have shown in a clinical trial that the Toronto XVIVO System can safely and effectively treat, re-assess and improve the function of high-risk donor lungs so that they can be successfully transplanted into patients. The use of this technique could significantly expand the donor organ pool and improve outcomes after transplantation.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---The ongoing spread of non-native mussels in the Great Lakes has caused "massive, ecosystem-wide changes" throughout lakes Michigan and Huron, two of the planet's largest freshwater lakes, according to a new University of Michigan-led study.

The blitzkrieg advance of two closely related species of mussels---the zebra and quagga---is stripping the lakes of their life-supporting algae, resulting in a remarkable ecological transformation and threatening the multibillion-dollar U.S. commercial and recreational Great Lakes fisheries.

DALLAS – April 14, 2011 – A natural hormone known to inhibit aging can also protect kidneys against renal fibrosis, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have demonstrated.

Scientists led by Dr. Makoto Kuro-o, associate professor of pathology, showed in mice that the anti-aging hormone Klotho suppressed both renal fibrosis – a common complication of chronic kidney disease – and the spread of cancer. The findings are available online in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

It is well known that the human body has a highly developed immune system to detect and destroy invading pathogens and tumor cells. Now, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have shown that the body has a second line of defense against cancer – healthy cells. A new study shows that normal mammary epithelial cells, as they are developing, secrete interleukin 25, a protein known for its role in the immune system's response to inflammation, for the express purpose of killing nearby breast cancer cells.

To ensure normal fetal development and prevent disease, it is crucial that certain genes are on or off in the right time intervals. Researchers in Professor Kristian Helin's group at BRIC, University of Copenhagen, have now shown how the TET1 enzyme controls the activity of our genes. The results are just published in the journal Nature.

Control of our genes