Body

The human face is as unique as a fingerprint, no one else looks exactly like you. But what is it that makes facial morphology so distinct? Certainly genetics play a major role as evident in the similarities between parents and their children, but what is it in our DNA that fine-tunes the genetics so that siblings – especially identical twins - resemble one another but look different from unrelated individuals? A new study by researchers at the U.S.

Ghent, 24 October –Stem cells are crucial for the continuous generation of new cells. Although the importance of stem cells in fuelling plant growth and development still many questions on their tight molecular control remain unanswered. Plant researchers at VIB and Ghent University discovered a new step in the complex regulation of stem cells. Today, their results are published online in this week's issue of Science Express.

BEND, Ore. – A new study suggests that some children may be genetically predisposed to developing behavioral problems in child care and preschool settings.

Previous research has found that some children develop behavior problems at child care centers and preschools, despite the benefit of academic gains. It was never known, however, why some youngsters struggle in these settings and others flourish. The new study indicates that some children may be acting out due to poor self-control and temperament problems that they inherited from their parents.

New Rochelle, NY, October 24, 2013—Performing surgery to take pressure off the spine after a traumatic injury soon after the event could prevent or reverse some of the secondary damage caused by swelling and decreased blood flow to the injured spine.

In Australia's Western Desert, Aboriginal hunters use a unique method that actually increases populations of the animals they hunt, according to a study co-authored by Stanford Woods Institute-affiliated researchers Rebecca and Doug Bird. Rebecca Bird is an associate professor of anthropology, and Doug Bird is a senior research scientist.

October 23, 2013—(BRONX, NY)—An investigational drug that disrupts tumor blood vessels shows promise against a rare type of pancreatic cancer, scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have found. Their results were presented October 20 during a poster session at an international cancer conference.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Young, black women have the highest rate of developing lupus and are most likely to be diagnosed at a younger age than whites and during childbearing years, according to a new University of Michigan study of lupus in Southeastern Michigan.

In Michigan, lupus prevalence was three times higher than previous estimates, reaching one in 537 black female Michiganders in the region, compared to one in 1,153 white women, according to the findings that appear in Arthritis and Rheumatism.

Conservationists from the Wildlife Conservation Society and the University of St. Andrews warn that Uganda's African lions—a mainstay of the country's tourism industry and a symbol of Africa—are on the verge of disappearing from the country's national parks.

Our ability to hear relies on hair cells, sensory receptors that mechanically amplify low-level sound that enters the inner ear through a transduction channel. Although the transduction channel was characterized more than 30 years ago, researchers have been unable to identify its molecular components. A new study in The Journal of General Physiology could help lead to a definitive identification of this mystery channel.

Irvine, Calif., Oct. 24, 2013 — Cells triggering tissue regeneration that are taken from one limb and grafted onto another acquire the molecular "fingerprint," or identity, of their new location, UC Irvine developmental biologists have discovered.

HIV infection is typically treated with antiretroviral therapy, which targets actively replicating HIV but does not affect inactive or latent forms of the virus. The latent reservoir is the biggest barrier to curing HIV, and a study published by Cell Press October 24th in the journal Cell has shown that it could be 60 times larger than previously thought.

Allergic reactions to bee stings can be damaging or even deadly, but new evidence from two independent studies of mice reported in the Cell Press journal Immunity on October 24th suggest that the immune response to bee venom and other allergens actually evolved and may continue to serve as a protective defense mechanism. Perhaps they aren't just misdirected immune responses after all.

Just as our bodies have skeletons, so do our cells. They're equally indispensible in both cases. Without our bony skeletons we'd go limp and fall down. And without our cytoskeletons, our cells, which come in roughly 200 different shapes and sizes, would all become tiny spheres and stop working.

Just when some scientists were becoming more hopeful about finding a strategy to outwit HIV's ability to resist, evade and otherwise survive efforts to rid it from the body, another hurdle has emerged to foil their plans, new research from Johns Hopkins shows.

In a cover-story report on the research to be published in the journal Cell online Oct. 24, Johns Hopkins infectious disease experts say the amount of potentially active, dormant forms of HIV hiding in infected immune T cells may actually be 60-fold greater than previously thought.

BOSTON -- The considerable diversity of HIV worldwide represents a critical challenge for designing an effective HIV vaccine. Now, a scientific team led by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has shown that bioinformatically optimized HIV vaccine antigens known as "mosaic" antigens might be useful in the design of a global HIV vaccine. This study, which was conducted in monkeys, is published today in the journal Cell.