Veterans with Gulf War syndrome have damage in specific, primitive portion of nervous system
DALLAS Sept. 27, 2004 UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas researchers have uncovered damage in a specific, primitive portion of the nervous systems of veterans suffering from Gulf War syndrome.... ...UT Southwestern researchers report that damage to the parasympathetic nervous system may account for nearly half of the typical symptoms including gallbladder disease, unrefreshing sleep, d...DuPont scientist named one of the world's top young innovators by MIT's 'Technology Review' Magazine
WILMINGTON, Del., Sept. 21, 2004 DuPont scientist Dr. Maria Petrucci-Samija has been named to the 2004 list of the world's 100 Top Young Innovators by Technology Review, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Magazine of Innovation. ... ...Dr. Petrucci-Samija, 33, represents a growing core of young scientists working on emerging technologies at the DuPont Experimental Station global...Termites could hold the key to self-sufficient buildings
Mounds built by highly-evolved African termites could inspire new types of building that are self-sufficient, environmentally friendly and cheap to run. ...... The mounds provide a self-regulating living environment that responds to changing internal and external conditions....... A multidisciplinary team of engineers and entomologists* is looking at whether similar principles could be used to...Case for IBD combination therapy comes from research at Baylor, MIT and Hebrew University
Snowmass, Co. (September 10, 2004) - Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, comprised of Crohn's Disease and ulcerative colitis, are for the most part incurable and their causes are still unknown. About 1 million Americans suffer from IBD and research around the world on new therapeutic strategies against IBD is being reported at a conference sponsored by the American Physiological Society. ... ...On one t...For imitative parrots, wagging tongues may be key to vocalization
In a recent finding that throws new light on mechanisms of animal vocal communication, researchers have shown that parrots can modify the sound of their vocalizations by articulating their tongue. Tongue placement is known to be a fundamental mechanism in human speech, but evidence that similar mechanisms can shape vocalizations in other species has been difficult to obtain. ......In humans, spee...Imitative parrots just might tell you it's all in the tongue
... ......BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- When it comes to making noise, both parrots and...humans rely on extremely specialized vibrating organs in their throats....Now scientists at Indiana University and Leiden University in The...Netherlands have shown for the first time that parrots, like humans,...also can use their tongues to craft and shape sound.... ..."This is the first direct evidence that parrot...Mitochondrial genes cause nuclear mischief
While the nucleus of a cell may be its command headquarters, mitochondria are equally vital--they are the power plants of the cell, and without them all cellular activity would quickly and irrevocably come to a halt. Testifying to their origins as once free-living bacteria, mitochondria have their own DNA, comprising 37 genes in humans on a single circular chromosome. However, most of the mitocho...Virginia Tech researchers to release findings on Smith River Project
BLACKSBURG, Va., Findings from the Smith River Research Project will be presented at a public forum at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 8, in Collinsville, Va., at the Henry County Administration Building, 3300 Kings Mountain Road. ... ...Researchers from the Virginia Tech Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences will be presenting results from the five-year study of the "Influences of Fluctuatin...MIT team explains yin-yang of ginseng
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--In work that emphasizes the need for stronger regulations of herbal drugs, an international team of MIT scientists and colleagues has unraveled the yin and the yang of ginseng, or why the popular alternative medicine can have two entirely different, opposing effects on the body.... ...Conflicting scientific articles report that ginseng can both promote the growth of blood vesse...MIT research that stops pain of needle jabs gets FDA approval
Fear of needles could become a thing of the past....... A painkilling device approved by the FDA Aug. 17 could offer relief to children and adults who hate the sharp stab of pain that comes with needles and IVs....... The medical device, called SonoPrep, uses an ultrasonic method created by MIT researchers to make skin temporarily more permeable. A painless 15-second treatment by the new device,...American Society of Mammalogists honors CI president Russell Mittermeier with Aldo Leopold award
Washington, DC (July 29, 2004) Conservation International President Dr. Russell A. Mittermeier was awarded the second annual Aldo Leopold Award from the American Society of Mammalogists (ASM), CI announced today. The ASM created the award to honor individuals who have made outstanding and lasting contributions to the conservation of mammals and their habitats. In a written statement to the recip...European researchers tackle mitosis
Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) join forces with top scientists from eleven research institutes in Austria, Germany, Italy, France and the United Kingdom for "MitoCheck" the largest integrated research project on cell cycle control within the European Commission's 6th Framework Programme (FP6). The partners will receive an 8.5 million Euro grant to address a fundam...National Academies advisory: July 21 meeting on S&T presidential advisory committees
The National Academies' Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy is examining barriers to selecting the most-qualified candidates for science and technology presidential appointments, and assessing the overall process of appointing scientists, engineers, and health professionals to serve on federal advisory committees. At a meeting on July 21, the study committee will hear stakeholde...Invasive species summit aims to halt Great Lakes-Mississippi River species exchange
... Experts on aquatic invasive species will meet with environmental engineers and fishing and river-carrier interests to come up with practical ways to prevent invasive species from moving between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins. More than 60 people from the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom will participate in the summit. The summit will begin with presentat...Mitochondria in spinal cords is ALS target according to UCSD medical researchers
The selective killing of spinal cord neurons in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, occurs when tiny cellular components called mitochondria actively recruit a mutant disease-causing protein into specific neuron cells, according to new research by University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine investigators....... Published in the July 8, 2004 i...Stem cells commit to a future of fat with one signal
In the June 21 issue of the , Johns Hopkins researchers report finding a key signal in mice that tells stem cells to commit to becoming fat cells.... ...The Hopkins team discovered that adding a single protein, dubbed BMP4, induced mouse stem cells to become fat cells. A very similar signal is likely to be involved in humans, too, say the scientists.... ...Fat cells, or adipocytes, store t...Therapeutic cloning may be permitted at Newcastle University
A special licensing committee of the UK Human Fertilization & Embryology Authority (HFEA) met on June 16 in London to decide whether to grant a license to scientists at The Center for Life at Newcastle University. If approved, this will be the first license to begin research involving cell nuclear replacement (therapeutic cloning), focusing on the treatment of diabetes in the UK and will be a fir...MIT technology jump-starts human embryonic stem cell work
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--An MIT team has developed new technology that could jump-start scientists' ability to create specific cell types from human embryonic stem cells, a feat with implications for developing replacement organs and a variety of other tissue engineering applications.... ...The scientists have already identified a simple method for producing substantially pure populations of epithelial-...Limited climate tracking in European trees despite 10,000 years of postglacial warmth
The relative roles of environment and history as controls of large-scale species distributions is a crucial issue in biogeography and macroecology. I...Deciphering the limits to human maximal exercise performance
It has remained unknown during centuries what is the main factor limiting maximal exercise capacity in humans. During the past century evidence has accumulated suggesting that maximal exercise capacity in humans is limited by the maximal amount of O2 that can be delivered to the active muscles. A rather important step in this direction was the finding that blood flow may reach maximal values aro...Nutrients cause increase in parasites and frog deformities
Extra and missing-legged frogs have become increasingly common in North American wetlands over the last decade. Research implicates a flatworm parasite, Ribeiroia ondatrae, as the culprit of these deformities. Reasons for the apparent increase in infection and malformations, however, have remained a mystery. In the July issue of Ecology Letters, Johnson and Chase suggest a possible reason why th...Biologists discover nerve activity, not just genetics controls kinds of neurotransmitters produced
Neurobiologists at the University of California, San Diego have discovered that altering electrical activity in nerve cells can change the chemical messengers the cells generate to communicate with other cells, a finding that may one day lead to new treatments for mood and learning disorders.... ...In a study published in the June 3rd issue of the journal Nature, a team led by UCSD professor of b...Discovery of tiny microbes in ancient Greenland glacier may define limits for life on Earth
NEW ORLEANS May 26, 2004 -- The discovery of millions of micro-microbes surviving in a 120,000-year-old ice sample taken from 3,000 meters below the surface of the Greenland glacier will be announced by Penn State University scientists on 26 May 2004 at the General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in New Orleans, Louisiana. The discovery is significant because it may help to def...Mite transmits viruses damaging to wheat
AMARILLO Looking closely at unhealthy, discolored plants in Texas Panhandle wheat fields is part of Dr. Charles Rush's job. He is a plant pathologist with Texas Agricultural Experiment Station. But the scientist knows the damage isn't drought-induced at all. ... The damage is caused by two different viruses, the wheat streak mosaic and the High Plains, he said. Both are transmitted by the...GlaxoSmithKline Drug Discovery and Development Research Grant Program 2004
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is pleased to announce a call for applications for its 2004 Drug Discovery and Development Research Grant Program. GSK will award $250,000 in grants for innovative HIV/AIDS drug research in recognition of the need to produce new alternatives and hope in the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Since the inception of the program in 2001, GSK has awarded $1.25 million and hono...MIT aims radar research at breast cancer
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- A breast cancer treatment based on MIT radar research that was originally aimed at detecting space-borne missiles is showing promise in the final phase of clinical testing.... ...Preliminary results to be presented on Wednesday, April 21 at the 9th International Congress on Hyperthermic Oncology in St. Louis show that women with early-stage breast cancer who received the MIT...HHMI commits more than $30 million to help reverse brain drain, beat infectious diseases
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is stepping up its commitment to fostering international biomedical research with two new competitions for more than $30 million in research grants to biomedical scientists outside the United States. Both competitions are aimed at promising researchers whose careers are still developing and who are the most likely targets of enticing job offers in more e...Embryonic skin cells committed at an early age
Surprising results from a new research study demonstrate that the embryonic cells destined to become skin have an intrinsically high commitment to irreversible differentiation and are not, as was previously thought, a stem cell-like population with a high potential for growth. The study, published in the April edition of Developmental Cell, reveals the specific molecular mechanisms that drive the...Introduction of the 'Rett protein' in post-mitotic neurons rescues Rett Syndrome in mice
Rudolf Jaenisch of the Whitehead Institute of Biomedical Research in Cambridge, MA reports in the April 6, 2004 online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that introduction of the MeCP2 protein into post-mitotic nerve cells of MeCP2 mutant mice rescues the symptoms of Rett Syndrome. This raises the possibility that neurons are functionally normal in a newborn child and th...Brood X cicadas will cause limited damage to trees, yard plants across eastern U.S.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The world's largest insect emergence of "Brood X" cicadas in May will result in some damage to fruit trees and prized yard trees and shrubs, but the large insects will not cause crippling harm to common farm crops, an Indiana University scientist says. ...... "There will be some crop damage, especially to orchards, but we don't expect a disaster," said IU Bloomington biologis...Primate viruses transmitted to people through bushmeat
People in Central Africa who hunt monkeys and great apes are routinely being infected by retroviruses, the class of viruses that includes HIV. An international team of researchers from Cameroon and the United States has documented, for the first time, the transmission of a retrovirus from primates to people in natural settings. ......In the March 20, 2004, edition of The Lancet, researchers from...New approach limits damage after heart attack and improves survival, say Scripps Research scientists
A team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute has developed a potential new treatment for heart attacks. The therapy inhibits fluid leakage from cardiac blood vessels following a heart attack and thereby significantly prevents long-term heart damage and improves survival.... ..."Immediately following a heart attack, blood vessels near the site of injury become leaky, causing fluid...Scripps scientists describe dangerous cocktail of alcohol, brain peptides, and neurotransmitters
A team of scientists at The Scripps Research Institute has described the cellular mechanism underlying the brain's response to alcohol, which suggests a possible method for treating alcoholism.... ......This work, published in the latest issue of the journal Science, ties together the effect of the brain peptide corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) with alcohol. Both appear to influen...Transporter's function provides support for eating vegetables, limiting antibiotics
Researchers have found another good reason to eat your fruits and vegetables and not abuse antibiotics.... ...A transporter in the colon called SLC5A8 plays an important role in enabling the colon to get the last bit of good out of food before the unusable is flushed away, according to research currently published online as an accelerated communication in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.... ...Drugs limit deadly side effects of graft-versus-host disease
ANN ARBOR, MI V A new class of anti-cancer drugs, currently being tested in human clinical trials, reduces the severity of graft-versus-host disease or GVHD a common and often deadly complication of life-saving bone marrow transplants without suppressing the immune response required to kill lingering cancer cells....... Scientists at the University of Michigan's Comprehensive Cancer Center are...Gates Foundation commits $82.9 million to develop new tuberculosis vaccines
SEATTLE The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced today an $82.9 million grant to the Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation to support development of new vaccines to prevent tuberculosis, a disease that kills nearly two million people every year. The grant, the largest ever for TB vaccine development, will allow Aeras to fund human trials of promising TB vaccines and early research on the next...Making of mouse marks move toward 'mitochondrial medicine'
There sits in most mammalian cells what amounts to a lock-box of DNA tucked away from the bulk of genetic material. While scientists routinely cut and paste snippets of life's blueprint to learn more about life and to treat disease, crucial DNA within cellular structures known as mitochondria has remained off-limits.... ... That's beginning to change, though, thanks in part to work described in t...MIT team discovers memory mechanism
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- MIT neuroscientists have discovered a new brain mechanism controlling the formation of lasting memories. This mechanism explains how signals between neurons stimulate production of the protein building blocks needed for long-term memory storage. ......The study, which will appear in the Feb. 6 issue of the journal ......Long-lasting memories are stored in the brain through s...A promising new way of controlling the mites that can cause asthma and other allergies is now under development. ......It could lead to dramatic progress in preventing these conditions and reduce the estimated 700 million a year spent in the UK on treating them. ......The technique uses a computer model to assess how modifying a domestic environment can reduce numbers of house dust mites in beds,...The bubbly clarinet solo that opens a 1940s swing classic begins, setting a pair of dancers in motion. They move in constant rhythm, varying their steps to the song's changing tempo. Slight pushes and pulls of the dancers' hands allow seamless transitions between swing-outs, tuck turns and Texas Tommies. ......You might call this swing dancing. Or you might call it a highly evolved system of comm...