Brain Protein "Rescues" Neurons From Atrophy
... with a protein believed to be involved in helping the brain "wire" itself. The achievement with laboratory animals, reported in the Nov. 9 issue of Nature, shows that the proteins, called neurotrophins, can foster brain cell growth,...Bacterial Toxin Surprises Scientists
...er venom and some sea anemone toxins share the same strategy--they punch huge holes in the cell membranes of their victims. Pharmaceutical companies harness this strategy in the poten...Duke Researchers Discover Central Role Of Nitric Oxide In Hemoglobin Action
...ator of gas exchange,as well as blood pressure, in the circulatory system. The finding appearsto have solved the long-standing mystery of how blood carries oxygen tobody tissues and extracts waste carbon dioxide w...Dangerous Chemical Combination Presents Possible Scenario For Gulf War Illnesses
...ination, researchers reported Wednesday. They said the findingsmay explain the wide array of symptoms reported by an estimated 30,000 GulfWar veterans. In studies using chickens...DURHAM, N.C. -- Researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at DukeUniversity Medical Center have deleted the gene for a crucial molecularcomponent of a mouse's nervous system and created an animal that, in ess...Enzyme's "Magic" May Hold Key to Anticancer and Antimicrobial Drugs
...6-7301 April 29, 1996 "Since the two chains in our model are intertwined, i...o separate.... Although it is difficult at the moment to see how these processes occur without everything getting tangled, we do no...New Cancer Switch Discovered By Duke Medical Center Pharmacologists
...N.C. -- A new way that cancers may be triggered in the body -- through damage to a molecular "safety key"...Center pharmacologists. The discovery, reported in the Nov. 1 issue of Genes & Development, is one of three different advances described by the scientists ...Key to Triplet Repeat Brain Diseases Open Door For New Way To Understand, Treat Genetic Diseases"
DURHAM, N.C. -- As reported in the March issue of Nature Medicine, DukeUniversity Med...oteins that errantly stick to an enzyme crucial to the productionof energy in brain cells. They believe that because this enzyme cannot,therefore, do its j...Researchers Pinpoint Site For Petit Mal Seizures In Brain
...cal Center reported Monday finding new clues about the precise location in the brain that causes the common childhood form of epilepsy. The findings may lead to more specific drug...Tumor Suppressor Gene Located In Liver Cancer Cells
...ic cop" gene apparently plays an important role in the formation of liver cancer, according to researchers from the Duke University Comprehensive Cancer Center and Zeneca Pharmaceuticals of Chesire, United Kingdom. T...New 'Twist' In Proteins Offers Possible Route To Improved Antibiotics
...o figure out thestructure of an enzyme critical to the growth of many bacteria have discoveredan extremely unusual "left-handed" spiral structure in the molecule. The finding suggests the possibility of a new kind of antibiotic that couldrecogni...Second Breast Cancer Gene Located
...usceptibility gene has been located,researchers at the Duke University Comprehensive Cancer Center and the UnitedKingdom's Institute for Cancer Research reported Wednesday. The gene, named BRCA2, li...Duke Geologists Explore Alternative Way To Measure Ice Age Sea Bottom Temperatures
...uggests that differing calcium-magnesium ratios in the shells of tiny North Atlantic Ocean marine fossils... between past ice ages. In an article published in the Nov. 24 issue of the journal Science, Duke University geologist Gary Dwyer and colleagues from Duke ..."Peking Man" is older than he looks. That's the conclusion of pioneering geochronologist Richard Teh-Lung Ku, whose new analysis of one of the most important finds in human evolutionary history indicates that the fossils date from at least 100...Computer Program For Quicker, More Detailed Mapping
STANFORD--Researchers at the Stanford Human Genome Center have developeda power...ram, called Mapper, scientists have obtained oneof the most accurate views yet of the human genome as a whole. "These maps have better resolution in local...Duke Researchers Discover Candidate Susceptibility Gene For Autoimmune Disease
...auses a joint-destroying, arthritis-likedisease in the animals. The discovery may provide a clue to the underlyinggenetic defects that can lead some people's immune systems to attack theirown bodies, the ...Rosemary May Have Anti-Cancer Properties
University Park, Pa.-- Ordinary rosemary -- the commonly used cookingspice -- appears to help prev...mary interfered with cancer's initiation phase, or the transformationof normal cells to cancerous ones. The study, directed by John Milner, professorand he...Heat-loving Microbe Repairs Its DNA With Light
...ight, S. acidocaldarius has been found to repair the damage. However, Dennis Grogan, assistant professor ofbiological sciences at the University of Cincinnati, found thatthe repair process requires assistance from the environment, int...Children Become Gorillas In VR Zoo
As a soft breeze breaks through the springtime heat at Zoo Atlanta,a young female gori...She heads toward alarge silverback male resting in the shade of an immense oak tree. At first, he simply glares at the youngster as she playfully lungesat...From Corn Rootworms To Art, Cornell's Reactor Is At The Core
...ining X-rays, Leslie Allee lends an expert eye to the film hanging on the light screen. No broken bones here. Allee, a Cornell University doctoral student in entomology, is ...