Researchers develop system to detect biowarfare agents on navy ships
NEW YORK An Ohio State University professor is part of a team that developed a new protocol that the U.S. Navy now uses to detect biowarfare (BW) agents, such as anthrax, aboard its ships. ......"Until mid-2002, the only equipment to detect biological agents that warships had were the sailors themselves," said Michael Boehm, an associate professor of plant pathology at Ohio State and a lieutenan...Seaweed uses chemical warfare to fight microbes
Scientists have discovered that seaweeds defend themselves from specific pathogens with naturally occurring antibiotics....The finding helps explain why some seaweeds, sponges and corals appear to avoid most infections by fungi and bacteria, according to a study published May 19 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. ...Seaweeds live in constant contact with potentially dangerou...First step towards detecting exposure to biowarfare agents
BALTIMORE March 11, 2003 Army researchers are laying the groundwork for what one day could be a test to identify individuals who have been exposed to biological agents. They present their findings today at the American Society for Microbiology's Biodefense Research Meeting.... ..."Recent events have demonstrated that assessing exposure to a biological threat agent well in advance of onset of i...Early miscues cause late problems in model of Marfan syndrome
By studying mice, Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered that excessive activity of an important signaling protein, TGF-beta, likely underlies a variety of problems in Marfan syndrome, including the tendency to develop emphysema, they report in the March issue of Nature Genetics....... The results in mice dramatically improve understanding of TGF-beta's regulation and function and provide a com...Tribal warfare: Revenge, retaliation, deterrence
DENVER, CO When a nation goes to war against another nation, it may be merely re-enacting an event as old as humanity itself, according to scientists at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting. ......But, judging from comparisons of rates of combat deaths, modern nation states have not been as war-like as traditional tribal societies, according to Lawrence K...Making sense of Marfan syndrome
In the July 15 issue of Genes & Development, Drs. Massimo Caputi, Raymond Kendzior Jr. and Karen Beemon of Johns Hopkins University report on their determination of a molecular mechanism of Marfan syndrome pathogenesis a discovery that may end the decade-long debate over how this relatively common genetic disorder develops....... Originally characterized in 1896, Marfan syndrome is a heritable d...Bat sonar and anti-submarine warfare
BAT SONAR... ...Dolphins do it. Big brown bats do it. And sometime soon, the Office of Naval Research hopes its researchers will be able to do it too. Echolocation, that is, and turning the processing of such signals into a system that will enable us to mimic a flying bats ability to detect and classify a flying beetle in three dimensions at thirty feet.... ...ONRs Bio-Sonar program supports...Early detection device for exposure to chemical warfare agents being developed
A device that could detect the earliest signs of exposure to deadly chemical warfare agents is being developed by researchers in Augusta and Boston....... The earliest sign of exposure to agents such as sarin and soman words that were foreign to many Americans pre-Sept. 11 are the seemingly innocent contractions of small groups of muscles, like an eye twitch, the researchers says....... They a...Study shows that aspirin and warfarin are equally effective for stroke prevention
A study appearing in the November 15, 2001, issue of The New England Journal of Medicine* shows that aspirin works as well as warfarin in helping to prevent recurrent strokes in most patients. ... The Warfarin versus Aspirin Recurrent Stroke Study (WARSS) was a 7-year double-blind, randomized clinical trial involving 2,206 patients at 48 participating centers the largest trial to date comparin...Mutant proteins may be key to defeat chemical warfare
COLLEGE STATION, November 8 - Enzymes - proteins commonly used to speed up chemical reactions - can render chemical warfare agents and insecticides harmless by breaking them apart. A group of chemists at Texas A&M University is now genetically modifying one of these enzymes, phosphotriesterase, to make it both faster and more selective.... ..."We know that some natural enzymes have detoxifying p...Plants vs. disease: 'Trench warfare at the molecular level'
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- By observing the battle between bacterial speck disease and tomatoes, biologists have discovered how plant cells resist some ailments. Researchers from the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) for Plant Research Inc. and Cornell University can now demonstrate how disease-causing organisms deliver destructive agents to plants, and how the plants fight back.... "It's like radar detec...Scientists identify gene for the leading form of dwarfism
... COLUMBUS, Ohio - After a 10-year search, an international... team of scientists has identified the gene responsible for the most... common form of dwarfism. The team, led by Ohio State... University researchers and colleagues from Finland and Holland,... reported their discovery in latest issu...Biological warfare: an emerging threat in the 21st century
.Why is biophysicist Steven Block so concerned about smallpox? .After all, more than 20 years have passed since the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the eradication of this highly contagious and incurable disease. .``Simply put, smallpox represents a direct threat to the entire world,`` says Block, a professor of biological sciences and applied physics at Stanford. .He points out that,...Hopkins Children's Center researchers find cause for common kind of dwarfism
. A common type of dwarfism may not be principally caused by a defect in the human growth hormone gene, as previously thought, but rather by a gene that controls the hormone's release into the bloodstream, according to scientists at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center and School of Medicine. Their study is reported in this month's issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.. .E...Chemical may deter starfish from devouring endangered coral reefs
. Click here for :. . HONOLULU, Dec. 17 - Researchers have discovered a chemical in sea urchins that might be used to lure starfish away from coral reefs, an endangered ecosystem they are devouring at an alarming rate. The finding was presented here today du....Life under the waves can get pretty crowded when you are a sea squirt vying for space on the rocks. But these sea creatures have a novel weapon-they use their sperm to sabotage the eggs of other kinds of sea squirt. According to a marine biologist in California, this may be the first example of sperm competition between species.. Sea squirts spend most of their life clinging on to rocks, and m...Plants, pathogens engage in trench warfare
.Researchers at the University of Chicago have gained new insight into the.co-evolution of plants and the microbes that attack them. In the August 12.issue of Nature, the researchers report findings that go against the widely held.'arms race' theory in which plant resistance genes fight brief battles with.microbes before both plant and pathogen mutate to higher and higher levels of.resistance a...Researchers Discover Genetic Mutation For Rare Form Of Dwarfism
. . . A search for the genetic roots of towering height has led a Johns.Hopkins endocrinologist to identify a mutation that causes a rare form of.treatable dwarfism. Research results, published in the March issue of the.Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, suggest that the mutation.could be used as a prenatal screening test for the disorder.. . After speaking at a mee..... .Researchers at the Max Planck Institutes for Biophysical Chemistry and for.Experimental Medicine in Göttingen/Germany discovered a new regulatory process.through which nerve cells modulate the release of neurotransmitter in the brain.(Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 96, 1094-1099; Feb. 2, 1999).. .Information in the brain is transmitted at synapses which are specialized.contact zones betw.... CHICAGO --- In 1994, after reading an article in a Karachi, Pakistan,.newspaper describing a cluster of dwarfs living in a remote area in the.province of Sindh, Pakistan, two Northwestern University Medical School.researchers traveled there to investigate the disorder. That scientific journey.led to the identification of a new, genetically inherited form of dwarfism. . Gerhard...Intake Of Acetaminophen Increases Risk Of Excessive Anticoagulation In Patients Taking Warfarin
.People who take the anticoagulant drug warfarin are at increased risk of.excessive anticoagulation if they also take large amounts of the pain reliever.acetaminophen, according to a study from the Massachusetts General Hospital.(MGH). Excessive anticoagulation is known to raise the risk of major.hemorrhage. The report appears in the March 4 Journal of the American Medical.Association. . "Whil...