Researchers find clues about how antibodies specialize
...Nature, the Children's Hospital Boston researchers discovered that another protein, known as replication protein...nown to have a role in the immune system. "We've discovered a new function for it," says Alt. "It's generating quite a bit of excitement in the immunology field...PCB breakdown in rivers depends on sediment-specific bacteria, find Carnegie Mellon U. scientists
...Using DNA fingerprinting, the Carnegie Mellon team discovered distinct bacterial populations in the first-ever side-by-side comparison of PCB-laden sediments taken from separate, contaminated rivers. The results are being reported by graduate student Christine Wang on Sunday, Aug. 22, at the 228th annual meetin...U of T study identifies possible stem cells in pancreas
...-cell research. Frederick Banting and Charles Best discovered insulin here in the 1920s, while years later, Drs. Ernest McCulloch and James Till first described the stem-cell concept. This study was supported by the Stem Cell Network and the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. Zeenat Ashgar and Michael Whe...Disease-resistant papaya saves Hawaiian papaya industry
...aya industry faced economic disaster when PRSV was discovered in the Puna District of the Hawaii Island where 95 percent of the state's papaya was grown," said Dennis Gonsalves, plant pathologist with the USDA's Agricultural Research Service at the U.S. Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center, Hilo, HI. By 1...Asian elephant sex pheromone transporter revealed
..., for successful mating to occur. The authors have discovered that serum albumin, a ubiquitous vertebrate protein, plays an unexpected and multifaceted role as a shuttle that both protects and transports the pheromone. The authors reveal that elephant serum albumin (ESA) transports the pheromone from serum to u...Muscles are smarter than you think
..., and at the University of Aarhus in Denmark, have discovered the mechanism by which acidity helps prevent muscle fatigue. The discovery runs in the face of the previously held belief among physiologists and athletes that acidity, through a build up of lactic acid, is a major cause of muscle fatigue. Professor...... groups of Ralph Panstruga and Paul Schulze-Lefert discovered a mlo gene fragment which occurs in several repeats in the genome of the mutant. About ten adjacent repeats could be detected during analysis. They are located "upstream" of the wild-type gene on the DNA and are directly linked to mildew resistance. ...Newly discovered protein may be key to muscular dystrophy
A defect in the action of a newly discovered protein may play a central role in muscular dystro... at UCSF's Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center discovered in an animal model of the disease that during periods of intense muscle activity, muscles remain exc...Researchers show how to assemble building blocks for nanotechnology
...R, Mich.---University of Michigan researchers have discovered a way to self-assemble nanoparticles into wires, sheets, shells and other unusual structures using sticky patches that make the particles group themselves together in programmed ways. This method could be used to fabricate new materials and devices f...New clues to hereditary blinding disease found
...rldwide, Dartmouth Medical School researchers have discovered a critical role for zinc in retinitis pigmentosa. ...of research for many diseases." Hwa and colleagues discovered a cluster of RP mutations localized within and around the area where zinc is supposed to bind with r......ial first step in the expression of a gene. They discovered that a family of genes called the retinoic acid receptor-related orphan receptor-a (Rora) cycled and had the ability to control transcription. These are so named because they are similar in amino acid sequence to the retinoic acid receptor genes, alt...Anti-bacterial additive found in Maryland streams
... determine whether the environmental contamination discovered translates into human exposure and any corresponding long-term risks. Prior to Dr. Halden's research, the most recent data on the fate of triclocarban in wastewater were from 1975, and no peer-reviewed studies were conducted on the occurrence of the ...Tips from the journals of the American Society for Microbiology
...f Wild Chimps French and Ugandan researchers have discovered novel antimalarial compounds by observing the behavior of wild chimps. Their findings appear in the August 2004 issue of the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. In the study researchers observed a Kanyawara community of fifty wild chimpan...Muscling their way into the food chain: Zebra mussels alter fish populations in the Hudson River
...analysis of this data, Strayer and colleagues have discovered that open-water fish, such as American shad and striped bass, have decreased in growth and abundance since the zebra mussel invasion. Conversely, species like sunfishes, which prefer vegetated shoreline habitat, have increased significantly. Many of...Possible new cure for psoriasis
...e University of Leeds (U.K.) and industry may have discovered a new effective therapy for psoriasis: a specific group of what are known as metalloproteinase inhibitors can normalise the increased tendency of epidermis cells (keratinocytes) to divide, which is the cause of this unpleasant lepidosis. The research...Protective gene may enhance vaccine responses
Researchers from the University of Chicago have discovered the first of a new class of "protective factors" that appear to be required for the development of memory T cells, the cells that form the core of a vaccine response. The finding could help scientists create more effective vaccines and may lead to p...Marijuana ingredient inhibits VEGF pathway required for brain tumor blood vessels
..., critical for angiogenesis. The researchers also discovered that cannabinoids apparently worked by increasing the activity of ceramide, a lipid mediator of apoptosis, resulting in the functional inhibition of cells needed for VEGF production. The ability of cannabinoids to alter VEGF production was significan...Prions act as stepping stones in evolution
... Alzheimer's and Huntington's. But scientists have discovered that misfolded proteins can have a positive side i...% of the cases tested, however, the Whitehead team discovered that these new phenotypes afford the yeast cell a survival advantage. "But we still didn't know the...Gene changes linked to increased eye pressure may have implications for glaucoma therapy
...y of North Carolina at Chapel Hill scientists have discovered that increased pressure within the eye alters a set of genes normally involved in preventing hardening of tissue. Increased eye pressure often occurs in glaucoma, a blinding eye disease that affects about 70 million people worldwide, and the new find...Body's own defense against H. pylori, cause of stomach ulcers and stomach cancer
... The Burnham Institute's Minoru Fukuda, Ph.D., has discovered that a human glycoprotein inhibits Helicobacter py...urnham Institute and Japan's Shinsu University has discovered the defense mechanism that protects the stomach against H. pylori infection. H. pylori is found i...