UCSF scientist Joe Derisi named MaCarthur Fellow
Joseph DeRisi, PhD, of UCSF, has been named a 2004 MacArthur Fellow, one of the highest honors bestowed on an individual in the United States.... ...A molecular biologist, DeRisi has designed new tools for exploring the activity of genes, and used them to make major advances in understanding such infectious diseases as SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and malaria. He is an associate profe...Israeli scientists reveal the plan of a key cellular machine
A team of scientists from the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has revealed the structure of a cellular editor that "cuts and pastes" the first draft of RNA straight after it is formed from its DNA template. Many diseases appear to be tied to mistakes in this process, and understanding the workings of the machinery involved may lead to the ability to correct or...By mimicking a molecular switch that triggers cell death, researchers have killed cells grown in the laboratory from one of the most resilient and aggressive cancers a virulent brain cancer known as glioblastoma. The new approach to tricking the cell-death machinery could be applied to a wide range of cancers where this pathway, known as apoptosis, has been inactivated. ...The researchers -- le...Small, Smac-like molecule encourages death of cancer cells
DALLAS Sept. 2, 2004 Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have developed a small molecule that mimics the action of a key "death-promoting" protein in cells, a finding that could lead to more effective cancer therapies with fewer side effects. ......In the Sept. 3 issue of the journal Science, the researchers report on this new compound and how it behaves like the cellular pr...New understanding of the machinery of flinching
The flinch is a critically important protective mechanism by which animals and humans instantly protect themselves against threats ranging from an attacking predator to an incoming golf ball. Researchers Michael Graziano and Dylan Cooke have shed new light on the neural machinery that controls flinching by dialing the response up or down using drugs.... ...Their studies concentrated on a region o...Medication reconciliation, pharmacist involvement vital to reducing medication errors, study finds
CHICAGO Obtaining complete and accurate medication histories of patients and instituting a medication reconciliation program are vital to reducing medication errors, a new study conducted at Northwestern Memorial Hospital has shown. The study demonstrated that when hospital pharmacists perform medication reconciliation, taking steps to ensure patients receive the correct medication and accurate...Body's own defense against H. pylori, cause of stomach ulcers and stomach cancer
(La Jolla, California) An international team led by The Burnham Institute's Minoru Fukuda, Ph.D., has discovered that a human glycoprotein inhibits Helicobacter pylori ("H. pylori"), the bacterium that causes stomach ulcers and is linked with 90% of stomach cancers. Published on August 13th in magazine, these results present a new way of looking at treating chronic inflammation associated with...Tobacco promising factory for biopharmaceuticals
Blacksburg, Va. -- The economics of producing biopharmaceuticals from transgenic plants such as tobacco is still a roadblock to producing large quantities of urgently needed medicines, especially for people in underdeveloped nations....... Chenming (Mike) Zhang is testing a variety of ways to economically recover recombinant proteins from transgenic tobacco using different protein separation tech...RNA could form building blocks for nanomachines
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Microscopic scaffolding to house the tiny components of nanotech devices could be built from RNA, the same substance that shuttles messages around a cell's nucleus, reports a Purdue University research group.... ...By encouraging ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules to self-assemble into 3-D shapes resembling spirals, triangles, rods and hairpins, the group has found what co...Researchers look into components of RNA silencing machinery
COLLEGE STATION, July 27, 2004 - Up to 95 percent of a person's DNA is believed to be junk DNA. In order to prevent these relics of evolution from rearranging chromosomes and causing disease, natural mechanisms exist to silence them, according to contemporary theories of chromosome biology.... ...The RNA silencing machinery silences gene expression, by destroying RNA, a molecule that carries o...Scientists discover new intricacies in how ulcer bugs stick to stomach
St. Louis, July 22, 2004 Scientists working to develop a vaccine for the bacterium Helicobacter pylori, the primary cause of ulcers and a contributor to stomach cancers, have uncovered new intricacies in the way the bacterium sticks to the lining of the human stomach.... ...A multinational team of researchers showed that babA, a protein that helps H. pylori stay in the stomach, has evolve...Gene defects found in age-related macular degeneration
Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers have identified subtle defects in a single gene that underlie a hereditary form of age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of irreversible vision loss in the developed world.... ...Although the genetic mutations discovered by the researchers affect only about two percent of patients with the disorder, the findings offer important insi...UB researchers show first evidence of pharmacogenomic differences in patients' responses to MS drug
BUFFALO, N.Y. - University at Buffalo researchers using the latest computer-assisted technologies of genetic analysis have shown for the first time how a widely used drug for treating multiple sclerosis -- interferon beta (IFN-beta-1a) -- can modulate the expression of particular genes in patients being treated for the disease. ... Their results show that IFN-beta-1a initiates different patterns...Pattern recognition method zeroes in on genes that regulate cell's genetic machinery
ARLINGTON, Va.Using a new technique for recognizing patterns in biological databases, a team of U.S. and Israeli computer scientists and geneticists have developed a practical computational method that zeroes in on the genes responsible for controlling the genetic machinery of a cell. ... ...In a paper published online May 12 by Nature Genetics, the researchers from Stanford University and Hebrew...Computational method identifies genes that regulate cell's machinery
An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Stanford University and Tel Aviv University has developed the first computational method that can identify clusters of genes responsible for controlling processes within a cell, when those clusters become active, and, most importantly, how the clusters are regulated. ...... In a paper published online May 12 by Nat...Warren Pharmaceuticals publishes results of preclinical evaluation
OSSINING, N.Y., July 9, 2004--Warren Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Warren), a company engaged in developing novel treatments for devastating injuries and diseases, today announced the publication of a study showing the effectiveness of its compounds in a variety of neurologic injury and disease models. Working in collaboration with its partner, the Danish pharmaceutical company H. Lundbeck A/S, and col...Macrophages, not stem cells, correct liver disease by fusion
PORTLAND, Ore. -- An Oregon Health & Science University study is defying a long-accepted assertion among many scientists that stem cells repair diseased tissue by transforming into other cell types in a process called plasticity.... ...The first study from OHSU's new Oregon Stem Cell Center, published in the current issue of the journal Nature Medicine, found that mature macrophages derived from...How DNA repair machinery is a 'Two-Way Street'
DURHAM, N.C. -- Biochemists at Duke University Medical Center have discovered key components that enable the cell's DNA repair machinery to adeptly launch its action in either direction along a DNA strand to strip out faulty DNA. Such flexibility exemplifies the power of the repair machinery, which guards cells against mutations by editing out errors that occur during the process of chromosome re...Pharmacogenomics could replace 'trial-and-error' with science from the human genome
(MEMPHIS, TENN.--May 27, 2004) The future use of a gene-based technology called pharmacogenomics could lower the cost of health care by decreasing the occurrence of adverse drug effects and increasing the probability of successful therapy. These findings are published by investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in the May 27 issue of Nature. ... ...According to the authors, the sig...Mutant biological machine makes proteins but can't let go
Writing in the May 28 issue of Cell, Johns Hopkins researchers report that four critical components of cells' protein-building machine don't do what scientists had long assumed. ... ...The machine, called the ribosome, is a ball of RNA (DNA's cousin) surrounded by proteins. In the RNA center, genetic instructions are read, the right protein building block is added onto a growing chain, and at the...NPS Pharma and VIMAC Ventures locate at MaRS, a major new research and enterprise center in Toronto
TORONTO May 17, 2004 Salt Lake City-based NPS Pharmaceuticals and Boston-based VIMAC Ventures announced today that they plan to locate key business and research facilities to the new MaRS (Medical and Related Sciences) Discovery District biosciences research and commercialization hub in downtown Toronto. These firms have selected MaRS as the ideal global destination to pursue research and comm...Protein-centric drug development and functional glycomics enrich biopharmaceuticals pipeline
Palo Alto, Calif. April 28, 2004 Researchers are beginning to see the potential for breakthrough in healthcare through glycomics, which studies carbohydrates, proteins and their interactions. In fact, these carbohydrates are moving beyond their regular roles as sugar storage bins. Carbohydrate-binding proteins are becoming extremely useful in curing various illnesses.... ..."The rapid evoluti...MacroPore - adipose-derived cells - potential to engraft & differentiate into heart muscle
San Diego, CA, and Cambridge, MA, April 13, 2004 - MacroPore Biosurgery, Inc. (MacroPore; Frankfurt: XMP) (MACP.DE) (XMP:GR) today announced pre-clinical findings that suggest for the first time that adipose-derived regenerative cells have the potential to engraft injured myocardium and express markers consistent with differentiation into cardiac myocytes. These results provide early indication t...Monitoring macrophages detects dementia
HIV-associated dementia complex, termed HIV encephalitis, occurs in about one-quarter of infected individuals. Unfortunately, the symptoms and signs of dementia are not usually evident until the late stages of encephalitis, after irreversible damage has occurred. Thus, diagnostic tools for the detection of HIV encephalitis prior to the manifestation of neurological signs would greatly aid in deve...OneWorld Health plans to form network of volunteer pharmaceutical scientists for global health
San Francisco, Calif. Mar. 30, 2004 The Institute for OneWorld Health, the first nonprofit pharmaceutical company in the U.S., today announced its intent to develop a volunteer network of corporate and industry pharmaceutical scientists that would promote development of medicines for neglected diseases. The news was announced upon receipt of a grant from the Sapling Foundation (Woodside, Cali...UNC's Siderovski wins pharmacology award
CHAPEL HILL -- The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics has named Dr. David P. Siderovski, assistant professor of pharmacology in The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, the recipient of the 2004 John J. Abel Award. ...Siderovski, a member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and the UNC Neuroscience Center, "receives the award a...Search for macular degeneration genes narrows
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Scientists at the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center, working with colleagues in the U-M School of Public Health, have significantly narrowed the range of chromosomal locations where they expect to find genes associated with age-related macular degeneration (AMD)....... In a paper published in the March issue of American Journal of Human Genetics, Kellogg scientist Anan...Researchers receive NIH grant to open pediatric pharmacology research center
DALLAS Feb. 26, 2004 Pediatric researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have received a $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to establish a pharmacology research center at Children's Medical Center Dallas to study how children react to drugs. ...... The NIH-funded pediatric pharmacology research center, one of 13 in the United States, will provide the infrastru...Powerful machines are coming in small packages
SEATTLE, WA A new class of micro-gadgets some no larger than a pencil eraser are poised to make military and other equipment easier to power and carry. Scientists presented the latest developments from their micro-engineering labs today at the 2004 AAAS (Triple-A-S) Annual Meeting. AAAS is the American Association for the Advancement of Science. ...... Chemical and biological warfare suits wor...Portable kidney dialysis machine developed
CORVALLIS A Portland company is using an emerging microtechnology from Oregon State University to develop a portable kidney dialysis machine that will make in-home treatment a reality, enabling hundreds of thousands of people afflicted with kidney failure to treat themselves at home instead of traveling to dialysis clinics three days a week. ..."Current dialysis machines are based on 30-year-old...Wright State biologist studies birds to learn how our stomachs convey thoughts of hunger
A research biologist at Wright State University is studying rhythmic cycles in birds to learn if we have a physiological clock in our stomach that determines when we get hungry.... ...Thomas Van't Hof, Ph.D., an assistant professor of biological sciences, recently returned from Japan, where he presented lectures and conducted research on circadian (24-hour) rhythms in birds. He visited Okayama...Purdue biologists expose the inner workings of viral machine
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University scientists have peered inside a virus and visualized for the first time how it produces and exports genetic materials into a host cell, an advance in fundamental research that also could have implications for the development of antiviral agents. ......Using improved microscope technology, a team including Purdue's Timothy S. Baker and a colleague at Harvar...Pest control breakthrough from a spider's stomach
DNA found in a spider's stomach could herald a breakthrough in the fight against farm pests, which cause millions of dollars of damage to crops.... ...Cardiff University, UK, scientists, led by Dr Bill Symondson in the School of Biosciences, have become the first to use DNA-based techniques to analyse the content of spiders' guts to identify the prey they have eaten in the field. ......Money spid...Budding viral hijackers may co-opt cell machinery for the getaway
When retroviruses like HIV infect cells, they take over the cell's machinery to manufacture new copies of themselves. Research published this week in the top-tier open access journal, Journal of Biology, shows that to escape from cells, retroviruses may once again hijack cellular components, in this case molecules normally used to engulf material from the cell's surroundings in a pocket formed fr...A human hormone, combined with a full stomach, offers clues for understanding our food intake
Bethesda, MD With the holidays come the traditions of sharing meals, desserts and treats with family, friends and co-workers. But the need to reduce the amount of food we consume daily during the holiday season and throughout the year -- has acquired a greater sense of urgency in the wake of America's obesity epidemic. As scientists look for ways to help us battle the bulge, a new study sugges...Alcohol's pharmacological properties, not smell or taste, reinforce its effects
... Brain development during the first 10 days or so of rodent infancy is roughly equivalent to the third trimester of the human fetus.... New research indicates that alcohol's reinforcing properties during rodent infancy can be due to its pharmacological effects, independent of taste or smell.... ... ...Animal research has shown that rodent infants are susceptible to the reinforcing effects of...Roderick MacKinnon wins 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Roderick MacKinnon, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator at The Rockefeller University, is one of two scientists who were awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discoveries concerning channels in cell membranes. ...... shared the prize with Peter Agre of the Johns Hopkins University. Agre is currently a member of HHMI's scientific review board. The two scientists were hon...Tiny 'test tubes' may aid pharmaceutical R&D
Using laser light as tweezers and a scalpel, scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated the use of artificial cells as nanovials for ultrasmall volume chemistry. The approach may be useful for faster, cheaper identification of new pharmaceuticals and for studying cellular-level processes. The researchers will report their results in the Sept. 30 ed...Hot topics in pharmacogenomics
Don't miss the extraordinary opportunity to attend the 2nd annual meeting of the International Society of Pharmacogenomics (ISP), a joint meeting with the Pacific Rim Association for Clinical Pharmacogenetics (PRACPG). Join the experts at the beautiful Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles for two days of rich presentation and knowledge-sharing.... ...This meeting is a satellite of the 53rd Ann...Unique two-part macroemulsion offers new approach to cleaning up contaminated aquifers
Environmental engineering researchers have developed a novel two-part approach for cleaning up toxic chlorinated solvents spilled into underground water supplies from former dry cleaning and industrial operations. ... ...The patent-pending technique, which uses a macroemulsion composed of alcohol and food-grade surfactants, simultaneously reduces the density of the pollutant to keep it from sin...