Novel IBD therapeutic approaches reported from Washington Univ., Barcelona, LSU at APS meeting
...mine if indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) played a role in the process. The researchers included Greg...ory blockade, and suggests a potential therapeutic role for CTLA-4-Ig in treating IBD. ...Newborns have ear preferences, too
...l for hearing, and brainstem may play an important role in developing the brain's specialized right and left side auditory processing centers. "What I find refreshing about this is, we were doing clinical research," Cone-Wesson said, "trying to optimize stimuli and recording parameters to find the best p...Bacteria use 'molecular lasso' to cop copper
...lose to 43 billion tons a year. Playing a pivotal role in this drama is the methanobactin molecule, a tiny, pyramid-shaped compound with a cleft that holds a single atom of copper in place. The bacteria churn out methanobactin molecules in large numbers and send them into the environment to fetch copper....Serotonin metabolites in mollusks suggest pathways for human therapies
...ring sleep, Gillette said. It's possible that the role of serotonin sulfate in marine mollusks is similar to melatonin, which resests the circadian clock in humans, Stuart and colleagues suggested in the Journal of Neurochemistry. "This is the first quantitative measure of how serotonin metabolites are ...Breaking new ground in germ cell guidance
...er been reported, spurring the team to examine its role more closely. What they found surprised them. While wun and wun2 cause pole cell die-offs when overexpressed in somatic cells, the team found that maternal wun2 activity is actually required to sustain pole cells in a cell-autonomous manner: cells la...Wrapping a memory with an experience, capacity for recollection detected in non-human species
...mer BU undergraduate, set out to better define the role of the hippocampus in the human recollection process. They approached this in a novel way -- by investigating the activity of the hippocampus in the rat brain. Their approach also meant that they had to think outside the conventions of the discipli...Reducing allergens in the home helps inner-city children with asthma
...ir asthma "Indoor allergens play an important role in the asthma severity in these children," said Dr. Rebecca Gruchalla, chief of allergy at UT Southwestern and a study author. "We can't just focus on medications. We must also focus on allergen triggers in the home and work with caretakers to decrea...New research suggests link between maternal diet and childhood leukemia risk
...ant found in both meat and legumes, and it plays a role in the synthesis and repair of DNA, as well as the detoxification of certain harmful compounds. Within the fruit and vegetable food groups, certain foods - including carrots, string beans and cantaloupe - stood out as having stronger links to l...New genetic hypothesis for the cause of autism
...p://www.interscience.wiley.com/journal/ajmg . The role of genetics in autism is believed to be significan...r more additional genes whose function affects the role of UBE3A likely participate with the Angelman gene in an oligogenic inheritance model. The researche...A new protein is discovered to play a key role in cancer progression
... of the biologic function of PML and its essential role in maintaining TGF-b signaling, we can better unde...Cell Biology, they also demonstrated an unexpected role for PML in affecting the nucleolar network for tumor suppression and in regulating the function of a...Viral suspect for amphibian decline traced to human spread through bait
...eam have been focusing on defining how important a role pathogens play among a host of possible causes in the decline of amphibian populations worldwide. Early in the project, the team began to focus on two apparently "emerging" pathogens in particular a chytrid fungus and an iridovirus both unfamiliar...For imitative parrots, wagging tongues may be key to vocalization
...nated from the vocal sound source, the syrinx. The role of vocal-tract articulators, so important in humans, was believed to be only subsidiary in birds, although it has been proposed that parrots, with their fleshy, highly movable tongue, might form an exception. In the new study, researchers Gabril Beck...Heart gene yields insights into evolution, disease risk
...ations. The MMP3 protein is an enzyme that plays a role in regulating the elasticity and thickness of bloo.... "People have long been studying the evolutionary role of variation in genes that affect the structure of the proteins for which they code," he said. "Howe...Research suggests unborn children may be at risk from environmental pollution
... Environmental factors are thought to play a major role in the increasing incidence and as Alan Preece, Professor of Medical Physics at the University of Bristol, explains, the unborn child is particularly sensitive to the effects of exposure to environmental agents. Placental transfer determines the exp...Recent evolution at a single gene may have brought down heart disease risk in some human groups
...ns of thousands of years. The work underscores the role of ancient natural selection in shaping contemporary public health. The findings are reported by Matthew Rockman, Dagan Loisel, and Greg Wray at Duke University, Matthew Hahn at UC Davis, and David Goldstein and Nicole Soranzo at University College L...Bone marrow cells routinely help with wound healing
...after six weeks, long after the infection-fighting role seems to be over, the bone marrow-derived cells cluster within the healing area of a wound. The researchers ran these skin cells through a flow cytometer to separate them into green and non-green fractions and found only the green cells in the skin ......rowth, Chuong says. In humans, several BMPs play a role in enhancing the rates of cell division and growth...tudies are able to point to BMP4 as having a major role in the creation of the avian beak, demonstrating that it is "one of the major driving forces buildin...Molecular staples shape a cancer killer
...between proteins. "The alpha-helix plays a pivotal role in many biological interactions," said Walensky. "So if we could target protein-protein interactions at critical biological control points using the natural, evolutionarily derived sequence for that protein target -- with just this minor modification...Essential smell gene may provide key to new insect repellents
... specific chemical, or played another more general role in the sense of smell. If Or83b receptors detected only one or a few odors, then flies without these receptors would still be able to smell other things. But if Or83b's function was a general one, underlying the fly's ability to smell, knocking it ou...Study reveals first genetic step necessary for prostate cancer growth
...se mice to develop aggressive prostate cancer, the role of Rb in tumor initiation remained enigmatic. Further research is needed to determine which secondary mutations can push these early stage growths into prostate cancer. Greenberg said that tests to distinguish between men who only have Rb mutations ...