Cigarette smoke causes breaks in DNA and defects to a cell's chromosomes, Pitt study finds
...imental to normal chromosome segregation, which in turn leads to genetic imbalances," explained Dr. Saunders, associate professor of biological sciences, University of Pittsburgh School of Arts and Sciences, and a researcher with the Oral Cancer Center of Discovery at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer I...Schepens Eye Research Institute receives 'Roadmap' grant to develop center for curing eye diseases
...hope that the work of these research teams will in turn help find new treatments for incurable diseases in other organs of the human body. According to Michael Gilmore, PhD, Ankeny Director of Research and Chief Executive Officer of The Schepens Eye Research Institute: "This award demonstrates that NIH re...Pack-MULEs are toting a new look at plant evolution
...so throws out tantalizing possibilities that could turn some standard methodology on its ear. "Even a lot of my colleagues say they don't understand my article," says Jiang, who one month ago left a post doc at the University of Georgia to take a faculty position at Michigan State University's horticult...Award winning researchers reveal potential new role for Glivec
...." He added that it was possible that imatinib may turn out to be useful in other rare tumours or diseases, or in rare subsets of more common diseases where PDGFR or other targets are activated....Newly identified master gene key in baby's first breath
...tiny airways in the lungs - from collapsing and in turn allows the lungs to open when the newborn starts t...tant proteins and lipids (essential fat), which in turn produces surfactant. Researchers bred mice with and without the Foxa2 gene. When the gene was ...Marijuana use could cause tubal pregnancies
...r modulates the release of noradrenaline, which in turn stimulates waves of muscle contraction and relaxation in the oviduct, nudging the embryo toward the uterus. Too much or too little of this "endocannabinoid tone" can result in pregnancy failure. In support of this hypothesis, abnormal muscular contra...Scientists find nanowires capable of detecting individual viruses
...an be configured as ultra-sensitive detectors that turn on or off in the presence of a single virus. The capabilities of nanowire detectors, which could be fashioned into arrays capable of detecting literally thousands of different viruses, could usher in a new era for diagnostics, biosafety, and response...A novel, safer strategy for regulating gene expression
... rise in glucose concentration would automatically turn on the gene responsible for insulin production. ...s, leaves the mRNA intact; this allows the gene to turn "on" and make the desired protein such as a hormone or growth factor needed by the body. "Perhaps t...Environmental decontamination, greenhouse gases, and the genome of a methane-loving bacterium
...ote, was evidence that this methane specialist can turn into a sort of metabolic generalist-with a capacity to use sugars, hydrogen, and sulfur-and appears able to survive reduced oxygen levels. The M. capsulatus genome provides a platform for investigating the details of methanotroph biology and its...Binocular rivalry: Fulfilling visual expectations
...ation of an image on the back of the eye, which in turn stimulates a cascade of nerve impulses that "feed forward" to send signals deep into the brain. It is in the brain's visual cortex that these signals are interpreted. Signals in the visual cortex also travel in the opposite, "feedback," direction, bu...New anti-inflammatory strategy for cancer therapy identified by UCSD researchers
...ivation of NF-kB, which acts as a master switch to turn on inflammation in response to bacterial or viral infections. In turn, NF-kB sets off a chain of reactions that lead to cancer. Mice used in the new study were given colon or breast tumor cells which metastasized to the lung. Some of these c...Students build submarine to track Octopuses
...ng its hydrophone sensors. It would decide when to turn on its video camera, transmitting video to a remote receiver. "This would require the submarine to know something about the topography of the ocean bottom in its area so it wouldn't run into a big rock or other obstacle while following the octopus," ...New sign language suggests children create language's fundamentals through learning
...ns do use a specific approach to learning that can turn a simple communication system into a true language in a surprisingly short period of time. The researchers compared the ways that deaf children and adults used Nicaraguan Sign Language (NSL) to tell a story. The signers had learned the language at di...Hardy buoys: Texas A&M project predicts oil spill movements
...llites orbiting the Earth, and that information in turn is transferred down to GERG's headquarters in College Station - located about 150 miles from the Texas coast. Information is received by GERG's computers every few hours, 24 hours a day, Guinasso explains, allowing researchers and government agencies...European common frog found to use novel mating strategy
...ogs typically gang around the egg clutch for their turn at fertilization. According to Vieites, genetic analysis of the eggs in a single clutch shows fertilization by as many as four separate males, including the male that actually had embraced the female. "This is the first example of such a complex mati...OutFoxed! New research may redefine late-stage cardiac development
...binding proteins called transcription factors that turn other genes on and off. Interestingly, Foxp4 is not expressed in heart muscle cells themselves but rather in the primitive gut tube, which will develop into the stomach and intestines. In the early mammalian embryo, the gut tube helps direct the f...Bacteria use 'molecular lasso' to cop copper
...teria live. The bacteria sequester the methane and turn it into methyl alcohol." According to estimates made in the 1990s, the amount of methane produced from all sources worldwide is about 120 billion tons per year, said Kim. About 40 percent comes from paddies and wetlands, and the methane-eating bacter...Serotonin metabolites in mollusks suggest pathways for human therapies
...rn to avoid it by doing a characteristic avoidance turn during subsequent encounters. We are working with the serotonin pathways that underlie the odor learning." Stuart reported at the ACS meeting that hungry Pleurobranchaea had more serotonin sulfate, one of the newly discovered serotonin metabolites, ...Adaptive changes in the genome may provide insight into the genetics of complex disease
...helped us but is now working against us may indeed turn out to betrue for some genes that increase susceptibility to complex diseases. Ifthis is true, finding genes that have been affected by natural selection mayalso help us find complex disease genes," Akey said. In the paper, Akey and colleagues descri...Viral suspect for amphibian decline traced to human spread through bait
... in sport fish (including rainbow trout), which in turn the researchers suspect resulted when the virus jumped from frogs to fish. The salamander virus however, is distinct from either of these and may be a recent development because of its lack of genetic diversity. "The basic story, based on the molecul...