Brain Protein "Rescues" Neurons From Atrophy
...cells from atrophying from disuse by treating them with a protein believed to be involved in helping the brain "wire" itself. The achievement with laboratory animals, reported in the Nov. 9 issue of Nature, shows that the proteins, called neurotro...Bacterial Toxin Surprises Scientists
...'s going on to make sure we're not dealing with some massive hallucination," said Dr. Fink...iggering channel opening and closing. As with much scientific discovery, the study's findings raise more questions than they answer. But a...Duke Researchers Discover Central Role Of Nitric Oxide In Hemoglobin Action
... researchers have found thatnitric oxide, combined with hemoglobin, is a major regulator of gas exchange,a...al to life and a deficiency in oxygen isassociated with diseases of every organ. The same picture is gradually emergingfor nitric oxide (NO). Understanding ...Dangerous Chemical Combination Presents Possible Scenario For Gulf War Illnesses
...ost the toxicityof these chemicals. "Individuals with genetic types of decreased plasma BuChe activitysh...llow-up study analyzing blood samplesfrom veterans with and without symptoms to determine if low enzymatic activityis associated with signs of illness.......essor of cell biology at Duke,said initial studies with the mice already have yielded surprising insightst...'s function comes from studiesof drugs that tamper with the dopamine system," he said. Cocaine, forexample, temporarily blocks the transporter from outside ...Enzyme's "Magic" May Hold Key to Anticancer and Antimicrobial Drugs
...at yeast topoisomerase II is heart-shaped, with a gaping hole in its center. Although it i...from Nature , 18 January 1996, 379, p. 231 with permission. Because drugs act on specific enzyme conformations, knowledge...New Cancer Switch Discovered By Duke Medical Center Pharmacologists
...r, all of which point toward new ways to interfere with the malignant machinery of cancer cells to kill th... of Sciences, Mikhail Gishizky of SUGEN Inc. along with Pendergast and Cortez reported success in halting the growth of leukemia cells by jamming their grow...Key to Triplet Repeat Brain Diseases Open Door For New Way To Understand, Treat Genetic Diseases"
... proteins. They then mixed these glutamine strings with brainproteins to see what proteins bound. They fou...und in all cells,is known to produce energy, along with a number of other important functions. In a second experiment, brain proteins were incubated with G...Researchers Pinpoint Site For Petit Mal Seizures In Brain
...s may lead to more specific drugs for the disorder with fewer side effects, said Dr. David Hosford, assist...childhood epilepsies. About 20 percent of children with petit mal seizures aren't helped by currently used drugs and another 20 percent experience side effe...Tumor Suppressor Gene Located In Liver Cancer Cells
...s in the December issue of Nature Genetics. Along with principal investigator Randy Jirtle, Gerald R. Han...worldwide, particularly because of its association with viral hepatitis," said Jirtle, a professor of radiation oncology and cancer center member. The lack...New 'Twist' In Proteins Offers Possible Route To Improved Antibiotics
...ontained sequences similar to severalother enzymes with similar function, although the three-dimensional s... left-handedbeta helices were triangular in shape, with each side of the triangle formedfrom a roughly repeated six-amino acid, or hexapeptide, sequence. Ac...Second Breast Cancer Gene Located
...en who may carry breast cancer genes." As with BRCA1, the researchers said they expect that women...e of developing breast cancer. Members of families with the BRCA2 gene also seem to be at greater riskfor several other cancers, including male breast canc...Duke Geologists Explore Alternative Way To Measure Ice Age Sea Bottom Temperatures
...cean marine fossils may finally provide scientists with an unambiguous way to reconstruct how bottom sea w... other isotope depending on the water temperature, with more oxygen 16 being taken up by shells formed in warmer sea water. But according to the Science art...... anatomically distinct from Homo sapiens. Working with professor Guanjun Shen of the University of Guizho...ompared his mass spectrographic age determinations with results obtained from an alternate method - one using the isotopes Proactinium-231/Uranium 235. Thou...Computer Program For Quicker, More Detailed Mapping
...apper will present the new method, thisweek, along with the maps it has generated, at the Genome Mapping a...hing -- that would take forever -- but theycome up with pretty good answers," said Kathleen McKusick, computerscientist at the Stanford Human Genome Center....Duke Researchers Discover Candidate Susceptibility Gene For Autoimmune Disease
...to regulate the inflammatory response." Working with Duke University Arthritis Center researchers Dr. Bart Haynesand Dr. Dhavalkumar Patel, and with Dr. Gary Gilkeson, Blackshear's teamdetermined that the animals had characteristic antibodies agains...Rosemary May Have Anti-Cancer Properties
...ealth and Human Development. Rosemary interfered with cancer's initiation phase, or the transformationof...State researchers fed the rats a diet supplemented with 1 percentrosemary for two weeks, using the same powdered rosemary readily availablein grocery stores...Heat-loving Microbe Repairs Its DNA With Light
...damaging the DNA of live S. acidocaldarius cells with UVradiation, whose effects on DNA are precisely kn...y hightemperatures. Grogan's research is supported with funding from the U.S. Officeof Naval Research. Plans for future work on this topic includedeterminin...Children Become Gorillas In VR Zoo
... our design partner,and we are extremely impressed with the scholarly approach taken by <AHREF="http:/... actual responses." Zoo researchers are impressed with the final outcome, which wasn'teasy to achieve. Unlike monkeys, apes are not extremely active animal...From Corn Rootworms To Art, Cornell's Reactor Is At The Core
...s making use of a Cornell resource to study, along with Paula Davis, assistant professor of entomology, th...he is embarking on a new project, in collaboration with the Getty Conservation Institute in California, to try to resurrect an image from an old, faded phot...