Animals warn of human health hazards in new 'Canary Database'
...man animals could be more sensitive to many of the agents that are potential biological or chemical weapons and could therefore serve as "sentinels" for a terrorist attack. At the same time, the public health system has been slow to use animal sentinel data to detect and reduce human environmental health ha...One bacteria stops another on contact
...discovery may eventually lead to new antimicrobial agents to halt bacterial growth which would be an entirely new system to shut bacteria down, according to the scientists. "This has potential implications for new antibiotics," said Low. "If bacteria can do this, then maybe we can do it." Doctoral student ...New target found to fight, treat Parkinson's
...that produce various types of neurotransmitters to agents that mimic the action of rotenone. These results ... said Feng. "Since many microtubule-depolymerizing agents are compounds naturally produced in many plants, our research points to the need to examine their po...New dye could offer early test for Alzheimer's
...ive techniques for diagnosing Alzheimer's involved agents labeled with radioactive elements that could enter the brain and target disease plaque for imaging with positron emission tomography (PET). However, these methods were expensive and limited by the short working lifetime of the labeled agents. Swager...Green catalyst destroys pesticides and munitions toxins, finds Carnegie Mellon University
...esel exhaust particles. Thousands of tons of these agents are produced yearly by countries around the world. Registered as priority pollutants by the EPA, they are toxic to aquatic life. They produce immediate toxic effects to the nervous system, and some reports have implicated them as possible endocrine d...Unexpected features of anthrax toxin may lead to new types of therapies
...the lead author of the PNAS paper. Pharmaceutical agents that are designed to block the acid-dependent route of toxin entry may fail to block the neutral pH-dependent pathway, the researchers say. In addition, the researchers made a finding that could potentially lead to a new approach for blocking toxin ...Detecting anthrax proteins at ultralow concentrations
...system will lead to a method for rapidly screening agents that inhibit the binding of LF or EF to these pores," says NIST's lead investigator John Kasianowicz. Live anthrax antibodies seem to do exactly that. When antibodies were present in the test solution and then LF was added, the current flow remained ...Bioforensics Analysis Research and Development Center created at Los Alamos
...rk to develop and identify molecular signatures of agents to develop genotyping tools. The second program fo...tifying unique chemical and physical signatures of agents for clues about a sample's formulation. In the third program, researchers address issues involved in...Institute of Medicine news: Quarantine stations at ports of entry
... involved in protecting the public from infectious agents that originate abroad." Every year, roughly 120 ...fugees, immigrants, animals, and cargo for disease agents shortly before and during their arrival at U.S. gateways. However, preventing, detecting, and respo...Casting a wide net to fight coronaviruses
...ople in 2003. Research efforts to design antiviral agents to combat coronaviruses intensified after the SARS epidemic and have focused mostly on just this virus. But because coronavirus sequences and structures mutate so quickly, a challenge is to find wide-spectrum vaccines, since a vaccine targeting one s...UT Southwestern researchers develop screening test for cells that activate immune system
...ignals so that you can identify immuno-stimulatory agents very easily," said Dr. Takashima. Immuno-stimulatory agents launch the immune system. The research appears on Blood magazine's online Web site and will appear i...US government grant funds PXL 'scavenger drugs' to treat radiation damage
...e therefore considered to be potentially promising agents for treating victims after radiation exposure. Collaboration with investigators in the MCW Center will give Proteome Systems the opportunity to develop the therapeutic value of its small molecule compounds in this important and, unfortunately, ever ...Animal model of Parkinson's disease reveals striking sensitivity to common environmental toxins
...tion leads to an increased sensitivity to chemical agents that cause oxidative damage. Min and his colleagues found that loss of function of one form of fly DJ-1, DJ-1b, caused a compensatory boost in expression of the other form of the gene, DJ-1a. These flies, lacking DJ-1 function but having increased D...Boston University biologist honored for leadership in estuarine education
... the history and facts related to the human-driven agents of ecological change affecting the world's coasts. Described as "an estuarine- and life-educator" who has "always been about the real world," Valiela researches the links between humans and coastal environments and investigates what those links tell...Software 'agents' could help unmask reality of disease clusters
...hem. By constructing virtual institutions in which agents can act, collaborating organisations can make raw ... able to overcome some of these problems. Software agents are programmes that can respond to changes in their environment, generate and attempt to achieve goa...Prions rapidly 'remodel' good protein into bad, Brown study shows
...material in bacteria, viruses and other infectious agents the research helps explain the puzzling process of how prions multiply and spread infection. Satpute-Krishnan said the speed of protein conversion was surprising. "The prions were taking all the existing protein and refolding it immediately," she sa...Researchers zero in on estrogen's role in breast-cancer cell growth
...ved could lead to the development of other related agents that might reduce some of the unwanted side effects of tamoxifen, such as stimulation of the uterus." In addition to Katzenellenbogen and Frasor, Jeanne M. Danes, a researcher in the department of molecular and integrative physiology, and doctoral st...Epigenetic activity silences Rb2/P130 gene in lung cancer
...-cancerous conditions can be treated with drugs or agents that de-methylate the Rb2/p130 gene. Once the drugs or agents disconnect the methyl groups from Rb2/p130, the gene begins to again express itself or function norm......collection and screening efforts for anti-malarial agents in dozens of plants. Country level commitment to malaria control: Leadership and ownership are essential if malaria is to become no longer "a fact of life". Insecticide treated bed nets: Scientists know they're effective but research reveals ......he findings point to the imbalance of blood vessel agents as the culprit behind the most serious cardiac complications in the animals. The mice represent an extreme example of what might happen in patients taking cox-2 inhibitors, Coffman said. While prostacyclin activity can be substantially reduced in pat...