Time running out for South Asian vultures, ecologists warn
...ed with the drug - less than 1% - is sufficient to cause the rapid declines in vulture populations observed...ing is close to that expected if this was the sole cause of the declines. Dr Rhys Green of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the University o...New therapy for specific form of leukemia
...e has been at a total loss regarding the origin or cause of some forms of this disease − including T-...University of Leuven, have discovered the possible cause of the disease in 6% of the T-ALL patients. The scientists have found small circular DNA fragments i...DNA sequence controls expression of gene involved in cancer
...at, when mutated or inappropriately expressed, can cause a cell to become cancerous. Normally, bcl-2 produces a protein that inhibits cell death or apoptosis. This protein keeps death-promoting factors from producing holes in the mitochondria which can result in calcium and destructive proteins leaking out...... to the extinction of that species as well. Did we cause the extinction of two other species of humans?" ...ve 150,000 to 50,000 years ago, then reproduced to cause a sudden population expansion. The new study used the mutation rate in lice and com...Endangered frogs coexist with fungus once thought fatal
...ough it's possible that B. dendrobatidis did not cause the initial T. eungellensis declines, surviving frog populations may have developed resistance to the pathogen, or less virulent strains of the fungus may have evolved. If it turns out that frog populations can develop resistance to the chytrid fun...New biomaterials improve medical devices
...s to alter biomaterial surfaces, and biofilms that cause infection of implants. Some of the new approaches to these challenges employ nanotechnology methods for both diagnostic and imaging systems. Another strong theme will be the use of computer modeling to predict the interactions between cells and mat...Plants provide model for new shape-changing materials
...aterials that utilize internal pressure changes to cause large shape changes. The plan calls for the investigation of the protein structures of plants for the purpose of understanding their role in generating shape changes in natural materials. The protein structures under analysis would then be used to d...Dying cells encourage neighbors to grow
... expect mutations that block or delay apoptosis to cause secondary proliferation and hyperplasia. It remains to be tested if such a mechanism contributes to hyperplasia in mouse models and human malignancies," offers Dr. Steller. ...Protein energy profiles offer clues about amyloids
...own. Doctors don't yet understand whether amyloids cause disease or result from it, but the fact that they ...nemia, for instance, because of genetic flaws that cause the amino acid sequence to be incorrectly synthesized. "The second way proteins go wrong is by not f...New biosensor rapidly detects deadly foodborne pathogen
...safety experts suggest from 100 to 1,000 cells can cause illness. Cooking would kill many of the L. monocytogenes cells that can grow at refrigeration temperature, but many ready-to-eat products, such as deli meats, smoked fish, cheeses and hot dogs, aren't always cooked by consumers befo...September/October 2004 Annals of Family Medicine tip sheet
...th alcohol-related mortality still the most common cause of death in young adults, the authors recommend primary care providers make counseling for high-risk drinking in young adults a critical priority. Brief Physician Advise for High-Risk Drinking Among Young Adults By Paul M. Grossberg, M.D., et al ...Low dose radiation evades cancer cells' protective 'radar'
...tead of risking repair." Higher doses of radiation cause extreme DNA damage and widespread cell death, so the ATM damage sensor is activated to preserve as many cells as possible, protecting, ironically, the cancer cells under target for destruction by the radiation. While the low-dose regimen works in cul...NIH awards Emory and Georgia Tech $10 million for partnerships in cancer nanotechnology
...ancer is the most common cancer and second leading cause of death in American men. Approximately 180,000 new cases are diagnosed yearly, and 40,000 men will die from the disease this year. As they age, most men will develop either benign (non-cancerous) prostate enlargement or prostate cancer. Currently...U-M scientists see ubiquitin-modified proteins in living cells
...ular functions. "The same ubiquitin signal can cause one protein to be degraded, but another protein to be moved to a new location," Kerppola says. "We're interested in learning how this works." In their PNAS paper, Kerppola and Fang describe how ubiquitin latched onto Jun - a protein involved in ce...New risks for bladder cancer identified by MIT team
...arette smoke, which is already known to be a major cause of bladder cancer, contributing to at least 50 percent of the approximately 60,000 cases in the United States every year. All three of the new carcinogens, however, were also found to be risk factors for bladder cancer in nonsmokers. Although second...Study describes basic mechanism in cell growth control involving damaged DNA
...alteration in this critical interaction may be the cause of human cancer, which is characterized by deregul... role in cancer, but its abundance in the cell may cause a defect in the checkpoint pathway. And that's what we're studying now," said Xiong....Protein protecting brain from toxins also blocks some chemotherapy from reaching tumors
...ut of the brain and into the blood before they can cause damage." The investigators also showed that isolated cells that were modified to over-express Mrp4 did not accumulate as much topotecan as cells lacking this protein. This is strong evidence that over-expression of Mrp4 in tumors contributes to top...Defense provides additional $4.9 million for pathogen research tool
... of high-priority pathogens that have potential to cause significant harm in either a naturally occurring, accidental, or deliberately introduced disease outbreaks. ToolBus/PathPort allows researchers to explore curated pathogen information and molecular mechanisms of pathogenesis from diverse sources. Us...Environmental exposures before and after birth can harm children's lungs
...e womb and to second-hand smoke during infancy can cause significantly more respiratory problems than either exposure on its own," added Dr. Frederica Perera, the study's Principal Investigator and Director of the Center. Researchers from the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health studied ...New study on smallpox in monkeys reveals tactics of a killer
...ssen or block the ability of the smallpox virus to cause disease. Experts believe that this new knowledge of how smallpox acts on cells could speed up development of smallpox countermeasures. Researchers will now be able to compare the actions of smallpox on cells to other pox viruses and use less leth...