Research identifies promising route for treating age-related hearing loss
...vel to the auditory region of the brain. Normally, humans are born with a complement of about 50,000 hair cells. But since the cells do not regenerate, the steady rate of hair-cell loss that can accompany aging produces significant hearing loss in about a third of the population by the time they reach 70-ye...Research turning up the heat on fowl bacteria
...mlessly in normally warm chickens and makes cooler humans sick. In looking at proteins turned off and on in chickens and people, Dr. Thompson zeroed in on one called CJ1461 that is turned on in people. The "wild hope" he had that this unusual protein was involved in gene regulation appears to a reality. Whe...Found: Missing sequence of the human Y chromosome
... determinant of sex-related stature differences in humans and is in close proximity to the Y centromere. In addition, the GBY, or gonadoblastoma locus, which is responsible for development of tumors associated with the undifferentiated gonad, has been genetically mapped to the region. Because the "missing...Anthropologists find 4.5 million-year-old hominid fossils in Ethiopia
...ite the millions of years that separate us, modern humans have a few things in common with A. ramidus. Fossils from Gona and elsewhere suggest that the ancient hominid walked on two feet and had diamond-shaped upper canines, not the "v"-shaped ones chimps use to chomp. Outwardly, however, A. ramidus would a...Improved recipe for magnetic brain stimulation
...t, and controllable changes in the motor cortex of humans that last more than an hour. Their findings offer the potential for both more useful research studies using TMS as well as greater therapeutic application. In their studies, the researchers applied various patterns of repetitive magnetic pulses to th...Current human embryonic stem cell lines contaminated UCSD/Salk team finds
...aper. Previously, the Varki lab found in 1998 that humans are uniquely different from other mammals studied ...In a 2003 study**, the UCSD researchers found that humans have naturally occurring antibodies that are directed against Neu5Gc. In the current Nature Medici...Lack of potential mates has lead to 'sloppy' gene control and risk of disease for humans
... lack of choice in the mating game has left modern humans exposed to disease, according to new research publ...years, the researchers found. This has left modern humans with 'sloppy' gene control mechanisms which can make us susceptible to diseases, or directly cause g......timated additional 140,000 harmful mutations since humans and chimps diverged, mutations that have been sele...ons between mice and rats, but nearly none between humans and chimps. This result suggests that the gene-regulating elements of hominids are subject to nearly...How do cells travel through our bodies?
..., a condition that leads to severe disabilities in humans and is frequently fatal. The Monterotondo group showed that n-cofilin has to be present for neural crest cells to be untied from their neighbors and to crawl away. "This gives us a new way to explore cell migration in the mouse," Witke says. "Mouse...Report assesses health implications of perchlorate ingestion
...hat in high doses can decrease thyroid function in humans and that is present in many public drinking-water ...erchlorate exposure is not a good indicator of how humans would react. In the past, high doses of perchlorate were used to treat patients with hyperthyroidism...Arid Australian interior linked to landscape burning by ancient humans
...plications are that the burning practices of early humans may have changed the climate of the Australian continent by weakening the penetration of monsoon moisture into the interior." A paper on the subject by Miller appears in the January issue of Geology. Co-authors include CU-Boulder's Jennifer Mangan,...NYU biologists find new function for pacemaker neurons
...milar to the rhythms in sleep/wake cycles found in humans and many other organisms. It was previously known that pacemaker neurons receive visual signals to reset their molecular clocks, but scientists did not have any evidence that they transmitted information to their target cells, as most other neurons d...Immune cells become potent cancer killers after genetic redirection
... has been difficult to develop immunotherapies for humans based on these interactions, in part because many normal cells and tissues produce small amounts of TAAs and the body has a certain amount of self-tolerance that prevents a vigorous immune attack. Dr. Matthias Theobald from Johannes Gutenburg-Univers...Chimpanzees show quality of relationship drives sense of fairness
...ived a superior reward. Such a reaction is seen in humans who might react negatively to unfair situations wi... of the complex responses to inequity exhibited by humans and may help explain why we make certain decisions," said Brosnan. Brosnan and de Waal currently are...Enzyme, lost in most mammals, is shown to protect against UV-induced skin cancer
... of damage to our DNA, but under normal conditions humans and other mammals are capable of removing UV-induced DNA damage by a DNA repair mechanism called nucleotide excision repair. Insufficient repair of UV-induced DNA damage, which for example may occur after excessive unprotected sunbathing, can lead to...Novel approach yields predictions validated by experiments
...a good starting point for modeling this pathway in humans because of similarities in the process, he added. He plans to collaborate on developing such a model with Georgia Tech Professor of Biology Alfred Merrill, whose research focuses on human sphingolipids. In the current study, Voit and his co-authors ...Despite causes of lupus proving complex, critical 'checkpoint' suggesting new therapy is revealed
...ity -- the equivalent of effective gene therapy in humans -- was enough to push the mice back to health. "T...mond. "We have hopes of confirming this pathway in humans with lupus." What may be even more interesting in the Rockefeller team's findings is that the experi...How many comparative genomes are enough?
...rated by the average evolutionary distance between humans and mice. But when conserved nucleotides are allowed to change in a more realistic way, 25 genomes are needed instead. To reduce the error rate from 1 in 100 to 1 in 10,000, about 120 such genomes should be compared. However, far fewer genomes are n...Glow-in-the-dark zebrafish at UH hold keys to biological clocks
...y, this type of research can help with tracing why humans develop such things as sleep disorders or mental illnesses like depression." Per3 is the naturally occurring clock-regulated gene. The protein that it encodes is produced at highest levels near dawn, and when the luc gene is inserted into it, the......r embryogenesis in C. elegans have counterparts in humans whose roles are often unknown. For example, human counterparts of four of the newly identified genes are known to be associated somehow with disease, and mutations in two of these are associated with tumors. The C. elegans study suggests specific cel...