LSU professor uses tai chi to fight degenerative nerve disease
...chi, but so far it is still the undisputed winner, producing improved flexibility, sensation and overall health. Most patients report a significant decrease in falls, increased confidence walking and standing and are able to stop using walkers or canes after consistent and extensive participation. The study, ...Cells passed from mother to child during pregnancy live on and make insulin
... cells could provide new insights into how insulin producing beta cells are generated. ...'Quiet revolution' may herald new RNA therapeutics
...ject identified about 34,000 genes responsible for producing proteins. The remaining part in fact, most of the genome constituted what was considered to be "junk" DNA with no function. However, latest estimates show that this "junk" DNA produces around half a million varieties of RNA of unknown functions. ...Algae toxin identification unravels fish-kill mystery
...ve algae, Pfiesteria piscicida, can suddenly start producing a lethal toxin. The discovery, reported last week in Environmental Science and Technology,* could resolve a long-standing mystery surrounding occasional mass fish kills on the East Coast. Pfiesteria has been implicated for years in a series of othe...Small molecule offers big hope against cancer
...o mitochondrial diseases. Mitochondria, the energy producing units in cells, have been connected with cancer since the 1930s, when researchers first noticed that these organelles dysfunction when cancer is present. Until recently, researchers believed that cancer-affected mitochondria are permanently damaged ...Getting one's protein in a bunch -- When quality control fails in cells
... the amino acids inside the cell that are used for producing proteins. Ibba and his colleagues used a specific synthetase, phenylalanyl-tRNA synthetase, to investigate what happens when the wrong amino acid is selected. They carried out their experiments in a strain of E. coli bacteria cells. They changed ...Producing medicines in plant seeds
...nology (VIB) at Ghent University have succeeded in producing in plant seeds proteins that have a very strong re... treatment of cancer. The conventional methods for producing antibodies work well, but they are expensive and have a limited production capacity. The high costs ...Maxine F. Singer to receive Public Welfare Medal
...indings have had a major effect on science policy, producing influential reports such as SCIENTIFIC AND MEDICAL ASPECTS OF HUMAN REPRODUCTIVE CLONING and ENHANCING THE POSTDOCTORAL EXPERIENCE FOR SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS. The latter report quickly led to a long-overdue empowerment of postdoctoral fellows on u...Maxine Singer awarded 2007 NAS Public Welfare Medal
...ommittee has had a major effect on science policy, producing influential reports including "Scientific and Medical Aspects of Human Reproductive Cloning" and "Enhancing the Post-Doctoral Experience for Scientists and Engineers." The latter resulted in a long-overdue empowerment of postdoctoral fellows on unive...Wheat can fatally starve insect predators
...e think that some of this has to do with the plant producing enough lectin that it just becomes so unpalatable ... that don't cost the plant much to produce, unlike producing poisons and stronger walls. Those inducible defenses use a lot of a plant's energy that could be use...The price of vanity: Mating with showy males may reduce offspring's ability to fight off pathogens
...haps because of the requisite energetic burdens of producing massive amounts of roe, and elevated testosterone increases body size. Thus, as Mank writes: "The benefits of increased body size to roe production and mate selection may, at least in some cases, counter the immunosuppressive effects of elevated tes...Researchers warn milk eliminates cardiovascular health benefits of tea
... cells showed that tea relaxed the aortic rings by producing nitric oxide, which promotes dilation of blood vessels. But, again, adding milk blocked the effect. The findings, by cardiologists and scientists from the Charit Hospital, Universittsmedizin-Berlin, Campus Mitte, Germany, are bad news for tea-drinki...How appetite-stimulating brain cells work overtime during fasting
...chers found that support cells in the hypothalamus producing an enzyme that catalyzes active thyroid hormone production are side by side with appetite-stimulating neurons that express UCP2. In mice that were fasted for 24 hours, the arcuate nucleus showed an increase in the "DII" enzyme's activity and local th......py. But what if the body could be induced to begin producing these proteins, say by transplanting healthy tissue with the abilities that are lacking? Prof. Yair Reisner and Ph.D. student Anna Aronovich of the Weizmann Institute's Immunology Department, together with colleagues, showed, in research recently p...Molecular 'on/off switch' controls immune defenses against viruses
... that the virus launches a counterattack on RIG-I, producing a protein called a protease to disrupt the signaling process, preventing interferon production and allowing viral replication. Just how RIG-I signaling is normally regulated, however, hadn't been known. In the current study, UT Southwestern rese...Squirrels winning at outwitting trees' survival strategy
... said. Prior to masting seasons, the squirrels are producing second litters an act that would be, well, squirrelly in seasons of low food supply.But a population boom that coincides with a seed boom is brilliant. More food means more places for juvenile squirrels to set up shop. "What we've shown is that the ...Experience sculpts brain circuitry to build resiliency to stress
...illusion of control even when it's absent, thereby producing resilience in the face of challenge," explained NIMH grantee Steven Maier, Ph.D., University of Colorado. "The prefrontal cortex is necessary for processing information about the controllability of stressors as well as applying this information to re...Squirrels place winning bet in unpredictable world
...arve" strategy of boom and bust seed production by producing an extra litter of babies in anticipation of a lus...redict the upcoming big crop and devotes energy to producing a second litter, maximizing the number of youngsters available to eat the mature seed available in t...Abnormal proteins linked to schizophrenia found in body tissue
...ce that schizophrenic brains might have difficulty producing or using energy properly and are more susceptible to cell-damaging free radicals than healthy brains. The new findings, she says, suggest that the same sort of energy starvation, increased free-radical damage cycle could be occurring in other tissue ......ot dangerous to humans by themselves. But the gene producing the cholera toxin is harmful. These genes serve as good markers for detection. Hashsham's device will be designed to look for such marker genes. "This technology is rugged and highly parallel; it can analyze lots of marker genes in a lot of samples...