Success or failure of antidepressant citalopram predicted by gene variation
...zed treatment an achievable goal. The researchers studied DNA provided earlier by patients participating in a recently completed NIMH clinical trial, the Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) study. The trial showed that depressed patients who dont benefit from the first medication...Penn researchers discover pathway that eliminates genetic defects in red blood cells
...cell function or death. The form of thalassemia studied by the Penn group is caused by a mutation that allows the cells ribosome to read too far, making a protein that is too long. Thalassemias result from an underproduction of hemoglobin proteins the oxygen carrying molecule in blood hence the anemia. ...New study demonstrates important role of glia in circadian timing
...ls, and that it is involved in one of the commonly studied rhythmic behaviors observed in Drosophilalocomotor activity. Not only do our studies indicate that Ebony abundance is under clock control, Jackson says, but they also suggest that Ebony may exert its effects on locomotor activity indirectly via a mod...High rates of HIV infection documented among young Nepalese girls sex-trafficked to India
...ing, but sex-trafficked girls and women are rarely studied leaving the prevalence of HIV and other health issues among this highly vulnerable population little understood, said Silverman. This study sheds new light on infection rates among a sex-trafficked population and exposes both the tragic existence of...Fish eyes could hold clue to repairing damaged retinas in humans
... of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital have studied these Mller glial cells in the eyes of people from 18 months to 91 years of age. In research funded by the Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council and the Helen Hamlyn Trust, the team showed that a population of these cells have stem cell proper...Negative effects of plastic's additive blocked by nutrient supplements
...nce July 30. In their experiments, the Duke team studied a well-documented strain of animals known as agouti mice. Normally, these mice tend to be slender and brown. While past epigenetic research at Duke has focused on nutrients given to pregnant agouti mice, the current experiments represented the first ...Zebrafish: It's not your parents' lab rat
...cancer. Using the tools of biotechnology, the team studied zebrafish that couldn't transcribe the LMO4 gene, and they observed marked enlargement in both the forebrain and optical portions of the embryos. When they overexpressed the LMO4 gene, making more protein than normal, those same areas shrank. The stu...Strains of laboratory mice more varied than previously thought
...y found that the pedigrees of the 15 mouse strains studied are not what they were previously assumed to be. It appears they differ from each other to a far greater degree than do the pedigrees between humans and chimpanzees. The research, published online July 29 in the journal Nature Genetics and slated ...Surprising new species of light-harvesting bacterium discovered in Yellowstone
...is the discovery of a lifetime for someone who has studied bacterial photosynthesis for as long as I have (35 years)," says Bryant. "I wouldn't have been as excited if I had reached into that mat and pulled out a gold nugget the size of my fist!" He adds, "I am really grateful to Dave Ward for the chance t...Innovative research technique reveals another natural wonder in Yellowstone Park
...is the discovery of a lifetime for someone who has studied bacterial photosynthesis for as long as I have (35 years)," says Bryant. "I wouldn't have been as excited if I had reached into that mat and pulled out a gold nugget the size of my fist!" Yellowstone habitats have been explored since the 1960s for ...JCI table of contents -- July 26, 2007
...and colleagues from the University of Pennsylvania studied macrophage reverse cholesterol transport in mice a... the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology studied SLAT-/- mice and found that these animals displayed defects in the early stages of thymocyte develop...U-M researchers identify gene involved in breast cancer
...cer sample: about 80 percent of the cancer tissues studied did not express the gene at all. In addition, the researchers found FOXP3 to be a repressor of HER-2, a protein that typically marks a more aggressive form of breast cancer. The researchers believe FOXP3 suppresses the HER-2 gene. HER-2 can be act...Study points to new way to predict death risk from torn aorta
...terventional radiologist David Williams, M.D., has studied the false lumen, and that U-M vascular surgeon Ramon Berguer, M.D., has studied the dynamics of endoleaks in a similar model of abdominal aortic aneurysms treated with stent grafts...Scratch no more: Gene for itch sensation discovered
...systematically investigate this possibility." They studied scratching behavior in two sets of mice normal mi...ain-sensing capability. GRPR had been fairly well studied before, but no one could provide a compelling link between GRPR and itching before now. "Scientists ...Enzyme discovery sheds light on vitamin D
... chromatography mass spectrometry, the researchers studied cells from animals in both categories. They changed the human enzyme in certain key places to see if this would affect its pathway pattern. Surprisingly, they discovered that altering a single amino acid completely changes the enzyme from a human p...Brain's 'hearing center' may reorganize after implant of cochlear device
...not involved in this study. Guiraud and her team studied 13 profoundly deaf adults who had received cochlear implants, on average, eight months before the study. Electrical stimulation to the ear allowed the team to locate where in the brains auditory cortex various frequencies were processed and come up w...Neurons for numerosity: Parietal neurons 'sum up' individual items in a group
...tex contributes to numerical behavior, the authors studied the activity of neurons in the lateral intraparietal area in monkeys while they looked at arrays of dots on a computer screen. Parietal neurons responded with progressively increasing activity as the total number of elements in the display was varied...Back to the future: Mastodon extends the time limit on DNA sequencing
...arify interrelationships, even in the case of well studied taxa. Moreover, the researchers used the mastodon data as a calibration point, lying outside the Elephantidae radiation (elephants and mammoths), which enabled them to estimate accurately the time of divergence of African elephants from Asian elephan......xplained, Think of it as a lubricant. Previously studied homologs of nAChR proteins that share its structu...rotein crystallography. Homologs of nAChR had been studied at the atomic scale, but not the receptor itself.......t in the universe, these organisms have never been studied directly. Quake and his colleagues hope their new technology will change that. We are hoping to open a whole new chapter in how one understands the microbial universe, Quake said. Microfluidic tools can give us direct access to this dark matter, Q...