Ethical discussion should come before research
...uld we do it?'" said Nancy L. Jones, Ph.D., a cell biologist at Wake Forest Baptist. Public controversy over research on human embryos has slowed stem cell research and prompted scientists to search for alternative ways to create embryos for research. They are using techniques such as cloning and parthenogenes...Columbia researchers receive $3 million to combat genetic killer of infants & toddlers
...A in patients. James L. Manley, Ph.D., a molecular biologist and Julian Clarence Levi Professor of Life Sciences in the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University is studying, together with his colleague Tsuyoshi Kashima, M.D., the basic biology of the SMN gene to find ways in which to recover it...Temporary weight gain over the winter holidays... might be a good thing
...ana University Bloomington assistant professor and biologist Gregory Demas is studying the relationship between fat reserves and immune function in animal models. So far, Demas has found that sudden weight loss leads to the rapid depression of immune function, and he says the opposite also holds true: an incre...Jefferson scientists find new way to convert adult human stem cells to dopamine neurons
... dopamine-making cells in the brain. Developmental biologist Lorraine Iacovitti, Ph.D., associate director of the Farber Institute for Neurosciences at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and her co-workers had previously shown that by using a potion of growth factors and other nutrients in the laborat...Fox Chase Cancer Center researchers identify novel target for detecting ovarian cancer in blood
...e detection of ovarian cancer. Fox Chase molecular biologist Paul Cairns, Ph.D., and his colleagues tested for hypermethylation of BRCA1 and RASSF1A, two genes strongly associated with ovarian cancer. "In normal cells, BRCA1 and RASSF1A are unmethylated, meaning they are able to do their job. We found these g...Discovery sheds light on how cancer cells grow and divide
...art of cancer," says Mark McNiven, Ph.D., the cell biologist who led the Mayo Clinic research team's investigation. "A lot of cancers, you could argue, don't grow faster; they just don't die. So this discovery will improve our understanding of this very relevant cellular process. It promotes understanding the ...Early life exposure to environmental agents predicts adult tumors in animals
...rch Division in Smithville, Texas. Molecular biologist Cheryl Walker, Ph.D., the principal investigator on the study and professor of carcinogenesis at M. D. Anderson, says the finding "establishes developmental programming as a novel type of gene-environment interaction." In the experiment, Cook, Wa...Spreading cancer survives via signals from nearby blood vessels long before new vessels are grown
...ablish themselves in new tissue," said Duke cancer biologist Mark Dewhirst, Ph.D. Dewhirst said his findings present a model of the earliest stages of cancer metastasis, and they bolster medicine's latest strategy of blocking blood vessel growth as a means of inhibiting cancer's spread. Scientists have long kn...Study finds clues to brain tumors' origins
... said Dr. Marianne Bronner-Fraser, a developmental biologist and the Albert Billings Ruddock Professor of Biology at Caltech. "It is possible that these types of cells will be the ones we want to study further and eventually attack in treating brain tumors. Additionally, the cellular mechanisms that regulate b...Bone cells help call the shots for the blood's stem cells within
...onathan Friedberg, M.D. "I look at bone as a bone biologist would," says Calvi. "The osteoblasts provide support and maintain structure. He looks at bone as a source for bone marrow. We had a lot of interesting discussions. Why is it that blood cells are produced in the bone? Is it simply because the bone can...Mayo Clinic researchers discover that donor kidney protects itself in new body
...o by Jeffrey Platt, M.D., a Mayo Clinic transplant biologist and co-author of this current Mayo Clinic study. James Gloor, M.D., a Mayo Clinic nephrologist and research team member, describes the significance of the work this way: "It's not that the recipient's immune system fails to see the organ; it's more...Texas A&M, ECOR sign deal to produce health-related proteins
..." said Dr. Erik Mirkov, a virologist and molecular biologist at the Texas A&M University System Agricultural Research and Extension Center at Weslaco. Mirkov and Texas A&M currently have seven patents, either issued or pending, for the process he developed to use sugarcane as a bio-factory for recombinant pro...Tissue-engineered cells transmit electrical signals in animal hearts
...rdiac cells," says Douglas B. Cowan, Ph.D., a cell biologist who led the study. "The electrical pathway developed within 10 weeks of implantation. "Ultimately maybe a decade down the road we may be able to use such cell-based technologies in humans to free them from cardiac pacemaker devices," says Cowan, ...UF study: Adolescent girls who set goals too high may risk anorexia
...n University School of Medicine; Ingrid Waldron, a biologist at the University of Pennsylvania; and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, a psychologist at Columbia University. Although experts once believed girls from middle- to upper-middle-class backgrounds were more prone to eating disorders, large-scale studies have rece...CDC designates new Kentucky biodefense center
...pidemics. Co-directing the center are Ron Atlas, a biologist considered a leading expert on anthrax, and Richard Clover, dean of the university's School of Public Health and Health Information Sciences. Atlas, Clover and three other faculty members affiliated with the center, Paul McKinney, William Smock and J...New pathway for treating hypertension-related kidney failure studied
...d pressure," said Dr. John D. Imig, renal vascular biologist at the MCG Vascular Biology Center. "In fact, a change in kidney function has to occur before you can get the increase in blood pressure," Dr. Imig said. Indeed, researchers such as Dr. Imig are finding increasing evidence that the kidneys, which reg...Two viruses team up in West Nile vaccine
... the brain. Lead investigator and NIAID molecular biologist Alexander Pletnev, Ph.D., and his co-workers had earlier shown that although the individual flaviviruses differ from one another, their parts could often be interchanged with those of dengue virus to produce a weakened hybrid that is suitable for tes...Researchers find better way to predict childhood brain tumor outcomes
... tumor cells," says Matthew Scott, a developmental biologist at Stanford University School of Medicine and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute whose research group linked the Hedgehog signaling pathway to medulloblastoma. The study is part of a cluster of recent papers from a group of Boston researchers from ...Children's Cancer Fund brings world-class pediatric cancer specialist to Dallas
.... Cameron is a first-class pediatrician, molecular biologist and cancer specialist, and he will augment UT Southwesterns core of internationally known oncologists and basic scientists already studying the cellular and molecular causes of cancer, said Dr. George Buchanan, professor of pediatrics and director of...Jefferson researchers have early evidence of bone marrow stem cells able to become brain cells
...e lost in Parkinson's disease," says developmental biologist Lorraine Iacovitti, Ph.D., professor of neurology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, who leads the research. She reports her team's findings November 11 at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience i...