News Articles

Variations in the WFS1 gene, known to affect both the survival and function of insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, can be linked to type 2 diabetes susceptibility, according to a new study from Cambridge.
The study has two major implications – it identifies a new risk factor in a disease reaching epidemic levels worldwide while also showing that variations in a gene – and not only mutations – can lead to type 2 diabetes.

Ongoing field trials since 2002 by a team that includes 16 farmers, Cornell researchers and Cornell Cooperative Extension field crops educators in 10 counties are showing the value of on-farm research. Their results are successfully quantifying and predicting the nitrogen needs for growing corn, saving farmers money and reducing environmental impact.
"With this program, we focus on determining under what situations extra nitrogen would be good to add and when a farmer can save money by reducing fertilizer applications without impacting yield and quality," says Quirine Ketterings, associate professor of crop and soil sciences, who co-leads the research team.

Early use of new DNA sequencing technology enables scientists to create whole genome maps of chromatin in embryonic stem cells and other cells
As a fertilized egg develops into a full grown adult, mammalian cells make many crucial decisions — closing doors of opportunity as they adopt careers as liver cells, skin cells, or neurons. One of the most fundamental mysteries in biomedicine is how cells make such different career decisions despite having exactly the same DNA. By using a new kind of genomic technology, a new study unveils a special code — not within DNA, but within the so-called “chromatin” proteins surrounding it — that could unlock these mysterious choices underlying cell identity.

Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have developed a novel strategy to expand the natural repertoire of 20 amino acids in mammalian cells, including neurons, and successfully inserted tailor-made amino acids into proteins in these cells. In a powerful demonstration of the method’s versatility, they then used unnatural amino acids to determine the operating mechanism of the “molecular gates” that regulate the movement of potassium ions in and out of nerve cells.
“In the past, this type of engineering has been mainly restricted to bacteria or in yeast, and it was very challenging to efficiently incorporate unnatural amino acids in mammalian cells.

Professor Herbert Herzog, Director of the Neuroscience Research Program at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, together with scientists from the US and Slovakia, have shown that neuropeptide Y (NPY), a molecule the body releases when stressed, can ‘unlock’ Y2 receptors in the body’s fat cells, stimulating the cells to grow in size and number. By blocking those receptors, it may be possible to prevent fat growth, or make fat cells die.
“We have known for over a decade that there is a connection between chronic stress and obesity,” said Professor Herzog. “We also know that NPY plays a major role in other chronic stress-induced conditions, such as susceptibility to infection.

A just published scientific study conducted by researchers at the University of Miami School of Nursing in conjunction with The Sirkin Creative Living Center (SCLC) has found that Rescue Remedy®, an all-natural remedy created from flower essences, is an effective over-the-counter stress reliever with a comparable effect to traditional pharmaceutical drugs yet without any of the known adverse side effects, including addiction.

A role for prion proteins, the much debated agents of mad cow disease and vCJD, has been identified. It appears that the normal prions produced by the body help to prevent the plaques that build up in the brain to cause Alzheimer’s disease. The possible function for the mysterious proteins was discovered by a team of scientists led by Medical Research Council funded scientist Professor Nigel Hooper of the University of Leeds.
Alzheimer’s and diseases like variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease follow similar patterns of disease progression and in some forms of prion disease share genetic features. These parallels prompted Professor Hooper’s team to look for a link between the different conditions. They found an apparent role for normal prion proteins in preventing Alzheimer’s disease.

Technical advances over the past 50 years have allowed improved knowledge to be gained of the properties of sea water at great depths. Yet the first centimetres of the ocean remain its least well known part. They are difficult to sample and study owing to the mixing the oceanographic vessel provokes between this superficial layer and the deeper strata of water. Nevertheless, a whole ecosystem exists within this layer, carrying numerous living organisms like bacteria, zooplankton and larger animals such as flying fish, which feed and reproduce in it.

The most common procedure for clearing blocked kidney arteries can also release thousands of tiny particles into the bloodstream that can impair kidney function, according to researchers from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and colleagues.
“This is the first data in humans to show that debris released during angioplasty and stenting of the kidney arteries can be harmful to kidney function,” said Matthew Edwards, M.D., M.S., lead researcher and an assistant professor of surgery. “It raises important questions about how to most safely perform this very common procedure.”

Women with at least three sites of cellular atypia in breast tissue are nearly eight times more likely than average women to develop breast cancer, according to findings of a Mayo Clinic Cancer Center-led study of women with atypical hyperplasia. The findings are published in the July 1 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Several previous studies have shown that atypical hyperplasia (also called atypia) in breast tissue is a major risk factor for breast cancer. Women who have a breast biopsy and are diagnosed with atypia are considered at high risk. Many are counseled to consider preventive medications such as tamoxifen or other risk-reducing approaches.

The first pigs containing genes responsible for Alzheimer’s disease will be born in Denmark in August. This event is a landmark achivement in the effort towards finding a cure for the disease.
Scientists from the universities of Copenhagen and Århus, Denmark are once again at the cutting edge of biotechnology. This time with cloned pigs that have been genetically modified so that they may function as animal models for the notorious Alzheimer’s disease. In the US alone, 5 million people suffer from this human brain disorder and globally the number is set at approx. 24 million (source: Alzheimer's Disease International).

Bats are one of the zoological groups attracting most interest around the world in terms of studying the epidemiology of rabies.
However, the dynamics of the viral infection in these organisms remains poorly understood. A team from the UB and the Institut Pasteur in Paris has just reported the first epidemiological, ecological and virological study with previously unpublished data on the transmission and development of rabies in these mammals.
The study is the result of twelve years of monitoring the dynamics of rabies virus infection (European bat lyssavirus subtype 1 - EBL1) in two wild bat (Myotis myotis) colonies in Spain. In total, the scientific data refer to the monitoring of over 1000 individuals from two colonies situated 35 km from one another.