How do adult stem cells protect themselves from accumulating genetic mutations that can lead to cancer? For more than three decades, many scientists have argued that the “immortal strand hypothesis” – which states that adult stem cells segregate their DNA in a non-random manner during cell division — explains it. And several recent reports have presented evidence backing the idea.
As summer temperatures cool in the United States, fewer mosquitoes whir around our tiki torches. But mosquitoes swarming around nearly 40 percent of the world?s population will continue to spread a deadly parasitic disease ? malaria.
With infections increasingly resistant to even the most modern antibiotics, researchers at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (LA BioMed) report in the September issue of Nature Reviews Microbiology on new clues they have uncovered in immune system molecules that defend against infection.
Smoking tobacco is no longer considered sexy, but it may prove a permanent turn on for some genes. Research published today in the online open access journal BMC Genomics could help explain why former smokers are still more susceptible to lung cancer than those who have never smoked.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced approval of a second test for the detection of West Nile virus (WNV) in blood and organs.
Be aware, overweight mothers-to-be! A new research has revealed that sons born to obese women may be less fertile.
Using magnetic resonance images of the brain, researchers have identified a new abnormality related to disease progression and disability in patients with multiple sclerosis, according to a study published in the August issue of Radiology.
Some scientific results are hard to spot, especially in genetic research. Often scientists are unable to physically see if the gene they inserted into a cell has produced the desired trait.
Sheets of highly organized epithelial cells line all the cavities and freesurfaces of the body, forming barriers that control the movement of liquidsand cells in the body organs. The organized structure of normal breastepithelial cells may also serve as a barrier against cancer, according to astudy by University of Helsinki scientists.
Adult obesity rates rose in 31 states last year, according to the fourth annual F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies are Failing in America, 2007 report from the Trust for America?s Health (TFAH). Twenty-two states experienced an increase for the second year in a row; no states decreased. A new public opinion survey featured in the report finds 85 percent of Americans believe that obesity is an epidemic.