According to a new study, septic shock — a dangerous, often deadly runaway immune response — is controlled by a genetic on/off switch. The research also suggests how a drug might temper sepsis. This is the first time this genetic mechanism has been revealed in an experimental animal.
During sleep, freshly minted memories move from the hippocampus, part of the “old” brain, to the neocortex, or “new” brain, for long-term storage. This has been the reigning theory for decades. Brown University research provides the strongest proof yet of this interaction between the old and new brains — and offers surprising evidence that challenges critical details of this theory of learning and memory. Results appear in Nature Neuroscience.
Just three days after catching a Siberian tiger in the Russian Far East, an international team led by biologists from the Wildlife Conservation Society captured another species last week that carries the dubious distinction of being the world’s most endangered big cat: an extremely Far Eastern leopard.
An international group of researchers has identified genes which enable the maize smut pathogen to live as a parasite.
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins’ High Throughput Biology Center have invented two new gene “chip” technologies that can be used to help identify otherwise elusive disease-causing mutations in the 97 percent of the genome long believed to be “junk.”
Swiss researchers led by R. Zenobi have developed a mass-spectrometric method to quickly and easily obtain a proper fingerprint of breath, including the quantitative detection of large, nonvolatile compounds. Breath analysis has some advantages for clinical diagnosis, for example it requires no puncture.
A new study has suggested a novel way of combating diseases related to the immune system, including cancer and autoimmune diseases such as type I diabetes and arthritis. The study, funded by the Wellcome Trust, appears online in the journal Nature.
Scientists at the University of Manchester are using 3-D computer graphics to combat the pain suffered by amputees.
Sandia National Laboratories researchers John Shelnutt and Yujiang Song have discovered a better way to see where a drug attaches to a cell through a new process that produces novel hollow platinum nanostructures.
Six million years ago, chimpanzees and humans diverged from a common ancestor and evolved into unique species. Now UCLA scientists have identified a new way to pinpoint the genes that separate us from our closest living relative ? and make us uniquely human. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports the study in its Nov. 13 online edition.