http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (PhysOrg.com) -- A pioneering Cornell and University of Bonn study has isolated and purified mouse heart stem cells, settling a debate over whether such cells exist. http://www.physorg.com/news154890995.html Biology Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:17:26 EST news154890995 A collaborative research effort spanning nearly a decade between researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and King`s College London (KCL) has identified a novel gene for inherited amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig`s disease). This is the fourth gene associated with familial forms of the devastating neurological disorder. Two papers, published in the February 27 edition of Science, report mutations in FUS/TLS, a gene known to play a role in DNA repair and the regulation of gene expression. The mutations affect the behavior of the FUS/TLS protein within cells and lead to deposits of abnormal protein within motor neurons. http://www.physorg.com/news154880974.html Medicine & Health Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:30:17 EST news154880974 In everyday language, people sometimes say that immoral behaviours "leave a bad taste in your mouth". But this may be more than a metaphor according to new scientific evidence from the University of Toronto that shows a link between moral disgust and more primitive forms of disgust related to poison and disease. http://www.physorg.com/news154880780.html Medicine & Health Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:26:57 EST news154880780 Yale researchers have filled in a missing gap on the molecular road map of Alzheimer's disease. In the Feb. 26 issue of the journal Nature, the Yale team reports that cellular prion proteins trigger the process by which amyloid-beta peptides block brain function in Alzheimer's patients. http://www.physorg.com/news154790497.html Medicine & Health Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:22:13 EST news154790497 Mating can be exhausting. When fruit flies mate, the females' genes are activated to roughly the same extent as when an immune reaction starts. This is shown in a study at Uppsala University that is now appearing in the scientific publication, Journal of Evolutionary Biology. http://www.physorg.com/news154266738.html Biology Thu, 19 Feb 2009 11:52:52 EST news154266738 Scientists have discovered a mutation responsible for cancer progression, a finding with potential implications for the development of treatment against not one, but a series of cancer types since this mutation can be linked to an abnormality recently discovered to exist in all malignancies. The discovery has just been published in the journal Nature Genetics. http://www.physorg.com/news154121367.html Medicine & Health Tue, 17 Feb 2009 19:30:14 EST news154121367 (PhysOrg.com) -- Virginia Commonwealth University researchers have identified a gene that plays a key role in regulating liver cancer progression, a discovery that could one day lead to new targeted therapeutic strategies to fight the highly aggressive disease. http://www.physorg.com/news154109542.html Medicine & Health Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:12:55 EST news154109542 Cancer cells need a lot of nutrients to multiply and survive. While much is understood about how cancer cells use blood sugar to make energy, not much is known about how they get other nutrients. Now, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have discovered how the Myc cancer-promoting gene uses microRNAs to control the use of glutamine, a major energy source. The results, which shed light on a new angle of cancer that might help scientists figure out a way to stop the disease, appear Feb. 15 online at Nature. http://www.physorg.com/news154016792.html Medicine & Health Mon, 16 Feb 2009 14:27:10 EST news154016792 Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the University of California, San Diego have developed a set of molecular tools that provide important insight into the complex genomes of multicellular organisms. The strategy promises to clarify the longstanding mystery of the role played by vast stretches of DNA sequence that do not code for the functional units -genes -that nevertheless may have a powerful regulatory influence. The research is described in the 12 February edition of the journal Nature. http://www.physorg.com/news153684408.html Biology Thu, 12 Feb 2009 18:07:13 EST news153684408 Scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have found that a class of chromatin proteins is crucial for maintaining the structure and function of chromosomes and the normal development of eukaryotic organisms. The research, reported in today's print issue of Genes and Development, also found that this protein class, known as linker histones, works to regulate gene expression in vivo. http://www.physorg.com/news153671206.html Biology Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:27:18 EST news153671206 A paper in this week's PLoS Biology reports that a common gene regulatory circuit controls the development of all dentitions, from the first teeth in the throats of jawless fishes that lived half a billion years ago, to the incisors and molars of modern vertebrates, including you and me. http://www.physorg.com/news153472704.html Biology Tue, 10 Feb 2009 07:22:09 EST news153472704 Scientists have long wondered how melanoma cells travel from primary tumors on the surface of the skin to the brain, liver and lungs, where they become more aggressive, resistant to therapy, and deadly. Now, scientists from NYU Langone Medical Center have identified the possible culprit -a short strand of RNA called microRNA (miRNA) that is over-expressed in metastatic melanoma cell lines and tissues. http://www.physorg.com/news153407237.html Medicine & Health Mon, 09 Feb 2009 13:07:45 EST news153407237 Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have discovered a gene that when mutated causes obesity by dampening the body's ability to burn energy while leaving appetite unaffected. http://www.physorg.com/news152985131.html Medicine & Health Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:52:49 EST news152985131 (PhysOrg.com) -- A common treatment for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, prescribed millions of times a year, may change the brain in the same ways that cocaine does, a new study in mice suggests. Research from Rockefeller University shows that methylphenidate, commonly known as Ritalin, causes physical changes in neurons in reward regions of mouse brains. In some cases, the effects overlapped with those of cocaine. http://www.physorg.com/news152979707.html Medicine & Health Wed, 04 Feb 2009 14:22:33 EST news152979707 Alcohol consumption is known to cause liver damage. Yet the specifics of alcohol-induced liver injury can differ depending on the pattern of drinking. New rodent findings show that chronic drinking causes more injury - as measured by gene-expression changes - to the liver than acute or binge drinking. http://www.physorg.com/news152902421.html Medicine & Health Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:53:57 EST news152902421 Anyone with a sweet tooth knows that too much of a good thing can lead to negative consequences. The same can be said about the signals that help maintain nerve cells, as demonstrated in a new study of myelin, a protein key to efficient neuronal transmission. http://www.physorg.com/news152773248.html Biology Mon, 02 Feb 2009 05:01:21 EST news152773248 The declining mountain caribou populations of Canada's southern Rockies are a more distinct breed than scientists previously believed, according to a new study by University of Calgary researchers that is shedding light on the ancient ancestry of the mountain-dwelling herbivores. http://www.physorg.com/news152374168.html Biology Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:10:13 EST news152374168 (PhysOrg.com) -- One of the grand goals in nanotechnology is to develop a single microfluidic device that integrates all of the components needed to perform polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based nucleic acid analyses. Experts predict that such a device would enable researchers to develop rapid assays for cancer and other life-threatening diseases while a patient is in the doctor`s office. http://www.physorg.com/news151345628.html Nanotechnology Fri, 16 Jan 2009 16:27:08 EST news151345628 Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have demonstrated that a recently discovered class of molecule called microRNA (miRNAs), regulate the gene expression changes in airway cells that occur with smoking and lung cancer. These findings, which appear in the on-line early edition of journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may lead to a new, relatively non-invasive biomarker for smoking-related lung diseases. http://www.physorg.com/news151076573.html Biology Tue, 13 Jan 2009 13:42:53 EST news151076573 The emerging field of nutrigenomics, which aims to identify the genetic factors that influence the body's response to diet and studies how the bioactive constituents of food affect gene expression, is explored in a series of provocative, interdisciplinary reports and analyses in the December 2008 Special Issue (Volume 12, number 4) of OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (www.liebertpub.com). The issue is available free online at www.liebertpub.com/omi http://www.physorg.com/news149775085.html Medicine & Health Mon, 29 Dec 2008 12:11:25 EST news149775085 (PhysOrg.com) -- Genes talk to themselves and to each other to control how a given cell manufactures proteins. But variation in the control of the same gene in two different tissues may contribute to certain human traits, including the likelihood of getting a disease, said a team of geneticists and neuroscientists at Duke University Medical Center. http://www.physorg.com/news149264483.html Biology Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:21:23 EST news149264483 A research team at the Stowers Institute has discovered how the expression of one of the Hox master control genes is regulated in a specific segment of the developing brain. The findings provide important insight into how and where the brain develops some of its unique and important structures. http://www.physorg.com/news149258338.html Medicine & Health Tue, 23 Dec 2008 12:38:58 EST news149258338 Imagine having GeneVision: the uncanny ability to view the activity of any chosen gene in real time through a specially modified camera. http://www.physorg.com/news148659104.html Biology Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:11:44 EST news148659104 Flies expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP) in their retina cells or other tissues can be tracked by specially modified video cameras, creating a real time computer record of movement and gene expression. The new technique, described in the open access journal BMC Biotechnology, will allow detailed analyses of correlations between behavior, gene expression and aging. http://www.physorg.com/news148624566.html Biology Tue, 16 Dec 2008 04:36:06 EST news148624566 The metastasis or spread of breast cancer to other tissues in the body can be predicted more accurately by examining subnetworks of gene expression patterns in a patient's tumor, than by conventional gene expression microarrays, according to a presentation at the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) 48th Annual Meeting, Dec. 13-17, 2008 in San Francisco. http://www.physorg.com/news148571357.html Medicine & Health Mon, 15 Dec 2008 13:49:17 EST news148571357 Expression of the microtubule-binding protein Tau is not a reliable means of selecting breast cancer patients for adjuvant paclitaxel chemotherapy, according to research led by The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. http://www.physorg.com/news148453038.html Medicine & Health Sun, 14 Dec 2008 04:57:18 EST news148453038 In the art world, the most successful portraits are often those that reveal the true essence of the subject - a subject that on canvas, at least, will never age. In the science world, researchers are relying on portraits of gene expression patterns - but, in this case, the images are helping to reveal how various tissues form. http://www.physorg.com/news148219110.html Medicine & Health Thu, 11 Dec 2008 11:58:30 EST news148219110 Rather than testing for individual marker genes or proteins, researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego) and the Moores UCSD Cancer Center have evidence that groups, or networks, of interactive genes may be more reliable in determining the likelihood that a form of leukemia is fast-moving or slow-growing. http://www.physorg.com/news147980787.html Medicine & Health Mon, 08 Dec 2008 17:46:27 EST news147980787 The amount of proteins produced in cells -a fundamental determinant of biological outcomes collectively known as gene expression -varies in African American individuals depending on their proportion of African or European genetic ancestry. These findings, by researchers based in Boston, Philadelphia and Oxford, are published December 5 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics. http://www.physorg.com/news147698095.html Biology Fri, 05 Dec 2008 11:14:55 EST news147698095 For years, scientists have struggled to decipher the genetic instruction book that details where and when the 20,000 genes in a human cell will be turned on or off. Different genes operate in each cell type at different times, and this careful orchestration is what ultimately distinguishes a brain cell from a liver or skin cell. http://www.physorg.com/news147626045.html Medicine & Health Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:14:05 EST news147626045