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) -- One of the great promises of nanotechnologies lies in its ability to create drug-containing nanoparticles decorated with targeting molecules that recognize and bind to cancer cells, providing drug delivery only at the site of the targeted cells. Such site-specific drug delivery would not only boost the cancer-killing activity of a drug payload but also reduce potential side effects by greatly restricting or even eliminating the amount of drug reaching healthy tissue. http://www.physorg.com/news177922936.html Nanotechnology Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:40:05 EST news177922936 Inhibition of a protein known to contribute to heart failure also appears to be protective of the heart in more acute cardiac stress injury, namely ischemia reperfusion, according to two studies conducted at the Center for Translational Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University. The studies will be presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2009 in Orlando, Fla. http://www.physorg.com/news177692193.html Medicine & Health Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:20:03 EST news177692193 Of the many characteristic traits a drug can have, one of the most desirable is the ability for a drug to be swallowed and absorbed into the bloodstream through the gut. Some drugs, like over-the-counter aspirin, lend themselves to this mode of delivery and are trivial to take. They can be pressed into a pill and swallowed. Other drugs cannot be swallowed and must be administered instead through more complicated routes. Insulin, for instance, must be injected. http://www.physorg.com/news176994804.html Biology Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:00:02 EST news176994804 Scientists are developing new scaffolding technology which could be used to grow tissues such as skin, nerves and cartilage using 3D spaghetti-like structures. Their research is highlighted in the latest issue of Business, the quarterly highlights magazine of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. http://www.physorg.com/news174906941.html Chemistry Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:30:01 EST news174906941 All of life is founded on the interactions of millions of proteins. These are the building blocks for cells and form the molecular mechanisms of life. The problem is that proteins are extremely difficult to study, particularly because there are so many of them and they appear in all sizes and weights. http://www.physorg.com/news174833488.html Biology Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:59:41 EST news174833488 The sperm of male fruit flies are coated with a chemical 'sex peptide' which inhibits the female's usual afternoon siesta and compels her into an intense period of foraging activity. http://www.physorg.com/news173512654.html Biology Wed, 30 Sep 2009 06:58:14 EST news173512654 By seeing what substances and molecules affect the development of our diseases, we can develop drugs that prevent or cure diseases. In her dissertation at Kalmar University in Sweden, Ann Novotny has found that the signal molecule acetylcholine (ACh) is important for the progress of cancer of the large intestine and colon, knowledge that is important to factor in when developing drugs that block the effects of Ach on tumor cells. http://www.physorg.com/news172915513.html Medicine & Health Wed, 23 Sep 2009 09:30:02 EST news172915513 Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have identified two small protein fragments that could be developed into an anthrax vaccine that may cause fewer side effects than the current vaccine. http://www.physorg.com/news171280440.html Chemistry Fri, 04 Sep 2009 10:54:30 EST news171280440 Chemists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and The Scripps Research Institute (SRI) have developed an innovative technique to create cheap but highly stable chemicals that have the potential to take the place of the antibodies used in many standard medical diagnostic tests. James R. Heath, Ph.D., principal investigator of the Nanosystems Biology Cancer Center at Caltech, one of eight Centers of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence, and K. Barry Sharpless, Ph.D., SRI, and their colleagues describe the new technique in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition. http://www.physorg.com/news170690009.html Nanotechnology Fri, 28 Aug 2009 14:54:29 EST news170690009 It's well known that the protein calmodulin specifically targets and steers the activities of hundreds of other proteins - mostly kinases - in our cells, thus playing a role in physiologically important processes ranging from gene transcription to nerve growth and muscle contraction But just how it distinguishes between target proteins is not well understood. Methods developed by biophysicists at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM, Germany) have enabled them to manipulate and observe calmodulin in action, on the single-molecule scale. http://www.physorg.com/news169137245.html Chemistry Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:20:02 EST news169137245 A new analysis of the remains of a Tyrannosaurus rex (T. rex) that roamed Earth 68 million years ago has confirmed traces of protein from blood and bone, tendons, or cartilage. The findings, scheduled for publication in the Sept. 4 issue of ACS' monthly Journal of Proteome Research, is the latest addition to an ongoing controversy over which biochemical remnants can be detected in the dino. http://www.physorg.com/news168086595.html Chemistry Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:20:03 EST news168086595 In a major advance in obesity and diabetes research, Yale School of Medicine scientists have found that reducing levels of a key enzyme in the brain decreased appetites and increased energy levels. http://www.physorg.com/news167329705.html Medicine & Health Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:30:02 EST news167329705 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers outline today a new approach in the potential development of drugs to counter a cellular defect that triggers Parkinson`s and other diseases. http://www.physorg.com/news166808908.html Chemistry Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:00:12 EST news166808908 Whitehead Institute scientists have developed a rapid, inexpensive drug-screening method that could be used to target diseases that until now have stymied drug developers, such as Parkinson's disease. This technique uses baker's yeast to synthesize and screen the molecules, cutting target discovery and preliminary testing time to a matter of weeks. http://www.physorg.com/news166712777.html Chemistry Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:06:47 EST news166712777 Chemists at the California Institute of Technology and the Scripps Research Institute have developed an innovative technique to create cheap but highly stable chemicals that have the potential to take the place of the antibodies used in many standard medical diagnostic tests. http://www.physorg.com/news166361266.html Chemistry Thu, 09 Jul 2009 12:28:41 EST news166361266 Antibodies to a wide range of substances that can aggregate to form plaques, such as those found in Alzheimer's patients, have been identified in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid of healthy people. Levels of these antibodies decline with age and, in Alzheimer's patients, with increasing progression of the disease. http://www.physorg.com/news166119948.html Medicine & Health Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:27:03 EST news166119948 Doctors may get a new arsenal for meningitis treatment and the war on drug-resistant bacteria and fungal infections with novel peptide nanoparticles developed by scientists at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) of Singapore and reported in Nature Nanotechnology. http://www.physorg.com/news165419576.html Nanotechnology Sun, 28 Jun 2009 14:54:00 EST news165419576 Pancreatic cancer is a devastating disease with poor prognosis. This warrants the development of novel therapies including gene therapy. However, clinical studies have demonstrated poor efficacy of adenoviral gene therapy because of the absence of adenoviral binding sites on pancreatic cancer cells such as the coxsackie and adenovirus receptor (CAR). Circumventing CAR-mediated entry therefore seems a promising option to improve adenoviral entry into pancreatic cancer cells and to enhance the efficacy of adenoviral vectors. http://www.physorg.com/news164977499.html Medicine & Health Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:06:32 EST news164977499 Mice lacking the fat hormone leptin or the ability to respond to it become morbidly obese and severely diabetic -not to mention downright sluggish. Now, a new study in the June Cell Metabolism shows that blood sugar control in those animals can be completely restored by returning leptin sensitivity to a single class of neurons in the brain, which account for only a small fraction of those that normally carry the hormone receptors. http://www.physorg.com/news163164889.html Biology Tue, 02 Jun 2009 12:36:37 EST news163164889 Levels of biomarkers in the cerebrospinal fluid of individuals with very mild dementia may be associated with the rate at which their thinking, learning and memory skills decline, according to a report in the May issue of Archives of Neurology. http://www.physorg.com/news161278742.html Medicine & Health Mon, 11 May 2009 16:39:25 EST news161278742 Current strategies for designing vaccines against HIV and cancers, for instance, may enable some components in multi-component vaccines to cancel the effect of others on the immune system, eliminating their ability to provide protection, according to an article to be published shortly in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The authors also suggest, and successfully test, techniques that offer a solution to newly revealed mechanisms that enable some vaccine components to outcompete others. http://www.physorg.com/news160921953.html Medicine & Health Thu, 07 May 2009 13:33:06 EST news160921953 By lending them a gene normally reserved for other classes of animals, researchers have shown they can rescue flies from their Parkinson's-like symptoms, including movement defects and excess free radicals produced in power-generating cellular components called mitochondria. The gene swap also protects healthy flies' mitochondria, and to a large extent the flies themselves, from the damaging effects of cyanide and other toxins, the team reports in the May issue of Cell Metabolism, a Cell Press publication. http://www.physorg.com/news160752389.html Biology Tue, 05 May 2009 14:27:31 EST news160752389 (PhysOrg.com) -- For a decade, Alzheimer's disease researchers have been entrenched in debate about one of the mechanisms believed to be responsible for brain cell death and memory loss in the illness. http://www.physorg.com/news159031657.html Medicine & Health Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:28:27 EST news159031657 In a potential advance toward a male contraceptive pill and new treatments for infertility, researchers are reporting the identification of key biochemical changes that put sperm `in the mood` for fertilization. http://www.physorg.com/news158424284.html Chemistry Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:45:14 EST news158424284 Investigators at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) have deciphered a large percentage of the total protein complement (proteome) in Schizosaccharomyces pombe (S. pombe) fission yeast. http://www.physorg.com/news158415754.html Biology Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:23:28 EST news158415754 (PhysOrg.com) -- University of Notre Dame biologist Sunny Boyd's research is a little like "Match.com" for amphibians. Say you're a female tree frog looking for a mate--how do you choose among a number of potential suitors? http://www.physorg.com/news157138053.html Biology Tue, 24 Mar 2009 18:28:52 EST news157138053 Scientists know that alcohol affects the brain, but the specifics remain unclear. One possibility is that alcohol may increase or decrease the release and the synthesis of endogenous opioid peptides - endorphins, enkephalins and dynorphins - in distinct brain regions important for drug addiction. For the first time, a rodent study has confirmed that low to moderate levels of alcohol alter beta-endorphin release in the midbrain/Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) region, producing the pleasant effects that likely reinforce alcohol consumption. http://www.physorg.com/news156706330.html Medicine & Health Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:33:29 EST news156706330 A novel anti-inflammatory therapy designed by Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigators prevents acute lung injury in mice exposed to an inflammation-causing toxin, the researchers report in the journal Molecular Therapy. http://www.physorg.com/news156013806.html Biology Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:11:07 EST news156013806 Almost 800 years after farmers in the village of Gouda in Holland first brought a creamy new cheese to market, scientists in Germany say they have cracked the secret of Gouda`s good taste. They have identified the key protein subunits, or peptides, responsible for the complex, long-lasting flavor of the popular cheese. That discovery could lead to development of more flavorful cheeses and other dairy products. Their study is in the current issue of ACS` Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. http://www.physorg.com/news155405557.html Chemistry Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:13:30 EST news155405557 Three specific biomarkers provide an accurate indication of the severity of Chikungunya fever (CHIKF), which is emerging as a threat in South-East Asia, the Pacific and Europe, according to research conducted in Singapore. http://www.physorg.com/news155397190.html Biology Wed, 04 Mar 2009 13:53:42 EST news155397190