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. The research group of Professor Magdalena Gotz of Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munich (Germany) has made a significant advance in understanding regeneration processes in the brain. The researchers discovered progenitor cells which can form new glutamatergic neurons following injury to the cerebral cortex. http://www.physorg.com/news178899595.html Medicine & Health Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:30:41 EST news178899595 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team led by Penn State's Ross Hardison, T. Ming Chu Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, has taken a large step toward unraveling how regulatory proteins control the production of gene products during development and growth. Working with collaborators including Drs. Mitchell Weiss and Gerd Blobel at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, they focused specifically on the complex process of producing red blood cells (erythrocytes). These cells contain large amounts of hemoglobin, a molecule essential for transporting oxygen throughout the body. Abnormalities in hemoglobin figure in many serious diseases, such as sickle-cell disease, and abnormalities in producing blood cells can lead to leukemias. The work will be published in the December 2009 issue of the journal Genome Research. http://www.physorg.com/news177865776.html Medicine & Health Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:40:21 EST news177865776 Researchers from North Carolina State University have identified a gene that tells embryonic stem cells in the brain when to stop producing nerve cells called neurons. The research is a significant advance in understanding the development of the nervous system, which is essential to addressing conditions such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and other neurological disorders. http://www.physorg.com/news177678975.html Biology Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:30:05 EST news177678975 (PhysOrg.com) -- Is the indefinite expansion of adult cells possible without recourse to stem cell intermediates? The team led by Michael Sieweke at the Centre d'immunologie de Marseille Luminy, France has proved that this is the case by achieving the ex vivo regeneration for several months of macrophages, specialized cells in the immune system. Published in Science on November 6, 2009, this discovery could be applied to other cell types. http://www.physorg.com/news177618528.html Biology Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:30:01 EST news177618528 Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health have identified a molecular mechanism that allows two powerful signaling pathways to interact and begin a process leading to colorectal tumors. http://www.physorg.com/news177359577.html Medicine & Health Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:50:02 EST news177359577 Embryonic development is like a well-organised building project, with the embryo's DNA serving as the blueprint from which all construction details are derived. Cells carry out different functions according to a developmental plan, by expressing, i.e. turning on, different combinations of genes. These patterns of gene expression are controlled by transcription factors: molecules which bind to stretches of DNA called cis-regulatory modules (CRMs), and, once bound, switch the relevant genes on or off. http://www.physorg.com/news176574396.html Biology Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:27:12 EST news176574396 Since the completion of the human genome sequence, a question has baffled researchers studying gene control: How is it that humans, being far more complex than the lowly yeast, do not proportionally contain in our genome significantly more gene-control proteins? http://www.physorg.com/news176043018.html Biology Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:51:56 EST news176043018 (PhysOrg.com) -- A protein that normally helps defend cells from infection can play a critical role in the development of lung cancer, according to MIT cancer biologists. http://www.physorg.com/news175414292.html Medicine & Health Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:14:06 EST news175414292 The cerebral cortex, the largest and most complex component of the brain, is unique to mammals and alone has evolved human specializations. Although at first all stem cells in charge of building the cerebral cortex -the outermost layer of neurons commonly referred to as gray matter -are created equal, soon they irrevocably commit to forming specific cortical regions. But how the stem cells' destiny is determined has remained an open question. http://www.physorg.com/news174665793.html Medicine & Health Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:17:33 EST news174665793 Li et al. explain how prolonged stress sparks the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to release its calcium stores, inducing cells to undergo apoptosis in several aging-related diseases.The study will appear in the September 21, 2009 issue of the Journal of Cell Biology (online September 14). http://www.physorg.com/news172150633.html Biology Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:00:01 EST news172150633 In a biological rendition of fiction's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, researchers from the Mayo Clinic campus in Florida and Harvard Medical School have found that a protein thought to protect against cancer development can actually spur the spread of tumors. http://www.physorg.com/news171195788.html Medicine & Health Thu, 03 Sep 2009 11:24:06 EST news171195788 A team of researchers from The Wistar Institute has identified a protein that could serve as a target for reprogramming immune system cells exhausted by exposure to chronic viral infection into more effective "soldiers" against certain viruses like HIV, hepatitis C, and hepatitis B, as well as some cancers, such as melanoma. http://www.physorg.com/news168792252.html Medicine & Health Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:30:01 EST news168792252 (PhysOrg.com) -- Hematopoietic stem cells are capable of manufacturing all types of blood cells. But which factors influence the production of a specific type of cell? Until now, it was thought that this was a random process. http://www.physorg.com/news168184185.html Biology Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:10:03 EST news168184185 A drug used to remove iron from the body could help doctors fight one of diabetes' cruelest complications: poor wound healing, which can lead to amputation of patients' toes, feet and even legs. http://www.physorg.com/news167934788.html Medicine & Health Mon, 27 Jul 2009 20:40:01 EST news167934788 A rare, deadly developmental disorder of the lungs called alveolar capillary dysplasia with misalignment of pulmonary veins (ACD/MPV) that usually kills the infants born with it within the first month of life results from deletions or mutations in the FOXF1 transcription factor gene, said a consortium of researchers led by Baylor College of Medicine in a report that appears in the American Journal of Human Genetics. http://www.physorg.com/news163341976.html Medicine & Health Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:46:48 EST news163341976 Scientists at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease have identified for the first time key genetic factors that drive the process of generating new heart cells. The discovery, reported in the current issue of the journal Nature, provides important new directions on how stem cells may be used to repair damaged hearts. http://www.physorg.com/news159973418.html Medicine & Health Sun, 26 Apr 2009 14:04:36 EST news159973418 In a paper publishing online April 23rd in Cell Stem Cell, a Cell Press journal, Dr. Sheng Ding and colleagues from the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, report an important step forward in the race to make reprogrammed stem cells that may be better suited for use in clinical settings. http://www.physorg.com/news159712519.html Biology Thu, 23 Apr 2009 13:37:54 EST news159712519 (PhysOrg.com) -- Living cells are bombarded with messages from the outside world -- hormones and other chemicals tell them to grow, migrate, die or do nothing. Inside the cell, complex signaling networks interpret these cues and make life-and-death decisions. http://www.physorg.com/news157982577.html Biology Fri, 03 Apr 2009 13:05:46 EST news157982577 A research team from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla has identified a protein in the brain of mice that protects neurons from excessive inflammation, which can lead to neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease. Their study, which identifies the protective function of a protein called Nurr1 and defines the pathway by which it works, will be published in the April 3 edition of the journal Cell. http://www.physorg.com/news157895578.html Medicine & Health Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:56:59 EST news157895578 Inflammation, the body's earliest response to damage or infection, can aid the healing process and trigger an immune response against invading pathogens. But inflammation gone awry can also undermine health, as in diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis or asthma. http://www.physorg.com/news155993656.html Biology Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:35:33 EST news155993656 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 Scientists have successfully created the first induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell lines from adult monkey skin cells. The research, published by Cell Press in the December issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell, demonstrates that the method of direct reprogramming is conserved among species and may be useful for creation of clinically valuable primate models for human diseases. http://www.physorg.com/news147532651.html Biology Wed, 03 Dec 2008 13:17:31 EST news147532651 In a paper published in Genome Research on Nov. 4, scientists at the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) report that what was previously believed to be "junk" DNA is one of the important ingredients distinguishing humans from other species. http://www.physorg.com/news145038245.html Medicine & Health Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:24:05 EST news145038245 (PhysOrg.com) -- Plants that grow more slowly stay fresh longer. In their study now published in PLoS Biology, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen have shown that certain small sections of genes, so-called microRNAs, coordinate growth and aging processes in plants. http://www.physorg.com/news141396394.html Biology Tue, 23 Sep 2008 13:46:34 EST news141396394 Demonstrating that despite the large number of cancer-causing genes already identified, many more remain to be found, scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have linked a previously unsuspected gene, CDK8, to colon cancer. http://www.physorg.com/news140614564.html Medicine & Health Sun, 14 Sep 2008 12:36:04 EST news140614564 (PhysOrg.com) -- In a feat of biological prestidigitation likely to turn the field of regenerative medicine on its head, Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) co-director Doug Melton and post doctoral fellow Qiao "Joe" Zhou report having achieved what has long been a dream and ultimate goal of developmental biologists - directly turning one type of fully formed adult cell into another type of adult cell. http://www.physorg.com/news139061767.html Biology Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:16:07 EST news139061767 Embryonic stem cells are always facing a choice -either to self-renew or begin morphing into another type of cell altogether. It's a tricky choice, governed by complex gene regulatory circuitry driven by a handful of key regulators known as "master transcription factors," proteins that switch gene expression on or off. http://www.physorg.com/news137337861.html Biology Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:24:21 EST news137337861