"There have been some studies that obtained brain scans of infants while they were napping or sedated, but what we’d really like to do is to scan their brains when they’re sitting on a parent’s lap, seeing new things, hearing new words and interacting with the environment," says Joseph Culver, ...
The findings suggest that transplant recipients who share the same pattern of genes but are still on conventional medication may be able to reduce or eliminate their lifelong dependence on immunosuppressive drugs. The study may also help physicians determine how best to induce acceptance, or tolerance, of donor organs in ...
The investigators, led by Zhou-Feng Chen, Ph.D., associate professor of anesthesiology, psychiatry and molecular biology and pharmacology, report their results online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They found that opiates like morphine don’t relieve pain as well in mice genetically engineered to lack neurons that produce ...
The cancer biology team from UQ’s Diamantina Institute for Cancer, Immunology and Metabolic Medicine, believe their finding will help explain the link between breast cancer and high levels of estrogen. "What we’ve shown is that the ability of estrogen to switch this gene on is important for the growth of ...
Healthy spinal cord tissue (left) shows a similar number of neurons (magnified in red) as MS-infected spinal cord tissue (right) in mice that have been treated with a specific form of estrogen. Less neurons are found in the spinal cords of mice whose disease ...
Graphic depicting the structure of the protein MitoNEET. (Credit: Mark Paddock, UCSD) The study, published September 4 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, described the structure of a protein—MitoNEET—that was previously identified as a site where diabetes drugs could ...
By reducing the level of the sugar, chondroitin sulfate, in the mosquito, the researchers prevented 95 percent of the parasites in the mosquito from attaching to the gut, thus blocking its development. The study is published in the online Early Edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). "This ...
A nanospray emitter developed by chemist Troy Wood, above, has identified a common molecular signature in familial and sporadic forms of Lou Gehrig’s disease. (Credit: Image courtesy of University at Buffalo) It is the first time that a common molecular signature has been found ...
The research was led by Stephen T. Warren, PhD, Timmie professor and chair of human genetics in Emory University School of Medicine, and Gary J. Bassell, PhD, Emory professor of cell biology. It will be reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of Sept. ...
Using ORNL’s Cray XT4 Jaguar supercomputer as well as computer systems in Italy and Germany, the team revealed a driving force behind protein folding involving the way its constituents interact with water. The team’s results are being published in this week’s edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of ...
Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the University of Washington and the University of California, Berkeley, report a striking shrinkage in the size of the brain regions that control singing behavior of Gambel’s white-crowned sparrows. This transformation is triggered by the withdrawal of testosterone, ...
Now the same team reports an intriguing follow-up finding. The p53 protein, they found, may work its lifespan-extending magic in only 14 insulin-producing cells in the fly brain. "It’s quite surprising," said Johannes Bauer, a postdoctoral research fellow at Brown. "In the fruit fly brain, there are tens of thousands of ...
This photograph depicts the colonial growth pattern displayed by Salmonella typhimurium bacteria cultured on an agar medium. (Credit: CDC) Now, a new study led by researchers from the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University has shown that the tiniest passengers flown in space -- ...
Supplements of two antioxidant compounds -- acetyl-l-carnitine and alpha lipoic acid -- have been found to significantly increase the ability of "geriatric" beagle dogs to learn a new task. (Credit: iStockphoto/Joshua Blake) lipoic acid, are continuing to be studied in work with humans, ...
Illinois researchers Gerard Wong and Erik Luijten (in photo) may have found a way to help cystic fibrosis patients fight deadly infections. (Credit: University of Illinois Photo) "While not a cure, this work has potential as a therapeutic strategy against bacterial infections in cystic fibrosis," ...
Fluorescent particles of acridine orange dye cause bright bursts of light when the vesicles holding them break open. Originally thought to be the hallmark of a process called exocytosis, new research shows that these flashes are largely due to light from the microscope causing ...
In a paper published in the latest edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Hannah and Stephen Alexander, professors of biological sciences in MU’s College of Arts and Science, in collaboration with Gad Shaulsky and Adam Kuspa, professors at the Baylor School of Medicine, demonstrate that a ...
The CSHL research found that the three genes termed TTF1, NKX2-8, and PAX9 interact to reactivate what appears to be an early fetal gene expression pattern that results in cancer tumor growth. "The collaboration of these genes and the fact that they are so close together on the chromosome may ...
Structure of D-peptide inhibitors (green, yellow, and purple) bound to an HIV protein mimic in three "pockets" that are essential to the virus’ ability to enter cells. Blocking the pockets thwarts entry and reduces infectivity. (Credit: Image courtesy of DOE/Brookhaven National Laboratory) In a ...
Researchers pulled cell nuclei into microscopic glass tubes under controlled pressures and visualized the shear of the DNA and associated proteins by fluorescence microscopy. The study showed that nuclei in human embryonic stem cells were the most deformable, followed by hematopoietic stem cells, HSCs, that generate a ...
In a new online report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Drs. Qinghua Wang, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at BCM, and Jianpeng Ma, associate professor in the same department and their colleagues describe the actual structure of influenza B virus hemagglutinin and compare it ...
Susan Kidwell explains how studies of molluscs -- clams and snail -- can be used for ecological assessments in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (Credit: Photo courtesy of Susan Kidwell) "We affect ecosystems in many different ways, but the effects of ...
A team led by Dr. Robert Kerbel - a senior scientist in Molecular and Cellular Biology at Sunnybrook and Canada Research Chair - has just published a paper in the October issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences which may help to answer these questions. "In the ...
Cilia (bright red line) present in sensory nerve cells play an important role in our ability to sense touch and heat. (Credit: Johns Hopkins Medicine) Humans and genetically engineered mice lacking functional cilia respond more slowly to physical sensations such as exposure to hot ...
The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It is the first to compare brain metabolism among cognitively normal people who have a father, a mother, or no relatives with Alzheimer’s disease, and to show that only individuals with an affected mother have reduced ...
Amyloid Protein Loop. Broken red lines indicate a loop in the amyloid B-protein that enables it to attach to other proteins and form clumps that kill brain cells. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of California) The UCLA team discovered that gene mutations in A ...
Results of the study highlight continued efforts by Buck faculty member David Greenberg, MD, PhD and lead author Adil Khan, PhD, and colleagues to identify the body’s natural protective mechanisms with the ultimate goal of finding drugs that boost healing efforts in humans. Neuroglobin, closely related to hemoglobin (the oxygen-carrying protein ...
"DNA vaccine technology has great promise for the development of vaccines and immune therapeutics for a variety of infectious diseases and cancers," says senior author David B. Weiner, PhD, Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Penn. While previous studies have established that the technology can induce immune responses safely, ...
Frank Schroeder inserts a natural product sample into a nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. NMR spectroscopy has evolved into the most important tool for identifying new biologically active compounds. (Credit: Jason Koski / Cornell University Photography) Researchers at ...
The research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that gene expression data from blood cells can provide valuable information about acetaminophen levels well before liver damage can be detected by other methods, including serum markers and liver biopsies. "In time, this approach could give physicians ...