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Genetic circuit allows both individual freedom, collective good
Stem cell transplant restores memory, learning in mice
Researchers identify new potential target for cancer therapy
Grape intake may protect against metabolic syndrome-related organ damage
Coelacanth genome surfaces
Study Shows Reproductive Effects of Pesticide Exposure Span Generations
Lost your keys? Your cat? The brain can rapidly mobilize a search party
A few cigarettes a day increases risk of RA
Putting the brakes on Parkinson's

Genetic circuit allows both individual freedom, collective good

Posted: 22 Apr 2013 10:03 AM PDT

Individual freedom and social responsibility may sound like humanistic concepts, but an investigation of the genetic circuitry of bacteria suggests that even the simplest creatures can make difficult choices that strike a balance between selflessness and selfishness.

Stem cell transplant restores memory, learning in mice

Posted: 22 Apr 2013 09:43 AM PDT

For the first time, human embryonic stem cells have been transformed into nerve cells that helped mice regain the ability to learn and remember.

A study at UW-Madison is the first to show that human stem cells can successfully implant themselves in the brain and then heal neurological deficits, says senior author Su-Chun Zhang, a professor of neuroscience and neurology.

Researchers identify new potential target for cancer therapy

Posted: 22 Apr 2013 09:31 AM PDT

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found that alternative splicing – a process that allows a single gene to code for multiple proteins – appears to be a new potential target for anti-telomerase cancer therapy.

Grape intake may protect against metabolic syndrome-related organ damage

Posted: 22 Apr 2013 08:12 AM PDT

Consuming grapes may help protect against organ damage associated with the progression of metabolic syndrome, according to research presented Monday at the Experimental Biology conference in Boston. Natural components found in grapes, known as polyphenols, are thought to be responsible for these beneficial effects.

Coelacanth genome surfaces

Posted: 22 Apr 2013 08:05 AM PDT

An international team of researchers has decoded the genome of a creature whose evolutionary history is both enigmatic and illuminating: the African coelacanth. A sea-cave dwelling, five-foot long fish with limb-like fins, the coelacanth was once thought to be extinct. A living coelacanth was discovered off the African coast in 1938, and since then, questions about these ancient-looking fish – popularly known as “living fossils” – have loomed large. Coelacanths today closely resemble the fossilized skeletons of their more than 300-million-year-old ancestors.

Study Shows Reproductive Effects of Pesticide Exposure Span Generations

Posted: 22 Apr 2013 07:57 AM PDT

North Carolina State University researchers studying aquatic organisms called Daphnia have found that exposure to a chemical pesticide has impacts that span multiple generations – causing the so-called “water fleas” to produce more male offspring, and causing reproductive problems in female offspring.

Lost your keys? Your cat? The brain can rapidly mobilize a search party

Posted: 22 Apr 2013 07:49 AM PDT

A contact lens on the bathroom floor, an escaped hamster in the backyard, a car key in a bed of gravel: How are we able to focus so sharply to find that proverbial needle in a haystack? Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have discovered that when we embark on a targeted search, various visual and non-visual regions of the brain mobilize to track down a person, animal or thing.

Our brain is wired so we can focus sharply on searching – and finding – lost pets, among other things

A few cigarettes a day increases risk of RA

Posted: 22 Apr 2013 07:41 AM PDT

A new study, published in the open access journal Arthritis Research & Therapy, shows that smoking just a few cigarettes a day more than doubled the risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). To give up smoking decreases the risk, but compared to people who have never smoked this risk is still elevated 15 years after giving up.

Researchers from Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital analysed data from the Swedish Mammography Cohort, which included 34,000 women aged between 54 and 89. Among these women 219 had RA.

Putting the brakes on Parkinson's

Posted: 22 Apr 2013 07:35 AM PDT

The earliest signs of Parkinson's disease can be deceptively mild. The first thing that movie star Michael J. Fox noticed was twitching of the little finger of his left hand. For years, he made light of the apparently harmless tic. But such tremors typically spread, while muscles stiffen up and directed movements take longer to carry out. Research groups led by Armin Giese of LMU Munich and Christian Griesinger at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen have developed a chemical compound that slows down the onset and progression of Parkinson's disease in mice.