science newsletter: Science News SciGuru.com

Παρασκευή 5 Ιουλίου 2013

Science News SciGuru.com

Measuring the extent to which drugs reach their targets in the cell
Possible goal for new Tuberculosis-vaccine identified
DNA markers in low-IQ autism suggest heredity
Researchers find new clue to cause of human narcolepsy
Cosmic radio bursts point to cataclysmic origins in the distant universe

Measuring the extent to which drugs reach their targets in the cell

Posted: 05 Jul 2013 05:21 AM PDT

Efficient and proper drug targeting is key to desinging drug molecules. There were no methods available for direct measurement of how much drug is reaching the target in the cell. Now researchers at Karolinska Institutet have developed the first method for directly measuring the extent to which drugs reach their targets in the cell. The method, which is described in the scientific journal Science, could make a significant contribution to the development of new, improved drug substances.

Possible goal for new Tuberculosis-vaccine identified

Posted: 05 Jul 2013 05:08 AM PDT

A new study published in the research journal PLOS Pathogens, shows for the first time the essential role of the molecule SOCS3 in the control of Tuberculosis. This could have impact on the future development of a vaccine.

DNA markers in low-IQ autism suggest heredity

Posted: 04 Jul 2013 02:27 PM PDT

Researchers who compared the DNA of patients with autism and intellectual disability to that of their unaffected siblings found that the affected siblings had significantly more “runs of homozygosity,” or blocks of DNA that are the same from both parents. The finding suggests a role for recessive inheritance in this autism subgroup and highlights homozygosity as a new approach to understanding genetic mechanisms in autism.

Researchers find new clue to cause of human narcolepsy

Posted: 04 Jul 2013 02:19 PM PDT

In 2000, researchers at the UCLA Center for Sleep Research published findings showing that people suffering from narcolepsy, a disorder characterized by uncontrollable periods of deep sleep, had 90 percent fewer neurons containing the neuropeptide hypocretin in their brains than healthy people. The study was the first to show a possible biological cause of the disorder.

Cosmic radio bursts point to cataclysmic origins in the distant universe

Posted: 04 Jul 2013 02:04 PM PDT

An international team of researchers including scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn have detected burst of radio waves that appear to have originated billions of light years away - when the Universe was just 6 to 9 billion years old. The researchers are still baffled about the origins of these emissions. In the future, they intend to use these flashes to probe the intergalactic space.