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• New under the sun: recurrent genetic mutations in melanoma
• Five-limbed brittle stars move bilaterally, like people
• Rutgers Team Discovers Novel Approach to Stimulate Immune Cells
• In metallic glasses, researchers find a few new atomic structures
• Mild Traumatic Brain Injury May Alter the Brain’s Neuronal Circuit Excitability and Contribute to Brain Network Dysfunction
• Gene therapy for hearing loss: potential and limitations

New under the sun: recurrent genetic mutations in melanoma Posted: 11 May 2012 12:16 PM PDT Melanoma – the deadliest and most aggressive form of skin cancer – has long been linked to time spent in the sun. Now a team led by scientists from the Broad Institute and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has sequenced the whole genomes of 25 metastatic melanoma tumors, confirming the role of chronic sun exposure and revealing new genetic changes important in tumor formation. read more

Five-limbed brittle stars move bilaterally, like people Posted: 11 May 2012 11:46 AM PDT Brittle stars and people have something in common: They move in fundamentally similar ways. Though not bilaterally symmetrical like humans and many other animals, brittle stars have come up with a mechanism to choose any of its five limbs to direct its movement on the seabed. It’s as if each arm can be the creature's front, capable of locomotion and charting direction. Results appear in the Journal of Experimental Biology. It appears that the brittle star, the humble, five-limbed dragnet of the seabed, moves very similarly to us. read more

Rutgers Team Discovers Novel Approach to Stimulate Immune Cells Posted: 11 May 2012 11:38 AM PDT Researchers at Rutgers University have uncovered a new way to stimulate activity of immune cell opiate receptors, leading to efficient tumor cell clearance. Dipak Sarkar, professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences and his research team have been able to take a new pharmacological approach to activate the immune cells to prevent cancer growth through stimulation of the opiate receptors found on immune cells. read more

In metallic glasses, researchers find a few new atomic structures Posted: 11 May 2012 09:59 AM PDT Drawing on powerful computational tools and a state-of-the-art scanning transmission electron microscope, a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison and Iowa State University materials science and engineering researchers has discovered a new nanometer-scale atomic structure in solid metallic materials known as metallic glasses. read more

Mild Traumatic Brain Injury May Alter the Brain’s Neuronal Circuit Excitability and Contribute to Brain Network Dysfunction Posted: 11 May 2012 09:33 AM PDT Even mild head injuries can cause significant abnormalities in brain function that last for several days, which may explain the neurological symptoms experienced by some individuals who have experienced a head injury associated with sports, accidents or combat, according to a study by Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine researchers. read more

Gene therapy for hearing loss: potential and limitations Posted: 11 May 2012 09:22 AM PDT Regenerating sensory hair cells, which produce electrical signals in response to vibrations within the inner ear, could form the basis for treating age- or trauma-related hearing loss. One way to do this could be with gene therapy that drives new sensory hair cells to grow. Researchers at Emory University School of Medicine have shown that introducing a gene called Atoh1 into the cochleae of young mice can induce the formation of extra sensory hair cells. read more

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