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The mice were eating their usual chow and exercising normally, but they were getting fat anyway. The reason: researchers had deleted a gene that acts in the brain and controls how quickly calories are burned. Even though they were consuming exactly the same number of calories as lean mice, they were gaining weight.
So far, only one person — a severely obese child — has been found to have a disabling mutation in the same gene. But the discovery of the same effect in mice and in the child — a finding published Wednesday in the journal Science — may help explain why some people put on weight easily while others eat all they want and seem never to gain an ounce. It may also offer clues to a puzzle in the field of obesity: Why do studies find that people gain different amounts of weight while overeating by the same
July 16, 2013 — Researchers at the University of Basel have successfully developed artificial organelles that are able to support the reduction of toxic oxygen compounds. This opens up new ways in the development of novel drugs that can influence pathological states directly inside the cell.
The Japanese government finally gave its approval for the world’s first clinical trials using stem cells that will be harvested from the patient’s body. Health Minister Norihisa Tamura gave permission for two research institutes to start their tests to treat age-related macular degeneration (AMD) by using “induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) cells”.
"What we've shown is that CD47 isn't just important on leukemias and lymphomas," says Weissman. "It's on every single human primary tumor that we tested." Moreover, Weissman's lab found that cancer cells always had higher levels of CD47 than did healthy cells. How much CD47 a tumor made could predict the survival odds of a patient.
One third of people diagnosed with throat cancer are infected with a form of the HPV virus, a study suggests.
HPV (human papillomavirus) is the major cause of cervical cancer, and the virus is known to spread through genital or oral contact.
Actor Michael Douglas is reported to have spoken about the link after his own diagnosis with throat cancer.
The prospect of reversing blindness has made a significant leap, according to scientists in the UK.
An animal study in the journal Nature Biotechnology showed the part of the eye which actually detects light can be repaired using stem cells.
The team at Moorfields Eye Hospital and University College London say human trials are now, for the first time, a realistic prospect.
Experts described it as a "significant breakthrough" and "huge leap" forward.
Photoreceptors are the cells in the retina which react to light and convert it into an electrical signal which can be sent to the brain.
However, these cells can die off in some causes of blindness such as Stargardt's disease and age-related macular degeneration.
There are already trials in people to use stem cells to replace the "support" cells in the eye which keep the photoreceptors alive.
FANCY a liver that works a little harder? Synthetic DNA circuits inserted into human stem cells could soon allow us to build new organs with unprecedented precision and speed. The circuits can be designed on a computer and assembled from ready-made parts ordered online. The technique could prove an efficient way of making organs for transplant without the worry of rejection, and raises the tantalising possibility that it might one day be possible to upgrade the organs we were born with. Human cells have already been used to create a tiny liver and a set of neurons.
"At the moment, the aim is to normalise cells, but in future, enhancement has to be on the menu," says Chris Mason, a professor of regenerative medicine at University College London, who wasn't involved in the work.
Researchers have designed tiny, light-controlled gold particles that can release DNA controls to switch blood clotting off and on. The results are reported July 24 in the open access journal PLoS ONE by Kimberly Hamad-Schifferli and colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The two-way switch for blood clotting relies on the ability of two gold nanoparticles to selectively release different DNA molecules from their surface under different wavelengths of laser excitation. When stimulated by one wavelength, one nanorod releases a piece of DNA that binds the blood protein thrombin and blocks clot formation. When the complementary DNA piece is released from the other nanorod, it acts as an antidote and releases thrombin, restoring clotting activity.
A flexible electrical circuit one-fifth the thickness of food wrap and weighing less than a feather could give doctors the chance to implant sensors inside the body, its Japanese developers say.
The team at the University of Tokyo said the device on an ultra-thin film is unique since it works even after it has been crumpled into a ball or stretched.
Researchers unveiling the circuit said it could be used to monitor all sorts of physical data, such as body temperature and blood pressure as well as electronic pulses from muscles or the heart.
For people who can only move their tongue, the sheet might be placed on the roof of the mouth and serve as a touch pad to operate a communications device, team members said.
A family history of cancer increases the risk of other members of the family developing not only the same cancer (known as a concordant cancer) but also a different (discordant) cancer, according to a large study of 23,000 people in Italy and Switzerland.
Biologists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have made a significant discovery that could lead to a new therapeutic strategy for Parkinson's disease.
The findings, recently published online ahead of print in the journal Molecular and Cell Biology, focus on an enzyme known as parkin, whose absence causes an early-onset form of Parkinson's disease. Precisely how the loss of this enzyme leads to the deaths of neurons has been unclear. But the TSRI researchers showed that parkin's loss sharply reduces the level of another protein that normally helps protect neurons from stress.
While there's no shortage of breathalyzers capable of detecting if youve had one too many drinks, a prototype device developed by researchers at NTT DOCOMO Research Laboratories analyzes your breath to detect if your body is burning fat. Besides letting users know if that exercise regime is actually shedding some pounds, its creators say the portable sensor could be helpful for diabetics and those trying to lose weight manage their daily diet.
.Duke researchers have devised a way to quickly and easily target and tinker with any gene in the human genome. The new tool, which builds on an RNA-guided enzyme they borrowed from bacteria, is being made freely available to researchers who may now apply it to the next round of genome discovery
The new method also has obvious utility for gene therapy and for efforts to reprogram stem or adult cells into other cell types – for example, to make new neurons from skin cells.
"We have the genome sequence and we know what all the parts are, but we are still in need of methods to manipulate it easily and precisely," says assistant professor Charles Gersbach, of Duke's Pratt School of Engineering and the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy. "That's where this engineering tool comes in."
False memories have been implanted into mice, scientists say.
A team was able to make the mice wrongly associate a benign environment with a previous unpleasant experience from different surroundings.
The researchers conditioned a network of neurons to respond to light, making the mice recall the unpleasant environment.
Reporting in Science, they say it could one day shed light into how false memories occur in humans.
If you find yourself sniffing, sneezing and rubbing itchy red eyes whenever there’s a cat roaming nearby, here’s news that might make you purr.
Scientists claim they may finally have come up with a cure for the UK’s most common pet allergy, thanks to a breakthrough discovery.
Researchers have worked out how felines can trigger allergic reactions in one in ten of us, ranging from irritating rashes to dangerous asthma attacks.
Author Dr Clare Bryant, from Cambridge University's department of veterinary medicine, says: 'This is the first time we have discovered the process that leads to the allergic reaction. It opens up a whole new type of drug to treat it'
A woman's cancer risk appears to increase with her height, a new study shows.
An analysis of 20,928 postmenopausal women showed that the taller a woman is, the greater her risk for a number of cancers, including breast, colon and skin cancer, among others. Scientists say the association between height and cancer may help guide researchers to study hormones and growth factors that influence height and may also play a role in cancer.
The list of things I dont want robots to be in charge of is pretty simple. It begins with them controlling the world and using humans as batteries while we live in some augmented reality fishbowl that might have a name like, I dont know, The Matrix. It ends with them drawing my freaking blood.
Reasonable fears, right?
Well, Veebot, a California start-up, is combining robotics with image-analysis software to find a good, ripe vein in your arm and plunge on in.
Remember those blood pressure machines at local drug stores? As a kid, I used to love sticking my arm in and feeling the cuff inflate and tighten against my skin. Well, this machine does just that, but its only the first step, not the purpose. After it restricts your blood flow, an infrared light shines on your skin and a camera searches for a vein. Then it checks out said vein via ultrasound to make sure its the real deal.
Next, out pops the needle and in your arm it goes.
This whole process takes about a minute.
At the moment, it gets the right vein right about 83 percent of the time, the same as humans. Veebot wants this number at 90 before moving to clinical trials, though.
At least robots havent taken over the world yet. Right?
Researchers believe they are closer to developing a blood test that could diagnose Alzheimer's.
There is no definitive test for the brain-wasting disease. Doctors rely on cognition tests and brain scans.
A technique published in the journal Genome Biology showed differences in the tiny fragments of genetic material floating in the blood could be used to identify patients.
Testicular cancer in ultra sounds scan Growing awareness of the cancer is believed to be partly behind the rise
The overwhelming majority of men with testicular cancer are now surviving for at least 10 years, figures released by the charity Cancer Research UK show.
They show survival rates in the UK soared to 96% in 2009, much higher than in the early 70s when 68% survived.
The organisation said attention needed to be focused now on the remaining 4
