NewScITech

Oxford scientists have for the first time revealed a link between a gene and the activity of human stem cells, giving hope that stem cell transplant success for blood cancer patients may be significantly improved. Read the rest of this entry »

Scientists have confirmed the existence of protein in soft tissue recovered from the fossil bones of a 68 million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex (T. rex) and a half-million-year-old mastodon. Read the rest of this entry »

Pregnant women who gain excessive or even appropriate weight, according to current guidelines, are four times more likely than women who gain inadequate weight to have a baby who becomes overweight in early childhood. These findings are from a new study at the Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention of Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, and are published in the April issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Read the rest of this entry »

Combing the genomes of the rat and the human, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have found swaths of genetic code that can be used to assess the risk of human breast cancer. Read the rest of this entry »

Although mice, like most mammals, typically view the world with a limited color palette—similar to what some people with red-green color blindness see—scientists have now transformed their vision by introducing a single human gene into a mouse chromosome. The human gene codes for a light sensor that mice do not normally possess, and its insertion allowed the mice to distinguish colors as never before. Read the rest of this entry »

MIT researchers have created an inexpensive method to screen for millions of different biomolecules (DNA, proteins, etc.) in a single sample–a technology that could make possible the development of low-cost clinical bedside diagnostics. Read the rest of this entry »

They might be giants, but many dinosaurs apparently had genomes no larger than those of a modern hummingbird. Read the rest of this entry »

Leafy greens and beans aren’t the only foods that pack a punch of folate, the vitamin essential for a healthy start to pregnancy. Read the rest of this entry »

Bacteria have two major enemies: antibiotic drugs and bacteriophage viruses, which infect and kill them. The two disparate threats may have something in common. New research from Rockefeller University has found that certain bacteria have gained a gene that protects them from both toxic drugs and infectious viruses at the same time. Because it helps the bacteria fight viral infection, the gene is beneficial even to those bacteria that have never been exposed to antibiotics, and as a result may be contributing to a faster-than-expected spread of antibiotic resistance. Read the rest of this entry »

Healthy and viable mice that survive until adulthood have, for the first time, been cloned from adult stem cells. Scientists from Rockefeller University, including Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Elaine Fuchs, used cells called keratinocyte stem cells, which represent a new model system for cloning. Keratinocytes come from the skin, making them a particularly attractive stem cell source because of their ready accessibility. One day, they could be used to tailor therapies, as well as to better understand and treat diseases. Read the rest of this entry »

A new study led by researchers at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) has identified four genes that increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. This form of diabetes is the most common worldwide and affects nearly 2 million Canadians. In recent years, the prevalence of Type 2 diabetes has increased rapidly. This genetic discovery may help stem this rise. Read the rest of this entry »

Researchers in the Unit have found that stroke is more likely to be inherited by women than men. The finding emerged from the most detailed ever large population-based study of the genetic epidemiology of stroke, as part of the Oxford Vascular Study, which is following nearly 100,000 people in Oxfordshire. Read the rest of this entry »

Researchers have constructed a protein out of amino acids not found in natural proteins, discovering that they can form a complex, stable structure that closely resembles a natural protein. Their findings could help scientists design drugs that look and act like real proteins but won’t be degraded by enzymes or targeted by the immune system, as natural proteins are. Read the rest of this entry »

Scientists have muscled in on a genetic switch that allows mice to run longer and faster. Humans possess the same switch, so the discovery might open new paths to treating muscle-wasting diseases and building better bodies. Read the rest of this entry »

The plant with the world’s largest flower - typically a full meter across, with a bud the size of a basketball - evolved from a family of plants whose blossoms are nearly all tiny, botanists write this week in the journal Science. Their genetic analysis of rafflesia reveals that it is closely related to a family that includes poinsettias, castor oil plants, the tropical root crop cassava, and the trees that produce natural rubber. Read the rest of this entry »