news 2014

Using new gene sequencing techniques the Liverpool team have produced data on the mitochondrial genome Scientists from the University of Liverpool have sequenced the mitochondrial genome in glaucoma patients to help further understanding into the genetic basis for the disease. Glaucoma is a major cause of irreversible blindness, affecting more than 60 million people worldwide, increasing to an estimated 79.6 million people by 2020.

Protein linked to neurological disorders is also associated with head and neck cancer in people who are infected with human papilloma virus Reggie Kumar UCLA scientists have discovered that a protein usually linked to rare neurological disorders is also associated with head and neck cancer in people who are infected with the human papilloma virus.

Ancient DNA shows earliest European genomes weathered the ice age, and shines new light on Neanderthal interbreeding and a mystery human lineage A genome taken from a 36,000 year old skeleton reveals an early divergence of Eurasians once they had left Africa, and allows scientists to better assess the point at which 'admixture' - or interbreeding - between Eurasians and Neanderthals occurred.

A person's genes can shape the types of microbes that reside in the human gut independent of the person's environment, according to a Cornell-led study published Nov. 6 in the journal Cell. The researchers examined more than 1,000 fecal samples from 416 sets of twins and identified many types of microbes, the amounts of which were influenced by a person's genetics, with microbes in the family Christensenellaceae being the most heritable.

ANN ARBOR-Researchers at the University of Michigan have shown how a single neuron can perform multiple functions in a model organism, illuminating for the first time this fundamental biological mechanism and shedding light on the human brain. Investigators in the lab of Shawn Xu at the Life Sciences Institute found that a neuron in C. elegans, a tiny worm with a simple nervous system used as a model for studying sensation, movement and other neurological function, regulates both the speed and direction in which the worm moves.

Succinate, a molecule made when the body breaks down sugars and fats, can cause long-term damage to organs following a heart attack, stroke or transplant according to new research involving UCL scientists. The team behind the study hopes that new therapies will be developed to protect organs from damage following the discovery.

Our genetic makeup influences whether we are fat or thin by shaping which types of microbes thrive in our body, according to a study by researchers at King's College London and Cornell University. By studying pairs of twins at King's Department of Twin Research, researchers identified a specific, little known bacterial family that is highly heritable and more common in individuals with low body weight.

A Queensland-based researcher is on the verge of a significant new approach to treatment for people with Type 2 diabetes. Professor Mike McGuckin, from The University of Queensland's Mater Research Institute-UQ (MRI-UQ), said his team had discovered that a protein produced by immune cells relieves stress in pancreatic beta cells.

Credit: Peerayot/Shutterstock. This image comes from <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-211256599/stock-photo-filling-vaccine-to-syringe.html">Shutterstock.</a> A new hepatitis C vaccine has shown promising results in an early clinical trial at Oxford University, generating strong and broad immune responses against the virus causing the disease.

The University of Toronto, Chematria and IBM are combining forces in a quest to find new treatments for the Ebola virus. Using a virtual research technology invented by Chematria, a startup housed at U of T's Impact Centre , the team will use software that learns and thinks like a human chemist to search for new medicines.

Our structure (research) Impact of our research Postgraduate research 05 Nov 2014 Work by University of Manchester scientists has explored what allows some cases of Ductal Carcinoma in Situ (DCIS), a non-invasive form of breast cancer, to resist treatment and come back, as well as identifying a potential new target to improve the effectiveness of radiotherapy.

UM researchers have discovered a network of tissue communication that occurs during early development. By Maria Guma-Diaz UM News CORAL GABLES, Fla. (November 04, 2014) — Think about the way our bodies are assembled during early development and ask: How do neighboring cells know that they are supposed to become a nerve or a bone cell and how do these tissues find the correct place and alignment? Researchers at the University of Miami are answering these crucial questions.

The research team has now shown that lipsomes can abe used therapeutically, either alone or in conjunction with antibiotics to combat bacterial infections Researchers at the University of Liverpool have demonstrated a new treatment against antibiotic resistant bacterial infections. Published in  Nature Biotechnology , the study showed that specially engineered lipid (fat) bodies, called liposomes, can be used to prevent bacterial toxins from killing human cells.

UCLA study finds disease harms more than just the lungs, may be more dangerous than previously thought Kim Irwin Asthma may be more harmful than was previously thought, according to UCLA researchers who found that genetic damage is present in circulating, or peripheral, blood. Doctors previously thought that the genetic damage it caused was limited to the lungs.

A new study published in Neuropharmacology and conducted by academics at Lancaster University, could bring substantial improvements in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease by using drugs currently on the market to treat type 2 diabetes. Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia; it is predicted there will be more than 520,000 people in the UK with the disease in 2015.

AUSTIN, Texas - The microbes living in people's guts are much less diverse than those in humans' closest relatives, the African apes, an apparently long evolutionary trend that appears to be speeding up in more modern societies, with possible implications for human health, according to a new study.

The songs of the hermit thrush, a common North American songbird, follow principles found in much human music - namely the harmonic series. Researchers from the University of Vienna, Austria, the Cornish College of the Arts, USA, and the Philipps University of Marburg, Germany, are the first to demonstrate note selection from the harmonic series in a non-human animal using rigorous analytical methods.

Drug tests on 517 mothers in English inner city hospitals found that nearly 15% had taken recreational drugs during pregnancy and that mothers of babies with birth defects of the brain were significantly more likely to have taken drugs than mothers with normal babies. The study found no significant links between recreational drug use and any other type of birth defect.

UCLA researchers have developed a standard to assess how closely stem cell culture conditions in the lab resemble a developing embryo Peter Bracke In a study that could provide the foundation for scientists to more precisely replicate natural stem cell development in an artificial environment, researchers at the UCLA Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research have established a standard to assess how conditions used to procure stem cells in the lab compare to those found in a human embryo.

Scientists at Imperial are planning to investigate whether appetite-regulating hormones produced by the gut could reduce the urge to smoke and drink. Groups of ex-smokers, recovering alcoholics and healthy volunteers will undergo tests inside an MRI scanner to see if gut hormones reduce how their brains respond to pictures of cigarettes, alcoholic drinks and food, and alter other addictive behaviours that predispose to relapse, such as their response to stress.