news 2014

Even during summer dry spells, some patches of soil in forested watersheds remain waterlogged. Researchers have discovered that these patches act as hot spots of microbial activity that remove nitrogen from groundwater and return it to the atmosphere, as reported in a Nov. 3 article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

New research has shown a protein that controls the growth of new blood vessels could potentially reduce the effects of cardiovascular disease in patients' legs, including risks of leg ulcers, gangrene, and amputation. The study led by academics in Boston and involving researchers at The University of Nottingham centred on the role that the signal protein vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) plays in peripheral arterial disease (PAD).

The University of Glasgow and AstraZeneca have officially launched the GLAZgo Discovery Centre which will focus on understanding more about immunological disease processes. Following an agreement to develop the Centre, signed just under a year ago, the launch highlighted what can be achieved when two parties share a common philosophy on how academic medicine and a pharmaceutical company should combine forces to drive forward the creation of future medicines.

UCLA researchers discover that a well-known cellular structure orchestrates how vault nanoparticles naturally form in cells Shaun Mason The assembly of a vault particle on a polyribosome. The first image shows the beginning of the process where four protein dimers are brought together on the polyribosome.

Targeting male parasite cells during sexual reproduction could help to prevent malaria transmission, according to a new study. Researchers from Imperial College London looked at cells in the malaria parasite called gametocytes, which are the reproductive cells responsible for transferring malaria from an infected human to the mosquito.

Geologists are letting the air out of a nagging mystery about the development of animal life on Earth. Scientists have long speculated as to why animal species didn't flourish sooner, once sufficient oxygen covered the Earth's surface. Animals began to prosper at the end of the Proterozoic period, about 800 million years ago - but what about the billion-year stretch before that, when most researchers think there also was plenty of oxygen? Well, it seems the air wasn't so great then, after all.

Fluorescent fruit flies have helped University of Queensland researchers take a critical step toward understanding the human brain's neuronal "wiring" and how it can go awry. Study leader Dr Sean Millard, from UQ's School of Biomedical Sciences , said neurobiologists had been baffled by how a small number of genes controlled billions of specific connections in the brain.

A group of ravens is sometimes called a conspiracy. Mythology and folklore have attributed many supernatural features to these large black birds. During the last decades, studies on the cognitive abilities of ravens have indeed revealed that they are exceptionally intelligent. Ravens live in complex social groups and they can gain power in these groups by building social bonds that function as alliances.

Reed Hutchinson/UCLA Xinshu (Grace) Xiao and David Wong in Dr. Wong's laboratory. UCLA research could lead to a simple saliva test capable of diagnosing — at an early stage — diabetes and cancer, and perhaps neurological disorders and autoimmune diseases. The study, the most comprehensive analysis ever conducted of RNA molecules in human saliva, reveals that saliva contains many of the same disease-revealing molecules that are contained in blood.

Scientists have created a molecular map that pinpoints genetic variants that play a role in 21 different autoimmune diseases, they report Oct. Researchers at Yale, the University of California-San Francisco (UCSF), and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard developed a sophisticated mathematical model and created maps of different cell types that together enabled them to identify which variants cause the immune response to go awry and cause specific diseases.

ANN ARBOR-Laboratory contaminants likely explain the results of a recent study claiming that complete genes can pass from foods we eat into our blood, according to a University of Michigan molecular biologist who re-examined data from the controversial research paper. Richard Lusk said his findings highlight an underappreciated problem-contamination of laboratory samples-with one of the most popular and powerful new tools of the discipline: high-throughput sequencing, in which the exact sequences of billions of pieces of DNA are determined simultaneously.

Many factors, both genetic and environmental, have been blamed for increasing the risk of a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Some, such as a family history of schizophrenia, are widely accepted. Others, such as infection with Toxoplasma gondii , a parasite transmitted by soil, undercooked meat and cat feces, are still viewed with skepticism.

Meiosis is not like another: Gabriela Cabral and Peter Schlögelhofer at the Max F. Perutz Laboratories (MFPL) of the University of Vienna and the Medical University of Vienna dived into the process of meiosis in specific plant species and revealed that these plants display an inversion of the standard meiotic phases.

A new study on a large cohort of kidney cancer patients in Europe sheds light on the genetic architecture of the disease - and reveals an apparent link between exposure to aristolochic acid and incidence of kidney cancer, particularly in Romania. The research, by an international team led by scientists from the McGill University and Genome Quebec Innovation Centre in Montreal, underscores the importance of investigating possible sources of exposure to aristolochic acid.

A new study on a large cohort of kidney cancer patients in Europe sheds light on the genetic architecture of the disease - and reveals an apparent link between exposure to aristolochic acid and incidence of kidney cancer, particularly in Romania. The research, by an international team led by scientists from the McGill University and Genome Quebec Innovation Centre in Montreal, underscores the importance of investigating possible sources of exposure to aristolochic acid.

This image is the first detailed picture of the crystal structure of a gene-regulation enzyme while it is working on a nucleosome - a fundamental component of the chromosomes that provide structure and organization for an organism's genes. Nucleosomes are key targets of the enzymes that conduct genetic processes critical for life.

Scientists working at Queen Mary University of London and University of Bath have found that zebrafish are able to visually process multiple objects simultaneously, more proof that fish are cleverer than their 'three-second memory' reputation suggests. Published today (Wednesday 29 October) in the journal PLoS One, this is the first study of zebrafish to identify 'parallel visual search' - the ability to pick out one object among many.

An international research team led by the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) and Lund University has provided new evidence that aortic valve disease may be preventable. Their findings show that so-called "bad" cholesterol or low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) is a cause of aortic valve disease - a serious heart condition that affects around five million people in North America and is the most common cause for valve replacement.

Girls at high risk for developing depression have greater stress responses and shorter telomeres – a marker for aging – than their low-risk peers. Stress takes a toll on both mind and body. Intuitively, that's not a big surprise. Many studies have found links among stress, depression and disease.

A large analysis of over 40,000 individuals on statin treatment has identified two new genetic variants which influence how 'bad' cholesterol levels respond to statin therapy. Statins are widely prescribed to patients and have been shown to lower bad cholesterol levels by up to 55%, making them a highly effective method of reducing risk of heart disease.