science wire

May 12, 2010 — Miami — Harnessing the immune system is emerging as one of the most promising new ways to fight cancer. Most cancer cells are eliminated by the immune system; however, over a lifetime, a few may escape this immune surveillance and lead to tumors and metastases. Hence a formidable opportunity has been to find ways to make the immune system recognize the tumor as a foreign body and trigger a response.

Wädenswil, 11. Researchers at Agroscope Changins-Wädenswil ACW have published the first complete genome sequence of the fire blight pathogen, Erwinia amylovora.

Four years ago, Artis Henderson was an Army wife living with her mother in Florida while waiting for her new husband to complete a tour in Iraq.

Where do you go to find a neuroscientist at UCL? The answer might not be as straightforward as you think.

His friend and colleague Professor Raymond Macallister (UCL Division of Medicine) pays tribute to his varied and groundbreaking work in the fields of cardiovascular medicine, alcohol studies and his close involvement with the local community.

Not even professional athletes would consider running a marathon without any training, but this is essentially what Christmas Island red crabs do every year, according to new research from the University of Bristol. Native to Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, the red land crabs ( Gecarcoidea natalis ) spend the dry season relatively inactive in their rainforest burrows.

Four Oxford University researchers have been elected as Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences. The new Fellows are Professor Lars Fugger, Professor Antony Galione, Professor Ian Hickson and Professor Patrik Rorsman.

Following a number of meetings last week, UCL and the UCU (in consultation with UCL's two other campus trade unions) have reviewed progress in achievement of this year's 6% budget improvement.

BERKELEY — The California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) at the University of California, Berkeley, will open a new biotech incubator on Thursday, May 6, hoping to duplicate the success of the "QB3 Garage@UCSF," which has helped birth more than 28 biotech startups since 2006.

With $14.9 million of federal funding, the four-university research team will seek to develop new technology and lay the basic research foundation for improved therapies for brain trauma.

Scientists at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI, part of the Novartis Research Foundation) have dissected one of the molecular mechanisms underlying Friedreich's ataxia. In doing so, they have shed new light on the pathogenic mechanism of the disease. These findings could lead to the development of new therapeutic approaches for what is, as yet, an incurable condition.

Three UCLA scientists have been awarded state stem cell grants totaling $3.97 million to fund investigations into the basic mechanisms underlying stem cell biology, cellular differentiation an

Video (11 sec. Using a cryoelectron microscope, researchers focus at different depths to see how ARMAN and Thermoplasma are connected BERKELEY — In the depths of a former copper mine in Northern California dwell what may be the smallest, most stripped-down forms of life ever discovered. The microbes — members of the domain of one-celled creatures called Archaea — are smaller than other known microorganisms, rivaled in size only by a microbe that can survive solely as a parasite attached to the outside of other cells.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. Our DNA is under constant siege from a variety of damaging agents. Damage to DNA and the ability of cells to repair that damage has broad health implications, from aging and heritable diseases to cancer.

The UCLA School of Public Health today announced a $10 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to fund a Center for Population Health and Health Disparities in partnership with the Unive

Pastoral perfection was tempered by evidence of climate change as Stanford faculty and staffers explained how global warming is affecting areas of campus and what researchers are doing about it.

We live in a world where enhancement of abilities, appearance, and health is commonplace.

}̟ÇZ˜qbfoeÝ€/Äž«©2º4Z†žxoeÁf*Ô²uȍX-Uì•=;oe|̞q­¹ë'0¡Ñì4ÔFšÄŠfìRž~š5_A7áIÎÎEÀ‘ôܧêVÄa1ä1{.’XiWŠÐ…»s¡]¿”—ÿ,–®ŽÔ,·‚š¹
1‹€k’˜pšÆ†¿üôWMœC¢3èÂuë$ 'ð€Ê ñ­`6ŸWßF8òãróÑ$c=遆Öä„êôèøà‚BÆ.

Five Stanford professors have been elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, a private organization of scientists and engineers dedicated to the furtherance of science and its use for the general welfare.

The African clawed frog, Xenopus , has told scientists a lot about how embryos develop and the biochemical reactions that take place during cell division. UC Berkeley's Richard Harland and bioinformaticist Uffe Hellsten of DOE's Joint Genome Institute discuss the role Xenopus has played and what can be learned from its newly sequenced genome.

'We hear a lot about the severe impairments that autism brings but we mustn't forget that there are also some extremely interesting qualities in the mind of the autistic person that bring great strength and indeed talent.

Scientists at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI, part of the Novartis Research Foundation), are unraveling how odors are processed by the brain. As they report, odors in the olfactory brain are classified into groups represented by discrete activity states of neuronal circuits.

A study published today led by researchers from the University of Birmingham offers a long-awaited explanation for the link between HIV infection and susceptibility to life-threatening nontyphoidal strains of Salmonella.

Two sugar maple trees uprooted from campus to make way for construction have found a second life - as the raw material for a set of benches in the new People's Garden on the National Mall in Washingt

PHILADELPHIA –- Veterinary ophthalmology researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have used gene therapy to restore retinal cone function and day vision in two canine models of congenital achromatopsia, also called rod monochromacy or total color blindness. Achromatopsia is a rare autosomal recessive disorder with an estimated prevalence in human beings of about 1 in 30,000 to 50,000.

A researcher from UCL is part of a US-led team investigating how the brain and its microcircuitry react to physiological changes and what could be done to encourage its recovery from injury.

When John Phillips raised concerns about the effects of DDT and other chemicals on fish, ocean plants and pelicans, the idea that pollutants from the land and air could harm marine life was unexpected and astonishing.

Researchers heat algae in a device that acts like a pressure cooker to turn the algae into a crude biooil.

Three years ago, geneticists reported the startling discovery that nearly half of all people in the U.S. with European ancestry carry a variant of the fat mass and obesity associated (FTO) gene, which causes them to gain weight — from three to seven pounds, on average — but worse, puts them at risk for obesity.

While he's not opposed to drugs that fight baldness, the billionaire said more brainpower should be directed toward global health crises and broken schools than the cosmetic worries of developed nations.

Postgraduate and postdoctoral students at Cambridge are being offered the chance to participate in the Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning's Enterprisers programme from June 1-4 for free, courtesy of generous support from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

A UK research group dedicated to work on a rare genetic condition that turns muscle to bone will be established thanks to a donation that takes the University of Oxford's fundraising campaign, Oxford Thinking , past the £800m mark .