29-04-2013

After years of scientific uncertainty and speculation, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill show exactly how trees help create one of society's predominant environmental and health concerns: air pollution. It has long been known that trees produce and emit isoprene, ...

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19-04-2013

For leading a study that was the first to define appropriate bone density screening intervals for older women, Margaret Gourlay, MD, MPH, of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine has been honored with a Top 10 Clinical Research Achievement Award from the Clinical Research ...

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08-04-2013

For the first time, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have isolated adult stem cells from human intestinal tissue. The accomplishment provides a much-needed resource for scientists eager to uncover the true mechanisms of human stem cell biology. It also enables ...

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26-03-2013

Every time a cell divides it makes a carbon copy of crucial ingredients, including the histone proteins that are responsible for spooling yards of DNA into tight little coils. When these spool-like proteins aren't made correctly, it can result in the genomic instability characteristic of most ...

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22-03-2013

Parents may plead, cajole or entice their children to try new foods, but some kids just won't budge. Now, new research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill reveals that the reason these kids fear new foods has less to do with what's on their plate and more to do with their ...

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04-07-2012

New research led by a medical geneticist at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine points to an increased risk of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) among individuals whose parents or siblings have been diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.The findings were based on a ...

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27-06-2012

Over 15 years ago, researchers linked a defect in a gene called survival motor neuron (SMN) with the fatal disease spinal muscular atrophy. Because SMN had a role in assembling the intracellular machinery that processes genetic material, it was assumed that faulty processing was to blame.Now, ...

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15-05-2012

The foundation of biological inheritance is DNA replication – a tightly coordinated process in which DNA is simultaneously copied at hundreds of thousands of different sites across the genome. If that copying mechanism doesn't work as it should, the result could be cells with missing or extra ...

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23-03-2012

At the molecular level, drugs like salvinorin A (the active ingredient of the hallucinogenic plant Salvia divinorum) work by activating specific proteins, known as receptors, in the brain and body.Salvinorin A, the most potent naturally occurring hallucinogen, is unusual in that it interacts ...

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Mechanism explains how virus survives in the liver and how a new antiviral works

04-01-2012

Viral diseases are still one of the biggest challenges to medical science. Thanks to thousands of years of co-evolution with humans, their ability to harness the biology of their human hosts to survive and thrive makes them very difficult to target with medical treatment.Scientists at the ...

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