Genes linked with malaria's virulence shared by apes, humans

14-Oct-2015 - The malaria parasite molecules associated with severe disease and death - those that allow the parasite to escape recognition by the immune system - have been shown to share key gene segments with chimp and gorilla malaria parasites, which are separated by several millions of years, according to ...

New study provides key insights into aspirin's disease-fighting abilities

13-Oct-2015 - Researchers have found that salicylic acid targets the activities of HMGB1, an inflammatory protein associated with a wide variety of diseases, offering hope that more powerful aspirin-like drugs may be developed. Aspirin is one of the oldest and most commonly used medicines, but many of its ...

Lithium safe, effective for children with bipolar disorder

13-Oct-2015 - A multicenter study of young patients with bipolar disorder provides what may be the most scientifically rigorous demonstration to date that lithium can also be safe and effective for children suffering from it. The study, led by a researcher at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center affirms what ...

Blood clotting protein triggers immune attack on the brain

13-Oct-2015 - A new study that a single drop of blood in the brain is sufficient to activate an autoimmune response akin to multiple sclerosis (MS). This is the first demonstration that introduction of blood in the healthy brain is sufficient to cause peripheral immune cells to enter the brain, which then go ...

A better way to read the genome

Reading 'Choose Your Own Adventure' novels

13-Oct-2015 - Researchers have sequenced the RNA of the most complicated gene known in nature, using a hand-held sequencer no bigger than a cell phone. Genomicists Brenton Graveley from the UConn Institute of Systems Genomics, postdoctoral fellow Mohan Bolisetty, and graduate student Gopinath Rajadinakaran ...

Carbohydrate-binding proteins mitigate parasitic infection in heart tissue

13-Oct-2015 - Chagas disease is the main cause of infectious heart disease in Latin America. Researchers from the INGEBI and IBYME Institutes in Argentina explored the effect of glycan binding protein interactions between the human host and Typanosoma cruzi parasite. They found that a glycan binding protein ...

Ancient rocks record first evidence for photosynthesis that made oxygen

08-Oct-2015 - A new study shows that iron-bearing rocks that formed at the ocean floor 3.2 billion years ago carry unmistakable evidence of oxygen. The only logical source for that oxygen is the earliest known example of photosynthesis by living organisms, say University of Wisconsin-Madison ...

Long-term contraception in a single shot

08-Oct-2015 - Caltech biologists have developed a nonsurgical method to deliver long-term contraception to both male and female animals with a single shot. The technique--so far used only in mice--holds promise as an alternative to spaying and neutering feral animals. The approach was developed in the lab of ...

Potential target for lung cancer therapy

07-Oct-2015 - A protein that transports the amino acid glutamine is a potential biomarker and therapeutic target for non-small cell lung cancer, researchers report. Pierre Massion , M.D., and colleagues previously demonstrated that the protein SLC1A5 is the primary transporter of glutamine – a modulator of ...

New on-chip optical sensing technique used to detect multiple flu strains

07-Oct-2015 - New chip-based optical sensing technologies developed by researchers at UC Santa Cruz and Brigham Young University enable the rapid detection and identification of multiple biomarkers. In a paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers describe a novel method to perform ...