Delivering medicine directly into a tumor

Peptide delivers anti-cancer compounds to where they can do the most good

09-Dec-2009 - Researchers at Burnham Institute for Medical Research at University of California, Santa Barbara have identified a peptide that specifically recognizes and penetrates cancerous tumors but not normal tissues. The peptide was also shown to deliver diagnostic particles and medicines into the tumor. ...

Mouse gene suppresses Alzheimer's plaques and tangles

Protein reduces levels of amyloid beta and tau hyperphosphorylation, 2 hallmarks of Alzheimer's

16-Nov-2009 - Investigators at Burnham Institute for Medical Research and colleagues have identified a novel mouse gene (Rps23r1) that reduces the accumulation of two toxic proteins that are major players in Alzheimer's disease: amyloid beta and tau. The amyloid and tau lowering functions of this gene were ...

Researchers find potential treatment for Huntington's disease

Better understanding of synaptic activity may support 'use it or lose it' hypothesis

16-Nov-2009 - Investigators at Burnham Institute for Medical Research, the University of British Columbia's Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics and the University of California, San Diego have found that normal synaptic activity in nerve cells protects the brain from the misfolded proteins ...

Unraveling how cells respond to low oxygen

07-Aug-2009 - Gary Chiang, Ph.D., and colleagues at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) have elucidated how the stability of the REDD1 protein is regulated. The REDD1 protein is a critical inhibitor of the mTOR signaling pathway, which controls cell growth and proliferation. The study was ...

Protein that promotes cancer cell growth identified

Caspase-8 plays an important role in proliferation and invasion of cancer cells

28-Jul-2009 - Scientists at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) have found that the Caspase-8 protein, long known to play a major role in promoting programmed cell death (apoptosis), helps relay signals that can cause cancer cells to proliferate, migrate and invade surrounding tissues. The study ...

Alzheimer's disease linked to mitochondrial damage

ree radicals generated by beta-amyloid proteins lead to mitochondrial fragmentation

07-Apr-2009 - Investigators at Burnham Institute for Medical Research have demonstrated that attacks on the mitochondrial protein Drp1 by the free radical nitric oxide — which causes a chemical reaction called S-nitrosylation — mediates neurodegeneration associated with Alzheimer's disease. Prior to this ...

Human embryonic stem cells display a unique pattern of chemical modification to DNA

Study suggests additional hurdles to therapeutic cloning may lie ahead

07-Aug-2006 - Scientists from the Burnham Institute for Medical Research (BIMR) and Illumina Inc., in collaboration with stem cell researchers around the world, have found that the DNA of human embryonic stem cells is chemically modified in a characteristic, predictable pattern. This pattern distinguishes ...