International team tracks clues to HIV

Rice's Barron part of group seeking molecular key to halting viru

25-May-2009 - Rice University's Andrew Barron and his group, working with labs in Italy, Germany and Greece, have identified specific molecules that could block the means by which the deadly virus spreads by taking away its ability to bind with other proteins. The groups reported their findings in the Journal ...

Screening method for anti-HIV therapeutics?

20-May-2009 - A new and easy method for the detection of microRNA and RNase H activity could be used for screening anti-HIV therapeutics say Chinese scientists. Zhengping Li and co-workers at Hebei University have developed a rapid, quantitative and sensitive method for the detection of microRNA (miRNA) and ...

The future of personalized cancer treatment: An entirely new direction for RNAi delivery

19-May-2009 - In technology that promises to one day allow drug delivery to be tailored to an individual patient and a particular cancer tumor, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, have developed an efficient system for delivering siRNA into primary cells. The work is ...

Progress toward artificial tissue?

Soft and tough like biological tissue: DNA-wrapped carbon nanotubes

19-May-2009 - For modern implants and the growth of artificial tissue and organs, it is important to generate materials with characteristics that closely emulate nature. However, the tissue in our bodies has a combination of traits that are very hard to recreate in synthetic materials: It is both soft and very ...

Researchers gain genome-wide insights into patterns of the world's human population structures

Deep mining of data offers information on human evolution and relationships among populations

18-May-2009 - Through sophisticated statistical analyses and advanced computer simulations, researchers are learning more about the genomic patterns of human population structure around the world. Revealing such patterns provides insights into the history of human evolution, the predominant evolutionary forces ...

Cholesterol-busting bug with a taste for waste

18-May-2009 - A novel species of bacteria with cholesterol-busting properties has been discovered by scientists at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Dr Oliver Drzyzga and colleagues isolated the new bug, called Gordonia cholesterolivorans , from sewage sludge. Their findings are reported in the ...

MIT reels in RNA surprise with microbial ocean catch

15-May-2009 - An ingenious new method of obtaining marine microbe samples while preserving the microbes' natural gene expression has yielded an unexpected boon: the presence of many varieties of small RNAs — snippets of RNA that act as switches to regulate gene expression in these single-celled creatures. ...

U.S. Army funds TNO and to-BBB to investigate protecting soldier’s brains from nerve agents

15-May-2009 - TNO and to-BBB join their forces to investigate “Enrichment of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and brain with the nerve agent bioscavenger HuBuChE to improve its antidotal efficacy”. The research project is funded by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense (USAMRICD) with a ...

Researchers study the human factor in spread of pandemic illness

14-May-2009 - Industrial engineers Sandra Garrett of Clemson University and Barrett Caldwell of Purdue University have proposed a new system to warn of an impending pandemic by monitoring signals in human behavior. The system could result in using a simple icon on a television screen to warn of future phases ...

Bacteria create aquatic superbugs in waste treatment plants

14-May-2009 - For bacteria in wastewater treatment plants, the stars align perfectly to create a hedonistic mating ground for antibiotic-resistant superbugs eventually discharged into streams and lakes. In the first known study of its kind, Chuanwu Xi of the University of Michigan School of Public Health and ...