Press monitoring
Contamination likely explains food genes in blood claim
31.10.2014 | Press monitoring
Laboratory contaminants likely explain the results of a recent study claiming that complete genes can pass from foods we eat into our blood, according to a University of Michigan molecular biologist who re-examined data from the controversial research paper. Richard Lusk said his findings highlight an underappreciated problem -- contamination of...
Scientists generate first human stomach tissue in lab with stem cells
30.10.2014 | Press monitoring
Scientists used pluripotent stem cells to generate functional, three-dimensional human stomach tissue in a laboratory -- creating an unprecedented tool for researching the development and diseases of an organ central to several public health crises, ranging from cancer to diabetes. Scientists at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center...
Virus recreated after 700 years in icy caribou poo
29.10.2014 | Press monitoring
One day, 700 years ago, a caribou defecated on ice in what would become Canada. Today, scientists have opened this long-frozen time capsule and found an entire plant virus inside it. Eric Delwart of the University of California, San Francisco, and his colleagues discovered the virus in samples of frozen caribou faeces collected from ice patches...
Human skin cells reprogrammed directly into brain cells
28.10.2014 | Press monitoring
Scientists have described a way to convert human skin cells directly into a specific type of brain cell affected by Huntington's disease, an ultimately fatal neurodegenerative disorder. Unlike other techniques that turn one cell type into another, this new process does not pass through a stem cell phase, avoiding the production of multiple cell...
Genetic engineering could help restore extinct species, researcher says
27.10.2014 | Press monitoring
Mammoth DNA in recovered cells frozen for thousands of years is likely too fragmented to clone an animal, according to Harvard geneticist George Church. So he's working instead to engineer one genetically from a close relative, the Asian elephant. Genetic studies have shown that the Asian elephant is more closely related to the extinct mammoth...
Researchers break nano barrier to engineer the first protein microfiber
24.10.2014 | Press monitoring
Researchers at the New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering have broken new ground in the development of proteins that form specialized fibers used in medicine and nanotechnology. For as long as scientists have been able to create new proteins that are capable of self-assembling into fibers, their work has taken place on the...
Lab-developed intestinal organoids form mature human tissue in mice
23.10.2014 | Press monitoring
Researchers have successfully transplanted "organoids" of functioning human intestinal tissue grown from pluripotent stem cells in a lab dish into mice -- creating an unprecedented model for studying diseases of the intestine. Scientists from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center said that, through additional translational research the...
Fetus arthritis genes can affect the mother
22.10.2014 | Press monitoring
Unborn babies can sow the seeds for rheumatoid arthritis in their mothers - and the dads might be to blame. Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease, meaning the body's immune system turns on itself. In this case, it causes painful, swollen joints. Women are three times as likely to develop the condition as men, and seem to be especially...
Scientists restore hearing in noise-deafened mice, pointing way to new therapies
21.10.2014 | Press monitoring
Scientists have restored the hearing of mice partly deafened by noise, using advanced tools to boost the production of a key protein in their ears. By demonstrating the importance of the protein, called NT3, in maintaining communication between the ears and brain, these new findings pave the way for research in humans that could improve treatment...
Imaging electric charge propagating along microbial nanowires
20.10.2014 | Press monitoring
The claim by microbiologist Derek Lovley and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Amherst that the microbe Geobacter produces tiny electrical wires, called microbial nanowires, has been mired in controversy for a decade, but the researchers say a new collaborative study provides stronger evidence than ever to support their claims. UMass...
