Press monitoring
Newly discovered gut virus lives in half the world\'s population
25.7.2014 | Press monitoring
Odds are, there's a virus living inside your gut that has gone undetected by scientists for decades. A new study led by researchers at San Diego State University has found that more than half the world's population is host to a newly described virus, named crAssphage, which infects one of the most common types of gut bacteria, ...
Genes that contribute to radiation resistance identified
24.7.2014 | Press monitoring
A team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin has identified 46 genes in Escherichia coli that are necessary for its survival at exceptionally high levels of radiation. The paper appears ahead of print in the Journal of Bacteriology. "The research has revealed new pathways of cellular self-repair, including DNA pathways that in humans...
Schizophrenias genetic skyline rising as genetic code linked to illness grows
23.7.2014 | Press monitoring
The largest genomic dragnet of any psychiatric disorder to date has unmasked 108 chromosomal sites harboring inherited variations in the genetic code linked to schizophrenia, 83 of which had not been previously reported. By contrast, the "skyline" of such suspect variants associated with the disorder contained only 5 significant peaks in...
Scientists successfully generate human platelets using next-generation bioreactor
22.7.2014 | Press monitoring
Scientists at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) have developed a scalable, next-generation platelet bioreactor to generate fully functional human platelets in vitro. The work is a major biomedical advancement that will help address blood transfusion needs worldwide. "The ability to generate an alternative source of functional human platelets...
Transplanting gene into injured hearts creates biological pacemakers
21.7.2014 | Press monitoring
Cardiologists have developed a minimally invasive gene transplant procedure that changes unspecialized heart cells into "biological pacemaker" cells that keep the heart steadily beating. The laboratory animal research, published online and in today's print edition of the peer-reviewed journal Science Translational Medicine, is the result of a...
Transplantation of new brain cells reverses memory loss in Alzheimers disease model
18.7.2014 | Press monitoring
A new study from the Gladstone Institutes has revealed a way to alleviate the learning and memory deficits caused by apoE4, the most important genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, improving cognition to normal levels in aged mice. In the study, which was conducted in collaboration with researchers at UC San Francisco and published today...
Molecular -eat now- signal makes cells devour dying neighbors
17.7.2014 | Press monitoring
A team of researchers has devised a Pac-Man-style power pellet that gets normally mild-mannered cells to gobble up their undesirable neighbors. The development may point the way to therapies that enlist patients' own cells to better fend off infection and even cancer, the researchers say. "Our goal is to build artificial cells programmed to...
Ötzis non-human DNA: Opportunistic pathogen discovered in Iceman tissue biopsy
16.7.2014 | Press monitoring
Ötzi's human genome was decoded from a hip bone sample taken from the 5,300 year old mummy. However the tiny sample weighing no more than 0.1 g provides so much more information. A team of scientists from EURAC in Bolzano/Bozen together with colleagues from the University of Vienna successfully analysed the non-human DNA in the sample. They...
234 cattle genomes sequenced in Phase I of 1000 bull genomes project
15.7.2014 | Press monitoring
A large team of researchers with members from Australia, France, Denmark, the U.S., Germany, Canada and the Netherlands, is reporting that 234 cattle have had their genomes sequenced as part of Phase I of the 1000 bull genomes project. In their paper published in the journal Nature Genetics, the researchers highlight the goals of the project, how...
US bioterror fears are driving Ebola drug development
14.7.2014 | Press monitoring
If one good thing comes out of the unfolding crisis in West Africa, where hundreds have fallen victim to the Ebola virus, it's the hope that it will redouble efforts around the world to develop new treatments. The outbreak is the deadliest to date. In Guinea nearly 300 people have died. Confirmed cases and deaths have also hit neighbouring...
