Cancer Research

SMCT1 And SMCT2 Transporters May Help Delay Retinal Damage From Diabetes

Two transporters that deliver alternative energy sources to the eye may help delay retinal damage that can occur in diabetes, researchers say. The transporters, SMCT1 and SMCT2, can circumvent the eye’s protective blood-retinal barrier, delivering energy s ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 8 2007 - 9:33pm

Sometimes Epigenetic Multistability Is Nature's Friend

One gene for pea pod color generates green pods while a variant of that gene gives rise to the yellow-pod phenotype, a feature that helped Gregor Mendel, the 19th century Austrian priest and scientist, first describe genetic inheritance. However, many mode ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 9 2007 - 1:35pm

Cancer Research: Why Raf Sometimes Doesn't Switch Off

Cellular processes, such as when to multiply, are often regulated by switches that control the frequency and timing of interactions between proteins. North Carolina State University scientists have discovered the way in which a specific protein-protein int ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 12 2007 - 1:03pm

Discovery: The Chemical Switch Behind Circadian Rhythms

Circadian rhythms are the body’s intrinsic time-tracking system, which anticipates environmental changes and adapts to the appropriate time of day. They regulate a host of body functions, from sleep patterns and hormonal control to metabolism and behavior. ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 12 2007 - 3:12pm

Discovery: Multipotent Progenitor Is The Great-Granddaddy Of Human Blood Cells

Researcher at Stanford have isolated the multipotent progenitor, the great-grandparent of all the cells of the blood, and say this is the first offspring of the much-studied blood-forming stem cell that resides in the bone marrow and gives rise to all cell ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 12 2007 - 3:37pm

Crowdsourcing Chemistry Proposal

I recently submitted a Letter of Intent for the NSF Cyber-Enabled Discovery and Innovation competition. Kevin Owens is a co-PI and will assist with the laboratory automation component. ChemSpider will contribute the database support. The pre-proposal is du ...

Article - Jean-Claude Bradley - Dec 13 2007 - 4:09pm

Some Cancer Cells Spread Because The Female Immune System Perceives Them As Sperm

Sugar-based markers on human sperm cells which may prevent them from being attacked by the female immune system could provide a vital clue to how some cancers spread in the human body, according to new research published in the Journal of Biological Chemis ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 13 2007 - 8:34pm

Solving The Mystery Of Complex Evolution With A Limited Number Of Genes

Single-cell organisms were already in existence 500 million years ago, with several thousand genes providing different cellular functions. Further developments seemed dependent on producing even more genes. If so, a highly developed organism like a human s ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 14 2007 - 11:01am

More Bad News For Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors- Sunitinib Implicated In Cardiac Toxicity

Another FDA-approved targeted cancer drug, sunitinib (SutentTM, Pfizer), may be associated with cardiac toxicity, report researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Boston), and Thomas Jefferson University (Philadelphia). Their ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 14 2007 - 1:19pm

The Complex Path Of Autophagy

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, gained new insights into autophagy-- a cellular degradation process associated with a form of programmed cell death-- by studying the salivary gland cells of the fruit fly. Since its initial di ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 14 2007 - 1:46pm