Health and Medicine

Using genetically altered mice, Yale researchers have generated a clearer picture of the origins of B cells and their involvement in autoimmune diseases such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes.

Published in the September 20 issue of Science, the study, led by Mark Shlomchik, M.D., associate professor of laboratory medicine at Yale School of Medicine, looked at B cells’ reactions to its own toxins, known as antigens. B lymphocyte cells normally produce antibodies to viruses and

For the first time, scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have discovered similar gene activity profiles between a herpes virus that affects rhesus macaque monkeys and a human herpes virus linked to Kaposi’s sarcoma. This cancer is endemic among Mediterranean and sub-Sahara African populations. In the last 20 years, however, the disease has occurred most frequently in people with AIDS.

The study team, led by Dr. Blossom Damania, assistant professor of microbiolo

A novel form of vitamin D has been shown to grow bone in the lab and in experimental animals, a result that holds promise for the estimated 44 million Americans, mostly post-menopausal women, who suffer from or are at risk for the bone-wasting disease osteoporosis.

The research, conducted by a team of scientists led by biochemist Hector F. DeLuca at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was reported this week (Sept. 30) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a leading

3D Molecular Sciences presented a poster providing new assay data on the Company’s multiplexing enabling platform technology for molecular medicine at the BioArray Europe conference, taking place in Cambridge, UK, on 1 October 2002. The new patented assay system consists of microfabricated encoded particles of a variety of designs, attachment chemistries and a choice of readers to interpret the results.

The poster presentation, entitled Several Assay Systems Presented Using a New Patented 3

Folic acid is not only a safeguard against spina bifida and other birth defects in babies – it may also prevent heart disease and strokes, two of Northern Ireland’s biggest killers.

Research at the University of Ulster has shown that folic acid and three other related B-vitamins can prevent the accumulation of a high blood level of homocysteine, a new risk factor for heart disease and strokes.

The risk of high homocysteine is similar to the risk of high cholesterol – but the good

Northwestern University scientists have made a key molecular discovery that has implications for a wide range of diseases characterized by the loss of nerve function, including Huntington’s, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Lou Gehrig’s diseases, cystic fibrosis and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human form of mad cow disease.

The findings, which will be published in the Oct. 1 issue of Nature Cell Biology, could lead to an understanding of how to prevent these diseases and