Life Sciences and Chemistry

A research group at the Babraham Institute has found that the sight of a friendly face can reduce stress in sheep. This discovery, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences, could point to the reason that many of us carry pictures of loved ones in our wallets or handbags.

The scientists, led by Professor Keith Kendrick, put sheep into a darkened barn on their own and showed them various faces, while recording their behaviour. Stress was measured

Stem cells that researchers have isolated from the skin of mice have the power to self-renew when cultured in the laboratory, as well as to differentiate into skin and functioning hair follicles when grafted onto mice. The findings mean that the human equivalent of these stem cells, which scientists are also trying to isolate, could ultimately be used to regenerate skin and hair, the researchers said.

Stem cells — isolated from embryos or from adult tissue — are immature proge

Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers are proposing that the first battle for survival-of-the-fittest might have played out as a simple physical duel between fatty bubbles stuffed with genetic material. The scientists suggest that genetic material that replicated quickly may have been all the bubbles needed to edge out their competitors and begin evolving into more sophisticated cells.

This possibility, revealed by laboratory experiments with artificial fatty acid sacs, is in

USC researchers detail process of beak formation in journal Science

The shapes of avian beaks are determined by areas of active growth amidst areas of slow growth in a developing embryo, and are associated with activity levels of a specific protein called bone morphogenetic protein 4 (BMP4), according to a group of researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. Their paper, which describes this molecular beak-shaping process, will be publish

Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers have successfully designed and improved a new type of cancer-killing compound by performing molecular surgery to stabilize the molecule so that it selectively triggers cell death.

The idea for developing the compound emerged from the HHMI laboratory of Stanley J. Korsmeyer, who leads one of the hottest research teams currently studying programmed cell death, or apoptosis, a genetic program that executes cells that are no longer need

A research team at Yale has found that blocking a kind of cell death called apoptosis in fibrotic diseases of the lung, also blocks the fibrosis, opening new ways of looking at treatment for lung diseases such as pulmonary fibrosis.

Published in the August 2 issue of the Journal of Experimental Medicine, the study, led by Jack A. Elias, M.D., of Yale, examined how a molecule called TGF-beta causes apoptosis and abnormal scarring in the lungs.

Elias said there are a varie