Life Sciences and Chemistry

Compounds ’break bonds’ holding dangerous pollutants together
Everything from the manufacture of new materials to the creation of modern medications relies on chemicals known as metal-based catalysts. Catalysts pack a double punch: Even as they greatly increase the rate of chemical processes, they regenerate so they can be used again. Catalysts also can be designed to break or make powerful chemical bonds at one end of a molecule while leaving the other end to sit quietly inactive. For

A new study sheds light on the response to infection in people with type 2 diabetes. These individuals develop diabetes associated with obesity. Findings from this study revealed that controlling a specific protein produced by the body, known as a cytokine, reduces the expression of other molecules and helps control inflammation. This is significant because many complications associated with diabetes trigger an inflammatory response. Right now, type 2 diabetes affects over 17 million people in the

A plant called roseroot grows wild in Norway. Roseroot helps improve memory and the immune system and stabilizes cholesterol levels, blood pressure and blood sugar levels. Roseroot has been used in folk medicine for more than 3000 years, and grows throughout Norway

(University of Trondheim) NTNU’s Plant Biocentre in the Department of Biology has analysed the plant’s essential oils and volatile compounds. A test of the plant’s cancer prevention properties is also planned. The Norwegi

Scientists have determined the precise molecular structure of a potential new target for treating prostate cancer, a disease driven in part by abnormal testosterone activity. The target is part of the androgen receptor, a protein essential for testosterone to function in human cells. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men.

The androgen receptor and testosterone – technically, 5-alpha dihydrotestosterone – each drive prostate cancer at different stages of the disease

Scientists at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), a part of the National Institutes of Health, have created a database of information about a group of genes associated with multidrug resistance in cancerous tumors. The research, published in the August 24, 2004, issue of Cancer Cell*, details the gene expression of a 48-member family of proteins called ABC transporters. The NCI scientists identified associations between expression of individual ABC transporters in cancer cells and resistance to

Gene mutations are closely targeted — enhancing the immune response while avoiding cancer

Researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston have begun unraveling the mystery of how B lymphocytes — key infection-fighting cells in the body — are able to create many different kinds of specialized antibodies through selective gene mutations, while being protected from random mutations that could give rise to cancers.

The findings, reported in the Aug. 26 issue of the journal Natu