Life Sciences and Chemistry

C. elegans model helps identify protein linked to long QT syndrome – Could help lead to development of drugs that don’t cause calcium channel block

The worm C. elegans seems an unlikely candidate for studies related to cardiac arrhythmias. After all, the microscopic organism doesn’t even have a heart.

That fact did not deter Christina I. Petersen, Ph.D., research assistant professor of Anesthesiology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Petersen and colleagues, includ

The University Twente (The Netherlands), representing a network of 12 partners, has received a considerable grant from the European Commission to implement the nanotechnology program ‘Frontiers’.

Frontiers is a European network which aims at establishing leadership in research and innovation on behalf of life sciences related nanotechnology by integrating the strengths and facilities of the network partners. This integrated approach will strengthen Europe’s position in nanosciences

Timing is everything and our circadian clock, allows us (and almost every other organism on the planet), to predict the daily changes in our environment, such as light and temperature.

The University of Leicester is one of the main UK centres for clock and photoreceptor research, and new findings on the biology of the cryptochrome and light entrainment in the fruitfly (Drosophila melanogaster) by a team of Leicester biologists, led by Dr Ezio Rosato, have made a significant contri

Findings point to a different way to treat sleep disorders and anxiety

UC Irvine pharmacology researchers have found how a recently discovered brain protein plays a major role regulating sleep and stress – a discovery that can lead to a new class of drugs for treating ailments ranging from sleep and anxiety disorders to attention deficit disorder.

The UCI team conducted tests to see how neuropeptide S (NPS) affected behavioral responses in rodents. They found that NPS in

Researchers report they now can predict whether some parents are more likely than others to have a second child with the “isolated” form of cleft lip and palate, one of the world’s most common birth defects, according to results of a study published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine. The research was supported in part by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Heal

A defect in the action of a newly discovered protein may play a central role in muscular dystrophy, a disease of progressive muscle degeneration with no known cure.

Scientists at UCSF’s Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center discovered in an animal model of the disease that during periods of intense muscle activity, muscles remain excited too long and degenerate if the protein fails to transport the neurotransmitter acetylcholine away from the nerve-muscle synapse. Muscle d